The Book of
Exodus 34
35 verses≈ 7 min2 peopleBSB
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In this chapter
Where we are
- 1–6Slaves in EgyptOppression and a deliverer
- 7–13The plaguesThe LORD against Pharaoh
- 14–18Through the seaRescued and led
- 19–24At SinaiThe covenant and the law
- 25–31A place to dwellThe tabernacle planned
- 32–40Broken and renewedThe calf, mercy, the gloryChapter 34
New Stone Tablets
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready in the morning, and come up on Mount Sinai to present yourself before Me on the mountaintop. No one may go up with you; in fact, no one may be seen anywhere on the mountain—not even the flocks or herds may graze in front of the mountain.”
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Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness, maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.
Exodus 34:6–7
Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
Moses immediately bowed down to the ground and worshiped. “O Lord,” he said, “if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, my Lord, please go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our iniquity and sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”
Reflect
The name He gave Himself
When God told Moses who He is, He began with mercy: “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness.” He said it to a people who had just bowed to a calf. Which of those words do you find hardest to believe about God when you have failed Him? Write it down, and beside it write one way He has already shown it to you.
The LORD Renews the Covenant
And the LORD said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will perform wonders that have never been done in any nation in all the world. All the people among whom you live will see the LORD’s work, for it is an awesome thing that I am doing with you.
Promise
Obey, and I will drive them out
Observe what I command you this day. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
No compromise
No treaty; tear down their altars
Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land you are entering, lest they become a snare in your midst. Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.
Only the LORD
The LORD whose name is Jealous
For you must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
No compromise
No covenant that leads to their gods
Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices. And when you take some of their daughters as brides for your sons, their daughters will prostitute themselves to their gods and cause your sons to do the same.
No idols
No molten gods
You shall make no molten gods for yourselves.
Feasts
The Feast of Unleavened Bread
You are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, you are to eat unleavened bread as I commanded you. For in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.
Firstborn
The firstborn are the LORD’s
The first offspring of every womb belongs to Me, including all the firstborn males among your livestock, whether cattle or sheep. You must redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb; but if you do not redeem it, you are to break its neck. You must redeem all the firstborn of your sons. No one shall appear before Me empty-handed.
Sabbath
Rest even at harvest
Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in the seasons of plowing and harvesting, you must rest.
Feasts
Weeks and Ingathering
And you are to celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.
Three times a year
Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel. For I will drive out the nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the LORD your God.
Offerings
No leaven; no Passover leftovers
Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to Me along with anything leavened, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast remain until morning.
Firstfruits; a kid in its milk
Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God
Exodus 34:14
The LORD also said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.
Broken and renewed
Whiteboard
Three chapters, one arc. Israel broke the covenant within weeks with a golden calf, and the tablets were shattered. Moses pleaded for the people, again and again. God promised His Presence would go with them, proclaimed His name, “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger,” and said, “Behold, I am making a covenant.” Sin did not have the last word; God’s mercy did. The same God would one day make a new covenant in the blood of His Son.
Question
Quick question
Moses was told to chisel out two new tablets after he had broken the first ones.
Who did God say would write on the new tablets?
And when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was unaware that his face had become radiant from speaking with the LORD. Aaron and all the Israelites looked at Moses, and behold, his face was radiant. And they were afraid to approach him.
0:17
Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain
But Moses called out to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. And after this all the Israelites came near, and Moses commanded them to do everything that the LORD had told him on Mount Sinai.
When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would remove the veil until he came out. And when he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded, and the Israelites would see that the face of Moses was radiant. So Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.
Pray
Unveiled
Moses’ face was radiant “from speaking with the LORD,” and he covered it with a veil. Paul says that in Christ the veil is taken away, and all who belong to Him see the glory of the Lord and are being changed into His likeness. Ask God to let you spend time with Him today, and to make something of His goodness show in your face, your words and your ways.
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Exodus 34
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A verse to carry with you
The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness, maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.
Exodus 34:6–7
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