4 days ago
6 min
Exodus 34
Exodus 34 opens with the LORD instructing Moses to cut two new tablets of stone to replace the ones he had shattered and to come up Mount Sinai the next morning to meet with God. No one else was permitted to ascend the mountain with him, and even the flocks and herds were forbidden to graze near its base. Moses obeyed, rising early and carrying the two stone tablets up the mountain as commanded.
There the LORD descended in a cloud and stood with Moses, proclaiming His own name and character: merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin — while still holding the guilty accountable, with the consequences of sin extending to future generations. Moses immediately bowed to the ground in worship. He pleaded with God to go along in the midst of the people despite their stubbornness, to pardon their sin, and to claim Israel as His own inheritance.
In response, the LORD renewed His covenant with Israel, promising to perform wonders unlike anything done anywhere on earth and to drive out the nations occupying the land — the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. He warned Moses and the people about making treaties with the inhabitants of the land or tolerating their religious practices, since this would lead Israel into idolatry and intermarriage with those who worshiped other gods. They were expressly forbidden to make molten images.
God then laid out a series of religious observances Israel was to keep: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the dedication of the firstborn, rest on the Sabbath, the Feast of Weeks marking the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. All the men of Israel were required to appear before the LORD three times a year. God gave additional instructions regarding sacrifices — that none were to be offered alongside leaven, that the Passover offering was not to remain until morning, and that the best of the firstfruits belonged in the house of the LORD. Exodus 34 also repeats the prohibition against boiling a young goat in its mother's milk.
The LORD directed Moses to write down these words because they marked the terms of His covenant with Israel. Moses remained on the mountain with the LORD for forty days and forty nights, neither eating nor drinking, and he wrote the words of the covenant (the Ten Commandments) on the tablets.
When Moses came down from Sinai carrying the two tablets, his face was shining from having spoken with God, though he didn't realize it. Aaron and the other Israelites were afraid to approach him because of this glow, but Moses called them near and relayed all that the LORD had commanded him. Afterward, he covered his face with a veil. From then on, whenever Moses went in to speak with the LORD, he removed the veil, and, when he came out, he would deliver God's instructions to the people with his face still shining; he would then veil his face again until his next audience with God.
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