One-Year Bible Reading Plan  : Seekers & New Believers |  October 23 | Exodus Chapter 34: Hewitt Stone Tables, The Divine Name Proclaimed, and the Radiant Face of Moses  

🦌 Opening Today’s Reading 

Dear brothers, sisters, and friends, peace be with you in the Lord!

Welcome to Day 36 of our Old Testament journey! Today, we enter Exodus Chapter 34.

If Chapter 32 presented the tragic rupture of the Golden Calf, and Chapter 33 recorded Moses’ passionate prayer for God's presence in the breach, Chapter 34 stands as the glorious chapter of covenant renewal and the radiant manifestation of God's glory.

In this chapter, God commands Moses to hew two new tables of stone and ascend Mount Sinai once more. Upon the mountaintop, the Lord proclaims His holy name—revealing the rich harmony of His justice and mercy—and formally renews His covenant with Israel. Furthermore, as Moses descends after abiding forty days and nights in God's presence, his face shines with divine light, requiring him to wear a veil before the people.

This is not only the restoration of a covenant, but a vivid demonstration of how abiding in God's presence transforms a human life. Let us enter Exodus Chapter 34 with hearts full of gratitude, desire, and holy awe.

📖 Context Snapshot : The Grace of Re-written Law, The Proclamation of Divine Attributes, and the Radiant Face 

1. What Happened Before: Reconciliation and Preparation in the Cleft

Before reading Chapter 34, let us recall the moving events of Chapter 33. In response to the crisis of divine departure, Israel stripped off their ornaments in genuine repentance, while Moses sought the Lord face-to-face in the tent outside the camp. When Moses pleaded, "Show me thy glory," God hid him in the cleft of the rock, covering him with His hand while His goodness passed by. The Lord was now prepared to formally restore His covenant with His redeemed people.

2. Today's Thread: Second Tables, Divine Declaration, Covenant Renewed, and the Shining Face

At dawn, God commanded Moses: "Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest." Moses hewed two tables of stone and climbed Mount Sinai early in the morning. The Lord descended in the cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed the paramount divine name and attributes found in Scripture:

"The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation."

Hearing this majestic proclamation, Moses bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped, pleading once more: "If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us... and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance."

The Lord answered Moses' prayer, declaring: "Behold, I make a covenant..." God re-established His sovereign commands: Israel must never make covenants with the idolatrous inhabitants of Canaan, nor worship foreign gods, for the Lord is a "jealous God" (demanding pure and exclusive devotion from His bride). God also reinstated the holy observances of the feasts (Passover, Weeks, Ingathering), the Sabbath rest, and the dedication of the firstborn.

Moses remained on the mount with the Lord forty days and forty nights, neither eating bread nor drinking water, as the Lord wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in his hand, Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw that the skin of his face shone, they were afraid to come nigh him. But Moses called unto them and delivered all that the Lord had spoken on Mount Sinai. Whenever Moses went before the Lord to speak with Him, he took the veil off until he came out; and when he communicated God's commands to the people, he put the veil upon his face again. Moses' radiant face served as a living testimony of God's holy glory.

💡 Questions to keep in mind while reading today:

• On the "Second Set of Tables": The first set was crafted entirely by God; the second required Moses to hew the stone while God wrote the words. What does this teach us about grace and "divine-human cooperation"?

• On "The Proclamation of God's Attributes": God proclaims both "abundant mercy and forgiveness" and "by no means clearing the guilty." How are justice and mercy perfectly unified at the Cross of Christ?

• On the "Shining Face": Moses "wist not that the skin of his face shone." True spiritual transformation is unpretentious and humble. Do you long for your life to reflect God's glory naturally?

💡 Today’s Scripture Verse - Exodus 34

34 And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.

2 And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.

3 And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount.

4 And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.

5 And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.

9 And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.

10 And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.

11 Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

12 Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:

13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:

14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;

16 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.

17 Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

18 The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.

19 All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.

20 But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty.

21 Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.

22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.

23 Thrice in the year shall all your menchildren appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.

24 For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year.

25 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.

26 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

27 And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.

28 And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

29 And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.

30 And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.

31 And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them.

32 And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in mount Sinai.

33 And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face.

34 But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the vail off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded.

35 And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

🌟Daily Heart-Check:  The Grace of Second Chances, Holy Attributes, and Reflecting Christ's Glory 

Synchronized with the core questions from our reading guide:

• God Grants Second Chances Through Endless Grace:
  The broken first tables represented man's total failure under the law, whereas the second set symbolized restored covenant grace. God did not abandon Israel in their rebellion; He instructed Moses to hew new stones and wrote His law upon them once again. No matter how deeply we may have stumbled, true repentance meets an everlasting God who delights in restoring our lives and writing His truth upon our hearts anew.

• God's Attributes Reconcile Perfect Justice and Boundless Mercy:
  God's self-reclamation forms the bedrock of biblical theology: "merciful and gracious... yet by no means clearing the guilty." Justice demands that sin be penalized, while mercy desires the redemption of the sinner. This divine tension finds its ultimate resolution at the Cross of Jesus Christ, where Christ bore our punishment (justice) so that we might freely receive eternal forgiveness (grace).

• Abiding in God's Presence Radiates His Heavenly Light:
  Moses spent forty days in communion with God, and his face naturally shone without his awareness. True spiritual glory is never self-promotional; it is the natural byproduct of beholding God's beauty. As the Apostle Paul writes: "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory." As we abide in Christ daily through prayer and Scripture, our character will unconsciously reflect His heavenly light.

🎵 Response Song :  

🙏 Closing Prayer

Sovereign Heavenly Father, Thrice-Holy, Full of Grace, Mercy, and Truth,

As we read Exodus Chapter 34 today, we ascend Mount Sinai alongside Moses to hear Your majestic proclamation in the cloud, behold the rewritten covenant upon the stone tables, and witness the radiant face of Your servant. Our souls bow before You in holy awe, thanksgiving, and praise!

We exalt Your holy name! You are the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. Thank You that when we falter, You do not cast us away, but through the cross of Jesus Christ, You wash away our sins, renew Your covenant, and grant us second chances in Your grace.

Draw us into deep, secret communion with You day by day. As Moses abided on the mount, let Your Holy Spirit fashion Your law upon the tablets of our hearts. May our lives behold Your beauty so consistently that we reflect the light, love, and holiness of Jesus to a darkened world.

In the exalted and matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we pray, Amen!