Exodus 34:1 - Meaning and Application

The covenant that had been in place between God and Israel was suddenly broken when they worshiped the golden calf. So when peace was restored, everything had to begin again, not where they had left off, but from the start. Backsliders must turn back and do their first works again (Rev. 2:5).

I. Moses had to prepare for the tablets to be made again (Exo. 34:1). Before, God himself provided the tablets and wrote on them. Now Moses had to cut out the tablets, and God would write on them only. In the first writing of the law on the human heart, before sin, both the tablets and the writing were God’s work. But after sin broke and marred those tablets, and the divine law had to be preserved in Scripture, God used human ministry, starting with Moses.

The prophets and apostles only cut out the tablets, so to speak. The writing was still God’s, because all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. When God was reconciled to Israel, he ordered the tablets to be renewed and wrote his law on them. This teaches us three things. First, even under the gospel of peace and reconciliation through Christ, Moses’ intercession pointed ahead to him, the moral law still binds believers. Christ has redeemed us from the law’s curse, but not from its command, and we are still under the law to Christ. When Jesus explained the moral law in the Sermon on the Mount and corrected the false teachings of the scribes and Pharisees (Mat. 5:19), he was in effect renewing the tablets and restoring the law to its original meaning.

Second, the best proof that sin is forgiven and that we are at peace with God is that the law is written in the heart. The first sign God gave Israel of his favor was the renewing of the tablets of the law. In the new covenant, the first promise is, “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts” (Heb. 8:10), and it goes on to say, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness” (Heb. 8:12).

Third, if we want God to write his law in our hearts, we must prepare our hearts to receive it. The hard heart must be cut and broken by conviction and humility for sin (Hos. 6:5). The evil that crowds the heart must be put away (Jam. 1:21). The heart must be made ready, smooth, and worked on, so the word can take hold there.

Moses therefore cut out tablets of stone, or slate. They were so thin that he could carry both in his hand. As for their size, they must have been somewhat smaller than the ark where they were kept, which was about a yard and a quarter long and three quarters of a yard wide. There was nothing especially elaborate about making them, for there was not much time. Moses had them ready at once to take with him the next morning. Their beauty was to come not from human skill, but from the finger of God.

II. Moses had to go again to the top of Mount Sinai and present himself to God there (Exo. 34:2). Moses had been gone so long that the people’s impatience had led them into making the golden calf, yet God did not change his plan because of that. Moses was to come up and stay as long as he had before, to see whether the people had learned to wait.

To impress the people with reverence, they were told to keep their distance. No one was to come up with Moses (Exo. 34:3). They had said, “We do not know what has happened to him” (Exo. 32:1), but God would not let them find out by going up themselves. Moses rose early the next morning (Exo. 34:4) and went to the appointed place, showing how eager he was to come before God and how unwilling he was to waste time. It is good to be early in our worship. The morning is often as helpful to grace as it is to learning and skill.