Deeper Commentary
Exo 34:1 Yahweh said to Moses, Chisel two stone tablets like the
first: and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first
tablets-
The tables were the "tables of the covenant", which had been broken
by the apostacy with the golden calf. God now assures Moses that the
covenant relationship has been restored. This must be read in the context
of the previous verses, where Moses has doubted whether his intercession
for Israel has in fact "worked". He struggles to believe that God can be
that gracious as His word had stated. Just like ourselves. And so
just as
Aaron had used a chisel to fashion the golden calf, Moses is asked to
chisel out two stone tablets, upon which the covenant will be reaffirmed
by God. Dt. 10:1,3 adds that at this time, God asked Moses to also make
the ark, into which the tables were to be put. This was to be the sign
that His presence was really to abide with His people as promised.
Which you broke-
"Which you broke" is emphasized by God. Moses in Ex. 33 had been
doubting whether his intercession for Israel had really "worked", even
though God assured him that it had. Moses is being reminded that his anger
had burned hot just as God's anger had; but it was he and not God who had
smashed the symbols of the covenant in that wrath. The idea is that God is
kinder and more patient than man- even than a man as patient and loving as
Moses.
"Broke" is s.w. in Ex. 34:13; Dt. 12:3 used of breaking covenant relationship with idols. By doing so, Moses had purposefully sought to break Israel's relationship with Yahweh, despite having earlier prayed for it to be restored. When he saw the apostacy with his own eyes, he wanted God to revert to His 'plan A', to destroy Israel. He realizes in Ex. 33 that he was wrong in this and therefore probes God as to whether indeed His relationship with Israel is indeed intact, despite his having broken the symbols of covenant. And God is assuring him that indeed it is.
Exo 34:2 Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount
Sinai, and present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain-
"Present" is the word for "stand" in Ex. 33:21. The idea is that
Moses had too confidently asked to see Yahweh's glory, so he was asked to
stand on the rock, knowing that he would humble himself and hide in a
cleft of the rock when the glory passed by (:8). For no man can stand
before the devouring fire which was "on the top of the mountain" (Ex.
19:20; 24:17 cp. Nah. 1:6).
Exo 34:3 No one shall come up with you; neither let anyone be seen
throughout all the mountain; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before
that mountain-
The contrast with the earlier, similar commands seem to be that even
Joshua wasn't allowed to come even part way up the mountain. Just as the
Lord Jesus was absolutely alone in obtaining and restoring covenant
relationship for His sinful people, so was Moses to be. The
renewing of the covenant slightly differs from the giving of the first
covenant. Moses alone was there, nobody else could come up the mountain;
and Moses himself had to chisel the tables of stone (:4) whereas God
carved the first tables. The impression is that the covenant was being
restored solely for the sake of one man, Moses. And how much more was
achieved for sinners by one man, the Lord Jesus.
Exo 34:4 He chiselled two tablets of stone like the first; and Moses rose
up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had
commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets-
There is a difference between the first tables, which were "tables of
[a singular] stone", carved by God from the same stone (Ex. 24:12; 31:18);
whereas the second were "tables of stones" (Heb.), made from two different
stones. The idea was perhaps that God was indeed inviting Moses and Israel
into a mutual, two sided covenant relationship with Him.
There is a much repeated characteristic of God's servants: that they
'rose up early in the morning' and did God's work. In each of the
following passages, this phrase is clearly not an idiom; rather does it
have an evidently literal meaning: Abraham (Gen. 19:27; 21:14; 22:3);
Jacob (Gen. 28:18); Job (1:5); Moses (Ex. 8:20; 9:13; 24:4; 34:4); Joshua
(Josh. 3:1; 6:12; 7:16; 8:10); Gideon (Jud. 6:38; 7:1). This is quite an
impressive list, numerically. This can be a figure for being zealous (Ps.
127:2; Pr. 27:14; Song 7:12; Is. 5:11; Zeph. 3:7). God Himself rises up
early in His zeal to save and bring back His wayward people (Jer. 7:13,25;
11:7; 25:3,4; 26:5; 29:19; 32:33; 35:14,15; 44:4). Yet the above examples
all show that men literally rose up early in their service to God; this
was an expression of their zeal for God, in response to His zeal for us.
I'm not suggesting that zeal for God is reflected by rising early rather
than staying up late; but it wouldn't be too much to suggest that if we
are men of mission, we won't waste our hours in bed. Get up when you wake
up.
Exo 34:5 Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and
proclaimed the name of Yahweh-
The ultimate pattern for mission is in God Himself. His Name,
YHWH, means ‘I will be who I will be / am who I am’. And the declaration
of His Name is followed by statements of how He ‘will be’ grace, love,
justice, judgment etc. (Ex. 34:5-7). He will work out His purpose of
glorifying the characteristics of His Name. If we align ourselves with
this aim of glorifying God’s Name, then our lives become focused, our aims
and goals are clearer. Our baptism into the Name means that His mission,
His restless, 24/7 working towards the goal of His glory filling the
earth, becomes ours.
The overriding desire of the Lord Jesus was for the glorification of Yahweh’s
Name, not proving others wrong. God’s Name is His characteristics (Ex.
34:5-7). We glorify that Name when due to us, those characteristics are
manifested somehow- maybe through others, or through ourselves. The fruits
of the Spirit glorify those characteristics / the Name of Yahweh.
