Exodus 34.1-8-The Lord Orders Moses To Prepare Replacement Tablets And Proclaims His Character To Moses
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday October 7, 2012
Journey Through The Bible Series: Exodus 34:1-8: The Lord Orders Moses To Prepare Replacement Tablets And Proclaims His Character To Moses
Lesson # 55
Please turn in your Bibles to Exodus 34:1.
Exodus 34:1 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. 2 So be ready by morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain. 3 No man is to come up with you, nor let any man be seen anywhere on the mountain; even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front of that mountain.” 4 So he cut out two stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and he took two stone tablets in his hand. (NASB95)
In verse 1, the Lord orders Moses to produce two new stone tablets which are to be exactly like the first two he broke.
Moses would be responsible for providing the two new stone tablets unlike the first two which the Lord provided Himself.
Exodus 32:16 says that the Lord produce the first two stone tablets and personally wrote the Ten Commandments on them.
Like the first two stone tablets, the Lord would personally write the Ten Commandments on these two new tablets.
Exodus 34:28 records that like the first two stone tablets which the Lord personally wrote the Ten Commandments on them so the Lord would personally write them again on these replacement tablets.
Like the first two original stone tablets, these two replacement tablets would both contain the Ten Commandments.
In Exodus 34:1, the Lord makes mention of Moses breaking the original two stone tablets, which expressed Moses’ righteous indignation towards the Israelites, which was the appropriate response to what he had seen and heard in the Israelite camp and demonstrates His great respect and love for the Lord.
Exodus 34:3 records the Lord commanding Moses to not let anyone come up the mountain with him.
The reason for this apparent harsh rule was to teach the people respect for the holiness of God and His presence and was to teach them to be serious about being in God’s presence.
Exodus 34:5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord. 6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness 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.” 8 Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. (NASB95)
Verse 5 says that the Lord descended in the cloud and stood in Moses’ midst.
As to His nature, God is spirit and invisible and so God was condescending and appealing to Moses’ human frame of reference in order for him to comprehend that he was in the presence of a real personal being.
God manifested Himself in Moses’ presence in such a way that he could comprehend he was in the presence of a real person and not a concept or feeling or numinous impression (Stuart page 714).
NASB translation of Exodus 34:5 interprets Moses as calling upon the name of the Lord, which is incorrect but rather the Lord is the subject of all the verbs in this verse and so it was the Lord who proclaimed name of the Lord and not Moses.
In Exodus 34:5-6, “Lord” is the proper noun yhwh (יהוה), which is the personal name of God emphasizing the “immanency” of God meaning that He involves Himself in and concerns Himself with and intervenes in the affairs of men.
In Exodus 33:18-23, Moses made a request of the Lord that He, the Lord would show him His glory and the Lord responded by telling Moses that He won’t fully manifest His glory since this would kill him since Moses was a sinner by nature.
However, the Lord promises to make all His goodness pass before Moses by proclaiming His goodness, which is the function of His attribute of love which is compassionate and merciful towards sinners.
Instead of fully manifesting His presence to Moses, the Lord promises something to Moses, which is essential for him to know as a sinner.
Namely, the Lord would proclaim before Moses His name that He is gracious to whom He chooses to be gracious and shows compassion to whom He chooses which met Moses’ request to be shown His glory.
So now here in Exodus 34:6, the Lord is keeping His promise to Moses by proclaiming His goodness, which is the function of His attribute of love which is compassionate and merciful towards sinners.
The phrase “The Lord, the Lord God” emphasizes God’s name which causes the listener to pause and reflect on its meaning and the description which follows.
In Exodus 34:6, “compassionate and gracious” is composed of the the masculine singular form of the adjective rǎ∙ḥûm (רַחוּם) (rakh-oom), “compassionate.” and the conjunction wa (וָ) (wa), “and” which is followed by the masculine singular form of the adjective ḥǎn∙nûn (חַנּוּן) (khan-noon), “gracious.”
The adjective rǎ∙ḥûm is used of God and means “merciful” in the sense that He is compassionate towards sinners and pardons them by withholding judgment when they believe in Son Jesus Christ.
