Sept. 20, 2026 -- Exodus 34

[00:00:00] It is good to sit in his presence. It's good to be here with you guys. Thankful for this team that leads us in that. That I do hope and pray that some of these lyrics get stuck on repeat in your mind. That's what the Psalms would do, is that they would just remind us of these things, that whatever you're going through this week, maybe you're going to go through a trial this week. And I hope that that lyric of like, the Lord is with me would stick and just get stuck in these truths would remind us his presence is better than the gifts. Hey, we're in Exodus 34. [00:00:33] And so if you've got a Bible, you can turn there. And again, as we're just walking through the story of Exodus, one of the things that the book of Exodus does is it's going to lift up the character of God and it's just going to let us see God for who he is. And specifically in this text, we're going to get to see an autobiography of God. Like, if. If you took the time to just think, okay, if someone asked me to describe God to them, how would I do that? It might be a great exercise for this week to just think of, like, with what God has done in your life and who you know him to be. If you had to describe him, how would you define that? [00:01:15] Well, if we're the people of Israel, then it's like, man, he. He heard our cries when we were in slavery. Like, he's a God who listens, that he's a God who's strong, that with his mighty right hand he rescued us out of slavery. [00:01:33] That he's a God that is with us. That as we were leaving and as we're surrounded, then he's a God who fights for us. [00:01:44] He said, all you've got to do is stand there and watch. [00:01:48] That he's a God who meets our needs. [00:01:51] That when we were thirsty and grumbled and complained, he gave us water. [00:01:57] That he's a God who's patient because we've grumbled and complained a lot. [00:02:03] That he's a God who's able. That he brought food when we were like toddlers and said, I don't want this anymore. Then he provided different food for us. [00:02:15] That he is compassionate. [00:02:18] That if you think of what God has done in your life, how would you describe him? [00:02:24] But one of the things that we see in this text and that I hope we walk away with is that we get the character of God. Now this is really important because this is God defining himself for us. God revealing who he is. And one of the things that we face all the time is we face lies from. From all different ways and places of our own circumstances and the world we live in. And the media that we take in, and the things that we hear from friends and family and from the world. We take in all of these different little snippets or partial truths of who God is. And does God actually care? And if God was able, would he do this? And we start to be surrounded by all these lies about that try to define God. And yet God has defined himself for us. So one of the things I hope we take away from this text is that that we see the character of God. [00:03:15] Another thing that I hope we take away from as we walk through this story is that we'll see that by beholding and seeing and being in the presence of God, it changes us. [00:03:30] Like it just changes us that to behold God means that we are transformed. [00:03:39] One of the things that we'll see in the text. And so let's pray, and then we'll jump into this together. Would you pray with me, God? We come to you, Lord, as a people in need of your grace, in need of your forgiveness, in need of your spirit to work powerfully in our midst. [00:04:04] Lord, we ask that you would convict our hearts of sin. We ask that you would encourage us with hope. We ask that God, that you would reveal yourself to us. That we might see your glory today, God. And that we would be transformed by it, Lord, as we study your word, Lord, we ask that you would work in our midst. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. [00:04:28] Let's look here. The first section that I want us to see as we kind of take this in different scenes, is in verses one to four. What. What we actually see is that God is a God of second chances and third chances and fourth chances and fifth chances. That God is a God of redos. And so look here at the first four verses with me. Moses has already come down from this mountain. And he was carrying with him these tablets which God had written on the Ten Commandments, which are the path of flourishing. These are God's guardrails for our life that we might experience flourishing. They're the guardrails for Israel that they would walk as his people. And so Moses comes down from the mountain. He's got written on these tablets the way of flourishing. This covenant has been ratified with God. And he comes down and the people are already breaking the covenant. And out of anger, he throws these tablets down and he breaks them. And so let's look here. This is where we pick up the story. The Lord said to Moses, cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first. [00:05:28] And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. [00:05:34] Be ready by morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai. And present yourself there to me on top of the mountain. [00:05:41] No one shall come up with you. And let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze upon the opposite mountain. So Moses cut the two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and he went up on Mount Sinai. And as the Lord had commanded him, and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone. What we see here is a redo. [00:06:04] That God had entered into a covenant with his people. And he's given them the terms of this