Exodus 34

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:31:13utc

The Summit Meeting on Mount Sinai

34:1-35

As a preparation for this meeting, Moses is ordered to chisel out two tablets of stone and bring those with him when he meets the Lord. As far as we know Moses was never asked to bring the first two stone tablets; they were provided by the Lord Himself. The first time we read about such tablets is in ch. 24 where the Lord says to Moses: "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction."[ 1 ]

The vs. 1-4 of this chapter describe Moses' preparation of the two stone tablets. The vs. 5-9 depict God's revelation of His glory to Moses. The vs. 10-28 deal with the terms of the covenant God made with Moses and the people of Israel. The remainder of the chapter show us Moses after the encounter with God, radiating with the glory that brushed by him.

When Moses comes into the presence of the Lord at the appointed time, he carries with him the two stone tablets that have no writing on them. So, when he has the ultimate experience of his life, at the moment that God's glory passes by him, he was clutching the two tablets. We should not miss the point that the Ten Commandments were given simultaneously with the revelation of God's glory.

When God orders Moses to cut two new stone tablets, it seems that God holds him responsible for the breaking of the first ones. Moses' reaction to seeing the Golden Calf was understandable, but God did not overlook it. Before God can reveal Himself to Moses, it had to be made up for; there had to be restitution. No detail is too small in our relationship with God. Even things that are forgiven have to be made right.

The mountain will be off limits for man and beast as long as the glory of God rests upon it. The same precautions had to be taken as they were the first time when God spoke to the whole nation. Every person or animal who touched the mountain had to be put to death.[ 2 ] The revelation of God's glory was more dangerous than live wire or nuclear radiation.

The author of the Hebrew epistle puts things in the right perspective for us when he compares God's revelation on Mount Sinai with our approach to His glory. He says: "But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."[ 3 ] We have a tendency to overlook the glory of our present position, probably because it is not a glory that can be observed by the five senses; it is spiritual. We will see at various points in this experience that the invisible glory of the New Testament, that is ours, far surpasses the visible glory of the Old Testament that Moses experienced in this event.

We read in vs. 5, "Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD." There is, obviously, a difference between God's presence on the basis of His character, (He the Omnipresent One) and His presence when He purposely reveals Himself to man, such as was the case here. Whether there is a difference between God's presence and His omnipresence, I don't know, but there is, obviously, a difference in man's awareness. Some people are naturally tuned so finely that they are more often aware of God's presence. Jesus showed amazement when His disciples asked Him about the revelation of the Father. As a man, Jesus experienced the presence of the Father in such an overwhelming way, that He was astonished to find out that His friends could not see the Father in Him. That is why Jesus said to Philip: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?"

Moses' awareness of God's presence is quite different from a general sensitivity to God's omnipresence. This is revelation at its peak. We may presume that, at this point, Moses is hiding in the cleft of the rock, covered by God's hand. We are not told this, specifically, at this time, but this can be deducted from what God said in the previous chapter, vs. 21,22.

God had revealed Himself before to Moses in the burning bush as YHWH, Jehovah, or the LORD. There God had said to Moses: "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"[ 4 ] Now, Moses is given a deeper insight in the meaning of the Name. We read that God does not only tell Moses His Name, but He proclaims His Name: "Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth, keeping lovingkindness 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, upon the third and upon the fourth generation."[ 5 ] In the NIV we read: "compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness." The Hebrew for compassionate is rachuwm and for gracious channuwn. Slow to anger, or, as the KJV puts it, long-suffering, is the translation of erek apayim, which literally means, having a long nose. This is, of course an idiomatic expression, that would sound ridiculous if it were translated word for word. The KJV renders checed or hesed with "goodness" (love in the NIV). This is the key word in the covenant that God made with the patriarchs and with Israel. The word "truth" is the translation of the Hebrew emeth, which means "stability, certainty, truth, trustworthiness."

There is a slight difference in wording between the way God announces what His revelation will be like in vs. 19 of the previous chapter and the way the revelation is actually given. We read above that God said: "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Here, mercy and compassion are revealed more as a characteristic than as an act of the will. God has mercy and compassion because He is merciful and compassionate.

