The Lord said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. 3 No one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.” 4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. 5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands,[a] forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. 9 And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
10 And he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.
11 “Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 12 Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. 13 You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim 14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.
17 “You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal.
18 “You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt. 19 All that open the womb are mine, all your male[b] livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep. 20 The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before me empty-handed.
21 “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. 22 You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end. 23 Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. 24 For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.
25 “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning. 26 The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
27 And the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. (Exodus 34:1-28)
Covenant Renewed
Upon the LORD answering the cries of Moses’ intercession for Israel, God now comes and passes before Moses, as God said He would in the last portion of chapter 33. But what is happening here in this portion of chapter 34 is more than just the LORD passing before Moses. His passing before Moses is a critical element of the renewal of the covenant. Israel had broken the covenant in worshiping the golden calf, Moses intercedes on their behalf, and now God will show mercy and renew this covenant – or we could say he makes this covenant again. So this whole passage is really a covenant making or renewing ceremony.
You will notice that there are many of the same elements in the renewing of this covenant as there was in the original covenant making ceremony. Last time there was a border around the mountain to keep unauthorized people or animals from getting to close, and now none but Moses are to come up the mountain, not even animals are to be near it, for none are able to get a glimpse of the sight that Moses does, lest they die, for they have shown themselves to be a stiff-necked people.
Once again, two tablets of stone are to be hewn for the writing of the covenant. But there is a variation this time. Previously, it was God, or the “finger of God,” which wrote the law on the tablets. Now, Moses is to cut the stone tablets, and God instructs Moses to write these words, the Ten Commandments on the tablets, as you see in verse 27-28. Now, if it is the same law, coming from the same God, why is there this variation? I believe this is showing us what we have seen in previous weeks – that God cannot be in the midst of the people, lest He consume them – so the tent of meetings is moved far off outside the camp. God is going out from their midst, and now dealing with them through Moses – and this shows us Moses as the mediator of this covenant. God spoke the law to Moses and Moses writes it on stone and translates it to the people.
Consider also the fact that previously, the 70 elders, Aaron, and his sons were also on the mountain, though not as far up as Moses, but now there is no one on the mountain, it is just Moses. Moses has found favor with God, and God is dealing with Israel through Moses at this point.
Also, recall how when God previously spoke from the mountain, the people worshiped. While Moses is the only one here this time, He still worships before the LORD, as He hears the name of God proclaimed in this Theophanic storm, as we see him do in verse 8. So God preaches to Moses, and Moses responds by bowing in worship before Him.
So God is renewing, or making this covenant again with Israel, in this ceremony. This fact of covenant remaking is vital to the pleading of Moses. How will Moses know if God will not consume the people and destroy them? The covenant was broken and Moses himself destroyed the covenant documents when He threw down the tablets of stone the first time. (Which by the way, I believe was done in righteous anger, for he is not condemned for it, and it was a fitting picture of what the people had done – broken covenant). The covenant documents are shattered so there is no legal evidence of a covenant anymore. So how will Moses be assured? Moses will be assured when God renews or makes a covenant again. A covenant is the legal relationship which the parties involved can rely upon for continuity of the relationship.
So we’ve seen all these different elements of the covenant ceremony, but I want you to see that the LORD passing before Moses, as mentioned in the last part of chapter 33, and here in verse 6, is not just a random revelation of Himself to Moses, but it is part of making the covenant. When a covenant is made, the one making the covenant passes before Moses, and He proclaims Himself, as the guarantee, or the surety in the covenant, saying, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.” So this is like the proclamation that God makes by His own authority, He is the authority in the covenant, none are higher than Him by which He can swear.
Now how do we know that this is the renewing or making of a covenant? Well, God says so in verse 10, so that is enough. But also, this is a familiar covenant making scene. For example, there are similarities between this scene and Genesis 15. In Genesis 15, God CAME TO ABRAM in a vision, and He promises offspring and a land to possess to Abram. Abram asks God, how will I know that these things will be? God responds by cutting a covenant. He takes a heifer, a female goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon, and cuts them in half, and then God appears in a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch which passes between the cut animals, as God proclaims the covenant to Abram.
