Key Verses: Exodus 34:6-7, 34:29, 34:35
The LORD commands Moses to cut two new stone tablets like the first, which he broke, and to come up the mountain alone. There the LORD descends in the cloud and passes before Moses, proclaiming His name: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.” Moses bows and worships, pleading again that God pardon Israel’s iniquity and take them as His inheritance. The LORD renews the covenant, promising to do marvels and warning Israel to tear down Canaanite altars and make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they be ensnared into idolatry; He restates the feasts of Unleavened Bread, Weeks, and Ingathering, the redemption of the firstborn, and the Sabbath. Moses remains with the LORD forty days and nights, neither eating nor drinking, and writes the words of the covenant on the tablets. When he descends, his face shines because he had been talking with God, and he does not know it; Aaron and the people are afraid to come near. So Moses speaks God’s words to them and then veils his face, unveiling it only when he goes in to speak with the LORD.
The proclamation of the divine name is the theological summit of Exodus, revealing a God who is both boundlessly merciful and unwaveringly just, forgiving iniquity yet by no means clearing the guilty. This apparent tension is resolved only at Calvary, where God is both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26), for there sin is forgiven precisely because it is punished in the Son. The renewal of the covenant after the golden calf displays the persistence of grace toward a people who deserved destruction. Moses’ shining face, a reflected and fading glory, is contrasted by Paul with the surpassing and permanent glory of the new covenant, where believers behold the Lord’s glory with unveiled faces and are transformed (2 Corinthians 3:7-18). The veil that hid the fading glory foreshadows the veil over hardened hearts that is removed only in Christ. Here the character of God, proclaimed in mercy and truth, becomes the ground of all our hope.
Key Terms & Words:
- חֶסֶד (chesed) - Exodus 34:6 - “Steadfast love”; God’s covenant loyalty and loving-kindness, abounding and kept for thousands of generations
- אֱמֶת (emet) - Exodus 34:6 - “Faithfulness/truth”; God’s reliability and trustworthiness, paired with chesed as the essence of His character
- קָרַן (qaran) - Exodus 34:29 - “Shine/send out rays”; Moses’ face shines from being with God, a reflected glory that would fade
Cross-References:
- Romans 3:25-26 - God just and the justifier, resolving mercy and justice at the cross
- 2 Corinthians 3:7-18 - The fading glory of Moses’ face versus the surpassing new covenant glory
- John 1:17 - Grace and truth (chesed and emet) came through Jesus Christ
- Numbers 14:18 - Moses appeals to this proclamation of God’s character
- Psalm 103:8 - “The LORD is merciful and gracious,” echoing the divine name
Discussion Questions:
- How does the proclamation of God’s name in 34:6-7 hold together His mercy and His justice?
- Which attribute of God in the divine name most reassures or challenges you personally?
- How does the cross of Christ answer how God can forgive sin yet not clear the guilty?