Exodus 34:1-14
“And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tablets of stone like unto the first . . .” (v. 1). The first tablets of stone were destroyed when Moses cast them down upon returning to the camp of Israel (see Ex. 32:19). The instruction which the Lord issued to Moses is not a response to the destruction of the tablets of stone. The Lord’s instruction is His response to Moses’ request that He show him His glory (Ex. 33:18). The purpose for which Moses asked God to show him His glory was his desire to receive assurance that the Lord would be with him and that both he and the nation of Israel had found grace in “thy sight” (Ex. 33:16).
In the text before us, the Lord reveals His glory to Moses through words and actions. God reveals His glory to Moses (and to us) in verse 1 with the promise to write the same words upon the second tablets as were written upon the first tablets. The words which God wrote upon the first tablets are recorded in Exodus 20. The ten commandments reveal God’s perfection. God is perfection. Perfection is singular; there is only one perfect. The commandments upon the second set of tablets could not possibly differ from the first. Perfection is perfect and not subject to change.
In verse 3, the Lord instructed Moses to come upon the mount alone and forbade the presence of flocks and herds upon the mount. Moses, in asking to see the glory of the Lord, asked to see that which no man can see and live (see Ex. 33:20, I Tim. 6:16). The glory of the Lord is so holy that even innocent creatures of His making cannot live in His presence.
When Moses asked God to show him His glory, the Lord stated that He would make His goodness pass before him and proclaim the name of the Lord before him (Ex. 33:19). In verses 6 and 7, the Lord did exactly as He had said He would do. This was not the first time God proclaimed His name to Moses. At the burning bush, God proclaimed (albeit through the Angel of the Lord) “I AM THAT I AM” (Ex. 3:14). In verse 6, the singular and self-existent God proclaims: I am merciful, I am gracious, I am long-suffering, I am abundant in goodness and truth. The Lord reveals the actions which give meaning to His words in verse 7. Merciful, gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth means keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
There are some who hear but do not understand God’s visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children. Those without understanding lack a clear picture of God’s love. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Heb. 12:6). God visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children and even to the fourth generation because God is love. Punishment cannot and does not undo iniquity. Punishment is a corrective action given in love. God is love and His love extends to even to the third and fourth generations of them whose iniquities He has forgiven.
In verse 9, Moses lifted a prayer to God asking that He go among “us” and pardon “our” sin and take “us” for thine inheritance. Moses did not make the image the golden calf but he chose not to separate himself from them who did. In Moses, we see a picture of the Prophet like unto Moses (Deut. 18:15), which Prophet took on the sin that belonged to a people who did not know God (Rom. 5:8).
The Lord answered Moses’ prayer immediately. God said: “I make a covenant” (v. 10). A covenant is an agreement in which the maker specifies the actions which the covenant maker shall perform. God told Moses that He would do marvels which had never before been seen in all the earth. When the Lord spoke these words, He had performed great marvels. He had brought plagues upon Pharaoh, caused Israel to come out of Egypt with great gain, and parted the waters of the sea. God’s covenant required Him to do marvels beyond every marvel of His doing recorded between the establishment of nations (Genesis 10) and Exodus 34:10.
God states, “It is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.” The Hebrew word which is translated as terrible is also translated as fearful. Terrible and fearful can be used to describe both the bad and the awesome. All the people consisted of the stiff-necked and unbelieving who would never enter the promised land and Joshua and Caleb who would see the Jordan hold back its water and the walls of Jericho come tumbling down. All would see God’s mercy, grace, long-suffering, goodness and truth during their wanderings in the wilderness. All would receive undeserved blessings and witness the Lord’s hand of correction. Only Joshua and Caleb and those under twenty years of age would see the Lord drive out the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite (v. 11).
In the closing verses before us, God issues a warning and a remedy to them who would see Him drive out the inhabitants of the land. Israel’s response to the Lord’s warning is now past history. God’s word bears record of the snare which would trouble Israel. Israel did not do as the Lord commanded. Israel experienced the hand of correction from a God whose name is Jealous.
“Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (I Cor. 10:11). These things (these terrible things) happened because the physical seed of Abraham did not do as the Lord requires.
New Testament believers are the spiritual seed of Abraham, born of the Prophet like unto Moses who came and spoke the words which the LORD gave Him (Deut. 18:19). Let us do as the Prophet has said. Let us love one another and declare His love to all men in all places. His name is Jealous and He is a jealous God.
