Commentary - Exodus 34:10-28

Bird's-eye view

This passage is not the first giving of the law, but rather its solemn renewal after the catastrophic failure of the golden calf. Israel has just committed spiritual adultery of the rankest sort, and Moses has interceded for them on the brink of their annihilation. So what we have here is God, in His astonishing mercy, re-establishing His covenant with a faithless people. The terms are stark and clear, centering on the absolute necessity of exclusive worship. God is going to perform wonders and drive out their enemies, but Israel's responsibility is to maintain absolute separation from the corrupting idolatry of the Canaanites. This is a covenant renewal that emphasizes God's holy jealousy and the practical shape of true worship through feasts, sacrifices, and Sabbath-keeping. It is a gracious restoration, but one that comes with the sharpest of warnings.

Outline

Context In Exodus

To understand the force of this chapter, we must have the stench of the golden calf incident from chapter 32 fresh in our nostrils. The first set of tablets, inscribed by the finger of God, have been shattered. The people have broken the covenant before Moses even made it down the mountain. Moses has interceded heroically in chapter 33, and God has agreed not to abandon His people entirely. So chapter 34 is a do-over, but it is a do-over in the shadow of a great sin. This is why the emphasis on idolatry is so sharp and pointed. The prohibition against molten gods in verse 17 is not some abstract principle; it is a direct reference to their recent, flagrant rebellion. This is God graciously giving them a second chance, but He is making it abundantly clear that His holiness and jealousy are not negotiable.

Verse by Verse Commentary

v. 10 Then God said, “Behold, I am going to cut a covenant. Before all your people I will do wondrous deeds which have not been created in all the earth nor among any of the nations; and all the people among whom you live will see the working of Yahweh, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to do with you.

The initiative is all God's. After Israel's profound failure, God is the one who says, "Behold, I..." He is the one who cuts the covenant. This is grace from top to bottom. And this covenant will be publicly vindicated. God is going to do things through Israel that have no precedent, things that will make the pagan nations stop and stare. This is not for Israel's glory, but so that everyone will "see the working of Yahweh." And this work is a "fearful thing." Our God is not safe, and His workings in the world are awesome and terrible. He is glorious, and that glory should provoke a holy fear.

v. 11 “Be sure to keep what I am commanding you this day: behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

The covenant has two sides. God's part is the promise: "I am going to drive out..." The victory is His. Israel is not heading into Canaan to see if they can conquer it; they are heading in to occupy the territory that God has already won for them. Their part is obedience: "Be sure to keep what I am commanding you." The long list of "-ites" is meant to show the comprehensive nature of the victory God will give. He is not just clearing out one tribe, but all of them. The land will be swept clean for His people.

v. 12-13 Beware lest you cut a covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, lest it become a snare in your midst. But rather, you are to tear down their altars and shatter their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim

Here is the central prohibition. The greatest danger to Israel is not the Canaanite armies, but Canaanite friendship. Making a covenant, a treaty, with them would be spiritual treason. Why? Because fellowship with idolaters is a snare. It seems pragmatic, a way to keep the peace. But it is a trap that will lead to apostasy. The alternative is not peaceful coexistence. The command is for aggressive spiritual warfare. "Tear down their altars... shatter their sacred pillars... cut down their Asherim." True worship cannot tolerate the presence of false worship. This is a command for cultural reformation through demolition. You don't reason with idols; you destroy them.

v. 14 , for you shall not worship any other god, for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God,

This is the theological foundation for the previous command. Why such intolerance for other altars? Because Yahweh is a jealous God. This is not the petty, sinful jealousy of a human being. This is the righteous, holy, covenantal jealousy of a husband for his wife. God's love for His people is an exclusive love, and it demands exclusive devotion. In fact, His name is Jealous. It is an essential part of His character. He will not share His glory, or His bride, with another.

v. 15-16 lest you cut a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invite you to eat of his sacrifice, and you take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods.

Here God lays out the anatomy of the snare. It begins with a political treaty. That leads to social fellowship ("invite you to eat of his sacrifice"). That leads to intermarriage ("take some of his daughters for your sons"). And that leads inevitably to spiritual adultery ("play the harlot with their gods"). Idolatry is consistently described in Scripture as harlotry, a violation of the marriage covenant between God and His people. This is a clear warning that small compromises lead to total corruption.

v. 17 You shall make for yourself no molten gods.

