Exodus 34:1-9 - Words once Written on Hearts of Stone

Exodus 34:1-9

Moses Makes New Tablets (Deuteronomy 10:1–5)

1 And the LORD said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. 2 So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there on the top of the mountain. 3 And no man shall come up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain; let neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain.”

4 So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him; and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone.

5 Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6 And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

8 So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. 9 Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”

After the children of Israel lost faith and patience by creating a lifeless idol calf of gold and were interceded for by Moses and received the promise to still be led by the LORD to the promised land of Abraham, Moses ascended the mountain once more for God to rewrite the Ten words of Commandments (Exodus 24:12) for them to take with them and be taught by God on the journey.  He listened and obeyed the LORD as he cut the two cold stone tablets for God to write on within His finger (Exodus 31:18) as before to replace the broken ones cast down in judgment (Exodus 32:19) on the sinning idolatrous people the first time they were given.  Moses went up and God came down to meet him there in the cloud of His glory which kept the servant of the LORD from seeing His face and perishing at the sight (Exodus 33:20) of His absolute holiness in his abject sinfulness.  When the LORD approached Moses, He proclaimed His arrival with a description of His holy character and actions, praising His own name and His mercy, longsuffering, goodness, and truth out loud to be heard.  He emphasized His forgiveness in mercy that endures long with sinful man to cover his sin but holding him accountable to Him at the same time with long-term consequences.  We who are in Christ see the fullness of this grace in our salvation which cannot be lost or taken away while we still will answer with reward or shame (1 Corinthians 3:14-15) in eternity.  Moses did not understand this depth of God’s grace yet as the commandments were still on cold stone and not yet written on soft hearts of flesh (Jeremiah 31:33, 2 Corinthians 3:3, 7, 8, Hebrews 8:10, 12) where the words of God in the commandments would come alive to guide His regenerated children by the presence of God Himself living in them to lead and guide for His name’s sake.  The prayer of Moses after hearing these words was to bow in worship and ask for forgiveness to pardon his and his people’s sins of the mind and actions, iniquity and sin, that they might inherit the promises to Abraham by faith and obedience to those words of grace.  He knew only that these words were written on hearts of stone as requirements to follow, not yet having the understanding of God’s will to be fulfilled in the regeneration of hearts to have them written by God Himself on us to willingly obey and not out of fear of condemnation (Matthew 25:46, 1 John 4:18) under that Law (Galatians 3:23, Ephesians 2:15, Colossians 2:13-14) of requirements which are impossible to fully keep in our own efforts.  We now pray as Moses that our Lord Jesus Christ take us to the promised inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom we eagerly (Romans 8:25, Galatians 5:5, Philippians 3:20, Hebrews 9:28) anticipate!  The words once written on hearts of cold stone tablets are now inscribed by God’s hand on our hearts as assurance of the hope we hold and follow.