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“Now the LORD said to Moses, ‘Cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered.'” (Ex. 34:1)
Some commentators believe God was angry at Moses for breaking those tablets with the 10 Commandments, but I don’t believe so. When Moses broke the tablets, Moses was simply acknowledging that the people had already broken the covenant that just 40 days earlier they had promised to uphold when they said, “What you say, we will do.” So it was appropriate for Moses to break those tablets. But it was also appropriate that the tablets had to be remade.
This time Moses had to cut the stones out himself. Once he had cut them out, God called Moses up the mountain. The people were warned to keep themselves and their domestic animals off the mountains.
The first time Moses went up to meet with God in Mt. Sinai, Joshua went with him, at least for part of the journey, but this time, Moses went up all alone:
“The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD.” (Ex 34:5)
God usually presented Himself to the people in a dark cloud. If God is light, why would He appear in darkness? The last few verses of this chapter will show us why. God works in the dark first, then He brings forth the light. You see this in many places in the Bible, such as Gen. 1:2.
God introduced Himself to Moses in an interesting way. Moses had said to God once that he didn’t know anything about God and who He really is so when Moses comes back to the Mountain with the new tablets, God responds to Moses’ query. He calls Himself:
“The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving-kindness and truth; who keeps loving-kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” (Ex. 34:6–7)
There are two sides to God here. He has mercy but He also has justice. The issue is iniquity. If the son and grandson follow the grandfather in iniquity, God has to cut that line off in justice as a mercy to those who are living righteous. An example is the family of Dothan in the book of Numbers or the kings in the Northern Tribes of Israel.
Then you ask, what is iniquity? It’s a deliberate, defiant braking of the Law. It’s not just an accidental transgression.
“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing loving-kindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Ex. 20:4–6)
When God is speaking to Moses here in Ex. 34:6-7, He is repeating part of the commandment that the children of Israel had broken in the incident with the Golden Calf. This is God’s way of telling Moses that He is not going to let those who are directly guilty of the Golden Calf incident go unpunished. He can’t do that and keep up His perfect balance of mercy and justice.
God is not a God who destroys, but a God who gives life. He gives long-suffering to those who love and hear Him and want to respond to Him. God’s longer-suffering started with Adam. God has given all of us long-suffering. Paul said that while we were at war with God, He sent His son, the Messiah to die for us. The Messiah’s suffering and death caused God much anguish and suffering and God endured that for us.
“Then God said, ‘Behold, I am going to make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth nor among any of the nations; and all the people among whom you live will see the working of the LORD, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you.'” (Ex. 34:10)
Is God making a new covenant here? Who does it involve? What is it about? The first covenant was the first time that Moses went up on the mountain, that the children of Israel broke with the Golden Calf. God is instituting a new covenant to replace the one they just broke and it’s going to be more marvelous awesome and overwhelming than the previous one. Moses understood something that the children of Israel didn’t understand or even many of Moses’ spiritual descendants don’t understand?
God is going to work out His good works in us. That’s an awesome thing. When He works in you, this is the Creator of the Universe to work out His will. Are we willing to go there? It’s hard sometimes. Yeshua said His way is difficult and narrow. Yeshua warned that few will go this way.
God elaborates on the Sabbath when He tells Moses that the people aren’t supposed to work on His Temple on the Sabbath. Here, He also said:
“You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest.” (Ex. 34:21)
Moses didn’t realize when he came down from the mountain that he was not the same. God didn’t warn him about this though.
“It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him.” (Ex. 34:29)
Moses didn’t write everything God told him. The book of Leviticus was written based on what God told Moses the first time. What did Moses see and learn the second time? What did Moses hear and see on this second visit? There’s not much written about this second visit. What is actually written about the second visit could have just happened in a couple of days, yet Moses was there for another 40 days.
In 2 Cor. 3:1-18, Paul wrote about the tablet of stones, the veil, and why the veil was there. Sometimes it’s hard to understand what he is saying and why. We have to remember who Paul is talking to and why. He is in the 1st Century and dealing with a gentile congregation. Paul did not write this for the 21st century believer.
The New Covenant didn’t start with Jeremiah 31 or with the death and resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah, but in Exodus 34. What Moses understood the second time on the Mountain is what Paul wrote in 2nd Cor. 3:6, “letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
The covenant that the children of Israel broke with the Golden Calf did not give life, but death because of their violation. The second covenant is what gives mercy and life.
Moses had a friendship with God that His contemporaries did not have. Paul says that thanks to Yeshua, we can approach God without a veil. We can enter where God is at. The Messiah took the veil away. The veil that Moses had to wear is not necessary anymore. Moses did not remove the veil; the Messiah did. Yeshua is the administrator of the living God and He is the High Priest. He is taking our lives, but writing upon us the Spirit of the Living God.
The veil that Moses had to wear was a representation of the Messiah Himself. It removal was a prophesy of the Messiah.
Reader: Jeff. Speaker: Richard Agee. Summary: Tammy.