Our previous text, as we noted, is one of the most important passages in all of Scripture, which is evidenced by the frequency with which it is cited elsewhere in the Bible. After asking to see God’s glory, Moses beheld a marvelous revelation of Yahweh. Specifically, the LORD exposited His name, proclaiming the glorious attributes of His nature and character. Crucially, these attributes all centered around God’s position toward sinners and their sin. He is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, and both forgives and punishes sin. In response to this, Moses immediately prostrated himself before Yahweh and worshiped, which is the appropriate posture for all who behold the glory of God.

In the remainder of chapter 34, we read how the LORD continues to reinstate the covenant between Himself and Israel, the very covenant that Israel broke through worshiping the golden calf. Our text naturally divides into two major sections. In verses 10-28, we find the covenant renewed and reinstated, and in verses 29-35, we read of Moses’ reception after beholding God’s glory.

BEHOLD, I AM MAKING A COVENANT // VERSES 10-28

As we briefly commented on last week, our previous passage concluded with Moses again begging Yahweh to go in the midst of Israel. Since God had previously in 33:17 consented to go among them, we might first read this as an unnecessary repetition, except that there are no unnecessary repetitions within God’s Word. Instead, given the wording that Moses uses and the requests that he makes, I take it that the prophet was overcome by the splendor of Yahweh and was determined to secure both His presence with Israel and His pardon for their sin.

For the rest of the chapter, verse 10 essentially serves as the thesis:

And he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.

Here God explicitly states the renewal of His covenant with Israel, which is glorious news after their defilement of the covenant through worshiping the golden calf. By simply saying that He was making a covenant with Israel, Yahweh was affirming His answer to Moses’ threefold prayer in verse 9. Yes, Yahweh would go in their midst. Yes, He would pardon their sins and iniquities. Yes, He would take them as His inheritance. Those are the blessings that being in covenant with God entailed.

Through this covenant, the LORD promises to do glorious wonders in their midst. Pay careful attention to why God tells Moses that He will do such marvels in the midst of Israel: that they shall see the work of Yahweh. Ryken notes that

By now this plan ought to be very familiar. If we learn nothing else from the book of Exodus, we learn that God saved his people for his glory. He brought Israel out of Egypt in order to display his power and his grace. He never did anything like this for anyone else, before or since. But this was not for Israel’s benefit alone. God did it so that other nations would see his majesty. (1053)

God was renewing His commitment to make Israel into a kingdom of priests, the nation through which He would reveal Himself to all nations.

In verses 11-25, the LORD reissues a series of commands that Israel must obey in keeping covenant with Him. Verses 11-16 renew God’s promise to drive out the Canaanites but also strictly warn the Israelites against being led astray into the worshiping of their gods.

Verse 17 is a shortened version of the Second Commandment, but it does so by specifically forbidding idols of cast metal, which is the same word (מַסֵּכָה) used to describe the golden calf in 32:4.

Verse 18 commands the keeping of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and verses 19-20 reiterate the consecration of the firstborn to God.

Verse 21 is another commanding of the Sabbath; this time specifically commanding to that day of rest in both plowing and harvest time.

Verses 22-24 orders the keeping of the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Ingathering and emphasizes that all of Israel’s males are summoned to appear before the LORD these three times each year.

Finally, verses 25-26 forbid any sacrifices from being contaminated with yeast, require Israel to bring their firstfruits as an offering to the LORD, and outlaws the boiling of a young goat in its mother’s milk.

I race through these commands because we have already addressed each of them in the Book of the Covenant or elsewhere before. No new burden is being placed upon Israel. The standards for obedience remain the same as before.

Even so, we should note the common theme that runs within each of these commands: worship. Although the LORD gave many statutes regarding how the Israelites were to treat one another in the Book of the Covenant, here the focus is exclusively upon proper and improper worship of Yahweh. Of course, this does not suggest that the other commands were unimportant or no longer applied. However, it should remind us that worship is of the utmost importance. Indeed, when considering the two greatest commandments that our Lord taught us, a proper love of God must lead to a love of our neighbor, for how can we claim to love God if we do not also love those that He loves. And we cannot properly love our neighbor without first loving God, for God is love and He tethers our love to the reality of Himself. For an example of an untethered “love,” we only need to observe the push for transgender treatments and surgeries in children. Such unrooted “affection” results in castrating children. In all things, love of God must come first and must be given supremely; love for neighbor will inevitably follow.