Here in Exodus 34 we have two tablets of stone, which God told Moses to CUT – there is the cutting of the covenant, and God passes before him, with the two cut tablets of stone in his hands, and proclaims the covenant. This is the cutting of the covenant, this is how Moses will know that the LORD will go with Him, because God covenanted with Him.
But notice here in Exodus 34, in God’s proclaiming of Himself, that we also have the terms of the covenant, in which we see very clearly vital differences between Old and the New Covenant. God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness – but who by no means will clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and so forth. This is indeed a beautiful proclamation of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness, with foreshadowing of a greater covenant to come, but there is warning and curse and death included in the terms of the covenant, and if and when God visits iniquity on covenant breakers, He is not breaking the covenant in doing so.
So then in verse 10-28 is a summary, or repetition of the covenant and laws that were previously given, and again the Ten Commandments, though not spelled out here, were to be written again on the stone tablets. There are just a few things I would say again about the summary of these laws found in verse 17-28.
Verse 17 could be seen as reiteration of the second commandment to not make any graven images, however there is a particular application to Israel’s rebellion. Verse 17 says not to make any gods of “cast metal.” The Hebrew word for “cast metal” is the same word used for “golden” in the golden calf rebellion. As God renews the covenant, He basically says, “Don’t do that again.”
Then in verse 18 you have again the command to keep the feast of unleavened bread, and the reason is connected to God’s deliverance of the people out of Egypt. They are to remember that the covenant is made with them by the God who saved them out of Egypt.
Then you have reiteration that all the firstborn from the womb, whether man or animal, belongs to God. This harkens to Egypt as a reminder of the firstborn sons that were persecuted, and then the judgment God brought upon Egypt in the death of their firstborn sons, and then as a future indication of the Son of God who would ultimately redeem His people from their sins. The people, and their fruit belong to God. The animals, and their fruit belong to God. Which may also be seen in the reiteration of sabbath rest that is required.
We also have descriptions of sabbath rest being given to the land in plowing time and harvest, and of firstfruits offerings that are required. This shows that the land in which Israel is going and its fruit, also belongs to God. It is a gift He gives, so give a portion back to Him as an acknowledge of thanksgiving to Him.
Everything about Israel and their inheritance is from God and belongs to God, and He is to be honored and remembered in covenant faithfulness. To rob God of what belongs to Him is to break covenant and to turn to other gods.
Covenant Promise (v. 10)
Having briefly reiterated these summary laws I want to go back to verse 10 and following which deals with God’s going with them into the promised land, as an answer to Moses’ intercession. So in verse 10 God says He is going to do marvels such as have not been seen – awesome things that are the work of the LORD in their sight and in the sight of all the nations. Think of some examples of this – how God made the sun stand still for Joshua and Israel so that they could rout their enemies; or how God made the walls of Jericho fall down; and chiefly among all these things is the slaying of the mighty giants through this people. And this is what God promises in verse 11.
Covenant Conquering (v. 11)
God says, “Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.” Now, if we don’t know anything about these people we can miss some of the significance of God listing out these nations and driving them out of the land. We know that among all of these people there were giants. Not every single one of them, but there were giants among these people. That’s what we see when the spies return from the promised land, they are fearful because of the great size of the people and savageness of the people in the land. So I want to point out a couple things for you in regard to some of these tribes.
The name “Amorites” means “men of renown,” which is a term used to refer to ancient giants – “mighty men” and “men of renown.” But furthermore, the prophet Amos tells us that the Amorites were a giant people whom God conquered for Israel. In Amos chapter 2 God says, “Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars and who was as strong as the oaks; I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath. Also it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.”
