Exodus 34:1-7: a reflection

1The LORD said to Moses, “Chisel two stone tablets like the first. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. 3No one shall come up with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Do not let the flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.” 4He chiseled two tablets of stone like the first; then Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets. 5The LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the LORD’s name. 6The LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, “The LORD! The LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth, 7keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation.”

Notice when God says this. The tablets were broken, shattered by Moses when he came down to find Israel worshiping a golden calf. And here God says: cut two new tablets like the first, and I will write on them again. After the people's grievous failure, God does not walk away; he remakes what was broken and renews the covenant.

And then, in the cloud, God proclaims his own name, his own character, and it is worth reading slowly: the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness and truth, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and sin. This is God describing himself, and the first words out are mercy and grace and patience. That he says this right after the golden calf is the point: this is who he is toward a people who have just failed him badly.

And yet he does not end there. He will by no means clear the guilty; the sin is real and has consequences down the generations. His mercy is not a shrug that pretends nothing happened. Hold both together, because both are true of him: abundant in love, and just. If you have broken the covenant, badly, hear the name God speaks over the wreckage. He remakes the tablets, and the God who meets you there is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in love.

Lord, when I have broken what you gave me, you remake the tablets and proclaim your mercy. Thank you that you are gracious and slow to anger, abundant in love; meet me in the wreckage and renew me.