If you think back to how you know someone today, you probably remember how you met them in real life or saw them on social media. Back then, how did the Israelites know God?
Our passage today begins with God giving Moses commands about new stone tablets. To understand the passage rightly in context, we recall the events that led to this point. In Exo 24:1,8, the LORD asked Moses to meet Him on Mt Sinai, that He may give Moses tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which He wrote for the people’s instruction. While Moses is on the mountain, God reveals His plan to build the Tabernacle, which allows Him to dwell with His unholy people (Exo 25-31). When God finished speaking with Moses, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, written by God Himself (Exo 31:18, 32:15-16). As Moses approached the Israelite camp, he saw them worshipping a golden calf as their god, and burning hot with anger, he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.
In Exo 33:12-23, Moses went up to the tent of meeting to intercede on behalf of the Israelites, and asked that the LORD show him His glory (Exo 33:18), thereby assuring Moses of the LORD’s favour on the Israelites. As we see in Exodus 33:19-23, The LORD granted Moses’ request by having His glory pass by Moses, while protecting him in the cleft of the rock. But that’s not all. He also said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD’.” What is this proclamation? Who is The LORD? Our text in Exodus 34:1-9 reveals Him.
(A) THE LORD: A HOLY GOD WHO REVEALS THROUGH WORDS (EXO 34:1-4)
In Exo 34:1-2, God commands Moses to cut two tablets of stone, so that He could write on them the words that were on the first tablets which Moses broke. Taking these new tablets with him, Moses was to present himself to God at the top of Mt Sinai. In replacing the broken tablets, we see a God who is consistent, gracious, and determined. He was determined to be known by His people, even after they turned from Him, breaking the relationship by worshipping the golden calf. It is also interesting to note that unlike the first time, He let Moses participate by cutting the stones this time.
This relational and revealing God is the same God we worship today. The Bible is our equivalent of the stone tablets, where God reveals Himself through His words, so that we may know Him. How gracious He is to provide this source of knowledge and relationship with His people!
However, in the very next verse, God made it clear that this was to be a private meeting between God and Moses – not even animals could graze opposite that mountain (Exo 34:3-4). This leads us to recall Israel’s first meeting with God at the foot of Mt Sinai in Exodus 19. The moment they came before God, they were warned that they could not just approach God, or He would break out against them (Exo 19:12, 24b), because God is holy and they were a sinful people. This meeting between God and Moses carried a similar tone. While God is very relational and revealing, He is also holy and will not tolerate sin. Sinners can’t simply meet with this God.
(B) THE LORD: MERCIFUL, GRACIOUS, PATIENT, LOVING, FAITHFUL, AND FORGIVING (EXO 34:5-7A)
Before God would meet with Moses, He had to descend to the top of the mountain (Exo 34:5). This is a picture of God stooping down to meet with His people, like a father squatting down to talk to his child.
Then, He proclaimed His own name. Moses requested to see God’s glory, but instead, he hears it in words – words that show all of God’s goodness.
In the table below, we ponder what it means when God describes Himself in these ways:
This is who the LORD is in His revealed name. This formed the Israelites’ “working definition” of God. It was essentially the way the people of God knew Him. We see the same descriptions of God in Psalm 86:15, 103:8, Joel 2:13, and Jonah 4:2 used by His people.
If someone were to ask “Who is your God?”, what would you say? Do you know God this way? Is this the God you know?
(C) THE LORD: JUST AND JUSTIFIER THROUGH CHRIST (EXO 34:7B-9, ROM 3:21-26)
The description of The LORD then takes a turn with a “but”. If we stop at Exo 34:7b, our picture of God would not be complete. God is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love, and forgiving, but He is also just. He will not turn a blind eye to sin. Many people find life to be unfair; they face injustice and are oppressed. But God, He assures us, is absolutely fair. We can take comfort in the promise that He will right every wrong we face.
How can the LORD be all these attributes in the previous section and yet be completely just? Rom 3:21-26 proclaims a glorious truth. All of us sin and fall short of God’s glory, but we are declared righteous by a gift of grace that comes through our redemption that is in Jesus Christ, who is a propitiation that satisfied God’s wrath in our place. This gift is received by faith, and all this was to show God’s own righteousness, because in His divine forbearance, He did not judge every sin immediately. Through Jesus Christ, God can be forgiving, gracious, and completely just towards sinners.
In response to God’s revelation of “all His goodness”, Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped. He desired for God Himself to walk among them. Notice that Moses wasn’t asking for himself, but on behalf of his people. In calling the Israelites a “stiff-necked people” and calling on God to pardon their iniquity and sin, Moses acknowledged that these sinners needed His mercy, His grace, His forgiveness – they needed God Himself.
Seeing the LORD’s holy character in all His glory should cause us to worship, because there is nothing more glorious than this. This is who Israel knew God to be.
Today, we know God as revealed in His Son Jesus Christ. Because God is all of who He revealed Himself to be, He did not spare His own Son but gave His life for us. How then will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? (Rom 8:31-32) We can find comfort and confidence in the unchanging character of the LORD, our just justifier through Christ!