Exodus 34 – Covenant Renewed and Glory Reflected
After Israel’s failure with the golden calf, God in mercy renews His covenant. Moses ascends the mountain again, receives the rewritten commandments, and comes down radiant—transformed by glory.
Restoration After Rebellion
Exodus 34 brings divine restoration. After Israel’s idolatry, God calls Moses back up the mountain—not to condemn, but to renew the covenant. What follows is one of the clearest revelations of God’s character in all of Scripture.
✔ New tablets given to replace the broken ones.
✔ God proclaims His name and character.
✔ A renewed covenant and fresh commands.
✔ Moses’ face shines from divine encounter.
📖 Key Verse: “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious…” – Exodus 34:6
🔎 After failure, God doesn’t abandon—He reveals mercy, truth, and a second chance.
Exodus Chapter 34 Overview
Exodus 34:1–9 – The God of Mercy and Covenant
📖 Exodus 34:1–2 – *”Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first… and be ready in the morning… come up… and present thyself.”
🔎 A second chance begins with obedience:
🔹 God invites Moses to re-ascend Sinai, symbolizing restoration after rebellion. The first tablets were broken by sin—now new ones will be shaped by repentance.
🔹 Moses must carve the tablets this time—grace still calls for responsibility.
➡️ Spiritual Insight: Forgiveness doesn’t erase obedience—it renews it with reverence.
📖 Exodus 34:3–5 – *”No man shall come up… and the Lord descended in the cloud.”
🔎 Holy ground revisited:
🔹 This moment is sacred and set apart—no distractions, no noise. God descends again in a cloud, meeting Moses in divine intimacy.
🔹 Like Eden’s communion, this is about restoring relationship—not just repeating laws.
➡️ Ministry Insight: Renewal happens when we meet God alone, on His terms, with open hearts.
📖 Exodus 34:6–7 – *”The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering…”
🔎 The heart of God revealed:
🔹 This is the most quoted self-description of God in the Bible. He defines Himself by mercy, grace, patience, truth, and forgiveness—but also justice.
🔹 These words become the anchor of Israel’s understanding of God’s nature and set the tone for covenant relationship.
➡️ Christ Connection: These same attributes are revealed in Jesus (John 1:14). He is the fullness of grace and truth, the visible mercy of the invisible God.
📖 Exodus 34:8–9 – *”Moses made haste, and bowed… and said, If now I have found grace… pardon our iniquity.”
🔎 The right response to revelation:
🔹 Moses worships immediately. God’s mercy moves him to intercession on behalf of a sinful people.
🔹 He acknowledges their sin but appeals to grace—a picture of bold, broken humility.
➡️ Prayer Model: True prayer doesn’t deny sin; it clings to God’s character and pleads for covenant mercy.
Exodus 34:10–28 – Covenant Renewed and Commands Repeated
📖 Exodus 34:10–11 – *”Behold, I make a covenant… observe thou that which I command thee this day.”
🔎 A renewed agreement:
🔹 God reaffirms His covenant, promising to do wonders among the people—not because they deserve it, but because of His mercy.
🔹 The expectation is clear: obedience to His Word is the condition of walking in covenant.
➡️ Spiritual Insight: God’s faithfulness remains—but so does His call to holiness.
📖 Exodus 34:12–17 – *”Take heed… lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land…”
🔎 Warning against compromise:
🔹 God’s renewed covenant comes with boundaries. Idolatry, intermarriage, and spiritual blending would corrupt their calling.
🔹 He commands them to tear down altars and refuse syncretism—protecting true worship.
➡️ Prophetic Warning: The danger of compromise is just as real today. God’s people are called to remain set apart and pure.
📖 Exodus 34:18–26 – Review of holy times, firstfruits, and sacrificial purity.
🔎 Foundations of covenant living:
🔹 These reminders ground Israel in cycles of remembrance—feasts, offerings, Sabbaths. They are not mere rituals, but spiritual rhythms meant to keep them aligned with God.
🔹 God’s people are to be grateful, generous, and faithful in both time and resource.
➡️ Christ Connection: These laws point forward to Christ—our Passover, Firstfruits, and Sabbath rest (1 Corinthians 5:7; Hebrews 4:9).
📖 Exodus 34:27–28 – *”Write thou these words… he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights.”
