Exodus 33:18-34:35:
“God’s Name/Character Declared While Moses Holds The Law / Moses Intercedes For
Israel & God Promises To Covenant With Them”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study in the book of Exodus, we looked at Exodus 33:4-34:8.
1.1.1. We saw that though Moses had successfully interceded
for the children of Israel keeping the Lord from destroying them completely for
having created a golden calf and worshipping it, that none the less there were
consequences for this action because the Lord told them that He would not dwell
among them any longer. Moses then
pitched the tent of meeting outside of the camp so that the Lord came to him in
a pillar of cloud whenever he entered the tent.
1.1.2. We discussed the consequences of sin that occur in our
lives.
1.1.3. We also saw that Moses requested that he might be able
to see the Lord’s glory.
1.2.
In our study
today, we are going to look at Exodus 33:18-34:35.
1.2.1. We are going to look again at the Lord declaring all
of His goodness to Moses when Moses asks to see His glory, and what we shall
concentrate upon this time is the fact that the Lord told Moses to make and
hold the tablets with the 10 commandments on them when he reveals Himself to
him.
1.2.2. We will see that Moses intercedes to the Lord for
1.2.3. We will see that the Lord tells Moses that He will go
with them and drive out all of the inhabitants of the land before them, and we
will discuss spiritual warfare and how the Lord must fight our battles for us.
1.2.4. We will see how that the Lord tells Moses and the
children of
2.
VS
33:18-34:8 - “18 Then Moses said, “I pray You, show
me Your glory!” 19 And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness
pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” 20 But
He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” 21 Then
the Lord said, “Behold, there is a
place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; 22 and it
will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft
of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. 23 “Then
I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be
seen.” 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. 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.” - Moses
asks the Lord to show him His glory, and then the Lord has Moses make two
tablets for the law, and states that He will write the Law on them, and then He
hides Moses in the cleft of the rock, and places His hand over Moses and walks
by allowing Moses to see only His backside, and as He does He declares His Name
by describing His character
2.1.
In our last
study, we looked at the fact that when Moses asked the Lord to show him His
glory that instead of giving him a mighty display of His sheer might and force,
that instead He revealed to Moses all of His goodness, as He declared aspects
of His character when He passed by Moses:
“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.”
2.2.
We looked in
detail at all of these characteristics that the Lord proclaimed to Moses. Then,
we talked about how we can take the Lord’s Name in vain when we use His Name as
a curse word, but that we can also do this when we claim to believe in the Lord
and yet our belief in God’s character does not match the scriptural description
of Himself, and finally that we can take God’s Name in vain when we claim to
know Him and yet our life does not match His character as He has revealed
Himself in His word.
2.3.
In the previous
study, we mentioned that in the present renewal movement, there was a
televangelist who was continually begging and even demanding God to show him
His glory, yet because he never mentioned Jesus Christ nor the cross, nor any
of these characteristics of God’s goodness, what this televangelist was looking
for the wrong things. This man was not
looking for God to reveal His goodness, grace, and lovingkindness, he was
wanting God to reveal His glory in tremendous powerful works, and sometimes he
asked God to send down fire or angels.
This man and his popularity for a season reveals how little Christians
today understand the true nature of God.
2.4.
Now, the fact
that the two tablets upon which the Ten Commandments were written had to be
re-created (Moses had destroyed them when he came down from Mt. Sinai and saw
the people worshipping a golden calf, eating and drinking, and committing
immorality) and Moses hewed them out of stone and took them with him as he went
up to the mountain to be placed by the Lord in the cleft of the rock so that
God could reveal to him His glory indicates that mankind must first appreciate
the fact of God’s utter and complete holiness so they can then understand and
admire His mercy, grace, and lovingkindness.
This is seen even in the fact that the old covenant of Law had be given
to mankind before they could receive the new covenant of grace in the blood of
Jesus Christ who paid all of our sins.
God is both holy and righteous as well as full of mercy, grace, and lovingkindness. Further, mankind must carry the Law of God
with him as he explores and experiences God’s mercy, grace, and
lovingkindness. The scriptures tell us
that God puts His laws within our hearts.
2.5.
In verse 1 here
the Lord says that He will write the letters of the Law on the tablets, but we
will see in verses 27 the Lord commands Moses to write them. So, who did write them? I’m wondering if both are true. The Lord stencils the letters on the tablets
and then Moses carves them in. Think
about this, what man’s penmanship would you want to trust the writing of your
law to, if you were God? But, if God
stenciled these letters this would make an interesting application of how we
are to carve God’s law upon our hearts.
