YHWH (EXODUS 34)
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MOSES’ INTERCESSION WITH GOD IN EXODUS 33 IS TO BE ANSWERED IN EXODUS 34.
THIS EXPERIENCE – SHOW ME YOUR GLORY – WILL STAND AS THE REINSTATEMENT OF THE COVENANT. THE CONNECTIONS ARE PLENTIFUL:
AT SINAI, TOLD TO “BE READY” BY MORNING JUST AS THE PEOPLE WERE IN EX. 19:11, ACCESS TO THE MOUNTAIN IS RESTRICTED, YHWH COMES DOWN, THE TABLETS ARE REPLACED, THE PEOPLE BACK AWAY IN FEAR.
1 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, 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.”
GOD’S REVELATION OF HIMSELF IN THIS TEXT IS SIGNIFICANT. IT CAME TO BE KNOWN IN JEWISH TRADITION AS THE 13 ATTRIBUTES OF GOD AND PLAYED A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN JEWISH WORSHIP.
THE TEXT HIGHLIGHTS GOD’S COMPASSION, MERCY AND LOYAL, COVENANTAL LOVE.
THE TEXT DOES NOT TEACH THAT GOD PLACES GENERATIONAL CURSES ON INNOCENT PEOPLE. THIS COMMON MISUNDERSTANDING IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT IS BEING COMMUNICATED.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN = CLEAR THE GUILTY. FORGIVENESS IS AVAILABLE BUT THOSE CONSEQUENCES REMAIN. 3RD AND 4THGENERATION = ONE LIFETIME CONTRA “FOR THOUSANDS/GENERATIONS”
GOD’S ANGER HAS A LIMITATION WHILE HIS MERCY DOESN’T.
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.”
BECAUSE OF THE SIN OF THE GOLDEN CALF THE RENEWED COVENANT WILL ADD STRICTER ADMONITIONS AGAINST FALSE WORSHIP AND FOR TRUE WORSHIP.
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 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.”
BECAUSE OF THE SIN OF THE GOLDEN CALF THE RENEWED COVENANT WILL ADD STRICTER ADMONITIONS AGAINST FALSE WORSHIP AND FOR TRUE WORSHIP.
“WONDERS” IN V. 10 ECHOES “DISTINCT” IN 33:16.
“’ASHERIM” WERE PAGAN IDOLS OF THE BABYLONIAN GODDESS ASHRAT OR UGARITIC ATHIRAT. HER WORSHIP WAS CONNECTED WITH SACRED PROSTITUTION.
“WHORE AFTER” = LIT. ENGAGE IN PROSTITUTION = BREAK COVENANT = WHAT HAPPENED WITH GOLDEN CALF.
“GODS OF CAST METAL” IS THE EXACT DESCRIPTION OF THE GOLDEN CALF.
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. 29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. 30 Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. 32 Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. 33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. 34 Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, 35 the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
SHONE = HEB. KARAN NOT THE USUAL WORD. PROBABLY AN IRONIC REFERENCE.
KEREN IN HEB IS THE WORD FOR HORN.
MOSES IS THE TRUE MEDIATOR NOT SOME LIFELESS HORNED ANIMAL.
WHEN THE LATIN VULGATE TRANSLATED KARAN IT USED CORNUTA WHICH LED TO THE IDEA THAT MOSES CAME DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN WITH HORNS. THIS IS MOST FAMOUS IN MICHELANGELO’S STATUE AT SAN PIETRO IN VINCOLI, ROME.
MICHELANGELO’S MOSES AT SAN PIETRO IN VINCOLI, ROME.
WHAT DO WE DO WITH THIS?
REMEMEBER: MOSES WAS GOOD, JESUS IS BETTER!
7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? 9 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. 10 Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. 12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.