When the Lord saw faith, or joy, or repentance, or even the possibility of
these things in men, He worked to develop them. He didn’t give up because
they were also selfish or unloving or not joyful… And so with us, as the
petty selfishness and weaknesses so evident in the flesh of our fellows
presses upon our consciousness, focus instead on what is good, on what
potential is there, and work on that. Abound in the life of grace, of
outgiving when there is no response and no appreciation; and rejoice to
live it, and see the honour of being called to live the life of the
Saviour in your little life. John Thomas rightly observed that
God manifestation rather than individual human salvation is the essential
aim of the preaching of God’s word. The Lord Jesus struggled in Gethsemane
between “save me...” and “Father, glorify Your Name”. The
glorifying of the Father’s Name meant more to Him than His personal
salvation. Likewise Moses and Paul [in spirit] were prepared to sacrifice
their personal salvation for the sake of Yahweh’s Name being glorified in
the saving of His people (Ex. 32:30-34 cp. Rom. 9:1-3).
Exo 34:6 Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, Yahweh! Yahweh! A
merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness
and truth-
The Angelic 'passing by' recalled Passover (s.w.), where the mercy
and saving grace of God was revealed to His people.
There is a clear connection between the idea of the fullness of God,
and Ex. 34:6, where God proclaims His Name to be "Yahweh, a God full of
["abundant in"]
compassion", grace and His other characteristics (see R.V.). So by bearing
God's Name, we have His fullness counted to us. As Christ had the fullness
of God dwelling in Him in a bodily form (Col. 2:9), so the church, as the
body of Christ, "is (Christ's) body, the fullness of him (God) that
filleth all in all" (Eph. 1:22,23).
We read of God being slow to anger (Ex. 34:6), at
others, of Him not restraining His anger, or restraining it (Ps. 78:38;
Is. 48:9; Lam. 2:8; Ez. 20:22), and holding His peace (Is. 57:11; Ps.
50:21), and being provoked to anger by the bad behaviour of His covenant
people (Dt. 32:21; Ps. 78:58; Is. 65:3; Jer. 8:19). God clearly has
emotions of a kind which are not unrelated to the emotions we experience,
as beings made in His image. But those emotions involve a time factor in
order to be emotions. We read of the anger of God "for a moment" (Ps.
30:5; Is. 54:7,8), and of His wrath coming and going, leaving Him "calm"
and no longer angry (Ez. 16:42). When we sin, we provoke God to anger-
i.e. at a point in time, God sees our sin, and becomes angry. This is
attested many times in Scripture. But it's meaningless if God is somehow
outside of our time and emotions.
The transfiguration is full of allusion to Yahweh's coming down on Sinai. The equivalent of declaring the characteristics of the Name is "This is My Son, hear him". The Son of God reveals all God's characteristics, He came in His Father's Name, declared it in His perfect life, and then supremely on the cross. "In the past God spoke... but in these last days He has spoken to us in His Son" (Heb. 1:1,2). Philip like Moses asked to be shown the Father, thinking this would "suffice". The answer was in essence what Moses was told- to see the Son, the perfect, living embodiment of the Father's character, was to see the Father. And the Lord had in view that He was about to die on the cross, and that would be the supreme showing of the Father.
The Name was declared on the cross, as the Lord had foreseen (Jn. 17:26). It was as if the Lord suffered as He did with a placard above Him which effectively said: 'This is Yahweh'. The declaration of Yahweh’s Name to Moses in Ex. 34:6 thus becomes a foretaste of the Lord’s crucifixion. Some texts render Ex. 34:6 as ‘Yahweh, Yahweh, a man full of mercy....’. In the crucifixion of the man Christ Jesus, the essence of Yahweh was declared. And we, John says with reference to the cross, saw that glory, as it were cowering in the rock like Moses, full of grace and truth (Jn. 1:14 cp. Ex. 34:6 RV).
God’s Name is essentially His characteristics and
personality; this declaration of the Name is in response to the request to
reveal His glory (Ex. 33:18). How we pronounce or transliterate God’s Name
isn’t so important; the essence of God’s Name is who He is and what He
does by grace in the lives of people. Jesus alludes here when He predicted
that His death would be a declaration of God’s Name; in the cross we see
the quintessence of God’s mercy, grace, judgment etc. (Jn. 17:26). We are
baptized into the Name, whereby all God’s perfect character is counted to
us.
Exo 34:7 keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and
disobedience and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s
children, on the third and on the fourth generation-
The Hebrew for "forgiving" signifies a lifting it up, and taking it away. This looks forward to the way God ultimately did this through the Lord's death / lifting up on the cross. The NT repeatedly states that sin was taken away by the Lord's body, lifted up on the cross as was the serpent, the symbol of sin. The declaration of the Yahweh Name spoke of God's absolute grace in saving His sinful people; but it would be declared in its fullness through the Lord's death on the cross.
That God 'visits' or punishes sin is a fundamental part of God's
Name. The question is when and how. Israel's sin of rejecting Yahweh for
an idol (Ex. 32:34 s.w.) need not have been 'visited' or 'punished'- had
they repented. But there is no evidence that they did, neither in that
immediate generation nor in subsequent ones. And so finally, God 'visited'
His people's sins in the destructions at the hands of the Babylonians and
Assyrians (s.w. Jer. 14:10; Hos. 8:13; 9:9).
The fact punishment was not always given until the third or fourth generation may simply reflect God’s characteristic grace in relenting upon His threatened judgments. But it may also be because the judgment is carried out by the Angels, who changed their decreed intentions with Israel, Moses and others.
We note that Ex. 34 doesn't describe the actual passing by of God and Moses' seeing God's back, as promised in Ex. 33. The record reflects the focus God wanted Moses and all of us to have- that getting a physical peek at God is neither here nor there. And as explained on Ex. 33, these wonders are all just the back side of God, and He shows His back rather than His face because of displeasure with human sin, as Jeremiah makes clear.
Psalm 145 is David's reflection upon Yahweh's declaration of His Name here. And it inspires him to praise, and to share with others the news of the God who so glories in forgiving and saving the weak. David's reflctions on the implications of Ex. 34 are worth thinking through:
"Every day I will praise You, I will extol Your name forever
and ever.
