Symmetry and Balance
The best art and writing and film and food presentation and home décor and landscaping and architecture has symmetry and balance. There are proper proportions, not too much or too little of any one thing. There’s diversity but not chaos. Balance is often the key to beauty.
The Bible is full of symmetry and balance. The Bible says a lot about a lot, but there are proper proportions. The main things get the main emphasis. Minor things are minor and major things are major. There’s an evenness to how the Bible presents key ideas. There’s a beautiful balance.
One example of what I’m talking about are the letters of Paul. Most of his letters can be divided in half, with the first half focused on what God has done in Jesus and the second half focused on how we should live in light of what God has done in Jesus. First, theology, then application. Doctrine then devotion. Orthodoxy then orthopraxy.
This kind of symmetry is all over the Bible. Jesus’ teaching is full of instruction about God and his kingdom and application about how his followers should live in light of God and his kingdom. He teaches us to love God and love our neighbor. The Bible is a balanced book.
Compassion then Commands
In Exodus 34, we see yet more symmetry and balance. The first 10 verses highlight God’s compassion to Israel while the last 25 verses highlight God’s commands for Israel. Compassion first, then commands. That’s the biblical rhythm. Like a beautifully choreographed dance, grace is the lead partner and obedience joyfully follows.
Getting the balance right is crucial to understanding what it means to be a Christian. Some people think that they can live however they want because God’s grace covers them. That’s called antinomianism, or “no law.” Other people think they have to keep all the rules or God’s grace won’t cover them. That’s called legalism. Both are attempts to cover up your shame and neither will bring you the peace and life you’re looking for.
The way to life is through grace-filled obedience. Grace comes first, but when it comes, it brings obedience with it. When God saves us, he gives us faith and repentance. He shows us the beauty of Jesus and gives us power to follow him. He fills us with grace and motivates us to obey.
Grace-filled obedience is what Exodus 34 is about. Last week, we saw that God’s deepest heart overflows with love for people who don’t deserve it (vv. 6-7). This week we’ll see that God’s love doesn’t nullify his commands. There’s a happy marriage between God’s grace and his people’s obedience, and what God has brought together we must not separate.
As we come to Exodus 34:10-35, I want us to approach this text with three questions. First, where’s the grace (v. 10)? Second, why the obedience (vv. 11-28)? And third, what keeps them together (vv. 29-35)? In this text, we see a beautiful symmetry between God’s grace and our response to his grace, or a grace-filled obedience.
Where’s the Grace?
First, where’s the grace (v. 10)? The first thing the Lord says to Moses is, “I am making a covenant.” This is amazing news for Israel and makes it explicit what the Lord is doing. He’s making, or re-making, the covenant he made with them when Moses came down the mountain the first time (24:7-8).
This is not a new covenant. The Lord has already said in verse 1 that he’ll be writing the same words on the second set of tablets that he wrote on the first. The ten sample commandments in verses 14-26 are repetitions of commands already given back in chapter 23. And the Lord says he’ll write on the tablets the “words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments” (v. 28). This is a reinstitution and restoration, not a revision.
It says he’s “making a covenant.” He’s not reminding Israel of the covenant, he’s remaking or fixing what they broke. He’s taking the responsibility on himself to restore and repair the broken relationship between him and Israel.
These opening words are full of so much grace. He’s going beyond what was expected, giving Israel what they don’t deserve. The grace here is in the fact that God is willing to remake what Israel broke.
It’d be like if your spouse or friend did something to hurt you and instead of waiting on them to make things right, you went to them and made things right. The Lord is the betrayed spouse who’s moving back toward the betrayer to repair what they broke.
“I Will Do Marvels”
But there’s even more grace in this verse. The rest of the verse says that the Lord will do amazing things through his people so that all the earth can see his glory in them.
The vocabulary of “marvels” reminds us of the signs and wonders he did in Egypt with the plagues, but here he’s referring to the “wonders” he’ll do to give Israel the Promised Land (v. 11). The grace here is that he’ll conquer their enemies and give them a home.
Back in 15:11, after the Red Sea crossing, Moses sang, “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” What he’s telling Moses in 34:10 is that his ability to do wonders didn’t terminate at the Red Sea. The wonders he did there are but a foretaste of even more wonderful things to come.
