Exodus Chapter 34

• Exodus 34:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou didst break.

God Himself was going to write on the stone. This may be where the saying, "Set in stone," is found.

When God writes it, it is the law. These are the laws that show us what sin is and how holy God is. This is the law that shows us we are lost and can never inherit the kingdom of Heaven if we have broken just one of those laws in any point. Israel was given the law and they bore the most responsibility for keeping the law. The law could not save from sin because all who kept the law could not break it in any manner all the days of their life. The flesh was too weak. They would have broken the law in some way. The law showed us that all have sinned and all have no way to be saved if they hope to be saved by the keeping of the law.

This leads us to a dilemma. We needed one to keep the law in all points but yet die for breaking it. His death could be counted on behalf of those who did break the law. His sacrifice could be counted for others. However, it would only count for those who believed this for the word says that we are justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't be justified by keeping the law. We are justified by believing in Jesus Christ who did keep the law and fulfilled the requirements of the law. He allowed Himself to die for our sins since He did not sin Himself and did not have to die for His own sins.

• Romans 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
• 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

We who believe in Christ are free from the condemnation of the law but we live under another law and that is the law of the spirit where we walk after the things of the spirit and not after our flesh. If we still walk in the flesh, we are holding back and have not submitted ourselves the the complete cleansing, renewing and new birth that is given to us when we believe in Jesus as our savior and Lord.

We cannot believe in Jesus as only our savior but not our Lord. To really believe means to accept Him as Lord. We cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve the Lord and love this present world. Sooner or later we will have to make a choice. To submit ourselves to the Lord is to be cleansed and sanctified. We then can be complete in Christ and be baptized in the Holy Spirit. If we sin while claiming the be baptized in the Holy Spirit, we need to repent right away and not continue in the sin that Jesus saves us from. Sin will destroy our lives and our souls.

Sin was so serious that they could not come close to the place where God was giving the law to Moses. The law is holy, just and good. God is a holy God. Sin separates us from Him. Sin has to be atoned for and done away with.

This is fulfilled in us as individuals when we receive Jesus Christ and it will be fulfilled completely at the return of Jesus

• Exodus 34:2 And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.

Moses had to be prepared spiritually. I believe personally that Moses was a man of faith. His faith is what pleased God. He believed God. Had the other children of Israel of had the same faith, they would not have worshipped any golden calf.

• Exodus 34:3 And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount.
• 4 And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.
• 5 And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
• 6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
• 7 Keeping mercy 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, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

God shows mercy, forgives iniquity and sin but those that refuse to repent and trust in His mercy will not be cleared of guilt but will stand before the judgment bar of God.

Children bear the harm if their parents or grandparents sin. According to other scriptures this doesn't mean that children are held accountable for their ancestor's sins but they may suffer from inherited disease and sinful traits. All these things can be cancelled once one comes to Christ.

• Exodus 34:8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.
• 9 And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.

Moses was hoping their lapse and sin would not prevent them still being chosen of God and receiving the inheritance promised Abraham.

• Exodus 34:10 And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.
• 11 Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
• 12 Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:

One can never make covenants with the devil. It is like trying to make a pet out of a dangerous rattle snake. To make covenants with nations that have come to the point where they can no longer change or repent, is like making a covenant with Satan himself.

The gospel is given to all but before that time came, some nations of the world went beyond the boundaries they were permitted to go. It was probably like it was before the flood. God only tolerates wickedness so long. We don't know what sins caused the world to be flooded but we can learn a little from what scripture says.

Here are some things God really hates:

1. Idolatry - God did not destroy all nations that committed idolatry but the ones that used child sacrifice to worship the idols, God judged.
2. Sodomy- God destroyed Sodom and Gormorrah for sexual immorality (men with men) which had gone to the point of rape. However, they started out by being idle and full of pride. This leads to all other sins. Also denying the existence of God as our creator. Reference is Romans chapter 1.
3. Violence - Violence goes on all the time but when the innocent are harmed it is judged.

