Exodus chapter 34

Introduction
Moses has prayed three important prayers to God since the Golden Calf incident that have prevented the destruction of the Israelites and the re-founding of a nation of God through Moses. The three prayers were
· Lord, don't destroy them.
· Lord, forgive them.
· Lord, come with us.

The nation is now embarking upon its journey to Canaan but for God there is the major issue of how a holy God can live amongst an unholy people. Much of chapters 33 and 34 are taken up with this theme.

As we come to chapter 34, Moses is instructed to make some new stone tablets and he is then instructed to return up the mountain to meet with God in the same way as he did at the time of the original law giving back a number of chapters.

Structure
There are two meetings in this chapter:
1. Moses meeting God (1-28)of which verses 10 to 27 are a continual speech from God.
2. Moses meeting the people (29-35).

Let's look first at the verses that surround God's long speech, that is verses 1-9 and 27-35.

Hope
To meet with God we need to be ready and prepared (Verse 2). In chapter 19 the people were told to spend three days consecrating themselves before God descends upon the mountain to give them the Ten Commandments. Preparation for meeting God was an important issue then and it is here in this chapter too. Indeed, preparation before meeting with God might well be something that all Christians should do well to think about. In our age, do we have this sense of preparation each day and especially before we speak with God, or are we over-casual in our relationship with the Lord? I imagine that is something each of us needs to contemplate prayerfully and then put into action as our consciences dictate.

Given subject matter of these verses and the clue in verse 4 with the phrase, "like the first ones" we should regard this scene as a re-establishment of God's covenant with Israel. It is like the first covenant made between chapters 20 and 24 except that is as much shorter. Many of the ingredients however are the same.
· The action is taking place on the mountain top (v2 and 5) over...
· ...40 days again (v28).
· The remaking of the stone tablets (this time chiselled out by Moses and mentioned five times in this chapter).
· The appearance of the cloud.
· The repetition of the geographic limits around the mountain (ref. chapter 19).
· Also in the rest of the chapter there is a restatement of the covenant promises and a summary of the book of the covenant. (10-26)

The question that occurs is why God should consent to re-establishing his covenant. perhaps it is simply that Moses has persuaded him to do so, but it is more likely that we are seeing something of the unchangeable nature of Yahweh who has a bias towards grace rather than toward condemnation. Is that not the Jesus that you and I know, full of mercy, first seeking the lost instead of condemning them when they stumble?

Moses goes up the mountain and the Lord comes down in the cloud. Interestingly, as they meet, the the Lord is said to stand ‘with’ Moses. I suggest we have here a pre-echo of Jesus who comes down and stands with humanity. In Exodus Yahweh proclaims his name, and the ministry of Jesus is in effect one of proclaiming his name as Messiah. It is also a good pattern for evangelism isn't it? To get alongside someone in a way that shows genuine friendship and concern, and then to proclaim the name of Jesus!

Verses 6-7
God says he is forgiving but what he won't overlook is sin, for he says he will punish the guilty. So again there is a clear warning against idolatry which is of course commandment 2. It could be said that this teaches us something about what our attitude to Grace should be. We must not hold to what has been called 'cheap grace' but respond as well as we can with genuine repentance.

On a theological note, Peter Enns comments that the name Yahweh is God's "salvation name", and in the double repetition of the name in verses 6-7 God demonstrates his re-established commitments to the Israelites nation.

A Fourth Prayer?

Verses 8-9
In some ways verses 8-9 almost constitute a fourth prayer. Moses responds to God's graciousness with praise and adoration (literally, prostrating himself) but he is still worried. The reason for his anxiety is revealed in 33:4 and his observation that the nature of the people is to be repetitively stiff-necked. He wants to be sure that God, knowing the need to extend the same graciousness time and again, will not disown them as soon as the next revolt comes along, for come it surely will. God's recommitment to them now has to involve a deeper graciousness if you will allow that expression.

Marching forward in time to the New Testament we see an even greater show of graciousness from God at the cross. Jesus died for all our sins, and not just those that we had committed prior to salvation but all our future ones too. Whilst they were all dealt with in one action, that action extends the scope of God's grace into a truly amazing grace of forgiveness.

The phrase is stiff-necked is an interesting one. People might reach different understandings from this description but it seems to equate to the New Testament 'hard heartedness' that Jesus accuses so many of his hearers of possessing. It an unwillingness to go God's way and a determination to make ourselves the final arbiters of what we think and do.

There's a small irony that we should not miss in verse 8. Moses bows to the ground before God - but what about the Israelite people? If they are stiff-necked then the implication is that they cannot bow their heads!

The content of Moses' prayer where he prays to Yahweh asking him to let 'the Lord' come with the people. In both instances the Hebrew is 'Adoni' but the second used of the word has a possessive quality about it where the emphasis is one of God being 'my Lord' rather than plain 'the Lord'.

The Book of the Covenant Re-stated

We have already commented that verses 10-27 are restatement of the Book of the Covenant. However, this time Moses is alone on the mountain. There are no elders present and, it seems, neither is Joshua. You will see that the passage of restatement is topped and tailed by the two phrases, "I am making a covenant with you," (10) and, "I have made a covenant with you," (27).

Of course, this restating of the "code of the covenant" is highly abbreviated compared to the first time we saw it. It seems to focus on the those commands which will keep Israel from falling again if they are obeyed.
The issues covered in these verses are these:

Observations:

1. Context: The laws found in it apply to a particular people at a particular point in history, specifically to God’s redeemed people who are about to enter the Promised Land to be a shining example to the gentile nations of the world.
2. Content: Therefore, the laws concern themselves primarily with the worship of Yahweh and social responsibility. As in the Decalogue, the pattern of life is to be proper relationship, first with God, then with others.
3. Land and Ownership: The laws assume a people settled in a land and many have an element of ownership.
4. Antithesis: All these laws are aimed at ensuring God’s people do not behave like Egyptians who abused their ownership of the Israelites and oppressed them. God’s people show proper respect for others and deliver justice based on Godly morality.
5. Sacred and Secular: No division is allowed for God’s people between the secular and sacred parts of life. You are God’s person 24 hours a day.

Radiant Faces

In trying to pin down the significance of Moses' radiant face the following references might help us.

1. Deuteronomy 18:15 - “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.”
2. Matthew 17:2 – “There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.”
3. Revelation 1:16 – “And in His right hand He held seven stars; and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.”

There are similarities between Exodus 34 and the Matthew 17 passage that are significant:
· High mountain.
· Radiance.
· Authority from God and importance of listening to Moses / Jesus.
· In Matt 17 is it Jesus who makes Moses’ face shine as Yahweh does in Exodus
The Exodus story becomes a 'type' for the transfiguration witnessed by the three apostles and a 'type' for the Messiah to come.

In 2 Corinthians 3:7-18 Paul compares Moses' fading glory with a permanent glory reflected in the face of a Christian. What he says it that whilst Moses needed top-ups, the Christian does not need them for they have the Holy Spirit, God with us all the time.

Chapters 32 to 34 are topped and tailed by Sabbath regulations. Peter Enns sees this as indicating that Moses' intercession has been utterly successful. Consequently the new Israelite nation, restored to relationship with their Lord, set about building the tabernacle so that he can live with them.

What has made his intercession so successful is his persistence, knowledge and belief in God's character and his faithfulness both to God and to others. But like Christ (Hebrews 7: 25) Moses' intercession has become almost his reason for existence.