Tanak Foundations-Concepts in Exodus-Chapter 34

Exo 34.1-35 tells us about a new set of tablets; the attributes of God called the Midot; a prayer of Moses; the renewal and conditions of the covenant; the face of Moses shines because of the glory of God.

v 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 (this alludes to the New Covenant that will be written on the hearts, intentions, thoughts and desires of one born again; the same words that were given on Sinai which we have broken-Jer 31.31-34).

v 2…So be ready by morning, and come up in the morning (he says “morning” twice because it is important; a new day or era is beginning; this will be the 8th time total; tradition says this was Elul 1 and he remained for forty days, coming down on Tishri 10 Yom Kippur, bringing pardon to a sinful Israel) to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain.

v 3…And no man is to come up with you (not Aaron or the elders like before in 19.24 and 24.9; only Moses was to witness this revelation), nor let any man be seen anywhere on the mountain, even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front of the mountain (leaving it green with life; the whole creation is affected-Rom 8.22-23).”

v 4…So he cut 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.

v 5…And the Lord descended in the cloud (to overshadow Moses so he can’t see his face-Exo 33.20) and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord (he called upon Yehovah).

v 6…Then the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, “The Lord (Yehovah, the Lord (Yehovah) God (El meaning powerful), compassionate and gracious, slow to anger (longsuffering) and abounding in lovingkindness (goodness) and truth;

v 7…who keeps (Hebrew “netzer” has an enlarged nun which means continuing activity and life) mercy unto the thousands generation; who forgive iniquity (intentional due to a weakness), transgression (willful rebellion) and sins (unintentional); and that will by no means clear the guilty (he will not let the guilty go unpunished); visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and unto the fourth (generation is not in the text; this relates to the consequences of sin to those who hate the Lord-Exo 20.5).”

v 8…And Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship (realizing what place mercy holds in Yehovah’s nature, Moses immediately will ask God to show favor to Israel).

v 9…And he said, “If now I have found favor in thy sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord (Yehovah) go along in our midst (to Canaan and not leave us alone as he said in 33.3), even though the people are obstinate; and do thou pardon our iniquity and our sin (Moses includes himself in this and identifies with his people), and take us as thine own possession (inheritance to possess, enjoy, defend, improve, keep, shepherd, save, deliver, etc).

v 10…Then God said, “Behold, I am going to make a covenant (renew the covenant; an agreement to worship to worship him and do not mix it with the paganism of the other nations). Before all your people I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth, nor among any of the nations; and all the people among whom you live will see the working of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you.

v 11…Be sure to observe what I am commanding you (Israel) this day; behold (see), I am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite.

v 12…Watch yourself that you make no covenant (fraternize) with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, lest it become a snare in your midst (spiritually we should not fool around with the flesh).

v 13…But you are to tear down their altars and smash their pillars (mazavot, around which they performed immoral acts) and cut down their Asherim (wooden symbols with female and male imagery);

v 14…for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name (character) is Jealous, is a jealous God (zealous and passionate; don’t “play for” the other team);

v 15…lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they play the harlot with their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invite you to eat of his sacrifice (a heathen sacrifice and is equal to apostasy-1 Cor 10.27-28);

v 16…and you take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods, and cause your sons to play the harlot with their gods.

v 17…You shall make yourself no molten gods (he already condemned their wooden gods and warns against molten gods of silver and gold).

v 18…You shall observe the feast of Unleavened Bread (to be a reminder that Israel owes their freedom and existence to God’s redeeming power and to reject pagan gods who could not stop God from delivering Israel; they were useless). For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you at the appointed time (moed) in the month of Aviv, for in the month of Aviv you came out of Egypt.

v 19…The first offspring from the womb belongs to me (because the first born was spared-Exo 12.13), and all male livestock, the first offspring from cattle and sheep (Exo 22.29-30).

v 20…And you shall redeem with a lamb the first offspring from a donkey; and if you do not redeem it then you shall break its neck (man is stubborn and stiff-necked and must be redeemed with a lamb). You shall redeem all the first-born of your sons. And none shall appear before me empty-handed (at the Shelosh Regalim or the three pilgrim festivals of Unleavened Bread, Shavuot and Sukkot).

v 21…You shall work six days, but in the seventh day you shall rest (completion), even during plowing time and harvest, you shall rest.

v 22…And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year (on the civil calendar in Tishri; this is evidence that two calendars are used in the Scriptures, the civil and the religious).

v 23…Three times a year all the males are to appear before the Lord God (Yehovah Elohay), the God (power) of Israel.

v 24…For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders and no man shall covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the Lord your God.

v 25…You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; nor is the sacrifice of the Feast of Passover to be left over until morning.

v 26…You shall bring the very first of the fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk (“boil” is bashel and it means to boil, or “to ripen” or mature-Gen 40.10; you are not to let the kid mature but give it as required; this was also an idolatrous Canaanite fertility practice; this alludes to “not staying in the milk”-Heb 5.12-13).”

v 27…Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words (v 11-26; not orally), for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”

v 28…So he was there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights (the number of testing); he did not eat bread or drink water (he was in a supernatural environment). And he (God) wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Words (Exo 34.1; Deut 10.2).

v 29…And it came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain, that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone (sent forth beams) because of his speaking with him (like at the transfiguration at another mountain in Matt 17, Mark 9, Luke 9).

v 30…So when Aaron an all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him (this was to show that Moses did speak with the Lord-2 Cor 3.7).

v 31…Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him, and spoke with them (repeated to them what God had spoken).

v 32…And afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai (they are not “suggestions”).

v 33…When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face (the kivod/glory was not to be put to common usage).

v 34…But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him (God), he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded,

v 35…the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with him (how long this radiance on his face remained is not certain, but some scholars believe it continued to the day of his death).

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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