Read Exodus
34-36 & Matthew
23:1-22
To discover:
As you read note what is new compared with earlier chapters.
To ponder:
Human beings need a mediator between them and God.
Previously this was only hinted at. Again and again we have read as in verse 1
“the LORD said to Moses.” Nevertheless, God spoke directly to Israel
in chapter 20. However, their idolatry has shown they would not be able to
endue this. So Moses is now central. Everything is through him, and would now be
through mediators until the coming of Christ.
Ending
yesterday’s reading, Moses asks to see God’s “glory,” which is the
manifestation of God’s nature encompassed in his name “the LORD” (33v19-23). God
himself stresses two things: His “goodness,” and his sovereignty - seen in his
right to dispense mercy and compassion as he chooses. Paul notes how we are still
tempted to question this right, implying God is unjust for saving only some
(Rom 9v10-23).
Even Moses cannot witness God’s
glory directly and live, probably (as elsewhere in scripture) because his sin
would cause him to be consumed. So God calls Moses up the mountain again and
proclaims his name, whilst hiding Moses in a cleft of the rock (33v22). In 34v6-7
God summarises his own character!
Like Moses the only fitting
response is worship, and an appeal for mercy on the basis of that character
(34v8-9). Expressing his sovereign right to show mercy to Israel
despite her unworthiness, God has already shown he is disposed to forgive,
having asked Moses to chisel out two new stone tablets. Although the people immediately
broke the covenant just made, without requiring their assent, God makes another,
reiterating his promise to settle the people in the land. What reassurance. God
perseveres with those he chooses.
This time the covenant is made
directly with Moses as representative of the people, just as the new covenant
is made with Christ as ours. In the light of Israel’s
idolatry, the importance of not making treaties or intermarrying with the
nations is stressed. Rather, the people are to destroy all that might lead them
astray and ensure no false gods are worshipped. This warns us to guard our
hearts in a pluralistic society. As the covenant is renewed, its commands about
the three festivals are then reiterated.
The heightened nature of Moses’
meeting with God is seen in his being sustained without food and water for the
entire forty days. And when he descended, the people’s distance from God due to
their sin was seen in the fact they couldn’t even come near Moses’ because his face
reflected God’s glory. Paul explains this was because of the hardness of their
hearts. By contrast, having turned to the Lord we now do behold God’s glory in
Christ, and are ourselves being transformed into that glory (2 Cor 3v7-18).
In what
follows it is stressed that the commands given Moses on the mountain are obeyed
“just as the LORD commanded.” Moses assembles the people, reaffirms the Sabbath
and instructs them on building the tabernacle. Everyone whose “heart moved”
them give to the work until more than enough is received. Moreover, the women
use their skill, and the men God promised to equip with his Spirit are given
the ability to teach others. It’s as if the golden calf had never been made. That’s
grace.
Praying it home:
Praise God for his attributes in 34v6-7. Pray that he would transform
your from glory into glory (2 Cor 3v18)
Thinking further:
None today.
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