The imprint of God’s law is stenciled upon our hearts from birth but it
is only a faint impression due to our depravity of nature. We then must take God’s law and carve or hide
it in our hearts.
2.6.
So, God commands
Moses to take those tablets with him when He hides him in the cleft of the rock
and then passes by him as he is holding them and reveals to him His glory: “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.” As Moses is standing there
holding the Law he has carved on the tablets, the Lord reveals His grace,
mercy, and lovingkindness. Without first
having the Law of God carved upon our hearts we are not really able to understand
or appreciate His grace and mercy.
2.7.
The second part
of this description of God for Himself involves His holiness and His justice,
for He says of Himself: ‘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.’ There are several things
that we need to learn from this declaration from the Lord, including:
2.7.1. This description does not contradict what the Lord
described of Himself as being merciful, gracious, and abounding in
lovingkindness and truth. But, it does
describe an opposing aspect of His nature as being holy and just. It could be stated that God could not be
merciful, gracious, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth if He were also
not holy, righteous, and just.
2.7.2. No kingdom on earth does not have a justice system,
therefore we should not be surprised that the Lord should be revealed to be
holy and just. Heaven could not be
heaven if the wicked were not first judged and removed.
2.7.3. Every sin is a transgression of God’s Law, and just as
in our country when you break any law you are therefore guilty and if caught
shall face justice, so also in respect to God every sin must be punished. Fortunately, Jesus Christ paid the full debt
of man’s sins. He paid the price so that
we do not have to pay it ourselves, if we put our complete trust in Jesus
Christ and what He did for us on the cross to be that payment for our
sins. God’s full wrath against sin has
been poured out on His Son , Jesus Christ.
2.8.
In our previous
study, we already looked at the “generational curses” mentioned by the
Lord here where He states that He will visit the iniquity of the wicked upon
their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations. We saw that the Old Testament teaches that
each person is held accountable for his/her transgressions alone, and that the
curses mentioned here simply refers to the fact that your children will follow
your example and thereby they will be guilty of the same sins.
3.
VS 34:8-11 - “8
Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. 9 He
said, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go
along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and pardon our
iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your own possession.” 10 Then
God said, “Behold, I am going to make a covenant. 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. 11 “Be sure to observe what I
am commanding you this day: behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before
you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite.”
-
Moses worshipped before the Lord and then asked the Lord to go along in
their midst, even though the people are obstinate, and pardon their iniquity
and sin, and the Lord tells him that He will make a covenant with them and
perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth, then the Lord
tells him to be sure to observe that He is commanding him this day and that He
will drive out Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and the
Jebusite
3.1.
Moses had been
pitching the Tent of Meeting outside the camp of
3.2.
When the Lord
says to Moses, ‘I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all
the earth nor among any of the nations,’
we have to think about the great miracles
that the Lord had already performed. He
had performed 10 incredible miraculous plagues in delivering the children of
Israel, parted the Red Sea so that the children of Israel could walk across on
dry ground, made Mt. Sinai quake, smoke and have trumpets blasting from it, and
spoken His commandments to the people.
This is a huge list of powerful miracles that the Lord had already
performed among the nations. Therefore,
what greater miracles could the Lord have been referring to here? I will submit to you that I believe that the
miracles referred to probably have not yet occurred, but will occur during the
7 year Tribulation of the book of Revelation.
There, we will see incredible miracles such as:
·
1/3rd Earth on
fire; 1/3rd Trees on fire; All grass burned
·
1/3rd Sea Becomes
Blood; 1/3rd Ships sink; 1/3rd Fish die
·
A falling star
poisons 1/3rd of all rivers and 1/3rd of all fountains
·
1/3rd sun
darkened
·
1/3rd moon
darkened
·
1/3rd stars
darkened
·
Demonized locusts
torture men 5 months
·
1/3rd of mankind
dies;
·
200 million men
go from Asia to the
·
Huge earthquake
and 7,000 die in
·
Boils on followers
of Antichrist
·
All sea becomes
Blood
·
All fish die
·
All rivers are
turned into blood
·
Sun scorches all
mankind
·
Total darkness
covers earth
·
·
Earthquake
topples all cities on earth;
·
Huge hail kills people
all over the earth
3.3.
The Lord tells
Moses that He will make a covenant with the people, and we know that this will
be the covenant based upon the Law of Moses.
The covenant will be conditional upon the people’s obedience to His law,
and the Lord will promise to the children of Israel that there will be
blessings if they keep His covenant, but there will also be curses upon the
nation of the disobey His covenant. The
children of
3.4.
