Exodus · chapter 34 of 40
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Exodus 34 tells how the Lord renews the covenant with Israel after the golden calf. Moses goes up Sinai again with two new stone tablets, God passes before him and proclaims his name as compassionate, gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, and gives his commands again. Moses comes down with a shining face and must cover it with a veil.
After the sin of the calf (Exodus 32) and Moses' intercession (Exodus 33), Exodus 34 answers the great question: can Israel remain the people of God? The answer is yes, by grace. This chapter contains one of the most quoted statements of God's character in the Old Testament and the renewal of the covenant.
The Lord tells Moses to cut two stone tablets like the first and to go up Mount Sinai early in the morning, alone, so that he may write on them the words that were on the first tablets. Moses does so. The Lord comes down in the cloud and passes before him, proclaiming his name: the Lord, the Lord, a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.
Moses bows down and worships, and begs that the Lord go in their midst, though they are a stiff-necked people, and that he pardon their sin. God answers with a covenant promise: he will do wonders such as have not been done in any nation and will drive out the peoples of Canaan. He warns Israel not to make a covenant with them, to tear down their altars and not to worship other gods, because the Lord is jealous. The commands are repeated: make no gods of cast metal, keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, consecrate the firstborn, rest on the seventh day, celebrate the Feasts of Weeks and Ingathering, and do not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.
Moses stays forty days and forty nights with the Lord without eating bread or drinking water; there the words of the covenant, the ten commandments, are written on the tablets. When he comes down his face shines because he had spoken with God, and Aaron and the people are afraid to come near. Moses calls them, relays what God commanded him and puts a veil over his face, which he removes when he goes in to speak with the Lord.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord proclaims that he is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. This is the center of the chapter and a confession Israel will repeat throughout the Old Testament.
God keeps steadfast love for thousands and forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, but does not leave the guilty unpunished. His forgiveness is real and so is his justice, and the two are held together in his character.
Moses begs the Lord to go in their midst and pardon them, precisely because they are a stiff-necked people. He asks for grace on the basis of the people's need, not their merit.
On coming down, Moses' face shines from having spoken with God, though he did not know it. Being in the Lord's presence leaves a visible mark on a person, and Paul recalls it when speaking of the glory of the new covenant.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Two stone tablets like the first. — Exodus 34:1-4
Answer: Compassionate, gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. — Exodus 34:6
Answer: That the Lord go in their midst and pardon their iniquity and their sin. — Exodus 34:8-9
Answer: Because he does not allow Israel to worship other gods. — Exodus 34:14
Answer: Forty days and forty nights. — Exodus 34:28
Answer: It shone, and Aaron and the people were afraid to come near him. — Exodus 34:29-30
Exodus 34 comforts those who have failed. The same people who made a calf receive a new chance, because God is compassionate and gracious. In a small group you can share how we have experienced God's forgiveness, and how that forgiveness moves us to forgive others.
The chapter also calls us to take God's holiness seriously. His forgiveness does not make sin light. The shining of Moses' face invites us to spend time with God: whoever is in his presence is transformed. Christians hope to see the Lord's glory reflected in their lives, not by their own effort but by the work of the Spirit.
Exodus 34 closes the crisis of the calf with a renewed covenant and with Moses reflecting the glory of God. Chapters 35 to 40 tell how Israel builds the tabernacle according to the instructions received, beginning with the call for offerings.
The text indicates that the consequences of sin can reach several generations of a family or a people, while God's steadfast love reaches thousands. It does not teach that God punishes children for sins they did not commit; other passages, such as Ezekiel 18, stress personal responsibility.
Because the people were afraid to come near because of the radiance. Moses put on the veil when speaking to the people and took it off when he went in to speak with the Lord. Paul comments on this passage in 2 Corinthians 3.
The new tablets carry the ten words of the covenant, as the first ones did, which the Lord had written. Chapter 34 repeats several commands, but with its own emphasis on the exclusive worship of the Lord and on the feasts.