The last part of the verse seems to contradict the first. God says that He forgives wickedness, rebellion and sin, and in the same breath we read that "He does not leave the guilty unpunished." The only explanation for this paradox is in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. God forgives because He Himself paid for our sin by becoming man and taking upon Himself the sin of the world and carrying it away. God does not treat sin lightly, even when He forgives sin.

Also, the fact that "He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation," seems incompatible with the previous mention of His mercy and compassion. In order to understand what God says here, we have to go back to ch. 20 where the expression "I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me," is first used. We said there that the context referred to idol worship, which opened up a world of demonic power. Once invited into a life, demons will never leave of their own free will. They will even remain in a family from one generation to another, unless the link with the preceding generation is cut off. It is the power of darkness that can oppress a family for generations, which is referred to in the sentence: "He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation." It is not that God hates children because of the sins of their fathers, but demons will move from father to child and thus keep the family in their grip. A father who opens himself up for demonic powers destroys his own posterity. When God assumes responsibility for the punishment that is inflicted by demonic powers from one generation to another, He emphasizes the fact that individuals are held accountable for their spiritual relationships. God treats the whole of mankind as one body. We can only plead "not guilty" to the sins of our forebears if we consciously and purposely break from the relationship our ancestors had with the powers of darkness. We can, for instance, be absolved of the guilt of slavery that the white race inflicted upon the black race, only when we recognize the sin of our ancestors and the spirit which governed their behavior, and denounce all the powers that were behind it in order to side with the Lord and His Holy Spirit.

It should also be noticed that the demonstration of God's grace and mercy is poured out upon countless individuals, whereas, the influence of evil is limited to three or four generations.

We should try to see the pictures before us. Moses stands in the cleft of the rock with the hand of God covering the opening. It is the ultimate protection one can find; better than an underground concrete bomb shelter. Outside sounds the greatest voice that can be heard by human ears, speaking the most wonderful words. It is the purest music imaginable. It is the glory of God that passes by. Moses' ecstasy must have been indescribable. We read his reaction: "Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped." We don't know how long the experience lasted. It was a moment of eternity in time. Time must have stood still. Never before had he been so aware of the presence of the Lord. It is a blessing for us, just to read about it. And yet, we are closer to God's glory than Moses ever was. We will get back to this point when we ponder the mystery of Moses' veil.

What is worship other than being overwhelmed by the presence of the Lord? The best picture of worship is found in the book of Revelation, where the twenty-four elders "fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing, 'Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created.'"[ 6 ] In real worship we lose ourselves and, at the same time, we find our own identity. Moses' personality may have been changed by the experience, the image of God in him was restored, but Moses did not lose his identity. It was the same Moses who came down the mountain as the one who went up.

In recording the story later, Moses doesn't linger too much on the emotional part of the experience. The emphasis is on the character of God. God's presence blesses us, but that is not the point. If we seek Him in order to experience an emotional or spiritual high, we do not understand what the relationship is all about. Spiritual blessing is a by-product of the fellowship. The main thing is the flow of love between personalities: His and ours.

Moses' words, spoken at this moment, are among the most amazing utterances in Scripture. He immediately applies the experience to the benefit of the people he represents. Having had this brush with the glory of God, he has no desire for any personal benefits. His thoughts are with the nation of Israel and the reaching of the goal God had set for them: the conquest of Canaan. The Matthew Henry' Commentary comments on this by saying: "Thus Moses, like a man of a truly public spirit, intercedes even for the children that should be born. But it is a strange plea he urges: For it is a stiff-necked people. God had given this as a reason why he would not go along with them, <Ex. 33:3>. "Yea," says Moses, "the rather go along with us; for the worse they are the more need they have of thy presence and grace to make them better." Moses sees them so stiff-necked that, for his part, he has neither patience nor power enough to deal with them. "Therefore, Lord, do thou go among us, else they will never be kept in awe. Thou wilt spare, and bear with them, for thou art God, and not man," <Hos. 11:9>."So he pins down God's promise, given in vs. 14 of the previous chapter, where the Lord had reassured him: "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

