The Covenant Renewed (Exodus 34:10-28)

10 And he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. [God agrees to full covenant restoration using present tense language to renew the broken (on Israel’s part) covenant.]

11 “Observe [obey] what I command [there is a requirement on Israel’s part] you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 12 Take care, lest you make a covenant [treaty] with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. [They must be totally loyal to God.] 13 You shall tear down [everything associated with idolatry and the worship of other gods] their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim [sacred poles mentioned for the first time in Scripture; the goddess Asherah was the consort of the Canaanite weather-god Baal and a fertility benefactress] 14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous [or translated “God is jealous for his name”], is a jealous God), 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore [there is no faithfulness is prostitution] after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods. [Wrong worship has generational consequences. Intermarriage in the Bible is never discouraged on ethnic grounds but on religious grounds. The concern here is with “daughters” who have been well trained in pagan religion coming into the Israelite fold that presents a problem. Women leaving to marry into another society present no problem. The Israelite men stay put and present no problem either. There is only one God and one way to salvation. When Jesus says “I am the way and the truth and the life,” he speaks of his exclusiveness, the identical exclusiveness expressed here. There are not “many” ways to God because there is only one God.]

17 “You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal.

18 “You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt. 19 All that open the womb are mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep. 20 The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before me empty-handed [a principal of worship]. [Redemption law represents God’s kindness to his people.]

21 “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. [This is an addition. There was a temptation to work seven days a week during times of great productivity of the land. How should this be applied today?] 22 You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end. 23 Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. 24 For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year. [They do not need to fear a surprise attack when all the community comes together at Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.]

25 “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning. 26 The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.”

27 And the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water [fasting out of concern for the possibility of God’s judgment on the people]. [What did Moses write? He wrote the contents of 20:18 to the present, specifically chapters 25-31 minus narrative portions.] And he [the Lord] wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.