There may be things that are not told to us that the nations did which God destroyed or permitted Israel to destroy but when we study the Old Testament, we do see that some nations were destroyed while other nations that were not actually righteous, were left alone. There were some incidences where God allowed unmarried women and children to live and other cases where all were destroyed. Some times God only knows why.

After the coming of Christ all things have changed. We are commanded only to preach the gospel and never to harm any person. Governments have to have law and order and they are allowed to take one's life in certain cases but the church or believers in Jesus Christ were never given permission to destroy any person in the name of Christ.

When Christ returns and only then will any nations be judged in that manner.

• Exodus 34:13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:

They were given permission to go into certain nations that were being judged of God. They were to make sure to destroy their altars and images.

This one scripture makes me wonder why any Christian church would set up images since God seems to hate them so much. Why do they want to tempt God in such a way? There is no way we can rightly make any image of Jesus, Mary or any other person. We can't possibly know what they looked like. Even if we did know what they looked like, the bowing down to images even if they represent Jesus was strictly forbidden.

• Exodus 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

This is very important even to us today. God knows that any other god or image has an evil spirit behind it.

Paul writes:

• 1Corinthians 10:20 But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.

The devil is out to steal, kill and destroy anyone he can. To worship or bow down to any representation of any god will have the devil behind it. It will only do us harm. We open ourselves up to deceiving spirits. Even religious spirits can pose as the real thing. All false religions can fool us into thinking we are worshipping God. God gave us the bible so that we can discern the false from the true.

• Exodus 34:15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;

This is why God forbids Israel to make covenants with them. He knows that once they start, they will be tempted to worship their false gods.

• Exodus 34:16 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.
• 17 Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

Intermarriage, fornication and sexual sins accompany idol worship.

• Exodus 34:18 The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.
• 19 All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.
• 20 But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty.

Animals that can't be eaten were not to be sacrificed but a clean animal was sacrificed in their place.

• Exodus 34:21 Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.

We must remember this was for man. They needed this time apart to rest and worship God. We still need this today.

• Exodus 34:22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.
• 23 Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.

These feasts were for Israel and never required for the believers in Jesus. Through Jesus we have access to the infilling of the Holy Spirit in which we can worship God every day in spirit and in truth. We no longer have to limit ourselves to feast days or holidays. However, if we want to observe those feast days and know the correct way to keep them, we can keep them as a memorial to what they represent; there is nothing wrong with it.  I for one wouldn't know how to observe them but I know Messianic believers that do observe them and I see nothing wrong with it.

• Exodus 34:24 For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year.
• 25 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.

Leaven has always represented evil. Also at the Passover, they did not have time to let any bread rise so they had to eat unleavened bread.

The Passover was a type of Christ. Christ was a perfect sacrifice without sin. All these things pointed to that one to come to save them from their sins.

• Exodus 34:26 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

God was to be remembered first with their offerings. They were not to boil an animal in it's mother's milk.

• Exodus 34:27 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
• 28 And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
• 29 And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses knew not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.

Imagine being in God's presence so long that one's face shines.

Here is a verse that speaks of Stephen when he was testifying of Jesus before a council of evil men that were determined to kill him.

• Acts 6:15 And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.

This happened just before they stoned Stephen to death. He actually saw Jesus standing at the Father's right hand.

1. Exodus 34:30 And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.

If there hearts had of been right they would have no need to fear the presence of God. If sinners are comfortable in our presence we may lack something.

• Exodus 34:31 And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them.
• 32 And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him in mount Sinai.
• 33 And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.
• 34 But when Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out. And he came out, and spoke unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded.
• 35 And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

Wow, what a privilege to be able to see this. Sometimes fear keeps us from seeking the presence of God. We need His presence so much though. The wonderful thing is that since the time Jesus came to us, any individual can have the presence of God in their lives by way of the Holy Spirit. We do not have to abide alone. DC

Exodus 35

Exodus Index