Sermon Notes

34 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready in the morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. 3 No one shall come up with you, and do not let anyone be seen throughout all the mountain, and do not let flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.” 4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tablets of stone. 5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name, “The Lord.”[a] 6 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,
7 keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,[b]
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
yet by no means clearing the guilty,
but visiting the iniquity of the parents
upon the children
and the children’s children
to the third and the fourth generation.”
8 And Moses quickly bowed down to the ground and worshiped. 9 He said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, my Lord, I pray, let my Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
10 He said, “I hereby make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform marvels, such as have not been done[c] in all the earth or in any nation, and all the people among whom you live shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.
(New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, NRSVue)
34 1-3 God spoke to Moses: “Cut out two tablets of stone just like the originals and engrave on them the words that were on the original tablets you smashed. Be ready in the morning to climb Mount Sinai and get set to meet me on top of the mountain. Not a soul is to go with you; the whole mountain must be clear of people, even animals—not even sheep or oxen can be grazing in front of the mountain.”
4-7 So Moses cut two tablets of stone just like the originals. He got up early in the morning and climbed Mount Sinai as God had commanded him, carrying the two tablets of stone. God descended in the cloud and took up his position there beside him and called out the name, God. God passed in front of him and called out, “God, God, a God of mercy and grace, endlessly patient—so much love, so deeply true—loyal in love for a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. Still, he doesn’t ignore sin. He holds sons and grandsons responsible for a father’s sins to the third and even fourth generation.”
8-9 At once, Moses fell to the ground and worshiped, saying, “Please, O Master, if you see anything good in me, please Master, travel with us, hard-headed as these people are. Forgive our iniquity and sin. Own us, possess us.”
10 And God said, “As of right now, I’m making a covenant with you: In full sight of your people I will work wonders that have never been created in all the Earth, in any nation. Then all the people with whom you’re living will see how tremendous God’s work is, the work I’ll do for you. (The Message, MSG)

This theme for this autumn quarter of lessons is God Visits Us. The Hebrew word for visit is, “paqad” (פָּקַ֥ד), which can, “to attend to, to visit, to muster, to appoint, or even to punish. When God paqads, something significant is bound to happen. God visits Sarah in Genesis 21, opening her barren womb so that she can conceive Issac. In Genesis 50, as Jospeh is dying he tells his brothers that God will visit them to bring them back into their native homeland. In Exodus 3, God instructs Moses to go Hebrew elders and tell them that God has visited them and is attending to their suffering in Egypt. In various ways, and in various contexts, God visits God’s people, attending to their various needs. This quarterly curricular focus reminds all believers of the “surprising, faithful ways that God draws near to people often at the very moment they feel most exposed, uncertain, and overwhelmed.”
Last week’s lesson centered on how God drew near to Jacob when he was homeless, alone, and destitute—without provision, or promise of provision—this is the very definition of exposed, uncertain, and overwhelmed that the UMI editors speak of in the September letter from the Editors. Despite Jacob’s deceitful, trifling ways which lead him into a wilderness of his own making, God not only chooses to draw near to Jacob, but God also chooses to bless him.
In this week’s lesson, God again chooses to visit Moses and God’s people despite their deceitful, trifling ways and their idolatrous worship of the golden calf. Although God has every right to abandon these “stiff-necked” people in the wilderness. God does not do that. Instead, God again invites Moses up to Mount Sinai where God will again inscribe the tablets, make a covenant with the people, and proclaim the Divine Name. This text reminds us that God is not only a divine deliverer, but also a divine forgiver. After all, God’s act of again entering into covenant with Israel is a testament to divine forgiveness.

