That was Moses’ audacious supplication before the LORD at the end of chapter 33. Yahweh responded by telling the prophet that He would make all of His goodness pass by Him and proclaim to him His name. As we said, God answered this way because His glory, His goodness, and His name are inseparably united together. Yet while God’s glory is the outward display of His nature and character, we who are sinful mortals must still have God’s glory filtered to us through His goodness and by the proclamation of His name. And still Moses could not look fully upon God’s presence but needed to be hidden in the cleft of a rock and covered by God’s own hand.
In the text before us, all that God spoke comes to pass. Moses beholds the glory of the LORD and hears one of the most important passages in the entire Bible, where Yahweh exposits His name, declaring the very essence of His character. Indeed, it is through this revelation of Himself that Moses principally beholds the glory of Yahweh, which is truly glorious news for us because as we study the LORD’s words we too are, by the illumination of the Spirit, able to behold God’s glory.
NEW TABLETS FOR A RENEWED COVENANT // VERSES 1-4
The LORD said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
The overall scope of this chapter is Yahweh’s renewal of the covenant with Israel. Recall that in chapter 32, Israel broke the covenant that they promised to uphold back in chapter 24 by making for themselves a golden calf to worship. The remainder of that chapter as well as the next one have centered around the question of reconciliation. Was there a way for Yahweh to again resolve to dwell among His people, or was that great hope now destroyed forever? In 33:17, God at last yielded to Moses’ mediatorial work and pledged to go among them once more. These verses are the first step toward that reconciliation. First, the tablets that represented the covenant, which Moses broke, needed to be remade. Regarding the LORD’s reminder that Moses broke the first tablets, Stuart writes:
God again referred to Moses’ breaking the first pair of tablets (“the first tablets, which you broke”) as a reminder that the prior covenant had actually been not just violated in some limited way but broken, making this offer of covenant reinstatement all the more timely and an evidence of gracious divine willingness to forgive and restore. (713)
With the first tablets, God Himself both cut them and wrote His words upon them, but with these new tablets, Moses was commanded to cut them, while the LORD would again write upon them Himself. The reason for this distinction is not told to us in the text, but Ryken’s answer is a fitting explanation:
According to Umberto Cassuto, the new tablets showed that Israel had broken the former covenant. He compares this to the second wedding of a couple that has been divorced. When they get remarried, the husband and wife take the same vows they made to one another the first time, but somehow it’s not quite the same.
Maybe Cassuto is right. However, a second wedding has a joy all its own. It shows that even a broken covenant can be renewed. And this was the important thing about the new set of tablets: not the tablets themselves, but what was written on them—the law of God. This was the same law that God gave Moses the first time, a new copy of the Ten Commandments. God said, “I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets” (Exod. 34:1; cf. Deut. 10:1–4). God was reiterating his covenant with Israel, word for word. He still wanted to have a relationship with his people. And he still wanted them to live by his law, worshiping him alone, honoring his holy day, respecting authority, practicing sexual purity, telling the truth, and keeping all his holy commands. (1039–1040)
I think Ryken is absolutely right. The very fact that these are new tablets that need to be made is tragic and lamentable, as all sin is. However, there is beauty and wonder in the remaking of what was broken. And there is not one Christian in all the world and through all of time that cannot bow his or her head in humble thanksgiving that God has a wonderous pattern of restoring what we have shattered.
Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. No one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.” So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone.
Next, Moses received his command to come up to the mountain. Here again we see that things are not exactly as they were. When the covenant was first ratified, Moses alone went to the top of Sinai, but Aaron and the elders were invited onto the Sinai and even shared the covenant meal with God. Now Moses alone is told to come up the mountain, and everyone else is told to not even let themselves be seen. This seems to be yet another reminder to the people of Israel, perhaps especially to Aaron and the other elders, that Moses mediation has been their salvation. Indeed, as we find so often in Exodus, verse 4 recounts the obedience of Moses to do exactly what God commanded of him.
THE NAME OF THE LORD // VERSES 5-7
With Moses upon the mountain, we are then told in verse 5 that the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. I think it is right for us to see parallels here with God’s previous descent upon Sinai in the cloud of His glory. Just as Moses was previously invited to draw near to God, now Yahweh is coming down from heaven to the prophet, ready to display a further revelation of Himself through the proclamation of His name.