We talked
previously about whether or not the Lord really ever changes His mind and we
agreed that when the Lord says He will do something and then repents after His
people intercede or humble their hearts before Him, that the Lord was
motivating His people to intercede and change their hearts and all along He
knew what He was planning to do.
3.5.
The Lord promises
Moses that He will fight for them and drive out their enemies: ‘behold, I am going to drive out the
Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite
and the Jebusite.’ The
Lord states here that He will drive out the Israelites enemies before them, and
we as Christians need to realize that when it comes to spiritual warfare we
need to look to the Lord to fight our battles.
We do not have the ability to successfully wage war against demonic
forces using our own carnal resources.
The Devil and demons are spiritual creatures and therefore they can only
be successfully conquered and their plans thwarted if the Lord does the
fighting. The Lord to Zerubbabel that He
would accomplish his success in Zechariah 4:6:
“‘Not
by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
Likewise, the apostle Paul begins that passage about spiritual warfare
in the sixth chapter of the book of Ephesians saying this: Ephesians
6:10: “10 Finally, be strong in the
Lord and in the strength of His might.”
3.6.
Story after story in the Old Testament teaches us the fact that when you
are doing God’s will His way you will never lack God’s blessing. Whenever God’s people looked to Him to win
their battles they were victorious. It
wasn’t 82.5% of the time, it was 100% of the time. The Israelites won battle after battle against
much superior forces, in numbers as well as weaponry, for instance:
3.6.1. In the seventh chapter of
Judges we see how that the Lord fights the battles for His people. Gideon originally had 32,000 men to go up and
fight against 135,000 Midianites. The
Lord told Gideon to tell the men who had assembled for battle that if any were
fearful that they could return to their homes.
22,000 left Gideon. The
Lord then told Gideon to further reduce his army by having his men go and take
a drink at the spring that separated them from their enemy. The ones who raised the water in their hand
to lap it like a dog were the ones that Gideon was supposed to use, the rest
who bowed down to drink directly out of the spring were to be sent home. 10,000 more left Gideon. Then,
the Lord used the two tests of Gideon to reduce Gideon’s army to a mere group
of 300 men. Gideon learned that it doesn’t matter how
small and insignificant you may be in the sight of men for when the Lord fights
the battles for you, you are going to be an overwhelming conqueror and
win! However, you must be totally
dependent upon the Lord.
3.6.2. David as a 16 year old youth
with no experience in battle volunteered to fight against the Goliath the
Philistine giant, and he used for a weapon a sling shot and a smooth stone.
4.
VS 34:12-17 - “12
“Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the
land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. 13
“But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred
pillars and cut down their Asherim 14 —for you shall not worship
any other god, for the Lord, whose
name is Jealous, is a jealous God— 15 otherwise you might make a
covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with
their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of
his sacrifice, 16 and you might take some of his daughters for your
sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your
sons also to play the harlot with their gods. 17 “You shall
make for yourself no molten gods.” –
The Lord warns Moses to watch himself that he make no covenant with the
inhabitants of the
4.1.
The Lord now
begins to prepare Moses and the children of
4.2.
The Lord is
concerned that the children of
4.3.
The Lord also
reminds them that He is ‘a jealous God,’ and therefore He commands that
we worship none other than Him. When you
consider how great and magnificent the Lord is it is only right and appropriate
for all to worship Him.
4.4.
It is worthwhile
to consider our lives as Christians at this point. We must be careful in our relationships with
the people of this world in rebellion against the Lord for we too can easily be
compromised in the process.
4.4.1. The apostle Paul warned us in the book of 2
Corinthians about not being bound together with unbelievers and to come out
from among the unbelievers: 2
Corinthians 6:14-18: “14 Do not be bound together with
unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or
what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has
Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? 16
Or what agreement has the
4.4.2. Conversely, we are also called as God’s people to go
into all of the world and preach the gospel to all creation. So, in order to win the world, we are to be
in the world but not of it
4.4.3. The being bound with unbelievers is an issue because
when you are bound with them you will have to compromise on your values, and
compromise on decisions that you will make, etc., and as a Christian your life
will not be able to serve the Lord fully as you know that you should do.
4.4.4. Back when I was a single Christian guy, I used to
counsel my Christians friends not to room with a non-Christian. I used to tell them that though we do want to
reach out to those who don’t know the Lord that living with non-Christians is
not such a good idea. The non-Christian
in that situation will see you on the days when you faith is strong and also on
the days when it is weak. Likewise, the
non-Christian will have habits and a lifestyle that could cause you as a
Christian to be tempted and fall into sin.