Psa 145:3 Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised! His greatness is
unsearchable [the grace shown here is indeed unsearchable especially given
the context, of God's grace to an Israel who had as it were committed
adultery on their wedding night]
Psa 145:4 One generation will commend Your works to another, and will
declare Your mighty acts [this refers to how Yahweh had said that His
grace continues to 1000 generations of those who fear Him]
Psa 145:5 Of the glorious majesty of Your honour, of Your wondrous works,
I will meditate [the wondrous worksand awesome acts (:6) were in His grace
to Israel and all men, rather than miracles]
Psa 145:6 Men will speak of the might of Your awesome acts; I will declare
Your greatness.
Psa 145:7 They will utter the memory of Your great goodness and will sing
of Your righteousness [Yahweh had said that instead of Moses seeing His
face, He would make His "goodness" pass before Moses].
Psa 145:8 Yahweh is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great grace
[an exact quotation from Ex. 34].
Psa 145:9 Yahweh is good to all, His tender mercies are over all His works
["All" implies that the declaration of who God essentially is therefore
applies to all men, not just Israel at the point of their shameful
adultery against their God. Jonah got this when he quoted Ex. 34 as
applying to the Ninevites, and said he felt repulsed by it- whereas David
marvels at the global scale of God's grace. Hence the Psalm concludes with
an appeal for "all flesh" to praise Yahweh for His Name].
... make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, the glory of the
majesty of His kingdom [knowing Yahweh is like this motivates us to share
the news with all men]
Psa 145:13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, Your dominion endures
throughout all generations. Yahweh is faithful in all His words, and
loving in all His deeds. [This alludes to His mercy lasting to 1000
generations, and may hint that the eternity of God's Kingdom is implied in
His being so saving, gracious and forgiving]
Psa 145:14 Yahweh upholds all who fall, and raises up all those who are
bowed down [Those bowed down by sin, the spiritually fallen, are those who
will be comforted by this declaration of how God's grace triumphs over the
side of His necessary judgment].
.... Psa 145:17 Yahweh is righteous in all His ways, and gracious
in all His works [the declaration of the Name was in response to Moses'
request to know Yahweh's ways, Ex. 33:13, in response to how at
the golden calf sin, Israel had turned out of His way “They have
turned aside quickly out of the way
that I commanded them” (Ex. 32:8 ESV) ]
Psa 145:18 Yahweh is near to all those who call on Him, to all
who call on Him in truth.
Psa 145:19 He will fulfil the desire of those who fear Him, He will also
hear their cry and save them". [This again is comfort for all who seek God
but feel their sin and weakness is a barrier].
Exo 34:8 Moses hurried and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped-
Moses had specifically been asked to "stand" there (Ex. 33:21; 34:2),
because it was God's intention that he be humbled, and perceive that
his insistent, bold requests to see the glory of God were not completely
appropriate for sinful man. This worship is in gratitude. The
statement of God's Name meant that Israel were accepted back into covenant
with God. He had asked them to remove their jewellery as a man asked his
wife to remove the jewellery he had given her at their wedding, as a sign
of their divorce. And this restoration of relationship was thanks to
Moses' intercession. This is the language of gratitude for a granted
request. Uppermost in Moses' mind was Israel's salvation and the
forgiveness of the golden calf. And the statement and assurance of God's
grace was enough for him. He was deeply grateful.
Exo 34:9 He said, If now I have found favour in Your sight, Lord, please
let the Lord go in the midst of us; although this is a stiff-necked
people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your inheritance-
See on Ps. 90:8. God had already given Moses this assurance, but as
discussed on Ex. 33, Moses was slow to grasp the reality of grace. The
declaration of the Yahweh Name had assured him that indeed God "will"
pardon sin. And yet he still feels the need to plead for it. We note that
God had assured Moses of personally giving him an inheritance, but here he
begs Go to "take us for Your inheritance", as for him, personal
salvation was bound up with that of God's sinful people. This is a strong
challenge to those who think they can walk to God's Kingdom with no care
for their brethren and wider community of believers.
Moses asks for their forgiveness and for God to still go up in their midst because he personally had found favour in Yahweh's eyes. "Pardon" is LXX "take away", and John makes another allusion to these events when he records that the Lord Jesus "takes away the sin of the world" (Jn. 1:29 s.w.). The grace and acceptance Moses craved for on Israel's behalf was granted by God in terms of His essential character, but that Name and character came to full term in the person and work of the Lord Jesus.
Moses was motivated to ask this, knowing God had previously said He would not go in their midst without punishing them, because of his belief in the Name just declared. This is what it is, to know the Name of Yahweh. It's nothing to do with pronunciation.
God told Moses that because Israel were stiffnecked, therefore He could not go up with them (Ex. 33:5). Moses agrees the people are stiffnecked, but he knows God well enough to ask Him to still go up in the midst of them (Ex. 34:9 "If now I have found favour in Your sight, Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us; although this is a stiff-necked people").
We note Moses speaks of pardoning "us" and taking "us" as God's
people. He is again showing his non acceptance of God's desire to destroy
the people and make a nation out of Moses. He considers himself
inseparable from Israel and bears their sin, just as the Lord does. It was
on this basis that he believed God could go up in their midst and save
them.
"And take us for Your inheritance" may be another appeal for God to not
disinherit His people as He had threatened, and instead to chose Moses'
descendants as His people. He recalled how God had earlier threatened in
Num 14:12 "I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and
will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they". Although God
has restored covenant with Israel, Moses clearly has a niggling doubt that
God may at some future point disinherit Israel. His passion for Israel's
acceptance with God is amazing, and looks forward to the Lord's passion
and work for us.
