Exodus 34:1–28 “The Radiant Face of Moses”

Exodus 34:1-28 NIV

Suggested Praise Songs:

• CityAlight – I Want To Know You
• Show Me Your Glory – Third Day
• Draw Me Close | Maranatha! Music

Resources for Family Worship (with Children):

• The Shiny Face of Love – Lesson for Kids
• The Old Rugged Cross | Rocky Railway VBS | Group Publishing – Song for Kids
• Made For This | Maker Fun Factory VBS | Group Publishing – Song for Kids
• We Are God’s People | Holyland Adventure: Egypt VBS | Group Publishing – Song for Kids
• Discussion Questions for Children & Youth arelocated in the section after Explanation, Meditation, and Prayer (at the end of this email/blog).

Explanation:

God tells Moses to chisel out two stone tablets and come up the mountain. If he brings tablets shaped like the ones he had shattered in anger—those bearing the Ten Commandments—God will write the words on them again (v. 1). The next morning, Moses is instructed to ascend early and wait for God at the summit, making sure that no one accompanies him (vv. 2–3).

When Moses prepares the new tablets and goes up the mountain (v. 4), God “came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord” (v. 5). The Lord “passed in front of Moses” (v. 6) and revealed His glory. Earlier, Moses had asked God to show him His glory (33:18). God had responded that no one could see His glory and live but promised that while Moses was hidden in the cleft of a rock, He would let His glory pass by (33:19–23). This is the fulfillment of that promise.

God reveals His nature to Moses. He is “a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (v. 6). He is the God who “maintains love to thousands, and forgives wickedness, rebellion, and sin” (v. 7). This does not mean that sin is permissible. When a person sins, the consequences can reach even the third and fourth generation. However, if God’s wrath affects three or four generations, His grace extends to a thousand. To God, wrath and judgment are exceptional.

Upon hearing this, Moses bows to the ground and worships. He again pleads with God to go with Israel as they journey to Canaan (v. 8). He acknowledges that the Israelites are “a stiff-necked people” (v. 9) but asks God to forgive their shortcomings and to “take us as your inheritance.”

God declares that He will make a covenant with Israel through Moses (v. 10). If they faithfully obey His commands, He promises to drive out the foreign nations for their sake (v. 11). To make a covenant with God means to rely on Him alone, so they must not make covenants with other nations (v. 12). Such alliances could lead them into idolatry. When they enter the land of Canaan, they must first destroy the altars and idols of the foreign nations (v. 13).

Here, God introduces Himself as “a jealous God” (v. 14). He had used the same phrase when He first gave the Ten Commandments (20:5). This expression is a reversed way of saying that God is “a God who loves passionately.” There is no god other than the Lord who truly loves humanity and brings true blessings. All other gods are either evil spirits or mere idols. The reason God so strongly emphasizes not worshiping other gods is that turning to them leads directly to destruction. Making covenants with foreign nations opens the door to their idolatry. Their idol worship is always tied to acts of immorality (vv. 15–16).

God then reemphasizes some of the important laws He had already given (vv. 17–26). He instructs Moses to write down all these commands, because they form the terms of the covenant (v. 27). Moses remained there “forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water” (v. 28). This was not an intentional fast, but rather a reflection of how deeply he was immersed in fellowship with God—so much so that he forgot to eat or drink. God Himself engraved the Ten Commandments on the tablets Moses had prepared, and Moses wrote the rest of the laws onto them.

Meditation:

When reading the Old Testament, one of the most important things to be cautious about is the anthropomorphic expressions used to describe God. God is not a human being. His thoughts and intentions are not the same as ours. Human language is inadequate to describe God’s form or actions, because language was created to express physical phenomena within the boundaries of time and space. In fact, our language cannot even fully describe our own temporal and spatial experiences. If ten people were to witness a breathtaking sunset, their descriptions would differ. And those who hear those descriptions would imagine different things. Because our language is so limited, it cannot accurately express who God is, what He does, or what He says.

Yet the biblical authors had to express their experience of God somehow. When God engages with humans, He must lower Himself to our level to speak with us. It’s like a scientist who builds satellites needing to explain space technology to elementary school students; the scientist must use language appropriate to their level. In the same way, the Bible uses many anthropomorphic expressions to describe God. Examples include: “You cannot see my face” (33:20), “I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by” (33:22), “You will see my back” (33:23), “I will write on the tablets again” (34:1), “The Lord passed in front of Moses” (34:6), and “I am a jealous God” (34:14). These are all expressions written from a human perspective.

When we encounter such expressions, we must not take them literally. These are descriptions of God’s actions using comparisons to human behavior and depictions of God’s character using analogies from human traits. We should consider what reality lies beyond words when we encounter these expressions. Because God is spirit, He exists beyond what we can reach or grasp—even when we try to understand Him.

Prayer:

Spirit God, Triune God—three in one—
Keep us from the pride of thinking we “know” You,
And keep us also from doubting or thinking we “do not know” You.

How could we not know You, when we live within Your love?
And yet, how could we ever fully know You,
The Creator, Savior, and Ruler of the universe?

You are the One whom we know, yet cannot fully comprehend.
You are the One whom we cannot fully grasp, yet are made to know.
We praise You. Amen.

Discussion Questions for Children & Youth:

Key Point: God lovingly reveals Himself to us, not all at once, but in ways we can understand. Though we may not fully grasp Him, He invites us into a deep relationship through His Word, presence, and grace.

• For Preschool-Elementary
  • Who is someone you love so much that you always want to be near them?
  • Why do you think God sometimes talks to us using people-like words, like “face” or “hand”?
  • What would you say to God if you saw Him like Moses?
    
• For Youth
  • Why do you think God shows Himself through “human” words and images in the Bible?
  • How can we stay close to a God we can’t fully see or understand?
  • What does it mean to “know” God but also admit we don’t know everything about Him?