In the long run, it will more than likely be the case that instead of
you having a good witness to your non-Christian friend that instead they bring
you down and ou end up compromising your morals and values.
4.4.5. I have a pastor friend who when a Christian and a
non-Christian would come to him for pre-marital counseling would first speak to
the non-believer and ask them if they realize that they will never have the
full love of their spouse if they should marry this person because their spouse
will always love the Lord and want to please Him and thus their affections and
love will always be divided? Then, he
would turn to the believer and ask them if they realize that if they marry this
person that their father-in-law will always be Satan?
4.4.6. When a Christian and a non-Christian enter into a
business together the same dynamic occurs regarding decisions and values and compromise.
5.
VS 34:18 - “18
“You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you are
to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month
of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.” - The Lord reminds
Moses that the children of
6.
VS 34:19-20 - “19
“The first offspring from every womb belongs to Me, and all your male
livestock, the first offspring from cattle and sheep. 20 “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. You shall redeem all the firstborn of your
sons. None shall appear before Me empty-handed.” – The Lord reminds the children of
7.
VS 34:21 - “21
“You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during
plowing time and harvest you shall rest.” – The Lord reminds the children of
8.
VS 34:22-24 - “22
“You shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, that is, the first fruits
of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. 23
“Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God, the God of
9.
VS 34:25 - “25
“You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread, nor
is the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover to be left over until morning.” – The Lord gives to Moses injunction to not offer the
blood of the sacrifice with leavened bread and not to leave the Passover Feast
leftovers until the morning
10.
VS 34:26 - “26
“You shall bring the very first of the first fruits of your soil into the
house of the Lord your God. “You
shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”” – The Lord reminds Moses to bring in the first fruits
of the soil into the house of the Lord, and they shall not boil a young goat in
its mother’s milk
11.
VS 34:27-28 - “27
Then the Lord said to Moses,
“Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a
covenant with you and with
11.1.
As was mentioned
earlier, here that we discover that the Lord told Moses to write down those
words of the Law which the Lord had commanded him.
11.2.
The reason that
Moses is supposed to write these words is because the Lord is going to make a
covenant with the children of
11.3.
Note here that it
states that Moses was there with the Lord for forty days and nights and that ‘he
did not eat bread or drink water.’
This speaks of the fact that the Lord miraculously sustained Moses
during that time.
12.
VS 34:29-35 - “29
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 because
of his speaking with Him. 30 So when Aaron and all the sons of
12.1.
We learn here
that because Moses had been with the Lord that when he comes down from the
mountain that ‘the skin of his face shone.’ Moses didn’t realize that he shone, but
everyone else could see this.
12.2.
This ‘glory’
is the shekinah glory that you read about in the Old Testament such as what
came to dwell in the Tabernacle and then the
12.3.
In 2 Corinthians
3:12-18, Paul referred to this passage as an illustration of Israel’s present
state of having hard hearts before God, and note how that he considers this
glow upon Moses when he refers to our being filled with the Holy Spirit as
being as if we are going from “glory to glory”: “12 Therefore having such a hope, we use
great boldness in our speech, 13 and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so
that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading
away. 14 But their minds were
hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same
veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. 15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil
lies over their heart; 16 but whenever a person
turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all,
with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the
Spirit.” Did you ever think of your quiet time with
the Lord as going to glory?
12.4.
I had a friend
tell me one time that there were was a very simple couple that he was very good
friends with and that though this couple were not really exceptionally gifted
in evangelism, that because they were constantly spending time with the Lord in
prayer, that the glow and presence of the Lord was so evident upon them that
they would lead people to Christ virtually every single day.
12.5.
Our ministry as
Christians is really meant to be the overflow of our relationship with the
Lord. We spend time with Him in His
presence and in prayer, and He lives and works through us and the overflow of
the glow and working of His presence in our life will result naturally in our
ministry for the Lord.
12.6.
Moses would take
off the veil when he went in before the Lord, but because the people were
disturbed by the glow on his face afterwards, he would wear the veil whenever
he left the Lord’s presence.
12.7.
In our next
study, we will see that the Lord leads the children of
13.
CONCLUSIONS:
13.1.
Carve the stencil
of God’s law and word in your heart.
13.2.
Come out from the
world and be separate to the Lord, don’t be bound together with unbelievers.
13.3.
Look to the Lord
to fight your battles and be strong in the strength of His might.