April 8, 2026 - Exodus 34 & Psalm 78:9-31

We walk through Exodus 34 and Psalm 78 to see God reminding His own people who He is and what He does. We also face the danger of forgetting God’s works and learn why remembering His character changes the way we obey, worship, and pray. 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path. 

Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Date

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Vibrating Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way. I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sanborn. Today is Wednesday, April 8th, 2026. Here's a quick summary of Exodus 34. Exodus 34 begins with God giving instructions to Moses to cut two more stone tablets so that God could write yet again the ten words, the ten commandments on the tablets, since Moses had broke them. God even reminds Moses, the Lord said to Moses, this is verse one cut for yourselves two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. So there's a reminder of Moses breaking the tablets out of anger. And so there is instructions given for him to cut some new tablets from stone, and God would write with his own finger, again, the words of the covenant. And then beginning in verse 10, the covenant that God made with Moses, and specifically the nation of Israel, is reiterated. And there's different feasts that are reiterated. Again, observances of a certain feast, like the feast of in-gathering or the feast of weeks, certainly uh the Sabbath, you shall keep the feast of unleavened bread, and just a reminder and a reiteration of the covenant that God had made with Israel and the stipulations that went with that. And the chapter ends with Moses sort of communing with God on behalf of the people of Israel. This is a foreshadowing of ultimately the role that the priest would take on, and Aaron and his sons would take on where they enter the Holy of Holies. But Moses in the tent of meeting goes in, he comes out, his face is shining. Uh it's very bright. There's this sense of the glory of the Lord kind of radiating from his face. And so every time he comes out, he veils his face, and then he when he goes back in, he unveils his face before the Lord, and that pattern continues throughout Exodus thirty-four.

God’s Name Reveals His Character

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Listen intently to God's written word. Psalm seventy-eight, verses nine through thirty-one. The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle. They did not keep God's covenant, but refused to walk according to his law. They forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them. In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan. He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the water stand like a heap. In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a fiery light. He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. He made streams come out of rock, and cause waters to flow down like rivers. Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the most high in the desert. They tested God in their heart, by demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God, saying, Can God spread a table in the wilderness? He struck the rock, so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people? Therefore, when the Lord heard he was full of wrath, a fire was kindled against Jacob, his anger rose against Israel, because they did not believe in God and did not trust his saving power. Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven, and he rained down on them manna to eat, and gave them the grain of heaven. Man ate of the bread of the angels, he sent food in abundance, he caused east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he led out the south wind. He rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas, he let them fall in the midst of their camp all around their dwellings, and they ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved. But before they had satisfied their craving, while the food was still in their mouths, the anger of God rose against them, and he killed the strongest of them, and laid low the young men of Israel.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

In Exodus thirty-four, I want you to see the connection between God's self-revelation, God's self-declaration, and his covenant that he reiterates with Moses, and of course, by extension, the nation of Israel. So in verse five, it says the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. So in this recounting and reiterating of the covenant that God has made with Israel, he makes a self-declaration. This is who the Lord is. Just as a reminder specifically to Moses of who he is entering into a covenant with.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

What's going on? They are trying to lift up worship and praise to Yahweh via this golden calf that Aaron constructed.

Tear Down Idols And False Worship

SPEAKER_01 6:28

A violation of the ten words, the ten commandments. And so, of course, they in a sense forget. And even in Psalm 78, that we'll get to in a second, it says that they did not trust the Lord. They lacked trust in God. And that led them to sin ultimately. And so God reminds Moses: this is who I am. I am steadfast, I am gracious, I am merciful. And because he is faithful, he's inviting Moses and the nation of Israel to trust him. And even in our life, we need to be invited daily by God's word, by God's Spirit, to trust in the Lord and to recall and remember that God is who he says he is, as basic as that may seem. The Lord is a God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty. So this is who God is. And as we've been studying it in Hebrews, and we'll pick up our study of Hebrews this Sunday, God is who he has always been. God is not becoming something, he's not changing, he's not altering himself. God is the same yesterday and today and forever. And so when God says in Exodus 34 to Moses and to the nation of Israel that he is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, that's who he was thousands of years ago. That's who he is today, that's who he will be tomorrow. And that's a great encouragement for us because as we'll look at in Psalm 78, when we forget that, when we don't trust that, when we doubt that, that's when sin is crouching at the door and is nearest uh to entangling us, because our lack of trust in God leads to a whole host of problems. We were even having a partner's meeting with someone this morning uh talking about this aspect of our view of God uh can be the cause of a hundred lesser evils. Uh, and because if we view God wrongly, we'll often um live wrongly and we'll often often engage in sins that are associated with our low view of God. And we see that exact thing happening in Psalm 78. We see an exact thing happening here in Exodus with the golden calf, where they forget who God is, they lack trust in the Lord, and as a result, they engage in sin because of their fear or anxiety or whatever you want to call it. And so we need to be reminded that God is gracious, he's merciful, he abounds in steadfast love, and we need to trust in that God who is the same yesterday, who is the same today, and who will be the same tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Now, PJ, I was reading this chapter, Exodus 34, and I I couldn't help but think of just the this isn't foreshadowing, but in a certain way, God is calling his people to not worship like they had with the golden calf, not worshiping false idols. And in verse 13, we read, You shall tear down their altars and break the pillars and cut down uh their ashram, and and speaking about the land and the people that live there, they're gonna get driven out. And as God's people enter into this land, God is instructing them, there's a great caution to be had here. Don't adopt their way of living, don't adopt their way of worship, tear down these altars, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and you are invited, you eat of the of his sacrifice. And there's this this call to remember, I've set you apart. Don't adopt the traditions of of the people, of these inhabitants. Don't take their daughters, don't take their sons, and and don't go after their gods. And this is what ultimately happens if you press fast forward. This is what we are going to see the people of Israel do. There's even a kindness from God, like, hey, this this is something for you to watch out for. This is like the trailer to the movie that they're seeing. Don't do these things. There's going to be a temptation to do this, and um just call calling you Israel, my people. Please don't, please don't do this.

The Veil And Sin’s Separation

Remembering God’s Provision And Discipline

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Yeah, and of course, Israel, like like you mentioned, um, does this exact thing? They they disobey God, they break his covenant. Uh, and even I would say in Exodus 34, the next section about the shining face of Moses uh kind of is a foreshadowing of that. Because why does Moses have to put a veil on his face? Uh why does that there seem to be this kind of barrier uh between the glory of the Lord and the people of God? Well, that veil that he places over his face is a physical reminder of their separation uh from their God because of their sin. Uh and so there's a sense in which Moses uh is uh externally even on his own face, uh, representing what the curtain for the Holy of Holies would ultimately become, where um, as the the children's book, The Garden, The Curtain and the Cross says, Because of your sin, you can't come in. Uh, and that's that veil on Moses' face is a reminder uh that their sin has created a separation, their iniquity has created a separation between them and their uh God. And so anytime Moses would would enter, he would remove the veil. Anytime he would exit, he would uh put it back on. Um, it even says there at the end, um the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining with the radiance and the glory of God, and Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went in to speak with him. So it's like they're getting these glimpses uh of just how holy the Lord is. But then it's kind of like those glimpses get covered up because of their sin, and they can't fully see uh who God is, they can't fully uh dwell with him, at least in the way that we can, because of Christ and the blood of Christ that has taken away our sin. So this is a foreshadowing, of course, of Christ, uh of the veil that ultimately gets torn in two uh with the death of Christ. You can read about that in the Gospels. Uh, but this shows and showcases that sin does, in fact, create a separation uh between you and God. And there is a need for an intercessor that Moses stands in the place of here on behalf of the nation of Israel. Eventually Aaron does, eventually the priests after him will. Uh, and then ultimately and finally Jesus himself uh stands as our intercessor.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Now, one thing you and I were talking about today during our meeting, PJ, was uh this importance to remember and the importance to to pray and to thank God for what he's doing, and remember how our prayers are being answered, how he's provided and how we are to continue to follow after the Lord and and step into these commands that he has called us to do. And that reminds me, as I look to our psalm here in Psalm 78, I'm reminded of a time when I was younger in my middle school and high school years, uh, when when I was being hard-headed, when I was proud, when I was at times rebelling against my parents, my dad would kindly say, You know, Tyler, one day you'll understand. One day you're gonna get it. You know, he knew if I was to press fast forward in my life and I was to continue down the path that I was on, it would be no good for me. It would be um problems, big problems in my life as I was pursuing a life that was Tyler-centric and not God-centric. I I'm looking at our text today and I'm just reminded of the heart of Israel as they were being delivered out of Egypt and into the promised land. There's a ton of Exodus language here, and um, we see God's provision as he's splitting rocks, he's raining down birds, he's providing the bread of heaven for Israel to eat and manna, and uh there's just so much here, an abundance of provision from God, and we also see they their yearning and their desire uh for for satisfaction and to to fill their cravings. We see the final verse here. The anger of God rose against them, and he killed the strongest of them and the low, the young men of Israel. There's this correction and discipline that God is in a kind way delivering to his people who are forgetting and and helping them remember it. You're not the God that that saved you out of Egypt. It was me. I the great I am. And I'm I'm so thankful that we can look to the Psalms and look to chapter 78 and just remember time and time again, because we're so prone to forget, aren't we? We're we're it's so easy for us to to have this heart that's complaining and is asking God, where's mine? I thought you're I thought you're for me. I thought things were gonna go a certain way. And and sometimes we we like to take the the narrative and say, well, this is how I see God providing for me and kind of determining what that should look like in our own hearts, though we might not say that out loud, but we kind of have this entitled heart inside of us that would prefer God to to take care of us and provide for us on our own terms. And we we often need to check ourselves and and say, like, Lord, I'm submitting to you. I'm not submitting to my my plan or or my preferences. God, have your way in my life and and along the way, God, help me to remember what you have done.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Amen. Well, we do certainly need to remember that God is gracious and merciful and abounding in steadfast love, keeping his faithfulness to generation after generation. But thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Bali, visit compass bible sv.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.