Exodus 34:1-35


Despite the sin of Israel, God continues to show His grace, and He calls Moses to come back up on the mountain where He will renew His promises to the children of Israel.  God is so great and gracious that He is able to even use the greatest of sins for His own glory and the good of His people.  It is such a blessing to serve a forgiving God, because we truly are a sinful people.  We must always be careful not to consider sin flippantly in light of God’s forgiveness.  He does take sin very seriously and will not leave the guilty and unrepentant unpunished.
GOD REMINDS MOSES OF HIS FORGIVENESS: God invites Moses to come back up to the mountain with new tablets of stone so that the commandments can be rewritten on them.  In a sense God is allowing the children of Israel to start over.  God is willing to forgive the idolatry and sin that Israel had just committed in order to demonstrate His goodness and His grace.  God does not take sin lightly, but He is loving, kind and gracious.  God blesses the obedient in astounding ways and He forgives the repentant with amazing grace.  When we sin we must be quick to repent and then use God’s gracious forgiveness as a motive to keep from future sin.  Those who persist in sin and think that they can take God’s forgiveness for granted are mistaken.  God’s forgiveness must always be a motivation to holiness.
GOD REQUIRES MOSES TO BE FAITHFULL: God renews His covenant with Israel, but He tells Moses that the children of Israel must be faithful not to go after the gods of the people who live in the land.  All idols and altars are to be completely destroyed.  No treaties are to be made with the people of the land so that they will not be able to lead the people astray into the worship of false gods.  God promises to do amazing miracles and to defeat enemies that are far stronger than the children of Israel.  However, He requires that His people be faithful to remember His laws and to be a people set aside exclusively to worship Him.  God is not willing to compete for the worship of His people.  He requires that we be completely devoted to Him.  We can easily be distracted into the worship of false idols, but God has called us to be faithful to Him.
GOD REFLECTS ON MOSES’ FACE: This time as Moses came down off of the mountain, he did not come in anger to confront the people with their sin.  He came down with his face glowing from having been with God.  His glow was so bright that the people asked him to cover his face when he talked with them.  Every time that Moses would talk with God the glow would be renewed.  The presence of God in our lives should always be visible in our lives through our attitudes and actions.  We should not be able to come from the presence of God with a fallen face.  His joy should always be radiant upon our faces as we have the pleasure of serving Him.

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