🔎 Law rewritten, communion restored:
🔹 Moses once again spends 40 days in God’s presence—a parallel to the original giving of the law.
🔹 God rewrites the covenant not because He changed—but because His mercy endures.
➡️ Ministry Insight: Restoration takes time. Sometimes the glory comes only after a long waiting in God’s presence.
Exodus 34:29–35 – Glory Reflected in the Face of Moses
📖 Exodus 34:29–30 – *”Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him… and they were afraid to come nigh him.”
🔎 Radiance from revelation:
🔹 Moses didn’t know he was glowing—true transformation is often unselfconscious. His encounter with God left a visible mark of glory.
🔹 The people feared it—reminding us that holiness both attracts and convicts.
➡️ Spiritual Insight: Time in God’s presence changes us—often in ways that others notice before we do.
📖 Exodus 34:31–32 – *”And Moses called unto them… and afterward all the children of Israel came nigh.”
🔎 From distance to instruction:
🔹 Though initially fearful, the people drew near to hear God’s Word. Reverence gave way to receptivity.
🔹 Moses serves as both mediator and messenger, delivering the covenant instructions again.
➡️ Ministry Insight: Those who reflect God’s glory are entrusted to speak His truth with authority.
📖 Exodus 34:33–35 – *”Moses put a veil on his face… until he went in before the Lord.”
🔎 Veiled glory:
🔹 Moses veiled his face, not out of pride, but to shield Israel from the fading glory (2 Corinthians 3:13). It symbolized the temporary nature of the old covenant.
🔹 In Christ, the veil is lifted—we behold and reflect God’s glory with unveiled faces (2 Corinthians 3:18).
➡️ Christ Connection: Jesus’ transfiguration radiated divine glory not borrowed, but His own. In Him, we’re invited to walk in light, not shadows.
Exodus Chapter 34 - Deeper Study
Overview: From Broken Law to Radiant Grace
🔹 Timeframe: Shortly after the golden calf and the intercession of Moses.
🔹 Setting: Moses returns to Sinai alone to receive the new tablets.
🔹 Theme: God restores covenant, reveals His name, and reflects glory through His servant.
Key Takeaways
🔑 God is gracious, even after our failure.
🔑 His name reveals His nature.
🔑 True encounters with God leave us changed.
Prophetic Patterns & Dual Fulfillment
🔮 Second tablets – A symbol of new beginnings and the gospel of grace.
🔮 Proclaimed name of God – Fulfilled in Jesus, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
🔮 Shining face of Moses – Foreshadowing the transfiguration and the transformation of believers (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Historical & Cultural Context
📜 Stone tablets – Seen as divine contracts in ancient times; the act of rewriting them was a legal and spiritual renewal.
📜 Radiant face – A rare biblical moment where proximity to God alters a man’s appearance.
💡 Final Reflection: Transformed by the Encounter
God didn’t just give laws—He gave a glimpse of Himself. Moses descended glowing with what he’d seen. So should we.
📌 Have you sought His glory or only His gifts?
📌 Are you walking in covenant or merely observing religion?
📌 Is your life a reflection of time spent in His presence?
🚀 Let your heart reflect the glory you behold. The world is watching.
Moses Makes New Tablets
Exo 34:1 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.
Exo 34:2 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.
Exo 34:3 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.
Exo 34:4 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.
Exo 34:5 And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
Exo 34:6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
Exo 34:7 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.
Exo 34:8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.
Exo 34:9 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.
The Covenant Renewed
Exo 34:10 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.
Exo 34:11 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.
Exo 34:12 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:
Exo 34:13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:
Exo 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
Exo 34:15 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;
Exo 34:16 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.
Exo 34:17 Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
Exo 34:18 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.
Exo 34:19 All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.
Exo 34:20 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.
Exo 34:21 Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
Exo 34:22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.
Exo 34:23 Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.
Exo 34:24 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.
Exo 34:25 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.
Exo 34:26 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.
Exo 34:27 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.
Exo 34:28 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.
The Shining Face of Moses
Exo 34:29 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.
Exo 34:30 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.
Exo 34:31 And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them.
Exo 34:32 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.
Exo 34:33 And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face.
Exo 34:34 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.
Exo 34:35 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.
Date Written
1446-1406 BC
Written By
Moses
Language
Hebrew
Verses
35