Moses seems to have pleaded with the Angel to change His stated purpose of not going up with the children of Israel through reminding the Angel of the mockery this would bring Him into among the nations around. Thus Ex. 34:9 shows Moses pleading for this "please let the Lord go in the midst of us"- after the clear statement in Ex. 33:3 "I will not go up in the midst of you". So let us not be afraid to ask God to change what seems like His purpose in our lives, no matter how hard it seems, if we truly feel that another way would give Him more glory. Moses would not have tried if he did not think success in that prayer was possible. But he not only tried, he succeeded. Also consider Ex. 32:11: "Moses besought the face of the LORD (A.V.mg- i.e. the Angel) and said, LORD, why doth Thy wrath wax hot against Thy people, which Thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt (the Angel did this)... turn from Thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against Thy people". Thus Ez. 20:17 says that God's eye (the Angel) "spared them... in the wilderness" when they provoked Him. Psalm 90 is Moses meditations on the fact that his generation were slowly dying in the wilderness, and on the vapidity of life at that stage. And yet he is bold enough to plead with God to change His purpose- "Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent Thee concerning Thy servants. O satisfy us early with Thy mercy (i.e. don't leave it till some distant point in the future when Messiah is here to show me Thy mercy- do it early, do it now)... make us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us... " (:13-15). So from his previous experience of changing God's purpose , Moses was not afraid to try and do so again. This possibility of God changing His mind about this is shown by the Hebrew of Ps. 95:11: "That they should not (Heb. 'If they enter', as AVmg.) enter My rest". The ambiguity here nicely shows the possibility of them entering.
The Angel's eagerness to repent and willingness to accept even the slightest sign of repentance in His charges, explains why Moses was so willing to strive to make the Angel repent by his prayers. Thus in Ex. 34:9 Moses asks the Angel to forgive the peoples' sin, although it was one of the Angel's stated principles not to do so (Ex. 23:21). Moses had had personal experience of such repenting; the Angel "sought" to kill him, but God changed his mind due to Moses' repentance (Ex. 4:24).
Despite God's evident pleasure with Moses personally, manifest in the revelation He gave him, Moses still fumbled around in his recognition of his own humanity: "If now I have found grace in Your sight... pardon our iniquity and our sin" (Ex. 34:9). Moses was always so aware of his connection with God's people, and was not at all interested in personal glory and even salvation, compared to the overall purpose of God's saving of His people.
Although he spoke to God as a friend, with an open-faced relationship, he still took upon himself the sin of Israel, he felt as condemned as they felt (Ex. 34:9 cp. 33:11); when he pleaded for God's sentence on him to be lifted , he pleaded for the same sentence on Israel to be lifted too (Ps. 90:8). When Yahweh met Moses, it was as if He met with Israel (Ex. 3:18). God promised to go with Moses, but Moses re-quotes this as God going with “us” (Ex. 33:14-16). This is how inextricably linked were Moses and his people, even in their condemnation. And so it is, thankfully, with us and the Lord. Moses manifested / represented both God and Israel, superbly prefiguring the nature of the Lord's work and mission far later.
Although the people were "stiff-necked", refusing to bow their necks in obedience, and thereby liable to destruction if God was amongst them (Ex. 32:9; 33:3,15), God was willing to give this stiff-necked people a place in God's Kingdom (Dt. 9:6). And so although God had said that He would not go in the midst of a stiff-necked people, yet Moses asks Him to do so (Ex. 34:9)- for He senses God's desire to save them by grace despite their hardened disobedience. We contrast this with the God who demands respect, the God who slew Uzzah and insists upon loyalty to Him.
Exo 34:10 He said, Behold, I make a covenant-
This is presented as a one sided covenant of grace, as was that of
Gen. 15. There are no immediate demands made upon Israel regarding their
side of it; just the request that having such a covenant relationship,
they should therefore not seek to enter any other covenant (:12).
Before all your
people I will do marvels, such as have not been worked in all the earth,
nor in any nation; and all the people among which you are shall see the
work of Yahweh; for it is an awesome thing that I do with you-
Israel refused to be obedient, were stiffnecked, because they were "not
mindful of your wonders" (Neh. 9:17). Ps. 78:32 likewise: "For all this
they sinned still, and believed not in his wondrous works". Our perception
of God's wonder is intended to inspire us not to sin, to be obedient to
Him at whom we marvel / wonder (:11).
The marvel of what God was to do was that He would grant His Kingdom to a
thoroughly underserving people, by grace alone.
As discussed on Ex. 33:16, contrary to what Moses initially wanted, there was to be no physical sign of God's unique involvement with Israel, but rather he was to perceive that it was the experience of amazing grace and forgiveness that was unique to Israel. These were the wonders no other nation had ever seen from their god. No other god would have forgiven and shown such grace to a disobedient people.
The wonders were greater works than what God had already
performed for Israel. And the allusion is naturally to the plagues. But on
the level of miracle, God didn't do greater than these. So the wonders and
great things refer in the context to His ongoing forgiveness of them.
Exo 34:11 Observe that which I command you this day. Behold,
I drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the
Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite-
Already the process had started. But these fine words of assurance
were forgotten by Israel when they heard the reports of the unfaithful
spies. They were assured that in fact these nations were far stronger than
them, and all God's assurances about having already begun to drive them
out were therefore fake. They believed the word of men rather than that of
God. The tribes were specifically driven out by the Angel sent
before them (Ex. 33:2), "the hornet" sent before them (Ex. 23:28). Our
Angels may likewise have opened roads of conquest ahead of us, but we fail
to make good on the huge potential opened up.
The subsequent appeals to not form any covenant with anyone else are based on the fact God had by grace renewed the covenant with them. The wonder of the grace of covenant relationship with Him means we will not seek covenant with others. We won't ever want to go near the idea of idols after perceiving how awful had been the sin with the golden calf.