And that is indeed what happens:
The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”
Philip Ryken notes that
When the Bible speaks of God’s name, it is always something more than simply a title. God’s name stands for his entire being. It is his nature. It is who he is. So when God passed by Moses and said, “the Lord, the Lord,” he was revealing himself as the God of creation and redemption—the God who made and saves his people. And in order to give Moses a fuller revelation of his goodness, he went on to explain the meaning of his sacred name. (1041-1042)
Moses already received a degree of understanding whenever God first revealed His name to the prophet through the burning bush. Just as the fire was a self-sustaining flame, the emphasis in Exodus 3:13-15 is upon the self-existence and self-sufficiency of God:
Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
Through judgment and destruction of Egypt, Yahweh showed Himself to be mighty. Through the Israel’s journey through the wilderness to Sinai, Yahweh showed Himself to be a shepherd, both as the provider and defender, to His people. Now in light of Israel’s great sin, Yahweh is further revealing Himself by attributes that relate to His loving disposition toward sinners. Jim Hamilton suggests that a colon should be placed after God’s twofold proclamation of His name in order to emphasize that the following attributes are descriptions of God’s name, which is also God’s very nature and character.
Indeed, although we often talk about the attributes of God, it would be helpful before moving on to these particular attributes if we establish what an attribute of God is. To which, I would give this answer: God’s attributes are qualities or characteristics of God that express His nature, His essence and being. An attribute of God is a truth about who God is, of who He has revealed Himself to be. His attributes are lens through which we are able to comprehend something of God’s incomprehensible divinity. And it is right to speak of God’s attributes as lens through which we understand God because to speak of God’s attributes does not mean speaking about parts of God but rather God Himself, only from different angles. This means that God is not partially merciful and partially wrathful; instead, He is perfectly both. Both are windows by which we are able to glimpse the whole nature of God. Thus, the attributes that God gives us here are each who God is in the entirety of His being.
First, Yahweh is merciful. We might simply describe mercy as the withholding of judgment, but inherent in God’s mercy is His compassion, which is likely why the Septuagint translated this word as “compassionate.” Indeed, Henry writes, “This bespeaks his tender compassion, like that of a father to his children. This is put first, because it is the first wheel in all the instances of God’s good-will to fallen man, whose misery makes him an object of pity.” It was the LORD’s mercy that He displayed to Israel after their sin. He has every right to destroy them entirely, but now we discover why He did not. In relenting from His judgment, He was displaying His compassion toward Israel. Even though they had broken His covenant, He still loved them and desired their good.
Second, Yahweh is gracious. If the compassionate mercy of God leads Him to withhold judgment, His grace is the unmerited bestowing of favor. Every good thing that we have comes to us by way of God’s graciousness. Indeed, creation itself is a kind of common grace that the LORD gives to each of us. We each only exist, rather than not existing, by God’s pure graciousness. Yet beyond that, our existence is sustained only by God’s grace. What, after all, have you done to deserve the air that you are currently breathing? If were to shut the heavens from giving rain, we would quickly remember the everyday grace of water. Likewise, we take for granted each day that our vital organs were designed and set in motion by God, requiring no conscious thought of our own to govern them. The examples are quite literally endless, and we who receive His saving grace through Christ will spend all of eternity praising Him for them all.
Third, Yahweh is slow to anger. We might call this God’s patience or, as the King James says, His long-suffering. The Hebrew here literally translates as “long of nose,” which is similar to our own idiom of having “a long fuse.” The Puritan Stephen Charnock notes why this attribute ought to be so dear to us:
[Patience] differs from mercy in the formal consideration of the object: mercy respects the creature as miserable, patience respects the creature as criminal; mercy pities him in his misery, and patience bears with the sin which engendered the mercy, and is giving birth to more. (1554)
Charnock, therefore, saw mercy as meeting our miserable guilt after having committed sin, while patience is God’s willingness to bear with us in the midst of our sinning and even as it is “giving birth to more.” This alone should be enough of a truth for us bow our heads in worship! God’s love is not only revealed to us after having sinned; He actively shows love to us even while are still sinning. Indeed, the very breath in our lungs and the continued beating of our hearts as we sin are tangible evidences of God’s great patience toward us.
Fourth, Yahweh is abounding in steadfast love. Some translations call this “faithfulness,” and that is correct as well. The Hebrew word chesed is His covenantal, determined love that he shows to Israel. Israel constantly wanders away from him. But God’s love is steadfast. Their sin and idolatry are like an adulterous wife, but Yahweh is always faithful to her. God’s love is enduring for them. And of course, one of the places where we see that word used the most is Psalm 136, in which every verse says, “for his steadfast love endures forever.”
