The Law · Chapter 34 of 40

Exodus 34

God calls Moses up Sinai with two new stone tables. As the LORD passes by, he proclaims his name: merciful, gracious, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity yet not clearing the guilty. Moses worships and pleads for God to pardon and go with Israel. God renews the covenant, giving commands against idolatry and about the feasts. Moses stays forty days, and when he descends, his face shines so brightly he must veil it.

What happens in Exodus 34

God tells Moses to cut two new stone tables like the first he broke, and to come alone up the mountain in the morning. As the LORD descends in the cloud and passes by, he proclaims his own name: the LORD, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands and forgiving iniquity, yet by no means clearing the guilty. Moses bows and worships, pleading that God pardon Israel's sin and take them as his inheritance. God renews the covenant, promising to do marvels and drive out the nations, and warns against covenants with the Canaanites, idolatry, and molten gods.

He commands the feasts of unleavened bread, weeks, and ingathering, and Sabbath rest. Moses stays forty days and nights without food, writing the covenant words. Coming down, unaware that his face shines from speaking with God, he veils it before the people and removes the veil when he goes in before the LORD.

Exodus 34 in context

This chapter resolves the crisis of the golden calf. The broken tables are replaced, and the shattered covenant is renewed, all resting on the revelation of God's character in verses 6 and 7, the most quoted self-description of God in the Old Testament.

God does not renew the covenant by lowering his standard but by revealing his mercy. Moses' shining face testifies that intimacy with God transforms, and it becomes, in the New Testament, a picture of the surpassing glory of the new covenant.

Main themes of Exodus 34

Exodus 34 (KJV)

1And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest. 2And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount. 3And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount. 4And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. 5And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. 8And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. 9And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O LORD, let my LORD, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. 10And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee. 11Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 12Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: 13But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: 14For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: 15Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; 16And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. 17Thou shalt make thee no molten gods. 18The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt. 19All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male. 20But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty. 21Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest. 22And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end. 23Thrice in the year shall all your menchildren appear before the LORD God, the God of Israel. 24For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year. 25Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning. 26The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk. 27And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. 28And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. 29And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. 30And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him. 31And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them. 32And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him in mount Sinai. 33And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face. 34But when Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the vail off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. 35And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone: and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

Verses to carry from Exodus 34

“And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,”Exodus 34:6

“For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:”Exodus 34:14

“And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.”Exodus 34:29

Reflection

When you fail, God's answer is not to lower his holiness but to reveal his mercy. He renews the broken and forgives the guilty without pretending sin is small, because at the cross both are satisfied. Spend time in his presence and you will be changed, reflecting a glory that is not your own. Behold Christ, and be transformed.

A prayer from Exodus 34