Moses Makes New Tablets: Exodus 34.1-9
The Lord tells Moses to cut two new tablets on which the Lord will write the words on the destroyed tablets. Moses should come up the mountain the next day with the cut tablets, after ensuring that neither people nor flocks are on the mountain.
The next day the Lord comes down on Mount Sinai in a cloud and reveals himself in a scene that parallels yesterday's revelation. The Lord proclaims the name YHWH and passees before Moses, proclaiming:
The Lord, the Lord,The poem echoes Commandment Two (Ex. 20.5-6).
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.
(Ex. 34.6-7)
Moses bows his head to the earth and worships, praying for the Lord to go with the stiff-necked Israelites and pardon their iniquity.
The Covenant Renewed: Exodus 34.10-28
God creates a covenant with Israel that echoes a lot of what God has already told Moses. The Lord first promises wonders (the same noun from Ex. 3.20) that have never seen before - which is impressive, because the marvels in Egypt were quite marvelous.
The Lord the commands that Moses listens to a new decalogue, a new set of ten commandments. This is a different version of the Ten Commandments. Ten is a very convenient, round number for laws. The commandments come from a hodgepodge of other commandments in Exodus. At least half of these appear in Exodus 23.
The Commandments:
One: Destroy foreign gods to prevent intermarriage.
God will drive out the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. This is the third iteration of such a promise, nearly identical to the first. The Israelites should not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land. They should tear down the altars, pillars, and sacred poles, as the Israelites will only worship the Lord, "whose name is Jealous" (a pun) (Ex. 34.14).
Making a covenant with the inhabitants is the first step down a slippery slope. The Israelites will be invited to the sacrifices, eat of the sacrifices, and take wives from them who will convert their sons.
Two: Don't make false idols.
Three: Keep the festival of unleavened bread in the month of Abib.
Four: All the firstborn animals belong to God, though the firstborn sons may be redeemed. No one shall appear before God empty-handed.
Five: Keep the sabbath, even in plowing and harvest time.
Six: Observe the festival of weeks, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the festival of ingathering.
Seven: Three times a year all the males shall appear before God, for God will give Israel Land and cast out the enemies.
Eight: Do not offer the sacrifice with leaven, and destroy the passover sacrifice leftovers before morning.
Nine: The best of the first fruits should be brought to God.
Ten: Do not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
One of these things is not like the others.
Can you guess which one it is? The first nine commandments concern ritual practice and the obedience of God, and are at least related to God. Commandment Ten...Not so much. No explanation is given, and no explanation was given either in Ex.23.19. The problem is the mixing of a fluid of life (milk) with death. Purity was very important to the Israelites. But this command still has nothing to do with God directly. Rather, it is about ritual observance for the sanctity of purity.
The Lord tells Moses to write these words, which are part of the covenant between God and Moses and Israel. Moses is with the Lord on the mountain for forty days and forty nights [a symbolic formula meaning"a long time"], and does not eat (bread) or drink (water) during this time. He spends this time writing the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
But wait! The text would seem to indicate that what Moses writes down isn't THE Ten Commandments with the "Thou shall not kill" and "Honor thy mother and father." Well, yes. That is what Moses does. The original ten commandments were probably shattered when Moses threw the original stones. So what the heck are we doing following the new ones? And who wrote down the old ones anyway? [The answer used to be "Moses" but this is not a belief held by many biblical scholars today]. Well, don't ask me that. Ask your religious leader or a professor. Then let me know what that person says.
The Shining Face of Moses: Exodus 34.29-35
Moses comes down the mountain one last time to correct the botched entrance earlier in the golden calf debacle. He returns, tablets in hand, not knowing that his face shines with the shine that one can only get talking to God. Aaron and the Israelites fear Moses at first, but Moses calls them near and gives them the all the commandments the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai. Whether this includes his first commandment-receiving journey the author does not say.
Moses puts a veil on his face that he removes before speaking to the Lord (in the proto-tent of meeting - see yesterday's post). When Moses exits with commandments, the skin on his face shines, and Moses again puts on his veil.
Tomorrow: More laws. Sorry?
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