So these were people as tall as the Cedars. Now, the most famous Amorite was King Og, who you may recall singing about his defeat in Psalm 136. Og is called a remnant of the Rephaim, in the book of Joshua, which were men of renown, giants. And the Bible also tells us, after Moses and the Israelites defeat him, that Og’s bed was 13 feet long. Furthermore, the specific land which Og was from was the land of Bashan – the Bashanites. And the word Bashan means “serpent.” In fact, the region of Northern Israel today, is where it is believed Og was defeated, and there is an ancient stone burial place, fit for the size of giants, and it is called the wheel of giants. And just to the north of this site, is an ancient massive serpent mound – which is an ancient man-made structure shaped like a serpent, with a serpent’s head.
But you also have the Jebusites, and Jebusite means “those who trample.” So you get the idea that they were powerful, and possibly even giants as well.
The last one I’ll mention is the Hivites, which comes from the same root word as the word for “serpent” in Hebrew. So, I point all this out, to show you that these people groups are not just a random spattering of people living in the wrong place at the wrong time, but they are mentioned and listed for specific biblical theological purposes. They were known as the most brutal, evil, immoral worshipers of false gods, whom the Bible portrays as giant serpents. You have giant and serpent imagery intertwined in all these tribes. Think even of Goliath – he was a giant and his armor was described as serpentine like scales; and his bronze helmet as the bible describes comes from the same word for snake. And what are giant snakes? Dragons. The ancient serpent in Genesis is called a dragon in Revelation.
So what is going on here in Exodus 34 is a continuation of the main story of the Bible – the seed war – the war between the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent though he would bruise His heel. These are giant serpents, and they are frightening, but God is promising that He will do great wonders in all the earth and drive them out. Basically, God is going to drive out all the snakes from the land. It is a land that is infested with evil, and the demonic, and idolatry, and immorality, and power, but God is going to cut them down, drive them out, and purify the land. He’s going to crush their heads. And mainly, it will be Joshua who leads the people in the conquest, who is a type of Christ, and which points to the fact that Jesus is the promised seed of the woman, who conquers the ancient serpent, the dragon, crushing his head, and who leads His people in trampling the serpent underfoot. Just as God promised to drive out the giant serpents in the promised land, and delivered, so God will deliver in His Son, Jesus, in putting all His enemies under His feet – that’s serpent trampling language. His heel was bruised, but you can rise again from a bruised heel – you can’t rise again from a crushed head.
So this is the biblical theological theme that is going on here, and it is in this context in which God renews His covenant and reiterates the laws to Moses to deliver to the people. So as God renews the covenant and promises to drive the giant serpents out of the land, He gives these commands in verse 12-16.
Covenant Fidelity
They are not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land. They are to tear down their altars, break their pillars, and cut down their Asherim. They are not to worship any of these other gods. They are not to accept invitations to whore after their gods or sacrifice to their gods. And they are not to take the inhabitants’ daughters for their sons – so no marrying these people. They were to be totally driven out and their idols totally eradicated, and no marriage, which would not be possible if they obey and drive them out completely. Because if they marry within them, God warns that then their sons will whore after their gods.
Many people think this is extreme, and so from this command for conquest many have found excuses for rejecting the Scriptures, or for pitting the God of the New Testament against the God of the Old Testament. But we must recognize that the conquest was God’s providential means of judging extremely wicked nations who were sacrificing their children, worshiping demons, and committing all sorts of abominable acts. And, if you take the fallen angel view of the sons of God taking the daughters of men in Genesis 6, then you view the giants as their offspring, providing additional necessities for their destruction. This is the seed war.