One of the most startling and audacious request is: "take us as your inheritance." This choice of words is so penetrating, it shows such deep understanding into the plan and character of God, that it can only be explained as a direct inspiration by the Holy Spirit. From a human viewpoint the idea that God would want to receive a heritage of a bunch of people, who, at best are only half-interested in what He is doing, is preposterous. If we have any vision of a human being standing before his Creator we would immediately dismiss this kind of petition. Then there is the condition of the people, which Moses describes as "a stiff-necked people." Added to this is the notion that an inheritance presumes a death in the family. It was impossible that Moses knew anything of God's plan of salvation and the death of His Son for the salvation of mankind, and yet, he uses the word heritage. The writer to the Hebrews touches upon this when he says: "In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood."[ 7 ] He seems to indicate that Moses, more than anybody in his time, understood the purpose of the bloody sacrifices that were brought in the Old Testament.

Numerous times Israel is called God's inheritance in the Old Testament. But God is also our inheritance. God said, for instance, to Aaron and to the Jewish priests and Levites as a whole: "You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites."[ 8 ] So it goes both ways: We are His and He is ours! This principle is elaborated on in the New Testament, also as one that works in both directions. Paul writes to the Ephesians: "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints."[ 9 ] And Peter intones triumphantly: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-- kept in heaven for you."[ 10 ] So, Moses introduced a theme that, from thereon, runs through the whole Bible and is eventually fulfilled in the church of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God's reply to Moses' request is the drawing up of a covenant, the terms of which are described in the vs. 10-26. At first glance the terms of the covenant seem to be put down in a haphazard way, without any connection to the reality of the moment. But a deeper study reveals God's purpose with Israel in the occupation of the promised land. Twice the Lord tells Moses that He is the one who will do the actual fighting. In vs. 11 we read: "I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites." And vs. 24 adds an assurance of security with the words: "I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land." In the rest of the terms we feel how the forces of darkness are lurking in the background, trying to entice the Israelites away from a single-minded dedication to the Lord. The key words are: "Be careful not to make a treaty," "break down their altars," and "do not worship any other god." The enemy of man would try to lure the Israelites off the road by using humanitarian considerations. God knows Satan's ultimate purpose, which is to murder man, body and soul. He will use baits of kindness and humaneness in order to achieve his goal. The warnings are explicit: "they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices," and they will give "some of their daughters as wives for your sons." The nations of Canaan would impress themselves upon the Israelites as people who were no different from them. There would be invitations for dinner and proposals for weddings. Israel would become spiritually polluted through these means of human intercourse.

God uses the word "prostitution" for the religion of those nations. He says: "when they prostitute themselves to their gods.…" The implication is that these people originally had a legal relationship to God also, but they broke their legal bond in order to enter into an illegal relationship with the powers of darkness through idol worship. Evidently, God had coveted their allegiance just as much as of any of His creatures, but they had refused Him. There is a whole untold drama behind these words. God had loved them as He loves all of mankind, but they had left Him for another lover, who was out to destroy them. The jealousy about which God speaks to Moses, indicates that these people had hurt God to the deepest of His feelings. Nothing is said here about the diabolic sacrifices that some of these heathen rituals demanded: the murder of infants and the performance of obscenity. To apply this to the 20[ th ] century, we can be sure that God wants His people to be "Pro Life," and this they can be only if they refuse to have anything to do with the enemy and his practices.

Another strange thing in this context seems to be the mention of four different feasts: The Feast of Unleavened Bread, (vs. 18), the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), (vs. 22), the Feast of the First Fruits, (vs. 26). Also, there is a reminder of the Sabbath and the Passover Feast is mentioned in passing. Another close looks reveals the purpose of these reminders. The only way to say "no" to the enemy is to say "yes" to God. This is done in observing these celebrations. We would have expected, though, that God would, first of all, remind the people of their deliverance from slavery. The only thing said about the Passover is: "Do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast remain until morning" (vs. 25). Put in other words, God tells His people to keep the memory of their salvation fresh. Nothing is more stimulating in our fellowship with the Lord than the memory of what life used to be before salvation. Even if we cannot pinpoint exactly the time and place, we should be able to identify some turning point that allows us to compare the "after" with the "before." People who live as if they have been Christians all their lives get bogged down in some kind of stale piety that loses its flavor.

