Celebrating God's Goodness (Exodus 34:1-27) Series

Last Sunday, for the second straight week, we left off right in the middle of our story. Ever since the golden calf, God and Moses have been working out what kind of future there can be, for God and Israel. Moses has been trying to persuade God that Israel is still his people. Moses still wants God to go up in their midst. He still wants Israel to be distinguished from every other nation. He still wants Israel to be a kingdom of priests.

And because Moses has God's favor, and because God knows Moses by name, God says "yes" to all of this. God will heed Moses' voice, and do what Moses wants.

That brings us up to last week's verses, in Exodus 33:18-23. When God gives Moses his "yes," and tells him that he has God's favor, Moses responds by asking to see God's glory. Again, that's last week's passage, Exodus 33:18-23.

Now, we'd maybe expect Exodus to tell us the story of that encounter, immediately after the request. But that's not what Exodus does. Exodus sandwiches the conclusion to that story, around something else-- around the covenant.

The covenant God made through Moses, at this point in Exodus, is still broken. The people still have the Abrahamic covenant. The promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are still in effect. But everything else, from Exodus 19 on, is no longer ratified in covenant. So that's a problem.

And there's one other thing that's still a huge problem. Israel is a stiff-necked people. Israel doesn't have God's favor, the way that Moses does. Israel is still stubborn, and rebellious.

Those are two outstanding issues that still need to be resolved-- the covenant, and the stiff-neck. And those two things don't go together very easily. How can God work with a stiff-necked people? How can He truly, fully commit himself to a people who rebel?

These are the things our passage today will resolve. And they will do that, against the background of Yahweh's goodness. Yahweh's goodness is the solution.

THAT is what Exodus is doing. THAT is why Exodus is written like it is.

Now, the only way we will really catch this, is by reading a huge chunk of Exodus 34. We need to make it all the way to verse 27, to hear the story the right way. So what I'm planning, mostly, is to keep my hands off the story, and let it speak for itself. As I read, think about three things: (1) Yahweh's goodness, (2) the people's stiff-neck, (3) and the covenant.

So let's pick back up at Exodus 33:18:

(18) and he (Moses) said,

"Show me, please, your GLORY,"

(19) and He said,

"I will cause to pass over all my GOODNESS before your face/presence,

and I will call/proclaim by the name of Yahweh before your face/presence,

and I will show favor to whom I show favor,

and I will show compassion/love to whom I will show compassion/love,"

(20) and He said,

"You aren't able to see my face/presence

because humans ("the adam/human") can't see, and live,

(21) and Yahweh said,

"LOOK! A place by me,

and you shall stand upon the rock,

(22) and then, when my GLORY passes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock,

and I will cover with my hand over you until I have passed by,

(23) and I will take away my hand,

and you will see my back,

while my face/presence shall not be seen,"

(34:1) and Yahweh said to Moses,

"Cut for yourself two stone tablets, like the first ones,

that I may write upon the tablets the words that were upon the first tablets that you broke,

and then, be ready for the morning,

and/that you may ascend in the morning to Mount Sinai,

and/that you may stand/present yourself before me there at the top of the mountain,

(3) while no one may ascend with you,

and, what's more, no one may be seen anywhere on the mountain.

What's more, the flocks and the cattle may not graze opposite of that mountain,"

So those are God's instructions. God will reveal his glory to Moses, just as Moses asked. And what is God's glory? [His goodness.] But God will reveal his goodness on the next day. In the meantime, God gives Moses a job to do-- to cut two stone tablets, exactly like the first.

What we see here, is that God is planning to recommit to the covenant. So as we keep reading, and we think about God revealing his goodness to Moses on the mountain, think about the two stone tablets.

Verse 4-6:

(4) and he cut two stone tablets like the first,

and Moses rose early in the morning, [he's as eager to do this, as the people were to sin]