A special speaker was coming to our church that Sunday!  I remember it so well!  I was a younger mom, working as a public-school teacher, volunteering to teach Sunday School, and then played the piano for worship as any good pastor’s wife was expected to be and do! (A story for another time.)  I looked forward to talking with this man who I had admired for years for his wisdom and compassionate love for others.  He was going to stay in our home.  Although that meant more preparation; we were elated to host him so we could have some one-on-one time with him before sharing him with the rest of the congregation.  It was a busy time with many details to accomplish as we prepared for his coming. 

The women of the church took over the after-church meal that rivaled all other meals provided in the past!  They were so excited for his coming to be with us that the women planned a meal of their best recipes.  All was going according to plan until I decided to “help” in the kitchen along with all my other tasks as host. I saw an older woman struggling to bring in her dish.  I quickly took the huge dish of roast prepared beautifully from her.  Then I tripped. The hot dish slid out of my hand and splattered all over the floor in a big mess of ruined meat.  We both just looked at each other in shock.  I was mortified and I wanted to cry.  But she smiled, looked into my eyes, and quickly helped me recover by forgiving me with words that brought me back to the main reason to celebrate that day of worship of God with learning from God through this man of God.  She said; “It’s only meat, the best is yet to come, hearing God speak today through His servant!”  In other words, let’s keep our attention on God for this is why we came.

God’s People tripped up, fell back to old habits of idol worship learned well while in bondage as slaves in Egypt.  They sinned aggressively against God by sidelining God. Aaron, second in charge, fearful for what the people might do to him, gave in to their wishes.  Aaron took gold from donated jewelry, melted the gold down, and then molded a golden calf to appease the people who were used to being able to see and touch their gods.  They forgot Who rescued them and brought them out of slavery. They forgot who they should be worshipping who provided daily manna with good water to drink each day of their lives on their journey. They forgot why they are on this journey in the first place—to be led by God to the land He promised to give them. They forgot God.

God knew what was happening as His finger was craving out the Ten Commandments that included, “You shall have no other gods before me,” as one of the Ten non-negotiable commandments of God.  This miracle of God’s hand on Moses’ tablets was happening at the same time as His people were in direct disobedience of this very command. God is angry.  This is a very bad day.  Evil seems to be winning while Moses is communing with God.  The Enemy is crafty and knows when and how to trip us up when we least expect it! God warns Moses of the ways of evil.

God sent Moses back down the mountain to address and confront the people.  However, Moses being with God, learning from God, with knowing God’s heart; felt the anger within him that was in God.  The more we know God; our hearts begin to beat like the heart of God. What breaks God’s heart; breaks our hearts.  What happened next?  Moses saw and heard the evil, ungodly, unholy acts of the very people God led through the Red Sea and his anger welled up inside him. In anger, Moses threw down the first set of tablets, written by the finger of God, and they broke into pieces!

But God forgave Moses. God provided punishment and consequences for those who directly and rebelliously sinned against Him. God forgave the people.  “For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning,” The Psalmist will write later.  Psalm 30:5

God told Moses to prepare another set of stone tablets to replace what was broken in anger.  God is giving His people another chance to know Him, worship Him, and learn who He really is with all He wants to provide for them.  God is jealous.  But not like we think of jealousy today.  God desires greatly to pour out His blessings of all that is good over us.  But if we decide, (and it is a decision), to turn our allegiance and focused attention to the Enemy who wants to destroy us, or to anything other than God; it breaks His heart.  God is jealous for our full attention because He is always at work on our behalf!  And what breaks the heart of God will always break the heart of one who knows God.

Exodus 34

The New Stone Tablets

The Lord said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. ² Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. ³ No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.”

⁴ So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the Lord had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. ⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. ⁶ And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, ⁷ maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

⁸ Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. ⁹ “Lord,” he said, “if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”

¹⁰ Then the Lord said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you. ¹¹ Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ¹² Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. ¹³ Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. ¹⁴ Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

¹⁵ “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. ¹⁶ And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.

¹⁷ “Do not make any idols.

¹⁸“Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt.

¹⁹ “The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock. ²⁰ Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons.

“No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

²¹ “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.

²² “Celebrate the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year. ²³ Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord, the God of Israel. ²⁴ I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the Lord your God.

²⁵ “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Festival remain until morning.

²⁶ “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.

“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

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 Israel.” ²⁸ Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

The Radiant Face of Moses

²⁹ When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. ³⁰ When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. ³¹ But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. ³² Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.

³³ When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. ³⁴ But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, ³⁵ they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND? 

By the grace of God, Moses achieved his purposes: God promised to go with the people, God showed Moses a glimpse of His glory, and God forgave the sins of the nation. Moses could return to the camp with the second tablets of the law and tell the people God had forgiven their sins.  Would the people be grateful for the forgiveness of God?  Would they follow the conditions of the Covenant made between God and His People?  Will they be tripped up later by their enemies?  Some will not listen and some will follow. Stay tuned. 

The Glory of God—

Moses had been fasting and praying in the presence of God for eighty days, and he had seen a glimpse of God’s glory (see also 2 Cor. 3:7–18). Is it any wonder that he had a shining face? He didn’t realize that he had “absorbed” some of the glory and was reflecting it from his countenance. Because of this glory, the people were afraid to come near him, but he summoned them to come and they talked as before.  Moses was still Moses but he was being transformed by God and it showed on his face!  This happens to all new believers in Jesus who decide to take time to be with God each day.  Our faces will show the glory of God reflecting from us.  Our behaviors will also transform to demonstrate the glorious love of God in us!

Paul applied Moses’ experience to Christians who by faith see the glory of Jesus Christ in the Word and experience a spiritual transformation (2 Cor. 3:17, 18). This is why as believers of Jesus seeking Him first and only as our guide and example for living ; read the Bible and let it soak into our being!  When a child of God looks into the Word of God and sees the Son of God, he or she is transformed by the Spirit of God into the image of God for the glory of God!  Yes!  It’s all about God—not us.

Lord,

Thank you for the memories of tripping up but finding forgiveness in you.  We are not perfect but we are certainly perfectly forgiven.  We don’t deserve your love and sacrifice for our sins; but I am grateful, so very grateful you met our need and did not give up on us.  Thank you for teaching us today of your compassionate love for us.  You are all we need to live in eternity with you.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

In Jesus Name, for Your glory, Amen