Exodus is the second book of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and the second book of the Pentateuch—the first five books of the bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). The name exodus comes from the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, and is best translated as way out or exit. The title of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament is “Shemot”—which literally means “the names,” referring to the names of Jacob’s sons who emigrated to Egypt from Canaan with their entire households at the invitation of their brother, Joseph (Exodus 1:1-5). However, Jospeh dies and a new Pharoah who does not remember him sees Jacob’s descendants as a threat and immediately begins oppressing Joseph’s family. Therefore Exodus recounts events that God orchestrated so that Jacob’s descendants had a “way out,” or exodus from enslavement and oppression in Egypt.
In the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, it is important to note that the exodus—God’s liberation of the Hebrew people from enslavement in Egypt—is God’s defining act. For the national and religious identity of Israel, the exodus is the most important event within the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. As Dr. Judy Fentress asserts, in the exodus God takes sides. Through the exodus, and its ongoing commemoration, the Hebrew children become God’s people in word (the spoken and written law) and deed (the initiation of covenant, divine provision, divine protection). Therefore, it makes sense that the book of Exodus is organized around two central themes: God’s liberation of the Israelite people from bondage in Egypt—literally an exodus from Egypt—and God’s abiding presence with those same people as they sojourn from Egypt to the promised land of Canaan.
While Jewish and Christian tradition historically ascribed Exodus—and the entire Pentateuch to Moses—contemporary biblical scholarship reveals Exodus was written by anonymous authors from different theological perspectives over an extended time period spanning hundreds of years. This week’s lesson text (Exodus 34:1-10) is drawn from the second half of Exodus (15:22 – 40:38) which deals with the wilderness wanderings of the Hebrews. In chapters 25 through 31, while speaking with Moses face to face on Mount Sinai, God personally provides Moses with detailed instructions concerning how the divine presence will dwell within the Israelite camp. Whereas Moses and the people have needed to ascend to God on the Mount Sinai, God decided to descend from Sinai and permanently abide with the Hebrews from the center of their traveling camp site. As the people journey, God would journey with them, as the nucleus of their walking, working, and worship in the wilderness.
However, in chapter 32, because the people impatiently tire of waiting for Moses to return from Sinai with divine instructions, they coerce Aaron to make a golden calf from their jewelry. Then Aaron and the people worship this idol. Moses descends the mountain, angrily breaks the stone tablets, and intercedes on behalf of the people with the LORD who rejects the Hebrews for making “gods of gold.” God withdraws the divine presence from the people, vows to destroy them, and unleashes a plague as divine retribution. The question that looms large at the end of this chapter is, “will God forgive?
In chapter 33, Moses continues his intercession on behalf of the people and God agrees to continue sojourning with Moses and the people. God even promises that Moses can behold God’s glory. As God prepares to have the remaining people depart for the Promised Land, Moses is instructed to prepare a second set of stone tablets to replace the ones that Moses destroyed. This is where the lesson text picks up the narrative.

