Exodus 34
Summary for Exod 34:1-35: 34:1-35 a God granted Moses’ request (33:18 b), showed Moses his goodness (34:1-9 c), and renewed the covenant (34:10-35 d). This renewal was a unilateral statement by God. God would indeed go with his people, maintaining his covenant promises even though they had broken the covenant (32:1-6 e) and deserved nothing better than death and abandonment.Summary for Exod 34:1-3: 34:1-3 f God called Moses to come back up Mount Sinai with two new stone tablets. The restrictions for the rest of the people are like those made at first (see 19:12-13 g, 21-25 h).
Summary for Exod 34:5-9: 34:5-9 i Moses experienced God’s presence in a revelation of the name, or character, of God. As God had promised (33:19 j), he showed Moses the glory of his goodness.
Summary for Exod 34:5-6: 34:5-6 k Yahweh: Here God is emphasizing his personal name.
34:6 l compassion and mercy (see 20:5-6 m; 33:19 n and study notes): The Creator who was revealing himself to the Israelites, and through them to the world, is a God of grace. Neither his justice nor his sovereignty are underlined here, as true as those attributes are. If God were merely just, the Old Testament would have ended at this point, or it would have picked up and started again with an entirely new family. This did not happen because God, in his unique character, is slow to anger and full of unfailing love and faithfulness. These qualities were the basis for his renewal of the covenant.
34:7 o God’s unfailing love and his generous desire to forgive are not weakness or indecisiveness, nor are they reason to sin. Sin will have its effects, because God created a world of cause and effect. The murderer may repent, be forgiven, and lead a new life, but the effects of previous choices will continue to play out. We should not sin just because we know that God will forgive (see study note on 20:5-6).
• a thousand generations: See Deut 7:9-11 p.
• I lay the sins of the parents: Our sins affect future generations of descendants, but God restricts the natural effect of those sins to three or four generations. See also Exod 20:5-6 q.
Summary for Exod 34:8-9: 34:8-9 r Since the Lord had already twice promised to go with them (33:14 s, 17 t), this renewed request seems to show a lack of faith. It may also be that God’s presence had driven home to Moses how absolutely holy God is and how very different he is from this stubborn and rebellious people. Here Moses took his request a step further and asked God to travel with the people and make them his own special possession (see 19:5-6 u). Moses asked for the complete restoration of the relationship.
Summary for Exod 34:10-26: 34:10-26 v Some of the terms of the covenant are restated, particularly those that prohibit the worship of other gods and that describe the proper worship of the Lord.
Summary for Exod 34:10-11: 34:10-11 w God committed himself again to the miraculous care of his people in bringing them into the land of Canaan. That care was contingent on obedience. In Hebrew, the word translated listen (34:11 x) also means obey. There is no distinction as there is in English, in which a disobedient person can hear a command but not obey.
Summary for Exod 34:12-17: 34:12-17 y Worship of idols was prohibited, particularly the idols of the peoples into whose lands the Israelites were going. Central to this restriction was the prohibition of treaties, or covenants, with these idol-worshiping peoples. Not only would the making of a treaty involve recognizing those peoples’ gods (because ancient treaties would call upon the gods as witnesses; see study note on 20:1–23:33), but the very existence of the treaties would predispose the Israelites to accept the ways of their treaty partners (34:12 z, 15-16 aa).
34:13 ab Asherah was a Canaanite fertility goddess who would continue to be a temptation throughout Israel’s history (see, e.g., Judg 6:25 ac; 1 Kgs 14:15 ad; 2 Kgs 23:15 ae).
• The poles seem to have been fertility symbols.
34:16 af Intermarriage with pagans was a problem throughout the Old Testament (see Gen 24:3 ag; Ezra 9:1-2 ah; cp. 2 Cor 6:14-18 ai).
34:22 aj Festival of the Final Harvest: See study notes on 23:16; Lev 23:15-21, 34-43.
34:23 ak Three times: See 23:14-17 al.
34:24 am No one will ... conquer your land: If Israel would trust God and obey him, he would protect them.
Summary for Exod 34:27-28: 34:27-28 an Moses wrote down this reiteration of the general terms of the covenant (34:27 ao). The Ten Commandments, the summary of the terms, were written on the new tablets (34:28 ap).
Summary for Exod 34:29-35: 34:29-35 aq Moses, who had asked to see the glory of God, wasn’t aware that his own face reflected that glory.
34:33 ar covered his face with a veil: While Moses was reporting what God had said to him, he left his face unveiled. Then he covered it, perhaps because of the fright (34:30 as) its radiance caused during ordinary discourse (see 2 Cor 3:7-18 at for Paul’s reflection on this incident).
Copyright information for
TNotes