The wonders of God’s work in the past pushes our gaze forward to the even more wonderful things he’ll do in the future. The wonder of the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus prepare us for the even greater wonder of his return, the wonder of his total conquest of his enemies and the wonder of him bringing us home to a new heavens and new earth.
Why the Obedience?
The grace of the Lord is seen in him remaking the covenant and promising to do even more wonders through his people. But then grace gives way to commands in verses 11-28. Our second question is why the obedience? Why does the Lord expect his people to obey him?
We know this section is focused on obedience because verse 11 begins with, “Observe what I command you this day,” and then what follows are a series of commands, most of which have already been given in chapter 23. The function of these verses is to give Israel guidelines to live by in the land the Lord is taking them to.
The primary thing the Lord cares about is his people’s allegiance to him. That’s why he starts this section with several commands and warnings about idolatry (vv. 11-17).
The Lord starts with idolatry because idolatry is what our hearts are most prone to. The perversion of idolatry is that we look to images for hope instead of accepting our roles as images of the one true God. Idolatry inverts what we were made for. We were made to image God; instead we look to images to be our God.
The Lord’s Jealousy
Notice the reason the Lord gives for why we shouldn’t worship any other god in verse 14, “for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” God forbids idolatry because he’s jealous.
We usually use the word “jealousy” in a different way than the Bible uses it. We typically use it to describe someone who’s insecure, obsessive, and has unpredictable moments of rage and impulsive emotions. This isn’t the kind of jealousy God has.
Jealousy in the Bible isn’t the raging mad, suspicious, and irrational husband who abuses his wife verbally, emotionally, and physically when she does something he doesn’t like. Rather, as one writer describes it, “Jealousy (in the Bible) describes something more like the husband who so loves and cares for his wife and is so devoted to the commitment reflected in the promises they made on their wedding day that he seeks to earnestly draw his wife back to himself should she be flirting with adultery.”[1]
Why should God’s people obey God? Because God is a jealous God. His name is Jealous, meaning that, unlike humans who become jealous, God’s jealousy isn’t the result of a mood swing for him. Jealousy isn’t a mood for God, it’s his essence. He always cares deeply about his glory among his people.
God’s jealousy, however, is displayed in two different ways in Scripture. It can either look like a consuming fire or a faithful husband. In Deuteronomy, Moses tells Isreal to not break covenant with the Lord because he “is a consuming fire, a jealous God” (4:23-24).
But at other times his jealousy looks more like a husband’s loving pursuit of his wife. In Hosea, God compares his relationship with Israel to a marriage with a prostitute. He tells Hosea to marry a prostitute (1:2). After they’re married, she leaves him for other lovers. But the Lord tells Hosea to go after her, to “allure her” and “speak tenderly to her” (2:14). So he goes and buys her back and takes her home. Hosea’s jealousy for his wife sent him after her with cleansing mercy.
Because he’s jealous, he hates their spiritual adultery and goes after them with love and mercy. If they persist in their adultery, they’re met with his “consuming fire.”
“Jealous with My Jealousy”
An example of this is in Numbers 25. Israel was doing exactly what the Lord told them not to do in Exodus 34 by worshipping the gods of other nations. So the Lord tells Moses to have the people who’re guilty impaled and left to die in the sun.
While that’s happening, an Israelite man takes a Midianite woman into his family’s tent in front of Moses and the whole congregation while they’re weeping over what’s happening. This is brazen perversion and utter madness. In steps Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson. He takes his spear and goes into the tent and spears the man and the woman through the belly and the plague stops.
Like Jesus in the temple, Phinehas was consumed with righteous anger. The Lord said this to Moses, “Phinehas…has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy” (v. 11). Phinehas was jealous for what the Lord was jealous for, namely, the glory of his name and the purity of his people.
If we’re not careful, we’ll stop here and think, “Okay, I need to be really passionate for the Lord and take a stand and fight injustice and then I’ll really be a true Christian.” But we have to keep verses 11-28 and verses 1-10 together. It’s the grace of the Lord that compels the people’s obedience. The people obey because, like the persistent and gracious husband, the Lord comes after them, the adulterous spouse, and makes things right.
Because he’s jealous for his glory among them, the Lord gives them grace and then expects them to obey. Grace, then obedience, and all because the Lord’s name is Jealous.
What Keeps Them Together?
The third question we need to ask is, “What keeps grace and obedience together?” What keeps us balanced in our walk with Christ? What will fill us with grace and motivate us to obey? Verses 29-35 show us that it’s only though the glory of the mediator.