This is a short, sharp, pointed jab. After the long explanation of the snare of Canaanite idolatry, God brings it right back home. "And by the way, don't do what you just did." This is a direct reference to the golden calf. It is a command that should have made every Israelite blush with shame. God is mercifully renewing the covenant, but He is not letting them forget the gravity of their sin.

v. 18-20 “You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, which I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt. “The first offspring from every womb belongs to Me, even of all your male livestock, the first offspring from cattle and sheep. And you shall redeem with a lamb the first offspring from a donkey; and if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. You shall redeem all the firstborn of your sons. None shall appear before Me empty-handed.

The best defense against idolatry is a life saturated with true worship. So God immediately lays out the rhythms of worship. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a constant reminder of their redemption from Egypt. The law of the firstborn establishes a fundamental principle: God gets the first and the best. Everything belongs to Him. The donkey, an unclean animal, presents a choice: redemption or destruction. It must be redeemed by a lamb, a clean substitute, or it must be killed. This is a beautiful picture of the gospel. We, like the donkey, are unclean. We must be redeemed by the Lamb, or we will perish. And finally, "None shall appear before Me empty-handed." Worship is not passive. We come to God not just to get, but to give. We bring our tribute to the King.

v. 21 “You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest.

The Sabbath is a radical act of faith. The command is explicit: even during the most critical and busiest times of the agricultural year, you must rest. This is a declaration that our prosperity comes from the hand of God, not from our own frantic, ceaseless effort. To rest on the Sabbath is to trust God. To work on the Sabbath is to say that our work is more important than His command, and that our provision depends on us.

v. 22-24 And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, that is, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel. For I will dispossess nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no man shall covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before Yahweh your God.

The calendar is to be structured around worship. Three times a year, all the men were to leave their homes and farms and go to the central sanctuary. This would seem to be a massive security risk. With all the men away, what would stop their enemies from invading? God answers that question directly with a stunning promise. When you put Me first, I will be your border patrol. "No man shall covet your land" while you are away worshiping Me. Obedience to God's commands for worship is the safest place a nation can be.

v. 25-26 “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread, and the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover shall not be left over until morning. “You shall bring the very first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of Yahweh your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

These are specific regulations that teach important principles. Leaven represents corruption and sin, and it must not be mixed with the blood of the sacrifice, which represents life and atonement. The Passover meal was not to be left over, reminding them of the haste with which they left Egypt. The first fruits belong to God. And the final, seemingly strange command about not boiling a kid in its mother's milk was likely a prohibition against a pagan Canaanite fertility ritual. It is a command against syncretism, against mixing the life-giving things of God with the death-dealing rituals of paganism.

v. 27-28 Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have cut a covenant with you and with Israel.” So he was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

The covenant is not based on vague feelings, but on specific, written words. This is a textual religion. God's law is objective and fixed. Moses' supernatural fast for forty days demonstrates the holiness and otherness of this encounter. He is sustained not by bread, but by the presence of God. And what does he write? The Ten Commandments. This entire section has been an exposition and application of those Ten Words, which form the heart of the covenant.

Key Words

Jealous

In our culture, jealousy is always a vice. But the Bible speaks of a holy jealousy. God's jealousy is not the insecure, covetous envy of a man who wants what is not his. Rather, it is the righteous, protective zeal of a king for his kingdom and a husband for his wife. God is jealous for what is rightfully His: our exclusive worship, our wholehearted devotion, and His own glory. This jealousy is not a threat to us, but rather our greatest protection.

Snare

A snare is not a frontal assault. It is a trap. It works by deception, by appearing harmless or even beneficial. The snare of making a covenant with the Canaanites was that it looked like a pragmatic way to achieve peace and stability. But its true purpose was to entangle Israel in idolatry and spiritual adultery. We must be wary of the snares of our own day, the cultural compromises that promise peace but deliver bondage.

Harlot

The Bible consistently uses the language of sexual infidelity to describe idolatry. This is because our covenant with God is pictured as a marriage. To worship an idol is not simply to make a theological mistake; it is to commit spiritual adultery. It is to give the love, devotion, and allegiance that belongs to our divine Husband to a worthless counterfeit. This language should shock us into seeing the true ugliness of all idolatry.

Application

The principles laid down in this covenant renewal are perennial. We too are called to a radical, uncompromising separation from the idolatries of our age. We are tempted daily to make treaties with the inhabitants of the land, to blend our Christian faith with the assumptions of secularism, Marxism, or therapeutic moralism. The command to us is the same: tear down the altars. We are to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

Our defense against this is not simply negative. We must, like Israel, build our lives around the rhythms of true worship. We must honor the Lord's Day, gathering with His people. We must bring our first fruits to Him, acknowledging that all we have is His. We must trust His promise that when we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, all these other things, including our security, will be added to us. God's name is still Jealous, and He still demands our exclusive devotion. And in that demand is our freedom and our life.