covenant of what the people should do. And God has already said what he will do. That he's going to be in their midst. He's going to dwell with his people, that he will be with them. And immediately that covenant was broken. [00:06:22] And here we see that God is a God of second chances, that he redoes. [00:06:30] I just can't imagine that all of us don't need to hear this. [00:06:35] That whatever you've done in your past, which the lies would seek to derail you and say, God will never use you because of what you've done. [00:06:44] The truth of God's word says that God is a God of second chances. [00:06:51] That he goes again. [00:06:54] That failure doesn't define us. Because God wants to go again. [00:06:59] He says, all right, I'm gonna make new tablets. Cause I'm gonna write on them again. I'm gonna remind you of these very things which I already said. Not that it's gonna be new, but it's gonna be. We need to hear it again. [00:07:13] And then we're gonna go again. [00:07:18] I don't want us just to miss that, that this is incredible. [00:07:22] Oftentimes I think we believe that God is like, well, you've messed up, so I'm done. [00:07:28] And we just see in the Book of Exodus that that's not who God is. We're going to see, as God defines Himself, that he says that's not who he is. But we've seen it in the people of Israel over and over and over and over and over. If you read the Book of Israel or the Book of Exodus, you see in the people of Israel. And you kind of get to a point where you're like, these people were dumb. [00:07:49] I mean, could they not Just get it. And then you realize that it's holding up a mirror and you see your own face in it, and you go, I'm dumb. [00:07:59] Why do I keep doing the same things? [00:08:03] Why do I not listen? [00:08:07] And yet we're reminded that the character of God is that God is a God of second chances and third chances and fourth chances. And I'll just tell you, if you're here today, there's another chance. [00:08:23] And if you're taking another breath, there's another chance that he calls us to repentance and he says, come back to me. And then let's go again. [00:08:33] This is who God is. [00:08:37] When the lies creep in and whisper, he's done with you, or he's mad at you, or that he won't use you, come back to this truth that God wants to go again. [00:08:52] The second thing that we see in this text, as Moses is up on the mountain, then he begins to meet with God. And we see that the glory of God is found in his character. The glory of God is found in his character. Look at verses 5 to 7. [00:09:10] The Lord descended in a cloud, and he stood with him there, and he proclaimed the name of the Lord. This is God speaking. He's come to Moses. Moses went up the mountain, and God has descended to Moses. And it says that he's standing there with him. Right. Again, this is anthropomorphism. God's standing. God doesn't actually have feet. God is spirit. But God has shown up and he's with Moses. [00:09:35] And look at what he says. [00:09:39] The Lord, the Lord. [00:09:41] He gives him his name again. This is the same name that he's revealed to him in the burning bush. This is the name that he revealed to Moses. And say, I'm revealing my very self to you in giving you my name. And so he proclaims his name. Yahweh. Yahweh. [00:09:58] And look at these descriptors. A God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who by no means will clear the guilty. [00:10:15] Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and fourth generation. We see that when Moses asks to see God's glory, and God hides him in the cleft, and he passes by him, and then he speaks to him, and he reveals his glory in his character. And so let's just spend a little bit of time looking at this character. The, the first character that we see of God is His mercy. [00:10:45] God defines himself as merciful. [00:10:50] He says merciful and gracious. And so these two kind of go together. That this is the idea that you don't get what you do deserve, and you do get what you don't deserve, that you don't get the punishment that you do deserve and you do get the blessings that you don't deserve. [00:11:08] That he's merciful and he's gracious. [00:11:12] This is who God is. [00:11:15] He defines himself as when we fail, he's merciful. [00:11:22] When we don't measure up, he's gracious. [00:11:28] When we think about ourselves, we don't function like this. [00:11:33] We judge other people based off of their actions, but we judge ourselves based off of our intentions, right? [00:11:40] But God gives us what we don't deserve and he doesn't give us what we do deserve. [00:11:53] That this is who he is, he's merciful and gracious. [00:11:59] The third attribute that we see here is that he's slow to anger, he's patient. [00:12:07] We've seen that in the book of Exodus already that Israel has continued to mess up and God is slow to anger that. Even in Egypt we see that God is so slow to anger that he would be patient with Pharaoh who would really kind of spit in his face and be like, who, who is this God that I should obey Him? [00:12:34] God is so patient, he's so slow to anger that he's not quickly kindled. [00:12:43] It doesn't mean that he doesn't ever get angry. We've seen that, but he's slow in his anger. [00:12:51] The fourth attribute that we see in here is that that God defines himself as someone who abounds in steadfast love, that this is unmoving love, that this is this idea of this covenant love, this hesed love, this love that entered into a binding agreement and he says, I'm not moving off of it. [00:13:15] Like I don't change that. He abounds in that. That this is his attribute which overflows is that he's overflowing in