Exodus 34: 1-10

¹The LORD told Moses, "Prepare two stone tablets like the first ones. I will write on them the same words that were on the tablets you smashed. ²Be ready in the morning to come up Mount Sinai and present yourself to me there on the top of the mountain. ³No one else may come with you. In fact, no one is allowed anywhere on the mountain. Do not even let the flocks or herds graze near the mountain."

⁴So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Early in the morning he climbed Mount Sinai as the LORD had told him, carrying the two stone tablets in his hands.

⁵Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and called out his own name, "the LORD," as Moses stood there in his presence. ⁶He passed in front of Moses and said, "I am the LORD, I am the LORD, the merciful and gracious God. I am slow to anger and rich in unfailing love and faithfulness. ⁷I show this unfailing love to many thousands by forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. Even so I do not leave sin unpunished, but I punish the children for the sins of their parents to the third and fourth generations."

⁸Moses immediately fell to the ground and worshiped. ⁹And he said, "If it is true that I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, then please go with us. Yes, this is an unruly and stubborn people, but please pardon our iniquity and our sins. Accept us as your own special possession."

¹⁰The LORD replied, "All right. This is the covenant I am going to make with you. I will perform wonders that have never been done before anywhere in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people around you will see the power of the LORD--the awesome power I will display through you.

Points of Interest:

· ‘Prepare two stone tablets like the first ones’—after the golden calf, in his anger God proposes a ‘do over’: he would destroy the people of Israel and form a new nation out of Moses’ family. Now, in his mercy, he proposes a different sort of ‘do over.’ He will start over from the beginning in forming the covenant with Israel, complete with another trip to Mount Sinai, another set of tablets, a repeat of the laws, and a renewal of their agreements with one another. The people were waiting to see what God would do with them. Now they know: he’s going to do what he had originally planned, and enter into a covenant with them. The heroic journey to be God’s people looked like it was over, but now—through Moses’ prayers and God’s grace—it has been revived. There’s hope that they just might succeed after all.

· ‘I am the LORD, I am the LORD, the merciful and gracious God . . . ‘—when Moses first encountered God at the burning bush, God revealed his name, ‘I AM,’ or, ‘the LORD.’ Now, when Moses asks to see God’s glorious presence, God says his name again; this time it’s as if, now that they know one another better, God is willing to tell Moses his full name, including all of verses 6 and 7. God’s full name includes the most important characteristics of who he is: mercy, grace, patience, love, faithfulness, generosity, and justice. These qualities are so much a part of God’s identity that they form his very name. Now, if anyone ever asks Moses who this god is whom he serves, he can say, ‘It’s the LORD, the one who shows mercy and grace.’

· ‘slow to anger and rich in unfailing love and faithfulness’—the people are experiencing God’s patience, love, and faithfulness very tangibly right now, in his willingness to re-engage in a covenant with them.

· ‘then please go with us’—this has been a refrain from Moses recently. Maybe what he’s saying here is, ‘Now that I’ve seen you even more clearly, I REALLY want you to go with us.’

· ‘Yes, this is an unruly and stubborn people’—Moses’ request doesn’t rest on the people deserving it; they don’t. It rests on the characteristics of mercy, grace, patience, love, and faithfulness which God has so powerfully proclaimed.

· ‘that have never been done before’—presumably, this would include the things God has already done for Israel. The power he displayed in rescuing them from Egypt and the mercy he has shown in accepting them despite their rejection of him are small in comparison to both the power and the mercy he will show through them in the future.

· ‘I do not leave sin unpunished’—God is not an over-indulgent parent who lets his children get away with anything. He notices and corrects sin. But his love is far more vast than his punishment; in fact, his love sets the context for the punishment. It is out of his love for them that he doesn’t allow them to continue to sin.

· ‘the third and fourth generations’—this is approximately the number of generations that would be alive at any one time (Bible Background Commentary 116). God is acknowledging that sin is not individual; it affects the whole family, and often it is engaged in by the whole family.

Taking it home:

· For you: Moses breaks out in worship when he understands just how huge God’s mercy is. Ask God to give you a new understanding of what it really means that he is merciful. Be prepared to worship him when he shows you.

· For your six: the LORD is a God of second chances. Do any of your six feel as if they’ve made a mistake in their life too big to overcome? Pray that God would give them a chance at a fresh start, and pray that they would have the faith to believe in such a gracious opportunity.

For our church: God isn’t satisfied with what he has already done for the Israelites in the past; he has plans for an even greater future for them. Pray that God would show the same generosity toward us, and pray for us that we would always be looking for new and better experiences with God, rather than looking back to some glorious past.