Exodus 34:1-5 – God reaching down to us so that we can know Him

Moses requested to see the glory of God but was told that he would not be able to take the full revelation of God head-on. So, He would have to hide him in the cleft of the rock and cover his face with His hand. He would only allow him to catch a glimpse of the glory of His aftermath. But before he could see God, he was told to bring two stone tablets like the ones that he threw and broke, so that God would write again what Moses had shattered. He was told to come up to Mount Sinai in the morning. God also instructed that “No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.” This was to protect the people and livestock. No one would have survived in the holiness of His presence. Only Moses was allowed to come before His presence. What’s encouraging was that God was still willing to let them have His law. This shows that He was willing to mend the relationship and renew the covenant with the people of Israel. This time God wanted Moses to bring the stone tablets so that He could write on them the Ten Commandments again.

Moses did as he was instructed. Early in the morning, he went up to Mount Sinai with the two tablets in his hand.  He was eager to obey God and that’s the kind of attitude you and I should adopt when it comes to obeying God. Like Moses, we must be ever ready to do the will of God. Verse 5 tells us that “the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord.” The truth is this: No matter how near we draw to God, it will still require God to reach out to us. We by ourselves would have difficulty to reach Him. This is all about grace. If God had chosen not to reveal Himself, there would be no way we could see or reach Him. Knowing God requires Him to make Himself known to us. To relate with us God must come down to our level. And that was what He did in Christ Jesus.  

Just as God condescended to meet Moses on the top of Mount Sinai. Christ condescended and took on human form to be among us to meet us. This is grace. This is how Philippians 2:6-10 put it. Christ Jesus “…who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” He stooped to our level so that we can touch Him and know how much God loves and cares for us. The only appropriate response now is to offer all that we are and potentially can become, and yield them as a reasonable act of worship to this wonderful gracious God!