Cheating on the One Who Loves You-Exodus 34:8-28

Exodus, Old Testament, Sermons

Video recording 7/31/2022. Renewing the covenant. When someone cheats on you, hurts you and violates your trust, what will you do? Nasty breakups and divorces are sadly all too common with the wealthy having huge financial settlements [Bezos, Gates]…and their dirty laundry is exposed for the world to read. Observers pick sides based on who they like, or on whether their politics allign with theirs.

** But what does God do when we cheat on him, violate his trust and break his heart?

Cut a covenant. “Then the Lord [Yahveh] said, ‘I am making a covenant with you” [“I am cutting a covenant“] (Exo 34:10). “Then the Lord [Yahveh] said to Moses, ‘Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant [“cut a covenant“] with you and with Israel” (Exo 34:27). The Jews establish a covenant by the ceremony of cutting an animal, sharing a meal symbolizing unity and the dismembering / death for the party that breaks the covenant.

Renewing, remaking, restoring, restating, reiterating and reinstituting the covenant [not revising it or making a new one]. Exo 34:10 is generally parallel to Exo 19:4-6. God mercifully agreed to full covenant restoration by means of a remaking of the Sinai covenant–a reinstitution, not a revision. This is NOT a new covenant, per “the words [that] were on the first tablets” (Exo 34:1), “the words of the covenant–the Ten Words / Commandments” (Exo 34:28), and in the 10 sample commandments/key sample laws (34:17-26) as sample repetitions already given in the original covenant statement in Exo 20-23, and by summary commands to obey the covenant (Exo 34:11-12).

Divine restoration of a broken covenant–made null and void by Israel’s idolatry (Exodus 32). The covenant needed to be reinstated as Yahweh showed his merciful and patient nature as magisterially described by God Himself (Exo 34:6-7) by taking responsibility upon himself to reinstitute it for the benefit of his once and now again covenant people (Exo 34:10). He made the same Sinai covenant again, but he was making it anew, remaking it, not just reminding the people of their content.

Identifying the parties of the covenant: “the Lord, the Lord” [“Yahveh, Yahveh”] (Exo 34:6) and the other party “your people … the people you live among” (Exo 34:10); also “God of Israel” (Exo 34:23); “covenant with Israel” (Exo 34:27).

Moses‘ great concern: Will God go with Israel? (Exo 34:8-9). Moses’ attitude in the presence of God/in life (Exo 34:8):

  1. His natural immediate response in the presence of God was to worship [“bowed to the ground”].
  2. Worship preceded appeal.
  3. Worship exalts the one being worshiped and draws no favorable attention to the worshipper.
  4. Identifying with fellow sinners: not “I” and “they,” but “we” and “our.”
    1. Whoever we blame we resemble.
    2. Whatever we want on others we bring upon ourselves and our children.

Moses continues his appeal that he already began in earnest (Exo 32:11-13) and had reiterated several times (Exo 32:31-32; 33:12-16, 18). In response, God’s record of reassurance is already well established (Exo 32:33-34; 33:2, 14, 17, 19-23). Thus, each time since the golden bull, God had responded favorably to Moses’ intercession on behalf of Israel. He now pressed the case to its final full level: he asked God for 2 guarantees of grace (Exo 34:9):

  1. “Lord go with us“: that God would go in Israel’s very midst without restriction by his presence, and
  2. “forgive our wickedness and our sin”: that God would forgive the people’s sin so that they would no longer be under danger of judgment and covenant rejection.

“I will do wonders never before done…The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, Yahveh, will do for you” (Exo 34:10). This is not grounds for self-confidence, for what God does is to honor himself through the great things he would do for Israel rather than through the great things Israel did by which other people were impressed.

A requirement precedes a promise. Covenant obedience is the requirement–the sine qua non of any expectation for divine blessing. “Obey what I command you today” (Exo 34:11) is nothing less than a demand for complete adherence to the complete Sinai covenant as it is reinstated by a merciful God. The promise picks up much of the language of Exo 23:23, 28.

  • Warnings against covenants/treaties with the inhabitants of the promised land (34:12-16).
  • The only verse in the OT where Yahweh is jealous for his name (Exo 34:14), meaning he guards his name’s significance–it points to his nature, character and uniqueness as the only true God–and won’t let it be profaned by idolatry or any other misuse. God’s jealousy doesn’t arise from petty motives but from beneficent ones. The problem with idols is not that they make God feel bad but that they cannot save and receive eternal life. God’s hatred of idols reflects his love for us, not any insecurity with regard to himself.
  • Prostitution [znh] is a metaphorical way of describing infidelity to God’s covenant through idolatry (Exo 34:15-16). Being invited to eat at a sacrifice is like being invited out in modern times to dine at a fine restaurant: the invitation would be hard to turn down, and refusing could be thought as impolite.
  • Intermarriage in the Bible is never discouraged on ethnic grounds, but religious intermarriage is consistently discouraged on religious grounds. There’s nothing negative with the mixing of races (Num 12:1; Jer 39:16-18), but great danger attends the mixing of religions (Ezra 12; Neh 13), with those marriages bringing idolatry into Israel as happened with Solomon (1 Kgs 11:3-4). Yahweh insists otherwise, knowing the inclinations of people and the power of romantic attraction to overcome inadequate religious conviction.
  • Renewal of the covenant with a “decalogue” of sample laws/commandments (34:17-26) [from the Covenant Code of Exo 20-23], worded in apodictic style like the 10 commandments (Exo 20:2-17)[cf. casuistic involving situations that may or may not apply to everyone in the same way].
  • Put the covenant in writing (Exo 34:27-28) strongly endorses the renewed covenant. Making permanent the covenant by writing constitutes a sign of its reinstitution, the very thing Moses had repeatedly appealed to God. Moses wrote down all the words of the covenant (Exo 34:27)–everything from Exo 20:18 to this present point + the 10 Words, which God recorded personally on 2 tablets (Exo 34:1). In Exo 34:28, 3 points are made:
    1. Moses was in God’s presence for 40 days and 40 nights,
    2. he fasted completely during that time, and
    3. God personally wrote the 10 Words/Commandments on the tablets once again.

Reference:

  1. Douglas K. Stuart. Exodus. The New American Commentary: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture. 2006.
  2. Philip Graham Ryken. Exodus. Saved for God’s Glory. Preaching the Word. 2015.
  3. Leon R. Kass. Founding God’s Nation. Reading Exodus. 2021.
  4. James K. Bruckner. Exodus. New International Bible Commentary. 2008.
  5. John Goldingay. Exodus & Leviticus for Everyone. 2010.
  6. Robert Alter. The Hebrew Bible. A translation with commentary. The Five Books of Moses. 2019.
  7. Dennis Prager. Exodus. God, Slavery, and Freedom. The Rational Bible. 2018.

3 words to encompass all manner of depravity:

  1. iniquity — twisted or perverse;
  2. transgression — willful rebellion, violating the clear mandates and commands of the Lord; and
  3. sin — falling short of the glory of God.
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