his steadfast, unmoving, unwavering love towards us. [00:13:31] It's incredible that even when we're not lovely, he still loves us. [00:13:38] Why? Not because we deserve it, grace and mercy, but because it's who he is, it's his character, it's his glory. [00:13:51] We see that he also not just abounds in steadfast love, but he abounds in faithfulness, that God will always do what he says he will do. [00:14:02] If God makes a promise, he will keep that promise that he is faithful. [00:14:09] He doesn't change. [00:14:12] He doesn't do take backs. He. [00:14:15] He doesn't say, you broke your side, so I get to break mine. No, he's faithful. [00:14:24] It's what he does. It's who he is. [00:14:26] He can't not be this. [00:14:30] It's his nature. It's what defines him. [00:14:35] Again, this is important because as we face all of these temptations to believe, otherwise God won't come through on that promise that he won't be faithful to the end. [00:14:50] We're confronted with God telling us who he is and demonstrating through the book of Exodus who He is. But then we get to this part as God begins to define himself that, that we love these first five. They're awesome. We're like, yeah, sign me up. And then we start to get to the bottom part and we're like, ooh, wait a minute. [00:15:12] That his mercy doesn't cancel his justice. [00:15:17] His mercy doesn't nullify his holiness. [00:15:22] They're not competing attributes. And yet sometimes we can think that like, oh, well, we're reading the Old Testament, so God's wrath is more and his mercy is less. Or we get to the New Testament and people may think like, oh, he's more loving and more compassionate and he's less angry and less wrathful. [00:15:43] And the reality is like, no, he doesn't become more of one than the other. He is. [00:15:52] He doesn't set aside a characteristic to be something else. He is. [00:15:57] And so then we go, okay, well, as we look at these last characteristics, the sixth characteristic listed here is that he keeps steadfast love. Okay, so he's faithful, he's steadfast, and he's going to keep his steadfast love. But look at where he goes from this keeping steadfast love for thousands. Now, most commentators believe that what's inherent in there is that he keeps his steadfast love for thousands of generations, that God has made his name connected to his people, that he put his image in them. He created mankind, man and woman, in his image and that he so connected his name that he is going to be steadfast in his love towards them for thousands of generations. [00:16:50] That's really hard for us to comprehend. Thousands of generations. We haven't experienced that. Thousands of generations. [00:16:58] And yet God is faithful to that. [00:17:02] But then look at where he goes. He keeps steadfast love for thousands. [00:17:08] How does he do this? [00:17:10] Because he forgives their iniquity, their transgressions, and their sins. These are three synonyms. We shouldn't make too much about the uniqueness of each one of these words. We're going to see this in the psalms, that they combine all of these. Yes, they are. They do have different nuances, but they all mean the same thing, that this is an offense against a holy God. And so how can a holy God and a sinful people dwell together in steadfast love? How in the world can that happen? [00:17:36] It's only because God forgives. [00:17:40] That's the only reason it can happen. [00:17:43] But if God forgives, and if God overlooks sins and transgressions and offenses, then how can he still be just and holy? [00:17:55] That's the question we gotta ask. [00:17:58] Because it says God's defining himself as one who will by no means clear the guilty. So his forgiveness of sins isn't just an overlooking them or turning a blind eye to this, because he doesn't overlook the guilty. And so this is where it gets really hard for us. Because I know if I go before God and I go, he goes, are you guilty? And I go, yeah. [00:18:26] And if each one of us were to stand before a holy and a just God and he says, are you guilty? [00:18:34] We go, yeah. [00:18:35] So we go. So how does. [00:18:39] How does a sinful people come into the presence of a holy God and dwell with a holy God if we're all guilty and he by no means clears the guilty? [00:18:51] Well, we see, this is where it gets so good. Don't miss this. [00:18:57] This is where we see that God himself came. [00:19:03] He came and lived this perfect life, deserving of no guilt. [00:19:09] Holy, perfect, righteous, always right. [00:19:17] And yet he chose to take on the punishment and the guilt and the shame of my sin, not just blanket each and every individual sin and your sin in order that a sinful people could stand before a holy God. [00:19:44] Listen, this is the gospel. This is what Romans says, that Jesus would become both the just, the one who upholds righteousness, and the justifier who could say paid for. [00:19:59] This is why it's so incredible that the scripture says that he sits at the right hand of the Father, always interceding for us that when Satan comes and his other name, the other name of Satan is accuser. That when he comes and he makes accusations and says, see that one's guilty. [00:20:14] Look at what they just did. They're guilty. Then Jesus speaks up and he says, it's paid for. [00:20:20] The penalty is already paid. [00:20:25] It's already satisfied. [00:20:27] There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ because there is no more guilt to bear because Jesus on the cross, God's wrath was poured out on him so that it was not poured out on us. [00:20:41] That God by no means will clear the guilty because his punishment was poured out on Christ on our