Exodus 34:18

34:18-27 Once a week they must rest, even in ploughing time, and in harvest. All worldly business must give way to that holy rest; even harvest work will prosper the better, for the religious observance of the sabbath day in harvest time. We must show that we prefer our communion with God, and our duty to him, before the business or the joy of harvest. Thrice a year they must appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. Canaan was a desirable land, and the neighbouring nations were greedy; yet God says, They shall not desire it. Let us check all sinful desires against God and his glory, in our hearts, and then trust him to check all sinful desires in the hearts of others against us. The way of duty is the way of safety. Those who venture for him never lose by him. Three feasts are here mentioned: 1. The Passover, in remembrance of the deliverance out of Egypt. 2. The feast of weeks, or the feast of Pentecost; added to it is the law of the first-fruits. 3. The feast of in-gathering, or the feast of Tabernacles. Moses is to write these words, that the people might know them better. We can never be enough thankful to God for the written word. God would make a covenant with Israel, in Moses as a mediator. Thus the covenant of grace is made with believers through Christ.

The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep,.... Which was instituted at the time of their coming out of Egypt, and on that account, and then observed, Exodus 12:15 and afterwards repeated, and the month expressed in which they were to keep it, and the reason of it, as it here follows; see Gill on Exodus 13:15 .

An expansion of Exodus 34:12 . The unfaithfulness of the nation to its covenant with Yahweh is here for the first time spoken of as a breach of the marriage bond. The metaphor is, in any case, a natural one, but it seems to gain point, if we suppose it to convey an allusion to the abominations connected with pagan worship, such as are spoken of in Numbers 25:1-3 .

9, 10. he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us—On this proclamation, he, in the overflowing benevolence of s heart, founded an earnest petition for the Divine Presence being continued with the people; and God was pleased to give His favorable answer to Moses' intercession by a renewal of His promise under the form of a covenant, repeating the leading points that formed the conditions of the former national compact.

CHAPTER 34 Ex 34:1-35. The Tables Are Renewed. 1. the like unto the first—God having been reconciled to repentant Israel, through the earnest intercession, the successful mediation of Moses, means were to be taken for the restoration of the broken covenant. Intimation was given, however, in a most intelligible and expressive manner, that the favor was to be restored with some memento of the rupture; for at the former time God Himself had provided the materials, as well as written upon them. Now, Moses was to prepare the stone tables, and God was only to retrace the characters originally inscribed for the use and guidance of the people.God commands Moses to hew two tables of stone like the former, wherein he promises to write, Exodus 34:1. Moses goes with these tables up to the mount, Exodus 34:4. God descends in a cloud, Exodus 24:5. He proclaims his name, Exodus 34:6,7. Moses worships, Exodus 34:8,9. God making a covenant with the people, commands them not to make a covenant with their enemies, Exodus 34:10-12; bids them beware of molten gods, Exodus 34:13-17. The feast of unleavened bread, Exodus 34:18. To rest on the sabbath day, Exodus 34:21. Other laws, Exodus 34:22-26. Moses wrote these words, Exodus 34:27. The time of Moses’s abode on the mount. Exodus 34:28. Moses’s face shining, Exodus 34:29, is covered, Exodus 34:33-35. He acquaints the people with what the Lord told him, Exodus 34:31,32.

The true way to worship Jehovah is then pointed out, first of all negatively, in the prohibition against making molten images, with an allusion to the worship of the golden calf, as evinced by the use of the expression מסּכה אלהי, which only occurs again in Leviticus 19:4 , instead of the phrase "gods of silver and gold" ( Exodus 20:23 ); and then positively, by a command to observe the feast of Mazzoth and the consecration of the first-born connected with the Passover (see at Exodus 13:2 , Exodus 13:11 , and Exodus 13:12 ), also the Sabbath ( Exodus 34:21 ), the feasts of Weeks and Ingathering, the appearance of the male members of the nation three times a year before the Lord ( Exodus 34:22 , see at Exodus 23:14-17 ), together with all the other instructions connected with them ( Exodus 34:25 , Exodus 34:26 ). Before the last, however, the promise is introduced, that after the expulsion of the Canaanites, Jehovah would enlarge the borders of Israel (cf. Exodus 23:31 ), and make their land so secure, that when they went up to the Lord three times in the year, no one should desire their land, sc., because of the universal dread of the might of their God ( Exodus 23:27 ).