Exo 34:12 Be careful, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the
land where you are going, lest it be for a snare in the midst of you-
Yahweh's covenant in :10 is presented as a one sided covenant of
grace, as was that of Gen. 15. There are no immediate demands made upon
Israel regarding their side of it; just the request that having such a
covenant relationship, they should therefore not seek to enter any other
covenant (:12).
The prohibition of marriage with unbelievers in Ex. 34:12 was made straight after the awesome declaration of God's holiness on Sinai. It was as if God was telling Moses: 'See, this is your God, so wondrous in grace and determination to save you. So please, be mine, don't unite yourselves in marriage to this world that doesn't know Me. If I, in all My moral and physical glory, am your God, how can you intermarry?'. There is a kind of juxtaposition between the heights of God's moral revelation in Ex. 34:1-8, and then the 'down to earth' prohibition against marriage out of the Faith
Exo 34:13 but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their
pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherim-
Israel were told to "throw down", "break in pieces" and "utterly
destroy" the idols and altars of Canaan. There were times during their
history when they obeyed this command by purging themselves from their
apostasy in this. The Hebrew words used scarcely occur elsewhere, except
very frequently in the context of how God "broke down", "threw down" and
"destroyed" Israel at the hands of their Babylonian and Assyrian invaders
as a result of their not 'breaking down' (etc.) the idols. "Throw down" in
Ex. 34:13; Dt. 7:5; 12:3; 2 Chron. 31:1 is the same word in 2 Chron.
36:19; Jer. 4:26; 31:28; 33:4; 39:8; 52:14; Ez. 16:39; Nah. 1:6. "Cut
down" in Dt. 7:5; 12:3; 2 Chron. 31:1 later occurs in Is. 10:33; Jer.
48;25; Lam. 2:3. So Israel faced the choice: either cut down your idols,
or you will be cut down in the day of God's judgment. Those who worshipped
idols were like unto them. The stone will either fall on us and destroy
us, or we must fall on it and become broken men and women (Mt. 21:44). For
the man untouched by the concept of living for God's glory, it's a hard
choice. God will conquer sin, ultimately. When a man dies, it isn't just a
biological, clockwork process. It is God's victory over sin in that
individual. Either we must be slain by God; or with His gracious help, we
must put sin to death in our members through association with the only One
who really did this- and thereby rise to life eternal.
Exo 34:14 for you shall worship no other god; for Yahweh, whose name is
Jealous, is a jealous God-
Jealousy is a lead feature within Yahweh's personality (Ex. 20:5;
34:14). It speaks specifically of the jealousy of a man concerning the
faithfulness of his wife (Num. 5:14). God was the passionate lover and
husband of His people, and it is inevitable therefore that the extent of
that love would produce jealousy when they spurned Him and went after
other men, the idols.
Exo 34:15 Don’t make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land,
lest
they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods,
and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice-
Israel is so often set up as the bride of God (Is. 54:5; 61:10; 62:4,5;
Jer. 2:2; 3:14; Hos. 2:19,20). This is why any infidelity to God is spoken
of as adultery (Mal. 2:11; Lev. 17:7; 20:5,6; Dt. 31:16; Jud. 2:17;
8:27,33; Hos. 9:1). The language of Israel 'selling themselves to do
iniquity' uses the image of prostitution. This is how God feels our even
temporary and fleeting acts and thoughts of unfaithfulness. This is why
God is jealous for us (Ex. 20:15; 34:14; Dt. 4:24; 5:9; 6:15)- because His
undivided love for us is so exclusive. He expects us to be totally His.
Just as Israel were not to be like the Egyptians they were leaving, nor
like the Canaanites into whose land they were going (Lev. 18:1-5;
20:23,24). We are to be a people separated unto Him.
Exo 34:16 and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their
daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons
prostitute themselves to their gods-
The logic is powerful. To marry their women would be as foolish as a
man marrying a prostitute. Yet this is what God did with Israel, as
exemplified in the tragic marriage between Hosea and Gomer.
Exo 34:17 You shall make no cast idols for yourselves-
This clearly alludes to the golden calf which they had made. They
were not to ever do this again. And yet we know from Ez. 20:7,8 that they
took the idols of Egypt with them through the Red Sea, and carried the
tabernacle and star of their idols throughout the wilderness journey. Even
by Joshua's time, he had to urge them to cast away the idols of Egypt.
Perhaps they justified them by arguing that they had not cast them
themselves. Our flesh is so able to justify sin. And we must beware of
that.
Exo 34:18 You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you
shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in
the month Abib; for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt-
Exo 34:19 All that opens the womb is Mine; and all your livestock that is
male, the firstborn of cow and sheep-
I suggested on Ex. 13:2 that it was God's initial intention that all the
firstborn males should be sanctified to His service, from whatever tribe. And
the sacrificial animals would be provided by the firstborn of every
animal. But this plan didn't work, and so He called one tribe to be His
sanctified priests, and all Israel were to provide animals for sacrifice.
And they also didn't really do their ministry, and so under the new
covenant, all are priests. We marvel at how God continually seeks to forge
ahead with His plans for relationship with man.
Exo 34:20 The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb: and if
you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. All the firstborn
of your sons you shall redeem-
The redemption of unclean devoted animals was to be at the basis of
the animals value plus one fifth (Lev. 27:27). But the firstborn of
donkeys were to be redeemed with a lamb, and a lamb would have been of
less value than a newborn donkey. The firstborn of the donkey was to be
redeemed by a lamb (Ex. 13:13) as a ritual reminder of the power of the
Passover lamb's redemption. The value of its blood was far greater than
its commercial value. And this was to point forward to the value of the
blood of the Lord Jesus, far more precious than of any gold or silver (1
Pet. 1:18). The donkey was the most common domestic animal, and it was an
unclean animal. It was therefore representative of common people, in their
unclean state. Firstborn donkeys were to be redeemed because they were to
be understood as representative of God's people, redeemed by the Passover
lamb.
