Exodus 34 – A New And Different Look

The Lord told Moses to cut two tablets of stone and that He would write on them just as He did on the tablets he broke. He told Moses to be ready to go up Mount Sinai the next morning and present himself to Him at the top of the mountain. No one was to go up the mountain with him, nor was anyone to be seen throughout the mountain. The flocks nor the herds were to graze before the mountain neither. So, Moses did as he was told and took the two new tablets up the mountain. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with Moses there and proclaimed His name. The Lord passed before Moses proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. Then Moses said, “If I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance. Here Moses goes again, saying, “If I have found grace in Your sight” when God already told him in Chapter 33 that he did. Also, we all should want God to be with us despite our sinful ways and accept us as His own.

God told Moses to behold that He would make a covenant. He promised to do marvels such as never been seen in all the earth nor in any nation. All the people with Moses would see the work of the Lord because it was going to be an awesome thing that God was going to do with them. Is God doing something awesome for or with you? God said for them to observe what He commanded. He was going to drive out the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perrizite, the Hivite and the Jebusite from before them. God was just repeating His word to them in Exodus 33:2. God also warned them not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where they were going. Doing so, would be a snare among them. They were to destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars and cut down their wooden images. God said that they should not worship any other god, for He, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Otherwise, they might make a covenant with the land’s inhabitants and play the harlot with their gods, make sacrifice to them and eat of the sacrifice to their gods if invited to do so. They might also take the daughters of the inhabitants for their sons and when they play the harlot with their gods, they will make their sons play the harlot with their gods also. God said, “You shall make no molded gods for yourselves.” This was God’s way of saying, “Don’t do anything like that golden calf situation again!”

God said that they were to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days they could eat unleavened bread as He commanded in the appointed time of the month of Abib, which is the month they left Egypt.

God also said that all that opened the womb belonged to Him as well as every firstborn male among the livestock, whether ox or sheep. The firstborn of a donkey was to be redeemed with a lamb. If the donkey is not redeemed, then they were to break his neck. All of the firstborn of their sons were to be redeemed and none were to appear before the Lord, empty-handed. What have you given the Lord, lately? God said that they should work for six days and rest on the seventh one, in plowing time or harvest time.

The people were also to observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest and the Feast of the Ingathering at the year’s end. Three times a year, all the men were to appear before the Lord God of Israel. God promised to cast out nations before them and enlarge their borders. No man would covet their land when they went up to appear before the Lord their God three times in the year. They were not to offer blood of God’s sacrifice with leaven. None of the sacrifices of the Feast of the Passover was to be left until morning. The first of the firstfruits of the land was to be taken to the Lord’s house. They were not to boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

The Lord told Moses to write these words, because it was according to these words that He made a covenant with him and Israel. So, Moses was with the Lord for forty days and forty nights. He didn’t eat bread nor drank water. The Lord wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he didn’t know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with God. Aaron and the Israelites were afraid to go near Moses because the skin of his face was shining. Moses called to them, then Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him and Moses talked with them. Afterwards, all the Israelites came near and Moses gave them as commandments all that God had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. When Moses finished speaking with the Israelites, he put a veil on his face. Whenever Moses went in before the Lord, he would take off the veil until he came out and then he would tell the Israelites whatever the Lord commanded. When the Israelites saw Moses’ shining face, he would put on the veil again, until he went to speak with God. Can a change be seen in you when you spend time with God? Acts 4:13 states, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” (ESV) Spending time with Jesus does make a big difference.

Next week our stop is Exodus 35.P

To God Be The Glory!

Click “Be Encouraged” for Spiritual, Encouraging and Inspirational Uplifting

Be Encouraged

Image is courtesy of www.scripture-images.com.