THE COVENANT RENEWED (Continued.) 1- Two new stone tablets for the covenant 1 - 4 2- The Lord descending in the cloud and speaking to Moses 5 - 10 3- Renewing the covenant 11 - 26 4- Moses fasting 27 - 28 5- Moses’ face shining 29 – 35 1- Two new stone tablets for the covenant In the first time, God gave Moses the two tablets ready cut with the commandments engraved on them. But, this time, God commanded Moses to cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, then the Lord will write on them the words that were on the first tablets; God renewed the covenant with His fallen people, but the people lost the two tablets that were cut by God. 2- The Lord descending in the cloud and speaking to Moses God realizes His promise to Moses: “So it shall be, while My glory passes by” (Exod. 33.22); we see Him here, “The Lord passed before him” (Exod. 34.6); and proclaimed His nature, that He is: “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation” (Exod. 34.6-7). He is also realizing His promise: “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion to whom I will have compassion” (Exod. 33.19). He explains what He means. It is not as it may sound, that God has partiality, to be merciful toward whomever He wants, even so, he is not repentant; and to condemn whoever He wants, even so he is repentant. But His ordinances are above human thoughts. He is merciful, when He finds that man presents repentance, or longs to repent. Now, He proclaims His mercy by renewing the covenant, yet not without justice, but after they have presented true repentance, and “stripped themselves of their ornaments” (Exod. 33.6), and “mourned” (Exod. 33.4). According to His words: “Being gracious to whom I will be gracious”, the apostle Paul says, “I planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase” (1 Cor. 3.6). Indeed, God gives the increase to His vine, His Church. Yet, shall God work, unless those in charge plant and water the vine? Moreover, will those in charge quit working, because God gives the abundance? They should do their best, yet there is no life without Him! So are we. We offer repentance, yet mercy is not for any righteousness in us, but for the sake of God, who has compassion on whom He will have compassion. St. Augustine says that whoever thinks that God is unrighteous, because He justly chastises whomever deserves chastisement, or because He is longsuffering and merciful, would be an idiot1. The apostle Paul quoted that phrase in his epistle to the Romans saying, “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will 1 Enchridion. 98 242 have compassion on whomever I will have compassion’. So it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy” (Rom. 9.14). What does this mean? Should we not be ambitious and strive because He shows mercy or denies it, at His own will? Of course not, the apostle wants to confirm that God’s mercy is unconditional; and Love is His nature. He grants to those who offer sincere repentance and who truly seek Him. The apostle, in that chapter, wants to make it clear, that if God had accepted and had mercy upon the children of Israel in the old days, yet that was not for any righteousness in them; and if the Gentiles yearned for salvation, and believed, that also was not for any righteousness on their part. God, who had mercy on Israel before, still has it on all the nations now. Nobody has any right to object. The prophet Hosea has prophesied saying by the mouth of God, “I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved” (Hos. 9.25), not on the expense of the old people, but because the old people have rejected, and the Gentiles accepted1. As to saying that He would come down upon the children and the children’s children for the iniquity of their fathers, we have already discussed that, when we dealt with the first commandment (Chapter 25). As Moses listened to the voice of God, he “made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped” (Exod. 34.8), thus presenting submission and repentance on behalf of all the people. Therefore, God renewed His covenant saying, “I make a covenant” (Exod. 34.10). 3- Renewing the covenant To renew the covenant with the people, after falling into idol worship, God presented two main conditions: A- A negative condition: abolishing sin in all its forms, saying, “Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images. For you shall worship no other god, For the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Exod. 34.12- 14). As we said before, the people could not discern between sin and the sinners. Therefore, destroying all what concerned the sinners has been a symbol of destroying sin in their lives. B- A positive condition: Escaping from evil was not enough. A concrete side of the covenant was imperative: observing the feasts, offering the firstborn, and keeping the Sabbath, things that would kindle man’s heart with the flame of God’s love, and would give him joy and comfort. We have already dealt with all this. 4- Moses fasting The Covenant goes hand in hand with fasting: “He was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water” (Exod. 34.28). Having been with the Lord, he was not in need of bread or water; The Lord was his satisfaction. We saw previously that the figure 40 refers to life in the world, as though man, to enjoy the commandment and the fellowship with the Word of God, is committed to spend his whole time on earth away from luxurious life. 5- Moses’ face shining 1 I shall deal with this subject in more detail in the commentary on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans, God willing. 243 As Moses stood before the Lord, “The skin of his face shone while he talked with Him” (Exod. 34.28), an incident which never happened before all along the previous years, neither during his encounter with the Lord through the burning bush, nor when he was given the ten commandments, in the first and second times. It is as though God intended to reward him for his great love of his people. If through love, he was ready to have his name blotted out of God’s eternal book, it was also through love that the skin of his face shone while he was still on earth That is the splendor and glory of the true life of love . St. Clement of Alexandria sees in the shining of Moses’ face a symbol of the Gnostic man, namely, he who has the true practical knowledge; He would be like Moses, glorified, here on earth, so that his body would carry the features of the righteous soul1. The scholar Tertullian sees in that event a proclamation of God’s work in resurrection. As Moses was so glorified that the people could not look at his shiny face, so will we be in resurrection2. As to the veil that Moses put on his face when he spoke to the people, it is that which was taken away in Christ through gaining His grace (2 Cor. 3.13-14). As the apostle Paul says that until this day the same veil remains un-lifted from the hearts of unbelieving Jews. That is why they are unable to comprehend the secrets and hidden Spirit of the law. The scholar Origen says that [ if we read without zeal for the sake of comprehending and understanding, all the Book would be for us, covered with a veil, even the gospels and the epistles3]. [Some of you come to the Church after the gospel and the epistles are read; and some do not contemplate on what they hear, and do not remember the divine commandment of the law: “Ask your father and he will show you; Your elders and they will tell you” (Deut. 32.7). And some do not wait until the consummation of the readings, or would not even care if those readings were said or not. For those people, around their hearts, there is not only a veil, but also a wall4.] [Studying the holy Books is not enough as to know them, but it is fit for us to beseech and entreat the Lord, day and night, “until the lion of the tribe of Judas, the root of David, would prevail to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals” (Rev. 5.5), who, when he opened the Scriptures to His two disciples, their hearts burned within them (Luke 24.32). May the Lord have compassion upon us now, as it is said, “The Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Cor. 3.17), so that the liberty of knowledge would abide, and we get free from the bondage of the veil. That is why the apostle added, “We all, with unveiled face, behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3.18). Yet, how can we gain that liberty, if we remain in the servitude of the world, the wealth, and the carnal lusts?5 ] 1 Strom. 6:12. 2 In Exod. Hom. 12:4. 3 On the Resurrection of the Flesh. 55. 4 Ibid. 12:2. 5 Ibid. 12:4.
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