Fifth, Yahweh is abounding in faithfulness or in truth. Stuart writes that this means “that whatever he says is correct and reliable and may be trusted even to the extent of life and death issues, or indeed eternal life and death issues.”
Verse 7 then begins by describing the extent of God’s steadfast love for thousands or, as the ESV footnotes says, to a thousandth generation. This should particularly be compared with the justice of God as described in the second half of this verse, which goes to three and four generations. The LORD is emphasizing here that His steadfast love is vast enough for all who belong to His covenant throughout all of time.
Finally, we have two attributes that, at first glance, appear to conflict: forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Yahweh forgives the wickedness of His people, but He also does not clear the guilty. How do we reconcile these two statements?
God’s justice rightly requires the punishment of sin. That is what His not clearing the guilty is emphasizing. He cannot simply ignore sin and pretend like it never happened. That would not be just, and for God to do so, He would not be righteous. Sin must be dealt with, and very often that dealing will have a generational impact, for sin almost always has a generational impact.
Yet God is also forgiving. Ryken notes that “the Hebrew verb used here (nasa) means ‘to lift or to carry.’ This gives us a picture of what God does with our sin. He takes it away, lifting the heavy burden of guilt right off our shoulders.” And this picture also helps us to see how God can be forgiving and just at the same time. Again, God does not merely sweep our sins under heaven’s rug. No, He forgives our sin by carrying them away on His own shoulders. Specifically, He did this through Christ, the Suffering Servant, described in Isaiah 53:4-6:
Surely he has borne [nasa] our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
By having all of our sins placed upon Himself and by being Yahweh made flesh, Christ was able bear the just penalty of our sins, while ensuring forgiveness to us. That is what makes the gospel good news. It does not offer a fanciful hope that God just might overlook our sins; instead, it points us to the cross of Christ to see the end of all our sin and to the resurrection of Christ to our blessed hope.
MOSES WORSHIPED // VERSES 8-9
And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.
Worship is the only proper response to a greater vision and revelation of God, and Moses was quick to do so. Even though the LORD had made Moses great in the land of Egypt and even though Moses was the leader of Israel, in Yahweh’s presence, Moses immediately bowed himself down in humility before Him. Indeed, this very impulse is a great litmus test for true worship. As Stuart writes:
Worship is an act that exalts the one being worshiped but seeks to draw no favorable attention to the worshiper. Moses “bowed to the ground” following the standard way of his culture: reducing his profile and placing himself at the mercy of the one above him, that is, indicating his unworthiness and submission. Worship that draws attention to self, in either the Old or the New Covenant, is flawed. (718)
To go even further, if we continue to focus upon ourselves, we become satanic. Milton portrays the satanic condition perfectly whenever Satan has entered Eden, acknowledges that it is heaven on earth, and yet is still in hell because he is hell. His pride in himself and fixation upon himself ensures that even the presence of God is hell to him.
Worship, however, turns our gaze outward. Just as the Grand Canyon’s greatness immediately reveals our own smallness, so does beholding God’s glory. Isaiah saw God enthroned in majesty and was immediately aware of his own sinfulness in the presence of such pure holiness. Even as Moses asks again for God’s grace toward Israel, notice the prophet’s prostrate tone:
And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
Notice that Moses does not call God Yahweh but Lord. After hearing the wonderful reality of God’s holy name, it is as if Moses feels his unworthiness even to speak. In fact, Moses makes three requests in this verse, but notice the particular phrasing of the second plea: pardon our iniquity. The prophet is no longer asking simply for Yahweh to forgive the sins of Israel. After seeing the glory of God, Moses rightly sees that he is just as in need of God’s forgiveness as they are.
As we come to the Lord’s Supper this morning, let Moses’ response be ours as well, for by it we are summoned to look upon a greater revelation that even he received. Through this bread and cup, Christ has commanded us to remember Him, to consider Him. And in Him, we have the fullness of God communicated to us in human form. The fullness of God’s mercy, grace, patience, steadfast love, truthfulness, forgiveness, and justice are all perfectly seen through Jesus Christ, whom we will one day see face to face. So as we taste and see the goodness of our God through this otherwise ordinary bread and cup, let us bow our heads in humble worship, pleading for God to forgive our many great sins through our Lord Jesus Christ.
B. C. Newton 