Without the reminder of the Passover, there could not be a week-long, or a life-long celebration of feeding on bread without yeast, or a life without the pollution of sin. The Feast of Unleavened Bread does not tell us that we attain sinless perfection, but it shows us what to feed on in our fellowship with the Lord. There is also a logical link between the Passover and the consecration of all the first born animals. God reminds Israel that they are His first born son of all the nations of the world. God says through Jeremiah: "I am Israel's father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son."[ 11 ] The proof of their status in this world is the fact that they were redeemed by the blood of the lamb.

There is also a strong link between the Passover and Pentecost; the Passover was preceded by the celebration of the First Fruits. The last two feasts speak of a new creation, which began with the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. God looks forward to a harvest from every nation, tribe, people, and language, who will be standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb, people who have gone through death and who are partakers of the resurrection of His Son. The celebration of these feasts of redemption and life will be the best protection against the imitations that the enemy offers in his celebrations of corruption and death. Celebrating God's feasts will make us immune to the propaganda of the devil.

The Lord instructs Moses, "Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel," but at this point it is not indicated when that would be. We know, however, that the three principal feasts were: Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, so that is probably the time for the gathering. The Feast of Tabernacles is not mentioned in this chapter. Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary says about this feast: "This festival was observed on the 15th day of the seventh month to commemorate the wandering of Israel in the wilderness. Features of the celebration included a holy convocation on the first and eighth days, and the offering of many animal sacrifices. The Israelites were also commanded to live in booths made of palm and willow trees during the festival to commemorate their period of wilderness wandering when they lived in temporary shelters. This feast is also known as the Feast of Booths." The purpose of this feast was a reminder of the pilgrimage of man on earth. God wants us to keep in mind that, as long as we are on earth, we have not arrived. The writer to the Hebrews translates this for us, when, speaking about the patriarchs, he says: "They admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country-- a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."[ 12 ]

When Jerusalem became the center of religious activity, many people would make a regular pilgrimage to the temple. But it is also possible that the cities that were assigned to the Levites, and which were scattered throughout the country, were designated as places where people could appear before the Lord. For many the trip to Jerusalem would be too long and too costly to make three times a year.

The last clause of the covenant, in vs. 25 and 26, contains four warnings: "Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast remain until morning. Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk." The prohibition to sacrifice anything containing yeast is a repetition of what was said in Ex. 23:18, "Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and, later, when more specific instructions are given regarding the grain offerings, we read: "Every grain offering you bring to the LORD must be made without yeast, for you are not to burn any yeast or honey in an offering made to the LORD by fire."[ 13 ] Yeast, being the symbol of corruption, was unacceptable to God as a sacrifice, with the exception of the sacrifice of two loaves of bread brought as a wave offering at the Feast of Pentecost.[ 14 ] When the Lord gave instructions for the celebration of the Passover Feast, He said to Moses, regarding the meat of the lamb, the blood of which had been applied to the door posts: "Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it."[ 15 ] The warning in vs. 26, "Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk," is a repetition of ch. 23:19. In both cases it is given in the context of the harvest. As suggested before, the cooking of a young goat in its mother's milk was probably a pagan sacrifice to the spirit of the land, performed at the time of harvest, and God wanted the Israelites to keep away from anything that would draw them into enemy territory.

We could ask why these repetitions were given as part of the term of the covenant? The covenant God made with Israel was a covenant of restoration. The Israelites had sinned gravely in the making of the Golden Calf. Now, God has forgiven them and taken them back into fellowship with Him. He pledges His protection and His presence for the coming conquest of Canaan. God wants the people to understand that, first of all, He wants them to celebrate life with Him. Restoration of fellowship with God, as far as man is concerned, means going back to the principles he had left behind. There are no new elements introduced in this new treaty.

Moses is then instructed to write down the terms of the covenant God made with Israel. What Moses wrote was not the Ten Commandments; those were carved into stone by the finger of God Himself. The Ten Commandments formed the Constitution, the moral law which Israel had to observe. As we saw before, most of these commandments were, probably, already common knowledge among the nations. We concluded this from the fact that traces of the Ten Commandments have been found to be known among tribes who had lived in isolation from the rest of the world for centuries.[ 16 ] The covenant was drawn up after the incident with the Golden Calf. The gist of the covenant was that idol worship would lead to death and loss of salvation and that only celebration of fellowship with God would protect the people from the snares of the enemy. Nehemiah would tell the people centuries later: "the joy of the LORD is your strength"[ 17 ]: "Strength" here meaning "stronghold" or "protection." The Hebrew word is ma`owz, which is, in Strongs Definitions Definition: "a fortified place," "a defence." The Brown-Driver-Briggs' Definition describes it as: "a place or means of safety, a protection, a refuge, a stronghold." And Paul admonishes us: "Therefore let us keep the feast."[ 18 ] Fellowship with God is a celebration.