No one shall appear before Me empty-
Exo 34:21 Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest:
in ploughing time and in harvest you shall rest-
Exo 34:22 You shall observe the feast of weeks with the first fruits of
wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest at the year’s end-
The feast of weeks is here defined as the first fruits of wheat
harvest, the two loaves of Lev. 23:17. The "weeks" were the seven weeks of
harvest (Dt. 16:9,10,16).
Exo 34:23 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the
Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel-
Exo 34:24 For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your
borders; neither shall any man desire your land when you go up to appear
before Yahweh your God three times in the year-
The Mosaic Law required that Israel leave their homes undefended in
order to go to the sanctuary to "appear before Yahweh". This was
intended to be feasible because the Lord would drive out all the nations
in the land. Yet Israel failed to drive out the nations; and
thus made it far harder for themselves to obey the command to leave their
homes and go to the sanctuary. Failure to obey one command made obedience
to others far harder; and the same principle operates today.
Exo 34:25 You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened
bread; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left to
the morning-
The
Exo 34:26 You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground to
the house of Yahweh your God-
You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk-
Exo 34:27 Yahweh said to Moses, Write you these words; for in accordance
with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel-
The commands which constituted the covenant were given to Moses
personally (Neh. 1:7,8), insofar as he represented Israel. Thus
there is a parallel drawn in Ps. 103:7: He made known His ways unto Moses,
His acts unto the children of Israel". In the
context of describing Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, they are said to
have been delivered from “the basket” (Ps. 81:6 RV)- clearly associating
them with Moses’ deliverance. Is. 63:11 (Heb.) is even more explicit: " He
remembered... Moses his people". Moses seems to have appreciated fully his representative role on that last glorious day of life when he addressed Israel: "The Lord said unto me... I will deliver [Og] into thy hand... so the Lord our God delivered into our hands Og" (Dt. 3:2,3). David recognized this unity between Moses and Israel; David describes both Israel and Moses as God's chosen (Ps. 16:5,23). Moses is described as encamping in the wilderness, when the reference clearly is to all Israel (Ex. 18:5). Moses recalled how “the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have delivered up Sihon and his land before thee [you singular- i.e. Moses]; begin to possess it, that thou [you singular again!] mayest inherit his land”. Yet Moses then comments that therefore God “delivered” Sihon “before us” (Dt. 31,33 RV). The land and victory that Moses personally could have had- for it was God’s wish to destroy Israel and make of him a new nation- he shared with Israel. Ex. 7:16 brings out the unity between them by a play on words: “The LORD God of the Hebrews hath sent me [lit. ‘let me go’] unto thee, saying, Let my people go”. “Let go” translates the same Hebrew word as “sent me”. Just as Moses had been let go by Yahweh, so Israel were to be.
"With you and with Israel" reflects how God saw Israel as Moses. Because he would keep the covenant, they would be counted as keeping it. For Moses had reasoned in Ex. 33 that because of his personal relationship with God, Israel could be saved and have God amongst them. And God accepted that, as He does with His Son.
Exo 34:28 He was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights-
Ex. 24:16 says that Moses was six and a half days on the mountain
waiting for the call to meet God, so he was with God for 33 and a half
days. This perhaps looks forward to the 33 and a half years ministry of
the Lord Jesus.
He neither
ate bread, nor drank water-
It could be argued that this is not speaking of absolutely not eating
nor drinking (it would be hard not to drink for 40 days), but rather that
He didn't eat bread nor drink water. The implication is that He had food
to eat from God, associated with the word given him, which others weren't
aware of. The Lord may allude to this in Jn. 4:32. This is the third
period of 40 days which Moses was there, and the Rabbis calculate that he
would have therefore returned from the mountain (cp. the Lord's second
coming from Heaven) on the Day of Atonement.
He wrote on the tablets the words of the
covenant, the ten commandments-
The Old Covenant is defined here and elsewhere as the
ten commandments, which include the Sabbath. The New Testament teaches
that the Old Covenant has been replaced by the New Covenant in Christ- and
He never commanded us to keep the Sabbath.
Exo 34:29 It happened, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two
tablets of the testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the
mountain, that Moses didn’t know that the skin of his face shone by reason
of His speaking with him-
We are described in 2 Cor. 3:18 as also like Moses
beholding the glory of God, in terms of His moral perfection as it is in
the face of Jesus (see on :6), and as the physical glory reflected off
Moses’ face, so the more we are in the presence of Jesus, meditating upon
His character, the more that glory in a moral sense will increasingly
shine off our faces. Paul uses the metaphor of looking in a mirror, until
we find that the image in the mirror is no longer our face but the face of
Jesus.
Exo 34:30 When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the
skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him-
The eyes of Israel had seen Yahweh's glory in Ex. 24:17, and it seems
the first time they did in fact come up the first part of the mountain
even when told not to. But the effect of sin, in this case with the golden
calf, is to make man shy of God's glory. But that was only because they
had not deeply enough believed in their forgiveness. Perhaps Moses' face
only shone now, and not after the previous ascents of the mount, because
he needed this extra authority added to him. And yet despite this, Israel
still despised and disobeyed him. Clearly enough, visible evidence for God
such as this, the manna, the Angel in the pillar of cloud and fire, didn't
deeply persuade Israel.
Exo 34:31 Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the
congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them-
This calling was surely in the form of words assuring them of God's
acceptance of them, and that they need not fear Yahweh and His glory,
despite His holiness and their sinfulness. For He wanted to meet with them
in fellowship and acceptance. It was the essence of the Gospel.
