Verses 1-3 And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest. 2 And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount. 3 And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount.
God was willing to start over and rewrite His words on new tablets. God is patient and this patience will be demonstrated over and over in the Old Testament books chronicling the nation Israel.
Application: Moses had to do some work before receiving the Word from the LORD. It is not an easy task to hew out and shape and smooth stone tablets. No power tools back then! Like Moses, believers need to do a little work to receive and understand the Word of God. God’s words are not just dropped from the pages of Scripture into the minds of believers. Work is involved in reading the Scripture, researching the rest of the Scripture for a correct meaning, and then applying it to life.
Verse 4 And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.
Application: This writer has learned that if serious Bible study is to occur, it needs to be early in the morning before all the various activities of daily living get in the way and gobble up the time. Moses rose early in the morning. Perhaps you should too. Think about it.
Verses 5-7 And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
The verses above describe the character of God. The Hebrew word transcribed as “LORD” is “Yahovah”, also pronounced Jehovah, and is the name of the one, true God. He is merciful, not giving people the punishment for their sins that they deserve. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23
He is gracious, freely giving to people what they do not deserve.
He is longsuffering, putting up with mankind when He could destroy everything at any time. Why? “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
He is goodness, (“checed” in the Hebrew meaning goodness, kindness and faithfulness) and He is truth. Without God’s truth, mankind would not know what is false or what is a lie. It is His standard that has governed the justice system of the western world. “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” John 1:17 Therefore, Jesus is God, very God.
Application: The verses above contain just a few of the words that describe the character of the LORD. Look for more as you read the Bible verses and, if you are a believer, think about how you should behave and relate to others. Are you Christ-like? And since Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, are you like God?
Verses 8-9 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. 9 And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.
Moses got to the place and the presence of the LORD on time and then he humbled himself by bowing down before the LORD and worshiping Him. To worship means to give the heart. So often, churches today fail to show due reverence to the presence of the LORD. People wander in at all times during the service and wander out, distracting other attendees. Before the service starts, the foyer and the sanctuary are buzzing with loud conversation that usually has nothing to do with God but everything to do with the personal lives of the attendees. If a church member wants to just kneel at the alter or pray in a seat, it is very difficult to do so. Then the service is started and a schedule is kept so that the singing, the offering, the announcements, the prayer requests and the sermon all happen in a prescribed order and in a predicted amount of time. Should the pastor preach past his allotted minutes, many attendees start looking at their watches and thinking about lunch. Sound familiar? What would happen if people came to church seeking the presence of the LORD like Moses did instead of expecting the LORD to just show up? Is this a little harsh? If people treated their places of employment is such a manner as presented above, how long would they keep their jobs? Shouldn’t church be a place dedicated to the LORD and Savior who is merciful, gracious, longsuffering, good, forgiving and full of truth? Think about it.
Verses 10-11 And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee. 11 Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
After Moses again requested that God go among the people and forgive them and take them back as His people, the LORD agreed and covenanted once again through His servant Moses to do marvelous things for the people and to drive out their enemies.
Verses 12-15 Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: 13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: 14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: 15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
God’s covenant came with a warning. No agreement was to be made with the people living in the land where they were to travel and reside. To do so would send the nation down the path of worshiping false gods and committing idolatry. The end results would be the nation rejecting the rule or the one true God and accepting the rule of devils.
God reveals to Moses that he has another name, Jealous. The Hebrew word is “qanna” and it only occurs six times in Scripture. There is that number six again, the number of man. This name again demonstrates the character of God. This jealous nature is not like that of men which is usually evil, where a person wants what someone else has, where there is the presence of envy. This jealous nature is meaning that a righteous God will not tolerate unrighteousness or share glory with any other false god. He demands faithfulness and exclusive worship from His people.
Verses 16-17 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. 18 Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
Intermarrying was prohibited with the pagan nations. The Hebrew people left Egypt as a mixed multitude, meaning that they had people other than Syrians in their midst, and this continued their entire history as recorded in Scripture. This writer does not believe that God was against marrying within other races as He created all races and intimately all races are related back to Adam and Eve. This writer believes that God was against marrying outside of the Hebrew peoples’ religion as women can be very persuasive and lead their husbands into adopting the pagan religions and belief systems that was theirs. Look at the story of Sampson for an example or the story of Solomon, the king of Israel.
Verse 18 The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.
This feast was to continue throughout all generations as a reminder of how God had redeemed His people out of slavery in Egypt.
Verses 19-20 All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male. 20 But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty.
This has been discussed in previous chapters, but to serve as a reminder, the Hebrew people were to give to the LORD the first of everything they had, whether children, animals or crops. The redeeming of their firstborn sons was a reminder of when the death angel went through Egypt and killed all of the Egyptian firstborn but did not kill the Hebrew firstborn. This is also a foreshadowing of how God was going to sacrifice His only son, Jesus Christ, to redeem the people of the world.
Verse 21 Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
Application: Believers are to strive to be like Jesus who is God in the flesh. They are to follow and imitate Him. He was the creator and He rested on the seventh day. Therefore, as imitators of Jesus, believers are to rest from their labors one day a week. This does not mean that they cannot cook or eat or do dishes. This means that the labor that is done to make a living should cease for one day. If you are a shop owner, the shop should be closed one day a week. That gives employees a rest. If you are a farmer and use livestock for work, they get a rest also. It is very hard for people in western cultures to do this as the drive to make money can be all consuming. But families need uninterrupted time together and the health benefits are obvious and needed in today’s stressed out world. And besides, God said to do it.
Verses 22-24 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end. 23 Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel. 24 For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year.
The feast of weeks or firstfruits was to celebrate the beginning of the harvest, and the feast of ingathering was to celebrate the end of harvest. So all three required feasts occurred from the beginning of summer to the end of summer. The people were not required to take a road trip on foot to celebrate in winter.
Application: When the three feast are looked at together, God’s plan of salvation can be clearly seen. He sent his son, Jesus, to be a sacrifice for sins (unleavened bread, no sin, the bread of life), and then established the church which was and should be involved in sharing the gospel seed or message so that a harvest of souls can be gathered. Metaphorically, there will be a “year’s end” when no more souls can be brought into the kingdom of God as He will return and end this world system with all of its sin once and for all.
Verses 25-26 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning. 26 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.
Leaven represents sin in the Bible. Not offering the blood with leaven was foreshadowing the death and shedding of blood of the LORD Jesus Christ who was without sin.
Verses 27-28 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. 28 And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
God wrote His words in stone for His people. These words in the form of the ten commandments are immovable and are still in effect today. His words will never come to an end. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33
Verses 29-30 And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. 30 And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.
Application: When a believer spends time in the presence of the LORD, it shows. People can see something is different on the face of the believer just as the Hebrew people saw Moses’ face as different after he had been with God for forty days and nights.
Verses 31-35 And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them. 32 And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him in mount Sinai. 33 And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face. 34 But when Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the vail off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. 35 And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone: and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.