Old Testament - Exodus 24 - April 29, 2022

 4/29/2022 – Exodus 34

In v 1, the Lord is making sure that the Israelites have the 10 commandments. He says to Moses: “Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.” The commandments have not changed, but the people have been given a second chance to have them, and to learn to live them.

Moses is told to go up to the mount again to meet with the Lord. One of the first things the Lord says to Moses is that the Lord God is “merciful and gracious, longsuffering [His patience with us and his mercy toward us], and abundant in goodness and truth. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin….” (v’s 6-7). He also warns Moses not to make covenants with other peoples, for they were all idol worshipers, and the Israelites needed to learn of the one God. (v 15) He also tells them that they must keep the yearly Passover, so that they will not forget.  In v 21 He repeats the commandment of keeping the Sabbath a holy day…even during harvest time.  Once again, Moses stayed on the mount for 40 days listening to the Lord, and learning much—so much that when, at the end of the 40 days, Moses came back down to the people they were frightened by the fact that “the skin of his face shone” (v 30) and they were afraid to come near him.

But Moses put a veil over his face and called them to come to him, and he taught them the things the Lord had expounded to Moses on the mount.

The JST gives us additional information about the 2nd time of the Lord giving the 10 commandments: “Hew thee two other tables of stone, like unto the first, and I will write upon them also, the words of the law according as they were written at the first on the tables which thou brakest, but it shall not be according to the first, for I will take away the priesthood out of their midst; therefore my holy order, and the ordinances thereof, shall not go before them; for. My presence shall not go up in their midst, lest I destroy them. But I will give unto them the law as at the first, but it shall be after the law of a carnal commandment; for I have sworn in my wrath, that they shall not enter into my presence, into my rest, in the days of their pilgrimage. Therefore do as I have commanded thee, and be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me, in the top of the mount. (JST, Exodus 34:1-2)

The Lord works with us as if we are in an amazing school. He gave the Israelites the laws He wanted them to keep in order to bring them back to Him. But when He saw that they were not yet able to understand these new laws, He took that assignment back and gave them an easier work book that would hopefully bring them to a point where they could then understand a higher law.

In the JST the 10 commandments are call “the law of a carnal commandment”  and refers to a “preparatory gospel administered through the Aaronic Priesthood which focuses on repentance and baptism.  The Lord wanted them to learn to live the ‘preparatory gospel’, and when that happened, then they would be prepared to receive the ordinances and covenants of the Melchizedek Priesthood.

Joseph Smith was taught these very things with the restoration of the gospel. Joseph told the saints “I want you all to know [God], and to be familiar with Him….It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God.”  In his Lectures on Faith: “Three things are necessary in order that any rational and intelligent being may exercise faith unto life and salvation. First, the idea that [God] actually exists.  Secondly, a correct idea of [God’s] character, perfections, and attributes.  Thirdly, an actual knowledge that the course of life which [the person] is pursuing is according to [God’s] will.”