After these commands are reissued, Moses again draws our attention to the tablets:

And the LORD said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

First, Yahweh commands Moses to write down these words. But which words? Immediate context would suggest verses 10-25, but it was likely meant to bring the entirety of the Book of the Covenant back to Israel’s mind. We then learn that Moses was upon Sinai forty days and forty nights, neither eating nor drinking. Moses explains why he fasted later in Deuteronomy 9:18-19:

Then I lay prostrate before the LORD as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the LORD bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me that time also.

This means that whenever Moses wrote later in Deuteronomy 8:3 that “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD,” he was writing experientially rather than metaphorically.

The final statement that he wrote on the tablets is somewhat ambiguous, leading some to assume that Moses is the subject rather than the LORD. Yet he must refer to Yahweh because God said in verse 1 of this very chapter that He would write upon the new tablets. Furthermore, Deuteronomy 10:1-4 makes this very clear:

“At that time the LORD said to me, ‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and make an ark of wood. And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.’ So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. And he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments that the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me.

WHEN MOSES CAME DOWN // VERSES 29-35

With the covenant now reinstated, Moses could now descend Sinai to bring the good news to Israel, who had apparently been waiting for more than a month for his return. But neither they nor Moses were prepared for what followed:

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.

Just as Moses had received covered yet powerful display of God’s radiant glory, he came down the mountain with light of God’s glory radiating from his face. But over the course of his close communion with God, Moses was unaware of any change in his countenance. Matthew Henry makes a wonderful application of this point, saying:

First, it is the infelicity of some that, though their faces shine in true grace, yet they do not know it, to take the comfort of it. Their friends see much of God in them, but they themselves are ready to think they have no grace. Secondly, it is the humility of others that, though their faces shine in eminent gifts and usefulness, yet they do not know it, to be puffed up with it. Whatever beauty God puts upon us, we should still be filled with such a humble sense of our own unworthiness, and manifold infirmities, as will make us even overlook and forget that which makes our faces shine.

But Aaron and the rest of the Israelites certainly saw the change in Moses, and they were afraid. Indeed, just as all of Israel shrank back in fear whenever God first proclaimed the Ten Commandments to them, now they were even afraid to come near their mediator. The light shining from Moses’ face was only a reflection of God’s light as how the moon glows with the reflection of the sun’s light. But they could not even bear the reflection of the light, much less the light itself! Sadly, this displayed the darkness that lay within them.

But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the LORD had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.

Even though they cowered away from Moses, the prophet summoned them to himself, and he told them all that Yahweh had said to him upon them mountain. Notice that verse 33 specifically notes that Moses put a veil over his face only after he had finished speaking with them. It was likely good for them to hear the LORD’s words as their eyes were burning with His holy light, so that they remembered that it was indeed Yahweh who was speaking to them through Moses. But Moses did veil his face afterward, and verses 34-35 note that he continued to do so:

Whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

BEHOLDING THE GLORY OF THE LORD // 2 CORINTHIANS 3:7-18

In the third chapter of 2 Corinthians, Paul uses this passage of Scripture to make a comparison between the Old and New Testaments, and it would be neglectful not to give due attention to the Apostle’s inspired commentary.

Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

There are three broad points that we can draw from this passage, especially as it relates to our text in Exodus. 

First, Paul’s overall point in verses 7-11 are that the New Covenant in Christ is far more glorious than the old covenant through Moses. Indeed, notice that Paul begins by calling the old covenant “the ministry of death.” This is significant because, as Paul explicitly admits, the old covenant was glorious. Moses had only a portion of God’s glory shining from his face, and the Israelites were terrified. Yet even then the glory of the old covenant was beginning to fade. Rather than seeing glory of God flashing from Sinai’s height, they were now seeing it through the face of their mediator.