Exo 34:32 Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them
all of the commandments that Yahweh had spoken with him on Mount Sinai-
We think of Joseph urging his sinful brothers to "come near" to him,
to believe in his grace to them, even though they were far from fully
penitent (Gen. 45:4 s.w.). It was the same here. It was the priests who
"came near" (Ex. 19:22), but we see here how all Israel were bidden "come
near". God wanted the all to have intimacy with Him, and not leave it to
the religious leaders. And it is the same with us in church life today.
Exo 34:33 When Moses was done speaking with them, he put a veil on his
face-
See on 2 Cor. 3:15-18. This was apparently the regular experience of
Israel with Moses. Throughout 2 Cor. 3:15-4:6, Paul comments on how Moses'
face shone with God's glory, and yet he spoke to Israel through a veil,
with the result that Israel did not appreciate God's glory. He speaks of
him and all preachers of the true Christian Gospel as "able ministers of
the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter
kills, but the spirit gives life" (2 Cor. 3:6)- clear allusion to Moses as
the minister of the old, inferior covenant. Paul uses this to explain why
Israel did not respond to his preaching; "if our preaching be hid, it is
hid to them that are lost" (2 Cor. 4:3). Paul therefore saw himself and
his fellow preachers as like Moses, radiating forth the glory of God in
the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to an Israel which had the veil upon their
heart. This allusion must have so angered the Jews- to suggest that
Christian preachers were like Moses!
Moses face didn't shine with glory before, despite his meetings with God. I suggest this was to reflect the fact that God had indeed accepted Moses, and according to his wish, would accept Israel for his sake. All looking forward to the Lord's work.
When a [Jewish] man turns to the Lord Jesus, the veil of obedience to the Law is taken away (2 Cor. 3:16 RVmg.). Yet the Law also led men to Christ; and yet it also veils Him from them- depending whether they read it as God intended. But the "it" which turns to the Lord could refer to the hearts of Jewish people. The veil is the Law; the veil is not taken away by intellectual purity of understanding. It is taken away when the heart turns to the Lord Jesus, and this is the realm of the spirit or heart. Epistrepho, "turn to", is a form of strepho which is the usual word for conversion. But it is often used of what is done to a person by the Lord- we are converted by Him. 'To be converted' suggests the conversion is done to us. The Lord's wish is to heal and convert human hearts (Mt. 13:15); that they might be healed and converted. John the Baptist's mission was to convert hearts to Jesus as Christ, to turn or convert Israel to the Lord (Lk. 1:16,17). When a heart is turned to the Lord by the Lord, then the veil is taken away. But the person must allow the process to happen, and not harden their hearts against it. If they do, then they shall be confirmed in that by being hardened the more- as 2 Cor. 3:14 has just stated. It is an openness to the leading of the Lord in the spirit which is so important. It is response to that leading which brings about conversion, rather than decades of poring over ancient Hebrew and Greek words. 2 Cor. 3:17 will go on to speak explicitly about the work of the Lord Jesus as the work of the Spirit.
Exo 34:34 But when Moses went in before Yahweh to speak with Him, he took
the veil off, until he came out; and he came out, and spoke to the
children of Israel that which he was commanded-
We
each, with unveiled face, have like
Moses seen the glory of the Lord Jesus (2 Cor. 3:18). When Moses saw the
glory, he was immediately given a ministry to preach to Israel, to share
that glory with them (Ex. 34:34). And Paul drives home the similarity; we
each have had the experience of
Moses, and so “therefore seeing
we (too,
like Moses) have this ministry”, “we each” are to exercise it to Israel.
Moses was and is seen in the Jewish world as a larger than life figure.
Theologically, Judaism has placed Moses greater even than Messiah. It was
the purpose of John's Gospel to correct this. The idea that ordinary
believers can in any sense be equal to or even greater than Moses was (and
is) absolute anathema to the Jewish mind. And yet through allusion and
almost explicit statement, the Lord Jesus and the New Testament writers
invite us to see ourselves as equal to or greater than Moses, on account
of the spiritual riches made available to us in Christ, with the light of
a greater glory shining from our faces too. How radical this was to the
first century mind is extremely hard for us to enter into. The point is,
God intellectually stretches us to an extent which may be almost
unacceptable to us; as with our first century brethren, we too are
challenged to radically turn against many of the concepts and attitudes
which are fundamental to our upbringing.
Paul's point is that the "the sons of Israel could not stare intently into the face of Moses"(2 Cor. 3:7), implying that the Christian, by contrast, does stare intently into the face of the Lord Jesus. This is what it is to be a Christian. And to be transformed into His image and reflect His glory.
Exo 34:35 The children of Israel saw Moses’ face, that the skin of Moses’
face shone: and Moses put the veil on his face again, until he went in to
speak with Him-
In the same way as Moses spoke to the Angel without a veil on his
face, and thereby came to reflect the glory which shone from the Angel's
face (Ex. 34:33-35), so we are bidden look at the glory of God in the face
of Jesus, to consider his character, and be changed into that same glory
by reflecting his character in our lives. By simply beholding the glory of
Christ's righteousness, truly appreciating it, we will be changed (2 Cor.
3:15-18 RV). Paul seems to be arguing that whenever a Jew turns to the
Lord Jesus and fellowships with Him, then he is living out the pattern of
Moses. And further, 2 Cor. 4:3 speaks of our Gospel being 'veiled' to
those who are lost- as if we are as Moses, the Gospel we preach
being as the glory of God which shone from Moses' face. Let's keep
remembering how huge and radical was the challenge of this to a first
century Jewish readership for whom Moses was an almost untouchable hero.
Moses couldn't see the direct glory / face of God, he was
covered by God's hand and only saw God's back. Perhaps this in turn is
reflected by how God hid His glory from Israel through the veil on Moses'
face. But thereby they were encouraged to aspire to the place of Moses on
the mountain, hidden from God's full glory but nonetheless seeing some of
it. It cannot be that the High Priestly blessing lacks reference to Moses'
shining face: “May Yahweh make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious
to you” (Num. 6:25). The shining of His face spoke of the experience of
grace, just as the revelation of God's Name and physical glory to Moses
had spoken of His grace to Israel, forgiving the impenitent, those who had
committed adultery on their wedding night to Yahweh. And He thereby gave
them peace, the peace from knowing His grace and forgiveness. Ps. 80:4
connects the shining of God's face with restoration and salvation- which
is the exact context here, where the covenant has been restored by grace
and Israel saved from destruction as God's people: “O God, restore us! And
make your face shine that we might be saved!”. But the vision of that
face, that grace, was veiled to them. The High Priestly blessing was
therefore a wish that they would see beyond the veil to Yahweh's actual
glory, and not be scared by grace. This wish and intention comes to full
term in our beholding with unveiled face the glory of the Lord Jesus, far
greater than the glory Moses saw.
In Psalm 90 Moses pleads for his rejection and that of his people to be reversed. He says that the reason for their rejection was God setting their "secret sins" in the light of His countenance (Ps. 90:8). He felt his rejection was due to his secret sins- not the one painfully public failure. The Hebrew for "secret" means 'that behind the veil'; it is from the same root as the Hebrew for 'young girl', i.e. a veiled one. He felt the sins he had committed behind the veil had been exposed in the light of the Angel's face. Remember that Moses always appeared to Israel with a veil (Ex. 34:33-35; 2 Cor. 3:16-18 RV), only removing it when he spoke face to face with the Angel, radiating the light of God's glory to him. It seems Moses is alluding to this in Ps. 90:8; he felt that he had many secret sins, hidden to Israel, but completely open to the Angel when he met with him. Likewise Israel were rejected because of the sins of their heart rather than their grosser failures (Acts 7:39; and see the reason for their condemnation given in many other passages). “You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your face" (Ps. 90:8) is not Moses reproaching God; rather is it him soberly recognizing why they were barred from the land. Notice "our iniquities... our sins"- Moses was completely at one with condemned Israel, he knew exactly how they felt- just as the Lord Jesus with us.
"But we, with an unveiled face and reflecting the glory of the Lord"
(2 Cor. 3:18). "Beholding as in a mirror" (RV). In the same way as Moses
spoke to the Angel without a veil on his face, and thereby came to reflect
the glory which shone from the Angel's face (Ex. 34:33-35), so we are
bidden look at the glory of God in the face of Jesus, to consider his
character, and be changed into that same glory by reflecting his character
in our lives. By simply beholding the glory of Christ's righteousness,
truly appreciating it, we will be changed (2 Cor. 3:15-18 RV).
Christ-centeredness, regularly thinking of Him, grabbing a few verses from
the Gospel records in the course of the day- this is the essence of the
Christian life, of beholding Him with unveiled face. Paul seems to be
arguing that whenever a Jew turns to the Lord Jesus and fellowships with
Him, then he is living out the pattern of Moses. And further, 2 Cor. 4:3
speaks of our Gospel being 'veiled' to those who are lost- as if we are as
Moses, the Gospel we preach being as the glory of God which shone from
Moses' face. Let's keep remembering how huge and radical was the challenge
of this to a first century Jewish readership for whom Moses was an almost
untouchable hero.
2 Cor. 3 speaks of our beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus in a mirror;
and this process slowly transforms us into that same image of Him which we
see. The “glory” of God was revealed to Moses at Sinai in Ex. 34 as the
declaration of His character. In this sense, the Lord Jesus could speak of
having in His mortal life “that glory which was with [the Father]” when
the [Jewish] world came into existence at Sinai (Jn. 17:5 Ethiopic and
Western Text). It was that same glory which, like Moses, He reflected to
men. But according to 2 Cor. 3:18, the very experience of gazing upon the
glory of His character will change us into a reflection of it. There is
something transforming about the very personality of Jesus. And perhaps
this is why we have such a psychological barrier to thinking about Him
deeply. We know that it has the power to transform and intrude into our
innermost darkness. I have given reason elsewhere for believing that the
Gospel records are in fact transcripts of the Gospel message preached by
the four evangelists. The 'Gospel according to Matthew' is therefore the
Gospel message which he usually preached. And it's significant that at
least three of them start and end where many of us would- starting with
the promises to the Jewish fathers, and concluding with an appeal for
baptism. Actually John's Gospel does this too, if you decode the language
he uses. This is surely the explanation of the Lord's otherwise strange
remark that wherever the Gospel is preached, the anointing of His feet by
Mary would be part of that message. And this is one of the few incidents
that all four Gospel writers each mention. What this shows is that the
Gospel message is in its quintessence, the account of the man Christ
Jesus- with all that involves. It has truly been commented that "the
central message of the gospels is not the teaching of Jesus but Jesus
himself". This is true insofar as Jesus is the word made flesh.
A mirror by its very nature, because of what it is, reflects the light
which falls upon it to others. If we have really seen the light of the
Lord Jesus Christ, we will inevitably reflect it to others. Jesus didn't
say 'Do good works so that men may see the light'. He said “let your light
shine" - and then men will see your good works and glorify the Father.
Paul puts the same principle another way when he says that we're all
mirrors (2 Cor. 3:18 RV). We naturally reflect to others what has been
reflected into us by the Lord Jesus. A mirror by its very nature, because
of what it is, reflects the light which falls upon it to others. If we
have really seen the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will inevitably
reflect it to others. Many of the Lord’s parables portray the [preaching
of] the Gospel of the Kingdom of God as a kind of secret force: treasure
hidden in a field, the tiniest seed in the garden, wheat growing among
weeds, a pinch of yeast worked into dough, salt on meat... these are all
images of something which works from within, changing other people in an
ongoing, regular manner.
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