MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 34:10-26
THE RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT
The engagements which man had made with God being broken, the covenant had to be commenced de novo. All the ground must be again covered. The subject naturally divides itself into promises, prohibitions, injunctions. For the other circumstances, see Exodus 23; Exodus 24.
I. Promises. “Before all the people I will do marvels,” &c.
1. God’s marvels are indefinite, to leave a margin for Him “to do exceeding abundantly more than we can ask or think.” No man would wish for God to tie Himself exclusively down to certain undertakings and nothing more. In that case, God having literally executed His promise, there would be no more room for faith and hope. So all the great Christian privileges are indefinite—faith, conversion, sanctification, heaven. However—
2. God executes definite marvels. God gives us a little that we may have a sample of what He can give, and that little is real, tangible, and experimental, Exodus 34:11. God promises us definite destruction of our enemies, and a definite inheritance in the Promised Land.
3. All God’s definite promises include the indefinite, and vice versa.
4. God’s promises to His people are for general instruction. “All the people among which thou art shall see,” &c.
II. Prohibitions.
1. Covenants with the people of the land, Exodus 34:12. All alliances—matrimonial or religious—were sternly forbidden, from whatever motive, “lest it be for a snare,” Exodus 34:15-16; (2 Corinthians 6:14-15).
2. Idolatry, Exodus 34:13-14. They were neither to serve nor to spare other gods. This prohibition is binding to-day. All those idols which intervene between us and the service of the true God must be overthrown. Now they excite the righteous jealousy of God!
3. The manufacture of symbols of God, Exodus 34:17, lest they should fall again into their recent sin. Christians should cut themselves off from all that would be likely to drag them back into their “former conversation.”
III. Injunctions.
1. The religious feasts. Unless religion be based upon joy, and unless God’s service is joyous and free, they are unpracticable. This first injunction is based upon this fact. God is not a hard master, and desires His people to delight in His service.
2. The religious rest of the Sabbath-day. Sabbath observance is one of the root principles of religion. Where that is neglected or desecrated, religion is extinct. This, by the way, is one of the Sabbath arguments which cannot be refuted.
3. The religious consecration of the first-fruits as recognising God’s right to all. This is also part of the Christian covenant. We must recognise God’s right to our time, our property, and ourselves. In conclusion—our text
i. Has a special reference to backsliders. God offers to renew His covenant with them on the specified terms (Hosea 14:1-3). ii. To all (Isaiah 1:18-20).
—J. W. Burn.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Law-Lights! Exodus 34:1-35. Pressense says, that whatever opinions men may hold as to the integrity of that primitive witness, all must own that it contains pages in which one beholds, as it were, the reflection of the lustre which caused Moses’s face to shine when he held converse with God. It has ever been the pious mind which has through the eyes beheld the chain of revelation and the long series of Divine manifestations gradually unwind themselves. Just as they that watch for the morning gaze out from the height of the tower, longing with inexpressible desire for the approach of dawn; so does religious consciousness cast glances of fire upon the horizon as she looks out for the Divine Sunrise. The whole of the Old Testament pants and throbs with this Divine yearning, and it also shows us the finger of God writing in the heart of man the great preparation for the Gospel. The angels ever
“Draw strength from gazing on its glance,
Though none its meaning fathom may;
The Word’s unwithered countenance
Is bright as at Mount Sinai’s day.”
—Goëthe.
Christ and Exodus! Exodus 34:18-26. Take that prism to-morrow and let the sun shine through it, and you will see marvels. The white pure light is divided into many colours. Even so, bring Christ and let His mediatorial glory pour its concentrated flood upon this prism in Exodus 34. Lo! glorious truths of Gospel grace shine with varied, vivid lustre. What glorious rays of saving, sanctifying beauty! We behold the glory of Christ in marvellous combination then in this Mosaic prism. Each ray may be contemplated in itself, but all blend in the glory of God our Saviour.
“Flooded with splendour bright and broad,
The glorious light of the Love of God.”
Vision-Media! Exodus 34:18-22.
(1.) We do not say to a person of diseased sight, Come out and look at the noonday sun. But we provide the coloured glass as the medium through which he may behold the brightness of the sun.
(2.) Israel could not gaze upon the glory of God, except through the media of rites and ceremonies, &c. The supernal splendour of a direct vision of God would only have dazzled their sight, and not illuminated their soul.
(3.) Under the Gospel, Christians have their media through which to behold the Divine glory. Christ the Son of Man, His words of tenderness and truth, His works of solace and sympathies; these are the coloured media through which we “gaze upon God.”
“O Love! O Life! our faith and sight
Thy presence maketh one;
As through transfigured clouds of white
We trace the noonday sun.
“So, to our mortal eyes subdued,
Flesh-veiled, but not concealed,
We know in Thee the Fatherhood
And heart of God revealed.”
—Whittier.
Divine-Tribute! Exodus 34:20.
(1.) Arrowsmith says, The sun shines by his own nature, the air only by participation of light from the sun. So whatever good the creatures have, is by derivation from Jehovah, the fountain of being. Take away the light of the sun, the air ceaseth to shine, and so it is here.
(2.) Williams says, A right view of benefits received, of the source from whence they flow and of our own demerit, has a direct tendency to excite gratitude; and while the mind is influenced by sovereign grace this will be the pleasing effect.
(3.) The great ocean is in a constant state of evaporation. But there are men who do not believe in evaporation, i.e., in giving back to God of what they received from Him. They get and keep all they can; forgetting the duty of gratitude, overlooking the law of Divine tribute.
“I yield Thee back Thy gifts again,
Thy gifts which most I prize;
Desirous only to retain
The notice of Thine eyes.”
—Guyon.