The adjective ḥǎn∙nûn means “gracious” and speaks of God’s grace policy and describes God as imparting unmerited blessings to sinners based upon the merits of the object of the sinner’s faith.
In Exodus 34:6, the Lord describes Himself as “slow to anger” which is composed of the masculine singular construct form of the noun ʾā∙rēḵ (אָרֵךְ) (aw-rake), “slow to” and the masculine dual singular form of the noun ʾǎp̄ (אַף) (af), “anger.”
In Exodus 34:6, the nouns ʾā∙rēḵ andʾǎp̄ literally mean “long of nose” but idiomatically they mean “slow to anger,” “slow to exercise righteous indignation.”
Together, they mean “slow to exercise righteous indignation” since the phrase contains the figure of metonymy where God’s righteous indignation is used for the exercise of it and they speak of God’s patience towards sinners.
“Abounding in lovingkindness” is composed of the masculine singular construct form of the noun rǎḇ (רַב) (rab), “abounding in” and the masculine singular form of the noun ḥě∙sěḏ (חֶסֶד) (kheh-sed), “lovingkindness.”
In Exodus 34:6, ḥě∙sěḏ means “unconditional love” describing God as loyal or faithful to His covenants with men and characterizes how God acts towards His covenant people Israel.
In Exodus 34:6, the noun rǎḇ means “transcendent” describing God’s unconditional love towards His people as incomparable, going beyond human comprehension or what might humanly be expected and overflowing in graciousness.
In Exodus 34:6, “truth” is the noun ʾěměṯ (אֱמֶת) (eh´-meth), which means “faithfulness” describing the Lord as being faithful to His covenant promises to Israel and the patriarchs (Deuteronomy 7:9; 32:4; Lamentations 3:23; Isaiah 49:7; Hosea 11:12; Psalm 25:10; 33:4; 89:1-4, 8; 91:4; 96:13; 98:3; 100:5; 119:75; 1 Corinthians 1:9; 10:13; 2 Corinthians 1:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:24; 2 Thessalonians 3:3; 2 Timothy 2:13; Hebrews 10:23; 1 Peter 4:19; 1 John 1:9; Revelation 19:11).
In Exodus 34:7, “lovingkindness” is the noun ḥě∙sěḏ, which refers to God’s “unconditional love” describing that He is loyal or faithful to His covenants with men and characterizes how God acts towards His covenant people Israel.
The Lord describes Himself in Exodus 34:7 as keeping unconditional love for thousands of generations and not merely thousands of people meaning that He is characterized as remaining faithful to His covenant promises even though His people fail Him.
When He says “keeping” He means that He extends unconditional love to those who respond to Him in faith.
In Exodus 34:7, the Lord describes Himself as forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin.
“Iniquity” is the noun ʿā∙wōn (עָוֹן) (aw-vone´), which describes sin as wickedness in the sense of wrongdoing with emphasis upon volitional responsibility and guilt for a wrong incurred.
“Transgression” is the noun pě∙šǎʿ (פֶּשַׁע) (peh´-shah), which describes sin as rebellion against God’s authority.
“Sin” is the noun ḥǎṭ∙ṭā∙ʾā(h) (חַטָּאָה) (khat-taw-aw´), which describes sin as missing the mark in the sense of not meeting God’s perfect holy standards for human conduct.
In Exodus 34:7, the strong adversative clause “yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished” teaches that God makes sure the guilty are punished.
The statement “visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations” does not mean that God punishes an innocent generation for the sins of the previous generation since Deuteronomy 24:16 rejects this.
Rather this statement teaches God’s determination to punish successive generations for committing the same sins they learned from their parents.
God will punish generation after generation if successive generations keep practicing the sins of previous generations.
In other words, children will be punished by God if they grow up to practice the same sins of their parents who are punished for their sinful acts.
Exodus 34:8 records Moses responding to the Lord’s proclamation of His character and modus operandi with regards to the human race by immediately prostrating himself on the ground in the Lord’s presence and worshipping Him.