THE RENEWAL OF THE SINAI COVENANT

THE RENEWAL OF THE SINAI COVENANT  - EXODUS 34:1 -35

EXODUS 34:1-35

Exodus 34 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
Moses Makes New Tablets

1. 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.”
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,
   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 his head toward the earth, and worshiped.
9. He said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
   The Covenant Renewed
10. He said: I hereby make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform marvels, such as have not been performed 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.
11. Observe what I command you today. See, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
    
12. Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, or it will become a snare among you.
    
13. You shall tear down their altars, break their pillars, and cut down their sacred poles
    
14. (for you shall worship no other god, because the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God).
    
15. You shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, someone among them will invite you, and you will eat of the sacrifice.
    
16. And you will take wives from among their daughters for your sons, and their daughters who prostitute themselves to their gods will make your sons also prostitute themselves to their gods.
17. You shall not make cast idols.
18. You shall keep the festival of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.
19. All that first opens the womb is mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep.
    
20. The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem.
    No one shall appear before me empty-handed.
21. Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in plowing time and in harvest time you shall rest.
    
22. You shall observe the festival of weeks, the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the festival of in-gathering at the turn of the year.
    
23. Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.
    
24. For I will cast out nations before you, and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.
25. You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, and the sacrifice of the festival of the Passover shall not be left until the morning.
26. The best of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God.
    You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
27. The Lord said to Moses: Write these words; in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.
    
28. 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.
    The Shining Face of Moses
29. Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.
    
30. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him.
    
31. But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them.
    
32. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.
    
33. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face;
    
34. but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded,
    
35. the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

• God forgave the people and Moses.
• The Ten Commandments were re-written on two stone tablets that God had asked Moses to cut.
• Moses went up the mountain with the two stone tablets alone and no man or animal was allowed to be seen around the mountain.
• God declared that he could make a covenant with the Israelites.
• He gave Moses the Ten Commandments the second time.

God revealed his nature to Moses as:

• Merciful/compassionate God.
• Gracious God.
• Slow anger
• Abounding in love
• Faithful to his promise
• Forgiving wickedness, Rebellion and sin.
• Just and jealous/punishes sin
• He promised to take the Israelites to the Promised Land and protect them against the Canaanites

​The Israelites were given conditions to fulfill after the renewal these are:

1. Obey what God commands them.
2. Not to worship any other gods.
3. Not to make any cast idols.
4. To keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
5. To rest on the seventh day.
6. To dedicate all their first born children and that of the flock to God.
7. To offer to God the first fruit of their harvest.
8. Not to enter into any covenant relationship with the inhabitant of Canaan e.g. not to intermarry with foreigners.      
9. To destroy the worshipping place of idols.
10. Not to make molten gods to worship.
11. Three times in a year the male folk were to appear before God.
12. Not to offer the blood of His sacrifice with leaven.
13.  Not to boil a kid in his mother’s milk.

Giving of more promises by God

• God would bless them and make them more prosperous.
• God would preserve them as a chosen nation.
• God would do great and awesome things among his people.
• God would help them settle the Promised Land by driving out the inhabitants/their enemies e.g. Canaanite, perizites etc.

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