1-3 God spoke to Moses: “Cut out two tablets of stone just like the originals and engrave on them the words that were on the original tablets you smashed. Be ready in the morning to climb Mount Sinai and get set to meet me on top of the mountain. Not a soul is to go with you; the whole mountain must be clear of people, even animals—not even sheep or oxen can be grazing in front of the mountain.”
In the opening verses of the lesson text, God instructs Moses to cut two new tablets to replace the ones that he broke in anger. While the MSG translation seems to indicate that Moses will both cut and engrave the tablets, in the Hebrew text, God clearly states in first person grammatical construction, “I will write on the tablets the words which were on the first tablets that you shattered.” Therefore, the NRSVue, NIV, KJV, and NLT more accurately reflect the Hebrew text. Moses broke the first tablets because he was angered by the people’s sinful behavior. This makes the point that when humans sin, it not only angers God, but it also breaks God’s heart.
Even though the people have sinned, God commands Moses to replace the shattered tablets so the Lord can engrave the same words that were previously given. This symbolizes the divine initiative to renew covenant relationship with the people. The imperative to Moses to “be ready” is a call to personal consecration. When Moses prepared the 70 elders to meet the Lord, they had to go through a period of consecration. Moses would not have to go through such a rigorous process—there was not enough time to do so—but still, he had to consecrate himself.
4-7 So Moses cut two tablets of stone just like the originals. He got up early in the morning and climbed Mount Sinai as God had commanded him, carrying the two tablets of stone. God descended in the cloud and took up his position there beside him and called out the name, God. God passed in front of him and called out, “God, God, a God of mercy and grace, endlessly patient—so much love, so deeply true—loyal in love for a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. Still, he doesn’t ignore sin. He holds sons and grandsons responsible for a father’s sins to the third and even fourth generation.”
Moses obeys God completely. This reminds 21st century Christians how important it is that we exercise full obedience to God’s Word. In Deuteronomy 6:4-9—known as the Shema—Israel is called to love the Lord with “all our heart, mind and strength.” Leviticus 19:18, says Israel was to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Our devotion to this law of love is what Jesus called for in Luke 10:27. Our devotion to God us to be in whole—our whole hearts, selves, minds. Love in part, is not truly love. In verse 5, God descends from the cloud and stands next to Moses. This is God inclining towards humanity. This is God choosing get down in the dust, mud, and miry clay with us. Theologically, we know that God is omnipresent —in all places at all times. But this is different. This is God visiting the people in a manner that is typically unheard of in ancient Near Eastern religions. In those cultures, gods don’t come down and personally involve themselves in human affairs. They do that from on high, from afar. Yet the LORD comes down and sits with Moses. Further, God self identifies by the name, YHWH, so Moses will know that this is the same God that called to him from the burning bush.
In verses 6 and 7, God explicates the divine Name, identifying the divine attributes that comprise God’s personhood. The writers of Exodus make it clear that the divine Name reveals God’s moral character and God’s forgiving character. While God’s justice demands judgment and punishment, God’s mercy prevails, and is expressed in divine love and forgiveness: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation,” (NRSVue).
These verses proclaiming the divine Name reoccur in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, functioning almost as a confessional creed (Exodus 20:5-6; Numbers 14:18, Deuteronomy 5:9; Psalm 103:8; Jeremiah 32:18-19). However, Exodus 34 passage differs in that it removes divine wrath as intrinsic component of God’s character. Instead divine wrath and punishment are a response to specific situations, as is divine jealously. Further, God’s covenantal love is no longer tied to the children of Israel loving and keeping the commandments. God will love and be kind, and be gracious, because it is God’s nature to do so.
“For the thousandth generation,” can be translated as thousands, metaphorically meaning God’s love cannot be quantified. It is numerically unlimited and quintessentially eternal. The guilty are those who have committed iniquities, transgressions, and sins. While it would appear that these words are interchangeable, the Hebrew text reveals three different offenses. The Hebrew word translated as iniquity, “avon,” comes from the root word “avah” which means to bend, giving the sense of people literally bending towards evil. The Hebrew word translated as transgression, is “pesha,” and means rebellion against God. The Hebrew word translated as sin is “chattah” and means habitual sinfulness.
When the LORD says “forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin,” the writers of Exodus make it clear that Divine forgiveness covers all manner of sinful behavior, highlighting the breadth and length of God’s forgiveness to “thousands” of generations. While the guilty may experience the consequence of sin—to the third and fourth generations—God’s forgiveness overshadows punishment exponentially. Although Exodus 32:10 shows God’s response at the people’s apostacy was intense anger—in Hebrew it literally says God’s nostrils were hot—now, God’s name/character reveals the steadfast love of One who merciful and gracious with the “womb-love” of a mother for her child.
8-9 At once, Moses fell to the ground and worshiped, saying, “Please, O Master, if you see anything good in me, please Master, travel with us, hard-headed as these people are. Forgive our iniquity and sin. Own us, possess us.”
Moses worships God because God was worthy to be praised. But he also prostrates himself in humility before God because he is yet interceding on behalf of the people. Moses did not do anything wrong, yet he is humbling himself on behalf of someone else. His concern is not for his own sins, but for the sins of the children of Israel. Essentially, Moses’ prays a prayer for judicial pardon, passionately interceding for his people, God’s people—because he knows if God does not forgive the people, they will not make it to the promised land. The promise of the promised land in only fully actualized within a covenant relationship with the one who brings the promise to pass. Further, the ongoing dialog between Moses and God reveals that Moses does not treat the LORD like a cosmic bellhop, or a genie in a bottle. As Moses intercedes, he approaches God with reverence and awe because he understands that Divine grace should not—cannot—be taken for granted.
10 And God said, “As of right now, I’m making a covenant with you: In full sight of your people I will work wonders that have never been created in all the Earth, in any nation. Then all the people with whom you’re living will see how tremendous God’s work is, the work I’ll do for you.
In the final verse of the lesson text, God says the relationship that the LORD has with the people surpasses the previous relationship. The NRSVue and NIV characterizes this new covenant relationship as that which has never before been “done.” However, the MSG more accurately captures the Hebrew text. The LORD says, ‘I will work wonders that have never been created in all the earth or the nations.” The Hebrew word for create is “bara,” as in Genesis 1:1, “in the beginning, God created (bara) the heavens and the earth.” In the bible, only God is the subject of the verb “bara.” This means God is doing a new thing in verse 10. God is creating a new covenant with, and through, the children of Israel that has not been done before. This is not simply an extension of the previous covenant, this is a new covenant birthed from God’s character as a loving, gracious, and forgiving God. Further, the Divine initiates covenant irrespective of the people’s response.

i. “Letter from the Editors, September 2026,” Precepts for Living: God’s Unchanging Hand 2026-2027 (Chicago: UMI, 2026).
ii. Terence E. Fretheim, Exodus: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010) 302.
iii. Thomas Dozeman, Exodus: Eerdmans Critical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2009), 737.
iv Ibid., 307.