Chapters 33-34

Exodus 33:18 - "I pray Thee, show me Thy glory" (NASB). It is important to recognize that in the Hebrew, there is a particle of entreaty, which is translated in English as "I pray Thee." We should never make demands of the Lord. We must take the position of a servant to a master or a child to a father. We may make requests; not demands.

Exodus 33:19 - "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious..." The Lord here is retaining His divine prerogative. He's saying that His graciousness and compassion are not rights but privileges. They cannot be demanded, but rather He bestows them according to His own will.

Exodus 34:1 - The Lord is so patient with our failings. Moses shattered the first two tablets, and the Lord says He will re-write them with His finger. But, Moses was required to cut out his own stone tablets to be written on, which the Lord had done at first. We should never take for granted the work of the Lord. God gave Moses those tablets all completed, and Moses unthinkingly destroyed them. One must wonder if Moses would have destroyed them had he made them himself. I think not. Moses would have recognized their value. So the Lord here teaches Moses to appreciate His work by requiring him to cut out his own tablets. How would one cut tablets from stone? It is only with the utmost difficulty. After that, he was very careful not to destroy the work of God's own hands again.

Exodus 34:9 - Why does Moses ask this again? He already obtained the affirmative answer in 33:14. He was awestruck by the Lord's presence. He was seeing the Lord afresh. This was no little idol that he served. He saw more of the Lord. His conception of the Lord changed as his vision of the Lord expanded. This made him uncertain that the favorable response he had already obtained was still valid. (Seeing the Lord changes everything!) But though our conceptions of the Lord change, the Lord does not change. The Lord reaffirms His decision to Moses.

Exodus 34:27 - The covenant the Lord made was not just with Israel but with Moses. We tend to see Moses as the officiator or agent of the covenant, but the Lord says plainly in this verse, "With these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel" (NASB). This represents a shift from a previous covenant ratification ceremony. In Ex. 24:8 Moses says, "Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words" (NASB). Notice the object of the covenant is the people of Israel. He is not in the picture except because he too is an Israelite. What happened? The people broke this covenant and Moses had to intercede to keep the Lord from wiping them out (ch. 32). As a result of Moses' intercession, the Lord relents of the destruction He planned for Israel. The Lord would have raised up a new Israel out of Moses (32:10). For Moses sake, He did not. This, I believe, put Moses into the picture for the covenant. Since Moses interposed himself for the people, and the Lord relented on account of him, thus the covenant was with Moses and the people of Israel.