Year 7, Day 83: Exodus 34

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Moses goes up the mountain and gets the stone tablets v 2.0.  Once more Moses gets to hear God expound upon his Law.  Maybe the extra run through was good for Moses.  Maybe Moses’ anger was proof that he really needed to hear the Law again himself.  Either way, it gives us some time to recap as well.

As I read through this passage today, I was reminded about the early commandments.  God is our God.  We are to have no other.  He wants to be our primary focus, our only true source of power.  He is a jealous God, seeking to take His rightful place at the pinnacle of our existence.

In this context, we also hear about God driving out the native people of the Promised Land.  Mind you, it doesn’t say that God will eradicate them – at least not in this passage.  They will simply be driven out before the Hebrew people.  The land is a part of the covenant for the Hebrew people.

What I love about this particular passage and how it talks about the native residents of the land.  God doesn’t reject them because of who they are.  God rejects them because they are a danger to godly people.  They are capable of tempting God’s people away from Him into idolatry.  Their nature isn’t any different than the Hebrew people.  Their nature is corrupt and sinful, just like the Hebrew people.  But the Hebrew people are willing to repent. The Hebrew people are willing to see their mistakes and humble themselves and accept correction.  The native people of the Promised Land are a danger to corrupt God’s people.  Therefore, God will drive them out.

I think that it is very important to see this point.  The Hebrew people aren’t more righteous.  They aren’t genetically superior.  They are simply the people with whom God chose to work.  The Canaanites aren’t an inferior people; they are simply a people who are likely to tempt God’s people away fro Him.

As we will see while reading through the Old Testament, any person of any genealogy can be grafted into God’s people.  It isn’t about race or color or heritage.  It is about one’s heart and its inclination towards God.

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