And the main emphasis here is the exclusivity of the covenant that God is making with Israel. They are to serve no other gods, and if they tolerate open blasphemies and abominations and if they marry these pagan nations, then they will inevitably turn to worship these other gods. One of the things we see here that we see throughout the Bible, is that idolatry is spiritual adultery. That is why there is such interplay between sexual immorality and idolatry, and almost all pagan rituals include all kinds of sexual perversions. Idolatry is spiritual adultery, and this is one of the themes of the Exodus, of God taking Israel out of Egypt and making them His people. One of the analogies is that God is marrying Israel, which is precisely the context in which we see God proclaim that He is a jealous God. He is the husband who is jealous for His bride, and who will not share her with another. No marrying the inhabitants of the land, lest you commit idolatry and thus commit spiritual adultery, breaking the covenant. God is a jealous God.
This analogy is furthered when you consider the specific false god that is named – the Asherim – which they were to destroy. What is the Asherim? The Asherim was a wooden pole, often put on a high place, and it was dedicated to the goddess Asherah – so it was a goddess in the pagan system. She particularly deceived the people into committing great sexual sins in her worship. So these abominations were to be destroyed. Israel is to be God’s people alone. The covenant is exclusive. As I mentioned, the laws reiterated here reflect the reality that the people belong to God, the animals belong to God, and the land belongs to God. There is no room left for false gods.
Application
For those who would follow after the Lord Jesus today, it is likewise a call to exclusivity. He is the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but by Him. We are to obey, and teach others to obey, all that He has commanded us. His is the only name under heaven by which men may be saved.
And while the call of the conquest was specific and unique to Israel in their time, we also are called to active engagement in the world. We are to make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey all that Christ commanded. We are to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We are to be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is within us. We are to openly proclaim Jesus Chirst and Him crucified, and openly proclaim that Christ is Lord, to the effect, like the apostles in Acts, who put out the idol making business in Ephesus.
But also, from this example of Israel, in our active engagement in the world, we are to be constantly watchful and diligent that we do not have fellowship with the world. What fellowship does light have with darkness? We know how Israel turned out – they ended up whoring after the gods of Canaan and breaking covenant. We must be warned and take heed, always watching our life and doctrine, that we do not become close and tolerant of the world – lest we become like them and lust after their idols and their ways and fall away from the faith. We live in a very sensual and immoral time where such things are constantly being targeted at us that it may neutralize us and take us captive. It is a good question to ask: have we, as 21st century Christians, become desensitized to evil or immorality, have we become tolerant of it in our own lives? We must not think we are unaffected by the world in which we live. It takes great, intentional effort to protect you and your family from immorality that is constantly being put in our faces. We cannot give an inch. We must never fall into the foolish idea that being like the world will win the world. It is our difference from it that is an effective witness.
And as Israel was not to take their daughters for their sons, we are likewise commanded to marry in the Lord, to not be unequally yoked. To the young people, who are nearing marriageable age, don’t even entertain the thought of someone who is not a faithful believer. Who you marry is one of the most important decisions in your life, and you may be tempted by lust of the eyes, or lust of the flesh, or out of impatience, to justify little compromises – but little compromises are great sins. Most all of you are blessed with godly parents who will do their best to walk you through that time of your life when it comes, and you might be tempted to not want to listen to them, but do not be arrogant in your youth, listen to them. If there is music that you listen to, or celebrity icons that you watch that entice you to think differently or compromise, stop listening to and watching them. It is not worth your soul. Keep yourself for the Lord, and for a suitable godly spouse. Immorality and idolatry are still intricately connected today.
In all that swirls around us in our world today, and all the challenges we face, it is good news to remember that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He came to topple idols and destroy the works of the devil. God is full of mercy and abundant in grace to save to the uttermost. Even in the conquest, Rahab, the Jericho prostitute, believed upon the LORD and was saved. So if you hear His voice, and turn to Christ, you too can be saved. Even the worst of sinners in our world today need the Church to proclaim Christ to them – we have what they need and the only One who can save them too and redeem them and change them and give them eternal life.
Our God is a compassionate God of steadfast love, so let us be faithful to Christ in our homes, our jobs, our worship, and in every way; for we belong to Him and no other. Christ gave up Himself for His bride, to make her pure without spot or blemish.
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