Something happens to Moses while he’s on the mountain. He somehow goes without food and water for forty days (v. 28) and when he comes down his face shines so brightly that the people are afraid of him (v. 30). Last time he came down the mountain with rage, this time with glory.
This is the only time the shining face and veil of Moses are mentioned in the Old Testament. What’s going on here? The text doesn’t tell us why his face shines, but it seems best to conclude that it’s shining as a way of showing Israel that Moses is their mediator. He’s the one who goes before the Lord for them. His shining face reflects the glory of God to impress on Israel that Moses is God’s man. He’s the embodiment of the tabernacle, as God’s presence and glory reflect off of him, his veil like the veil in the Holy Place separating the people from the glory of the Lord.
The Lord’s grace and word have come to his rebellious people through Moses. His role as mediator in these last several chapters made him truly great, as one commentator describes:
“The main thrust of chapters 32-34 now becomes clear. It is not so much a story of rebellion as it is a story of God’s forgiveness and Moses’ role in making this happen. It is in these chapters that Moses’ role as intercessor, as mediator of the covenant, reaches its zenith. If we wish to point to the episode that makes Moses truly special, that makes him deserving of all the honor, attention, and respect he has received through the ages, it is his shielding an ungrateful people from the end they most certainly deserve, even if it means taking their place and bearing the full weight, horror, and ignominy of God’s anger. The world will not see the likes of this again for many generations.”[2]
Mediator Moses is who brings them grace, and grace is what motivates them to obey. So what keeps grace and obedience together? See the glory of the mediator.
A Greater Mediator
Moses was a great mediator, going to the Lord on behalf of the people time and time again. But he wasn’t a perfect mediator. Moses offered to atone for Israel’s sins back in chapter 32, but the Lord rejected his offer because he wasn’t a perfect substitute (Num. 20:12). Only someone who isn’t guilty can bear the guilt of someone else.
This Someone is of course Jesus Christ. He had no guilt so he could take our guilt: the not guilty dies for the guilty. This is why Paul in 2 Corinthians 3 uses this passage in Exodus 34 to talk about how the “old covenant” has been surpassed in glory by the new covenant (v. 10).
Paul’s point is that something good has been replaced by something better. There was real glory in the old covenant, but it was a covenant of death and condemnation and faded away, just like the glory on Moses’ face after he came down from the mountain. But Jesus mediates a ministry of righteousness and his covenant has a permanent glory.
Jesus came to free us from death and condemnation and give us the Spirit so that we want to obey God. Outside of Christ, we want grace but we don’t want to obey. In Christ, we find grace that frees us to obey. Outside of Christ, our disobedience deserves death because the Lord is jealous. In Christ, his obedience is credited to us and we’re set free from antinomianism and legalism, from breaking all the rules or keeping all the rules to cover our shame. In Jesus, we’re free, and that’s glorious.
A Greater Phinehas
Remember Phinehas? After he puts his spear through the adulterous couple it says that the plague that was on the people stopped (Num. 25:8). In that moment, he made atonement for the people’s sin and God’s wrath was stopped (v. 11).
Phinehas is a shadow of Jesus who, seeing the sinfulness of God’s people, ran to the cross to stop the plague. The difference is that the death that stops the wrath from coming on the people is his own. Jesus doesn’t kill anyone with a spear – he tells Peter to put his sword away (Matt. 26:52). Instead, he takes the spear himself, letting sinners thrust him through with thorns, nails, and a spear. His atonement is effective, so he cries out, “It is finished” (Jn. 19:30). His payment for sin is so perfect that his tomb is empty three days later. Jesus rose from the dead victorious so that the whole world will know that Jealous is his name.
Grace-Filled Obedience Starts at the Cross
What keeps grace and obedience together? Where do we get filled with grace and motivated to obey? Only at the cross, the place where the Son of God was consumed by the fire of God, the place where our faithful husband came after his unfaithful bride.
Only when you see what God has done for you in Jesus, when you see his jealous love for you on the cross, will you want to live for him. The balance and symmetry of a grace-filled and obedient life begins when you see the glory of the Mediator.
Do you know his grace and compassion? Are you obeying his word and commands? Have you see the glory of the Mediator?
[1]Matthew Barrett, None Greater: The Undomesticated Attributes of God (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2019), 234.
[2]Peter Enns, Exodus, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 588.