We read in vs. 28, "Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant - the Ten Commandments." Whether this verse is a repetition of the first visit of Moses with God on top of Mount Sinai, or whether Moses went through two periods of a forty day fast, is not clear. In his review of the encounter with God, Moses says at the end of his life: "When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water."[ 19 ] This seems to refer to a single incident. The presence of the Lord, the source of Life, would make the need for food redundant. It also seems that the phrase: "And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant - the Ten Commandments," refers to God's writing, not Moses'. Some commentators see this as a possibility that Moses could have written the commandments on the second tablet. But that seems to be unnecessary speculation.

The last section of this chapter, vs. 29-35 describes the effect the encounter with God had upon Moses. We read: "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD." Moses did not see in himself what others saw in him. Oswald Chambers once wrote: "We want to be conscious saints and unconscious sinners; God makes us conscious sinners and unconscious saints." It might have been better for Moses had he not become a conscious saint, because then he would not have felt the need to wear a veil.

Superficial reading of these verses would give the impression that Moses used the veil to protect the Israelites from the radiance of his face, but this is not the case, since the veil is put on after Moses spoke to them. Moses knew that the glory would wear off and he desperately tried to hang on to it. The veil served to protect Moses, not the people. The apostle Paul penetrates the core of the problem when he says: "We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away."[ 20 ] The veil hides the fact that Moses is vulnerable. When Moses wore the veil, people had the impression that the glory was always there, but it wasn't! And Moses did not want them to know that. He wanted to project the image of the man of God, whose fellowship with God was not subject to ups and downs. He did not want them to see that the real Moses needed to be recharged from time to time.

We would miss the point, though, if we concentrate too much on the veil. We may find some consolation in discovering that Moses was just as human and vulnerable as we are, but we should realize that we all live in a world that is fallen and we are all subject to the pollution of sin. We may need a veil ourselves. There is just as much of God's grace in the veil to cover our spiritual nakedness as there was in the cover the Lord made for Adam and Eve for their physical and emotional nakedness. The point, however, is not the veil, but the glory it covered. The real testimony of Moses' being with God was not in what he said, but in the glory that shone from his face.

Most of the impact we will have upon our fellow men is by something that we are not conscious of, by something that we cannot fake or force, by something that isn't even ours. After all, the glory on Moses' face was God's glory, not his. When we become less and He becomes more, people will know it, and the less we are aware of it, the better. At the time of consummation, we will all be filled with the glory of God. In his great vision at the end of the book of Revelation, John describes the church, the bride of Christ, as follows: "And [he] showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God." Whether we know it or not, Paul says: "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."[ 21 ] And, if from time to time we feel spiritually naked, we may put on a veil as Moses did.

[ 1 ] Ex. 24:12

[ 2 ] Ex. 19:12,13

[ 3 ] Heb. 12:22-24 (See also vs. 18-21)

[ 4 ] Ex. 3:14

[ 5 ] Ex. 34:6,7 (ASV)

[ 6 ] Rev. 4:10,11 (RSV)

[ 7 ] Heb. 9:16-18

[ 8 ] Num. 18:20

[ 9 ] Eph. 1:18

[ 10 ] I Pet. 1:3,4

[ 11 ] Jer. 31:9

[ 12 ] Heb. 11:13-16

[ 13 ] Lev. 2:11

[ 14 ] See Lev. 23:17

[ 15 ] Ex. 12:10

[ 16 ] In our own experience, we found that the "Me" tribe of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, was acquainted with four of the five commandments of the Second Tablet.

[ 17 ] Neh. 8:10

[ 18 ] I Cor. 5:8 (KJV)

[ 19 ] Deut. 9:9

[ 20 ] II Cor. 3:13

[ 21 ] II Cor. 3:18