But the glory of the New Covenant is far greater because we now get to behold the fullness of God’s glory through Jesus Christ, whom we can look upon with joy and gladness. Indeed, that is what our ultimate promise in the New Covenant is. As fine as gold street will be and as wonderful as it will be to be free from pain, suffering, and death, the great hope for all of God’s people is to see our Lord face to face.

Second, Paul notes that not only were the Israelites physically being kept away from the glory of the LORD by the veil that was over Moses’s face. This is his first use of the veil as a metaphor. He says that even now, those who do not belong to Christ, as they read the Scriptures of God, there is still a veil over their face. The terrifying reality is that we can read the word of God, yet still have our vision veiled so that we cannot see the glory of God through His holy Word.

That’s why we pray for the Holy Spirit to illuminate our understanding before we ever get started teaching the Scriptures. Wonderous things are truly with these pages, but if God doesn’t give us the eyes to see them, we fail to behold them. We need the Lord to take the veil away, and Paul tells us that the only way to have that veil taken away is through Christ.

Third, we are able to look upon the glory of the Lord because of the grace of Jesus Christ. What Paul says in verse 14: “For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.” Then in verse 16, Paul states, “but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.” Here Paul is using the same wording that is used for Moses’ removal of the veil as he returned to speak to the LORD in 34:34. Thus, our coming to Christ is similar to Moses going up to meet with Yahweh, and in so doing, the Lord removes the veil that hinders our understanding.

Once Christ has taken the veil away, he says in verse 18, “and we all with unveiled face…” He’s putting us in the position of Moses, but we’re not Moses standing with the glory of God covered up. Instead, we have the veil taken off. We have unveiled faces, “beholding the glory of the Lord, and we are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”

What does that mean?

Not only are we beholding the glory of the Lord, but God is also using us as vessels, vessels for his glory. Of course, we are not becoming Jesus, and we do not become little gods, as the Word of Faith movement often teaches. Instead, Jesus Christ is restoring what we broke through our sin.

We were meant to display God’s glory. We were meant to be His image on earth. And as humanity was fruitful and multiplied and filled the earth, it would be filled with God’s image. The world would be filled with God’s glory as humanity filled the earth. But now because of our sin, the image of God has been marred. We are not the image-bearers that we were created to be. We do not reflect the glory that we created to reflect. And the law, though both good and glorious itself, could never restore us to that place of glory. It is a ministry of death because it could not rescue us from sin but only reveal further and deeper sin within us.

But thanks be to God, in Jesus Christ is reclaiming and recreating us for His glory. And so now we get to say with Paul that that all those who are in Christ, we are no longer our old selves, but we are a new creation. The old self has been put away, and behold, the new has come. Though we are simple jars of clay, our Lord has placed in the inestimable worth of Himself within us as vessels of His glory.

Not only do we not have to be the Israelites cowering in fear of the diluted glory of God; instead, we not only get to behold the glory of God but also shine forth God’s glory. Therefore, as Paul tells us, let us not veil our faces before others like Moses did. Those apart from Christ already have a veil over their own hearts; do not veil the gospel even more by shrinking back from it in fear. If the Aaronic blessing has indeed come to us in Christ so that God’s face now perpetually shines upon us, then let us live with unveiled faces, proclaiming the glory of God to a loss and a dying world that desperately needs to know that there’s hope.

We are saved only by the grace of Christ, but we have not simply been saved for our own sake. Instead, we are redeemed and being restored, as 1 Peter 2:9 says, “that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness and into marvelous light.”

Therefore, as we come to the Table of our King, let us rejoice in this tangible declaration of the New Covenant that we have in Christ our Lord. Through this ordinary bread and cup, we behold by faith a glory that far exceeds what was delivered through Moses, a glory that we are being transformed day by day into, being increasingly conformed to the image of Christ. Brothers and sisters, through this bread and cup, taste and see the goodness and glory of our God in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ.