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One more mighty effort of intercession, and Moses will bear away the blessing which he seeks. It needs, however, that it be a mighty one. The covenant is not yet restored in its integrity. The people's sin is not yet perfectly forgiven. God, indeed, has promised to go with them, but he has not said, as of old, "I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God" (Exodus 6:7). The new relations are not those of perfected friendship. They are moreover, unstable. New transgressions of the people may at any moment upset them. Moses, accordingly, would not only have the covenant renewed - restored in its old completeness and integrity - the last trace of the Divine displeasure wiped away - but would have God give him a pledge of grace beyond anything he has yet received - a pledge that he will show great forbearance with the people: that he will not deal summarily with them, or cast them off, on account of backslidings which he now perceives to be inevitable (ver. 9). It was a high thing to ask: too high, Moses may have thought, for him to be able to attain to it. If he did, it could only be as the result of an earnestness, a perseverance, and a sublimity in intercesssion beyond everything of which he had yet felt himself capable. The strength he needed, however, was not to be withheld from him. He had already, though, probably, without this being present to his mind as a motive, put himself in the way of getting it, by asking for a vision of the Divine glory. From this would flow into his soul a spiritual might which would make "all things possible" to him (cf. Mark 9:23). By sheer power of prayer, he would obtain what he desired. Jehovah, on his side, was too well pleased with his servant's zeal and devotion, too willing to be entreated of him, too entirely in accord with the object of his supplication, not readily to grant him the opportunity of pressing his request.

I. JEHOVAH'S "COME UP HITHER" (vers. 1-4). 1. The command to hew out tables (ver. 1). Formerly, it was God himself who furnished the tables on which the law was written (Exodus 32:16). Now, the tables are to be provided by Moses. This may have had reference to the facts

(1) that it was Moses who had destroyed the former tables (Exodus 32:19); and

(2) that it was by the mediation of Moses that the covenant was being renewed. It was a suitable reward for his intercession, that God should give him this honour of supplying the tables on which the covenant terms were to be inscribed. View the command to hew out tables as

(1) Retrospective. God had already promised that his presence should go with Israel (Exodus 33:14). This implied, on the part of the people, return to their obedience. The law is unalterable. God can walk with men only as they are willing to walk with him in the way of his commands. The tables testified to the unchangingness of the obligation.

(2) Anticipative. It had in view the fact that, through Moses' intercession, the covenant was about to be restored.

(3) Promissory. It gave Moses encouragement to entreat for its restoration.

2. The command to ascend the mount (ver. 2). The summons to ascend the mount was,

(1) An answer to prayer - "Shew me thy glory" (Exodus 33:18).

(2) A preparation for vision.

(3) An opportunity for intercession.

3. The command to preserve the sanctity of the mount (ver. 3). This was to be done by keeping man and beast from approaching it. Moses was to ascend alone. The command - a parallel to that in Exodus 19:12-13 - has for its end the warning back of intruders from what, for the time being, is "holy ground" (cf. Exodus 3:5). Other reasons are, that there might be

(1) No interruption of communion.

(2) No distraction in intercession.

(3) No injury done by the manifestation of the Divine glory. The manifested glory of the Lord would so surely be followed by the destruction of man that even Moses needed to be protected before it (Exodus 33:21, 22).

II. THE NAME REVEALED (vers. 4-8).

(1) Jehovah "passed by before him" (ver. 5), i.e., gave him the glimpse of his glory promised in Exodus 33:22, 23.

(2) He "proclaimed his name" - i.e., made known to Moses the essence of his character. This was the higher revelation. The other is only alluded to; this is dwelt on and expanded (vers. 6, 7).

1. The name itself. Note here in regard to it -

(1) It unites mercy and justice.

(2) The merciful attributes preponderate.

(3) The word which syllables it is "Love."

Love is the union of goodness and holiness. The history of revelation has been but the spelling out of this name. Christ is the perfect embodiment of it.

2. The effects on Moses.

(1) It awed him (ver. 8).

(2) It encouraged him. It gave iron a new ground of confidence in entreaty (ver. 9).

(3) It strengthened him. Cf. the chorus of the archangels in Goethe's "Faust" -

"Though none may fathom thee - thy sight
Upon the angels power bestows," etc.

III. THE COVENANT RESTORED (vers. 9, 27, 28).

1. The intercession. This fourth and last intercession presents us with several noteworthy features.

(1) It was very prolonged. The account here is summary; but Moses tells us in Deuteronomy (Exodus 9:25), that he "fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights as at the first," and prayed earnestly that the people might not be destroyed (cf. ver. 28).

(2) It included intercession for Aaron (Deuteronomy 9:20).

(3) It is marked by a deep perception of the root of depravity in the people's nature. Moses has no longer the same optimistic views regarding them as when he disputed with God the necessity of giving them further warning about not approaching the mount (Exodus 19:23). Note how, in the first intercession, it is the people's danger; in the second, the people's guilt; and in the last, the people's depravity, which is chiefly before the intercessor's mind. He here pleads the innate tendency as a reason why God should deal mercifully with them (ver. 9). Human nature does not improve on closer inspection. But there is weakness as well as sin in its condition. The Divine ruler may be trusted to make the requisite allowances (cf. Genesis 8:21).

(4) It is marked - and this is the outstanding circumstance in connection with it - by the degree in which Moses is now able to identify himself with the people for whom he intercedes. "Let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us .... And pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance" (ver. 9). More than ever he feels himself one with his nation. Intercession has perfected sympathy. But not intercession alone. It may be inferred that no act had more to do with this result than the supreme act of self-devotion, already considered, in which he expressed his willingness to die, and, if need be, to be blotted out of God's book, for the salvation of the people. In that amazing act, the last traces of selfishness must have perished. He has given himself for Israel, and is thenceforth one with it. Subsequent intercessions can but develop, and give clearer and fuller expression to the sense of unity with his people born within him in that supreme hour in his experience. Sinful as the people are, accordingly, Moses, in his present entreaty does not shrink from including himself among them. "Our iniquity" - "our sin." The just takes part with the unjust. He makes their sin his, and pleads for its forgiveness. The worse they show themselves, the more earnestly he holds by them, and endeavours to sustain them by his prayers. If sympathy be a qualification for the task of mediation, Moses thus possesses it. His intercession, in this respect, throws striking lights on Christ's.

2. The success. The prolonged, fervent, and sympathetic intercession of Moses did not fail of its reward. "The Lord," he tells afterward, "hearkened unto me at that time also" (Deuteronomy 9:19). Nothing was wanting to the completeness of his success. The last frown had. disappeared from the countenance of Jehovah. Covenant relations were perfectly restored. The people were reinstated in privilege. No wonder that the mediator's face "shone" as he descended from the mount! We, too, have an intercessor whom the Father "heareth always" (John 11:42). - J.O.

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KJV: And the LORD said unto 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.

WEB: Yahweh said to Moses, "Chisel two stone tablets like the first: and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.