behalf so that we might go free. [00:20:55] Listen, this is the Gospel. [00:20:57] This is the Old Testament, where we see Jesus shadowed and pictured in the book of Exodus, where we see in the Old Testament that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. This is the mercy and the grace of God being demonstrated for us as God defines himself and says, this is who I am and how I dwell with a sinful people. [00:21:23] God is just. [00:21:25] He will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity, the fathers and the children, to the third and fourth generation. That God is just. [00:21:35] He will not be mocked. [00:21:37] But I just as an application when that's an invitation offered to us. [00:21:45] Hey, do you want to stand before a holy God guilty and deserving of his just penalty? [00:21:54] Or do you want the greatest defense lawyer of all time who paid the penalty for you? [00:21:59] Who intercedes on your behalf and says, I already satisfied that payment. [00:22:05] I paid it in my own body and with my own blood so that theirs would not have to be shed. [00:22:13] When that's the invitation, why would you turn it down? [00:22:19] That's the offer. [00:22:22] Psalm 103 would say that God casts our iniquities and transgressions as far as the east is from the west. [00:22:32] We bear them no more because he fully satisfied that as in this is the Gospel wrapped up in the book of Exodus, seen in the glory of God as he's told us. [00:22:46] Moses in response to this, in seeing the glory of God, we see in verse 8 to 28 that the only proper response to this is worship and obedience. [00:22:58] The proper response to God's glory is worship and obedience. Moses, he bows his head. Verse 8. He says he quickly bowed his head towards the earth and he worshiped. [00:23:10] And look at what he says, if now I have found favor in your sight, that's all that that is that God would be gracious and merciful to us, that he would show favor to us even though we have sinned and rebelled and are a stiff necked people. If we have found favor in your sight, oh Lord, please let the Lord God in the midst of us, for it is a stiff necked people. He says, you know who we are and yet that you would be gracious and dwell with us, that you would pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us as your inheritance. That this is what the promise of the Gospel is, that God knows who we are and yet he puts favor upon us because of what Christ has done for us. [00:23:57] The next little section here, from 10 to 28, is actually the recounting of these same laws that God had already given the people. It's the commandments of how do you live as the people of God and flourish? And so he recounts these various different things about worshiping him and not intermingling so that we would be pulled away to other gods. He Specifically, verse 17 says, we're not far off from you guys making this golden calf. And he says, you shall not make for yourself gods of cast metal. He's like, you ever read instructions? And you're like, don't eat the batteries. It's like, don't eat the batteries. Someone tried it. They tried to make cast metal. Gods don't do that. [00:24:38] It's not what you were created for. [00:24:43] This list gives a bunch of you shall, you shall you shall. You shall not, you shall not. [00:24:49] He gives them instruction of what they should and shouldn't do in order that they might be the people of God, reflecting the glory of God to all the nations and God in their midst, that the right response to the grace of God is that they worship him and obey Him. [00:25:08] Don't presume upon his grace and his mercy. [00:25:12] It finishes this section, and I just want to spend a little bit of time here. Verse 29 to 35, something really interesting that happens that Moses has been up on this mountain for 40 days, and he's been in the presence of God. [00:25:26] And so what we see in this little section is that the presence of God transforms his people. The presence of God transforms us. Moses has been in the presence of God. And look at verse 29. Look at what happens. It says, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hand, and he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking to God. [00:25:51] This is incredible. [00:25:53] He was in the presence of God, and his face was literally transformed, radiant. [00:26:03] This happens for us. [00:26:06] Like, I've never seen anybody's face glow, okay? [00:26:11] But I promise, and I've seen it with some of you, that when you sit in the presence of God and you show up to church, and I'm like, huh? [00:26:20] I've been in the presence of God. [00:26:23] You glow. [00:26:24] You may be walking through the hardest days of your entire life, and yet if you've been in the presence of God, we can see it that God's presence transforms us. [00:26:40] See? But look at what happens. So Moses face is Glowing, he comes back down the mountain. Verse 30. Aaron and all the people of Israel, they see Moses and they behold the skin of his face is shining. And they're afraid to come near him because they're like, whoa, he's radiating. [00:27:01] So Moses calls to them Aaron and the leaders of the congregation return to him. Moses talks with them. And after all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. [00:27:22] Now, as he goes in to talk with God in the tent of meeting, he takes the veil off. But then as he comes back out to the people, he puts this veil back on. And we're like, that's pretty interesting. It's kind of one of those really strange things that we read in the Scripture. And yet the New Testament gives us a little bit of insight. Because if you actually flip over to second Corinthians, chapter