When Israel rebels against Moses, Moses quotes Exodus 34:6-7 in full as he pleads for Israel’s pardon. This verse is picked up in places like Num 14:18. Like the cross of Christ, this episode shapes the rest of the OT (and NT). Exodus 34:6-7 is quoted throughout the rest of the Bible, and gives shape to all that follows. He listens to Moses’ prayer, because he sent Moses to pray.ģ. In this, there is the beautiful mystery that God who seeks to destroy Israel, is first the God works to save them. But lets not make the mistake that Moses or Christ change God’s mind in both cases, the God who metes out perfect justice, also sends his a mediator to plead for pardon. In this way, as he pleads for mercy, he foreshadows Christ. In other words, he stands between God’s holy wrath and Israel’s rebellious sin. Like the cross of Christ, the role of Moses is that of God-given Mediator. In the New Testament, wrath and mercy meet at the cross in the Old Testament they meet here.Ģ. Like a perfect kaleidoscope, they radiate the colors of God’s severity and kindness (cf. Like the cross of Christ, these chapters show God’s mercy and his justice. To better acquaint ourselves with this passage, notice three ways that God’s revelation on Sinai functions much like the cross in the New Testament.ġ. To know our God, it is vital to understand these passages in context and content. The LORD passed before and proclaimed, “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, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” These verses are programmatic for the rest of the Bible and they read, This invokes God’s wrath, but it also sets the stage to display YHWH’s mercy and grace.Įxodus 34:6-7 is the capstone of this passage, and in these two electric verses, we find the center of Old Testament Theology in God’s revelation to Moses (see Jim Hamilton, God’s Glory in Salvation Through Judgmentfor a full development of this idea). In Exodus 32, God’s people make a graven image, and bow before it. But the break is not just literary, it’s relational.Īfter all that God has done for Israel-remembering them in Egypt, redeeming them from slavery, making his covenant with them-Israel returns the favor by committing spiritual adultery. They function as a break between the instructions (25-31) and the construction (35-40).
Exodus 32-34 are at the center of the tabernacle section (Exodus 25-40).
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