DISSECTION OF EXODUS 24:10

The Body of Heaven is Under Our Feet

A Poem

We walked where earth had always been,  

dust‑colored, fragile, shifting with 

our steps—  

until the moment He drew near,  

and the mountain floor remembered heaven.  

For we saw the God of Israel,  

not in the fullness of His glory,  

but in the mercy of His revealing—  

a sight granted, not grasped;  

a gift, not a conquest.  

His nearness changed the ground beneath us.  

Stone became sapphire,  

dust became clarity,  

earth became the echo of His realm.  

And under His feet—  

the place where dominion rests,  

where presence stands,  

where heaven touches earth—  

we found our footing transformed.  

No longer held by what shifts,  

we stood on what endures.  

No longer shaped by what fails,  

we stood on what is eternal.  

For the body of heaven stretched beneath us,  

clear as covenant truth,  

pure as celestial order,  

steady as the God who stands upon it.  

And in that clearness,  

we learned to walk differently—  

with steps that echo heaven,  

with hearts that breathe its purity,  

with minds that rise to think celestial.  

The mountain did not lift us.  

His presence did.  

And now we know:  

wherever He places His feet,  

we are invited to stand.  

Wherever His glory rests,  

we find our ground.  

The body of heaven is under our feet—  

not because we climbed,  

but because He came.  

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Exodus 24:10

      “And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.”

The heart of Exodus 24:10 is this: when God draws near, the ground beneath us becomes something heavenly—because His presence changes what we stand on.

The Body of Heaven Is Under Our Feet

Exodus 24:10 describes a moment where Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders “saw the God of Israel,” and beneath His feet was something like a sapphire pavement— “the body of heaven in his clearness.” (BibleHub Commentary)

This is not just a visual detail. It is a revelation of our place in God’s covenant story.

1. “They saw the God of Israel”

We are invited to behold what God reveals

Principles of “Saw”

God, Manifestations of — A scripture taken from the Topical Guide:

Moses 1:2 

      “And he saw God face to face, and he talked with him, and the glory of God was upon Moses; therefore Moses could endure his presence.”

Jesus Christ, Appearances, Antemortal — A scripture taken from the Topical Guide:

2 Nephi 11:2 

      “And now I, Nephi, write more of the words of Isaiah, for my soul delighteth in his words. For I will liken his words unto my people, and I will send them forth unto all my children, for he verily saw my Redeemer, even as I have seen him.”

This is not casual sight. This is covenant sight. The elders are not seeing God in His fullness—they are seeing what God chooses to reveal of Himself.

For us, this means:

• We do not define God; God reveals Himself to us.
• We do not climb to heaven by effort; He invites us upward by grace.
• We do not stand before Him because we are worthy; we stand because He calls us.

When they saw, they were not seeing with natural eyes alone. They were seeing with covenant permission.

We stand where we stand because God allows us to see what He wants us to know.

2. “Under His feet

”We stand where heaven touches earth

Principle of "Feet"

God, Body of, Corporeal Nature — A scripture taken from the Topical Guide:

Doctrine and Covenants 130:22 

      “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.”

This revelation grounds our understanding of Exodus 24:10. When scripture speaks of what is “under His feet,” it is not describing God in symbolic abstraction—it is affirming a real, embodied God whose presence is tangible, authoritative, and near.

The phrase “under His feet” is not about anatomy; it is about dominion and nearness—the way God’s embodied presence establishes the place where heaven meets earth.

Feet in Scripture symbolize:

• Dominion
• Stability
• Presence
• The meeting place of heaven and earth

So when we read that something is “under His feet,” we are being shown:

• What God stands on becomes the environment we are invited into.
• Where God places His feet becomes the ground of our fellowship.
• His presence determines our footing.

We are not standing on Sinai dust alone. We are standing on what God stands on—a foundation shaped by His glory, His reality, and His nearness.

Because God is embodied, present, and real, our stability is not earthly; it is heavenly. We walk on ground defined by His presence, not our limitations.

3. “As it were the body of heaven in His clearness”

Our foundation is clarity, purity, and heavenly order

Principle of “It” — Clear as the Very Heavens

General Conference Pairing:

President Russell M. Nelson — “Think Celestial!” (October 2023)

      "Your choices will determine where you will live throughout eternity, the kind of body with which you will be resurrected, and those with whom you will live forever. So, think celestial."

President Nelson teaches that to “think celestial” is to align our minds, choices, and identity with the clarity and purity of heaven. This is the exact spiritual reality Exodus 24:10 describes: the body of heaven—its purity, its order, its clearness—becoming the ground beneath our feet.

What “the body of heaven” means

• The expanse of the sky
• The clarity of the heavens
• The purity of the celestial realm
• The unclouded, unpolluted, unbroken presence of God

This is not describing a gemstone. This is describing the atmosphere of God’s realm—the environment of heaven itself.

President Nelson’s call to think celestial is a call to live from that same atmosphere:

• To let heaven’s clarity shape our decisions
• To let heaven’s purity shape our desires
• To let heaven’s order shape our walk
• To let heaven’s perspective become our foundation

When we walk with God

• We walk on clarity, not confusion.
• We walk on purity, not mixture.
• We walk on heaven’s order, not earth’s instability.
• We walk on what is transparent, not what is hidden.

President Nelson teaches that thinking celestial removes “the mystery out of life and the uncertainty out of our future.”

That is the same spiritual truth Exodus 24:10 reveals: the “clearness” is not just visual—it is moral, spiritual, and relational clarity.

We walk on what is clear because God Himself is clear.

The elders on Sinai stood on a surface that reflected the purity and clarity of heaven. President Nelson calls us to live with that same clarity:

• To choose what heaven chooses
• To value what heaven values
• To see as heaven sees
• To walk as heaven walks

The body of heaven is under our feet when the mind of heaven is within our hearts.

Putting It Together:

What It Means That “The Body of Heaven Is Under Our Feet”

A. We walk on a heavenly foundation, not an earthly one

God is showing us that when He draws us near, He changes the ground beneath us. We are not standing on:

• our past
• our failures
• our fears
• our limitations

We are standing on what God stands on.

B. We walk in a covenant where heaven supports our steps

This moment happens during the sealing of the covenant. God is revealing the nature of covenant life:

• Heaven is not above us only; heaven is beneath us.
• We are upheld by God’s realm, not our own.
• Our steps are supported by His presence, not our performance.

C. We walk differently when we know what’s under our feet

If the “body of heaven” is beneath us:

• We stop walking like people who are sinking.
• We stop living like the world determines our footing.
• We stop fearing the ground giving way beneath us.

Instead:

• We walk with reverence.
• We walk with confidence.
• We walk with the awareness that God Himself upholds our steps.

What It Reveals

Summary for Exodus 24:10: reveals that when God draws us near, He places us on a foundation shaped by heaven itself. We walk on clarity, purity, and divine stability—not on the shifting soil of our own strength. The body of heaven is under our feet because the God of heaven is with us.