three, and this is where we're going to finish out Second Corinthians, chapter three. Paul picks up on this and he goes, okay, wait, there was something going on here with Moses having been in the presence of God, he's reflecting the glory of God. Catch this. Just like the moon, it doesn't have a light. [00:28:00] It only reflects the light of the sun. Moses was not radiating his own glory. [00:28:06] Moses is radiating, reflecting the glory of God to others. [00:28:11] It's not about us. [00:28:14] It's about other people seeing Jesus in us. [00:28:18] Paul then picks this up. Look at verse 12 of chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians. It says this. Since we have such a hope, we are very bold. [00:28:27] Not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. So he picks up something and he says, wait, we have something different than what Moses had. Moses was hiding the glory of God to the people. [00:28:50] Wait a minute. [00:28:53] Their minds were hardened. [00:28:56] For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is it taken away. [00:29:06] Whoa. [00:29:09] The glory of God was shining on Moses face because it was revealing that it's not through keeping a commandment that you get into the presence of God. [00:29:17] It's only by God's grace and his mercy, through what he has provided in Jesus Christ. That's the only way you get to heaven. [00:29:24] That's the only way a sinful people can dwell with a holy God is because God provided his son, Jesus Christ. It's not by Earning our way there. It's not by cleaning ourselves up. It's not by obeying all these commandments. It's only by the grace of God through Jesus. [00:29:40] But some people don't recognize that. It's only through Jesus. [00:29:44] They think, well, I'm a pretty good person, I can get there. [00:29:48] Paul says, no, you can't. [00:29:50] You're veiled, you're blinded. Verse 15. [00:29:55] Yes. To this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. [00:30:00] But when one turns to the Lord, the veil's removed. [00:30:04] Now the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom. [00:30:09] We all with unveiled faces. Those who have trusted in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins can come into the presence of God without a veil, unveiled faces, and be transformed, beholding the glory of the Lord and being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. [00:30:31] For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Catch this. [00:30:35] What you behold is what you become. [00:30:42] What you behold is what you become. [00:30:51] A lot of us spend time beholding our own glory, trying to measure up the approval of others. [00:31:03] And we become self centered, self focused. [00:31:08] Maybe you behold a work schedule and trying to be successful and you become very focused on that. And that's what radiates off of you, is that that is the most important thing in your life. [00:31:27] Some even are so focused on their sin and trying to eliminate their sin that they behold their sin all the time. [00:31:39] And it becomes your focus rather than beholding him and being transformed. [00:31:51] You see, we, we don't change by bootstrapping it or having enough willpower or having a more disciplined schedule. We change by beholding Him. [00:32:06] And what we behold is what we become. [00:32:11] He says, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of God, we're being transformed. [00:32:19] When you sit in the presence of God, he changes you. [00:32:27] And all too often we're distracted with other things besides sitting in his presence. [00:32:35] And when we sit in his presence, we begin to reflect his glory. [00:32:42] And that's exactly what he created us for, to be his people that he dwells with. [00:32:50] And he demonstrates his glory to the nations. [00:32:54] That's what we get to be a part of. [00:32:57] If you're not beholding him just in simple ways of spending time in the Word. [00:33:02] That's how you behold him, read His Word, sit in his presence. [00:33:09] I don't know how we can accomplish the task which he's called us to do each day to go and reflect his glory if we never behold Him. [00:33:19] Start with five minutes, sit in his presence and Then watch when people go. Something's different about you because your face shines. His glory. [00:33:31] Let's pray. [00:33:35] Lord, would you transform us? [00:33:40] Would that as we sit in your presence, Lord, that. [00:33:43] That you would transform us, Lord, as we believe that which is true. That you are a God of second chances. That you are a God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. [00:34:01] Lord, as we remember that which is true. That you are a just God who will by no means clear the guilty, but yet that you are a gracious God who provided your son in order that we might not have to experience the penalty of your judgment. [00:34:21] Lord, I pray that as we behold you, Lord, we would be transformed by you and God, that you would use us to reflect your glory in our homes, in our marriages, to our kids, Lord, that you would use us to reflect your glory to our co workers, to our bosses, Lord, that you would use us to reflect your glories to our neighbors, to the people that we meet in grocery stores or at football games and basketball games and at sporting events, Lord, that you would use us to reflect your glory in all the places that we go. [00:34:58] That people would be able to see that we have been in your presence. [00:35:04] That we would be able to invite them to sit in your presence, Lord, would you use us as we behold you? [00:35:14] Transform us. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.