New Stone Tablets

REVIEW

The Israelites had messed up by worshiping the golden calf. Moses came down from the mountain where he had been meeting with God and smashed the Ten Commandments in his anger. Then God brought a plague and had the Levites kill 3,000 men. Then God said, “I’m not going with you anymore”, and moved Moses and the tent outside the camp. Within that context, the Lord began to speak to Moses about the next steps.

TEACHING

Exodus 34:1–4: God told Moses to cut two stone tablets to replace the ones he had broken, and on these tablets God would write His words. The next morning, Moses went back up Mount Sinai to meet with God again. Verse 28 of this same chapter, said Moses spent another 40 days and 40 nights with the Lord, during which time he did not eat or drink water. Tomorrow would be a new day, a reminder that God’s mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22–23). Many notable events in Scripture occurred in the morning. In Genesis 19:27-28, Abraham woke early in the morning to look over Sodom and Gomorrah. In Judges 6:28, the men of the city rose early in the morning to find Baal’s altar torn down. In Job 1:5, Job rose early in the morning to offer sacrifices for his children. In Luke 24:1, the women rose early to return to Jesus’ tomb. And that’s what’s happening in verse 2, God tells Moses, “Be prepared by morning. Come up Mount Sinai in the morning and stand before Me on the mountaintop.” Then in verse 3, God says that no one, not Joshua or even the animals, was allowed to go with Moses or be seen anywhere on the mountain. So, Moses took the stone tablets and climbed Mount Sinai to meet with the Lord.

Exodus 34:5–7: God came down in a cloud to meet with Moses.Constantly God showed up in a cloud. The Deliverer pointed to the Messiah who delivers His people.John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt with us” (ESV). God met with Moses and proclaimed His name Yahweh.This was an epiphany––an appearance of the Lord in a grand descent to encounter humans.

When God passed in front of Moses, He revealed His attributes: compassionate; gracious; slow to anger; rich in faithful love and truth; maintaining faithful love; forgiving wrongdoing, rebellion, and sin; will not leave the guilty unpunished. Moses later shared this description of God with the Israelites at Kadesh-barnea (Numbers 14:17-19). The Jews used this same language to describe God in Nehemiah 9:17–18. When God chose to forgive the Ninevites, Jonah said, “I knew that You are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to become angry, rich in faithful love, and One who relents from sending disaster” (Jonah 4:2). “God has a ‘long fuse.”¹God is willing to show His mercy, but He reveals that His wrath comes as well.

Exodus 34:8–9: Immediately, Moses bowed down in submission and worshipped. Moses continued to pray for God’s presence to go with them and for God’s forgiveness of their sin. He interceded on behalf of God’s people that God would relent and change His mind. Moses didn’t separate himself from the people; he made himself a part of the people. Ezra (Ch. 9), Daniel (Ch. 9), and Nehemiah (Ch. 1) all cried out to God on behalf of the people. Be cautious of any leader who disassociates from the people. Moses didn’t do that. Jesus didn’t do that.

Exodus 34:10–14: God made a covenant to perform wonders for Israel that had never been done “in all the earth or in any nation . . . for what I am doing with you is awe-inspiring” (v. 10). God promised Israel would experience “an awesome thing, namely the conquest of Canaan.”²But God also gave Israel guidelines for living in covenant with Him. They were forbidden from making treaties with those who lived in the land because they would become a snare to Israel (v. 12). Instead, Israel was required to tear down the altars to the idols, refuse to worship those idols, and to worship only Yahweh because God is a jealous God (v. 14). Wiersbe pointed out that “like cancerous tumors in human bodies, the pagan temples and altars had to be removed and destroyed before the land could be healthy.”³

Exodus 34:15–16: First Guideline: The Israelites were forbidden from making treaties with the inhabitants of the land as that would ultimately lead to worshipping their gods. This was exactly what happened with the golden calf. While they were in the wilderness, the Israelites went back to their old lifestyle. Nelson’s commentary said, “Intermarriage would be the quickest route to compromise with false religion and immoral behavior.”⁴

Exodus 34:17–20: Second Guideline: The Israelites were commanded to worship God alone. They were forbidden to make “cast images of gods” and were instructed to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread to remember how God had delivered them out of Egypt. By celebrating what God had done, they would focus on Him.

Exodus 34:21–26: They were commanded to rest from their labor on the seventh day even “during plowing and harvesting times.” Even when there was lots of work to be done, the Sabbath was a form of celebration! The Festival of Weeks celebrated the firstfruits of the wheat harvest and the Festival of Ingathering celebrated the agricultural year. The Passover commemorated their deliverance from Egypt. When they gathered for these festivals, God promised to protect their land. The Israelites needed markers in their lives to remind them to look to the Lord.

Exodus 34:27–28: God instructed Moses to write down “these words” of His covenant with Israel. The Mosaic Covenant was being established. Moses spent 40 days and 40 nights on the mountain with God, neither eating nor drinking water, during which time God wrote the Ten Commandments on the tablets.

Exodus 34:29–30: Moses didn’t realize that when he was with the Lord, the presence of God shone on his face, in his life. But the Israelites were afraid to come near him because “the skin of his face shone” (v. 30). This makes me think of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1–2). Jesus’ face shone like the sun!

Exodus 34:31–33: But Moses called out to them, and he told them everything he had written down. How long was that conversation? How did Moses gather 2 million people and how could they even hear him? Then Moses put a veil over his face.

Exodus 34:34–35: Moses removed his veil when he met with the Lord. When he returned to the people with his face shining, he would tell the Israelites what God had commanded. Then he’d put the veil back on until he went to speak with the Lord again so the people wouldn’t see the fading glory.

In 2 Corinthians 3:7–18, Paul addressed this exact interaction. The “ministry of death” (v. 7) was the Ten Commandments (the Mosaic Law). The glory faded from Moses’ face because he had to come and go from the presence of God (v. 7). “For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness overflows with even more glory” (v. 9). Those who come to faith under the New Covenant will experience God’s glory. “Whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed . . . we all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (vv. 16, 18). The veil is set aside in Christ (v. 16)!

CLOSING

The veil is removed when we turn to our Lord Jesus Christ! We don’t have to go back and forth and back and forth. The glory never leaves when we are in the presence of Jesus Christ.