Verses 4 and 5 say, “And he hewed two tablets of stone like the first ones; and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai as Jehovah had commanded him, and he took in his hands two tablets of stone. And Jehovah descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah.” In these verses we see that Moses went up to Mount Sinai, and the Lord descended to Mount Sinai. Hence, to Moses it was a matter of going up, but to God it was a matter of coming down.
In verse 2 the Lord charged Moses to be ready in the morning and to come up in the morning to Mount Sinai. According to verse 4, “Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as Jehovah had commanded him.” I appreciate this word about meeting with the Lord in the morning. How marvelous it would be if we could meet together every morning!
If we read chapter thirty-four carefully, we shall see that God did not tell Moses explicitly to meet with Him in the morning of the next day. Rather, God simply said for him to come up “in the morning.” However, this must refer to the next morning available to Moses, that is, to the morning of the next day.
To meet with the Lord in the morning means not only to meet with Him early in the day; it also means that we should meet with God in a situation that is full of light. Our meeting with God should be at sunrise, not at sunset. The entrance both of the tabernacle and of the temple was toward the east, toward the sunrise (27:13-15). The way we take should be in the light. Proverbs 4:18 says, “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” The way we take should be toward the sunrise, not toward the sunset.
In 34:3 the Lord said to Moses, “And no man shall come up with you, neither let any man be seen on all the mountain; neither let the flocks and the herds feed before that mountain.” Here the Lord told Moses not to bring anyone with him on the mountain. Moses was not permitted to bring Joshua, Aaron, or anyone else. He was to come to the Lord alone. Furthermore, he was to leave all the flocks and herds. No doubt, he was also to leave behind all his possessions. This means that when Moses went up the mountain to meet with the Lord, he was not to bring with him anyone or anything except the tablets of stone.
The Lord’s charge to Moses in verse 3 indicates that we all need a time to contact the Lord alone. We all need a private time to meet with the Lord. During this time alone with the Lord, we should not bring with us anyone or anything. When we go to the Lord early in the morning, we should go to Him alone. We need to leave even our husband or wife behind. Some brothers have the practice of taking their wives with them wherever they go. This practice is good. However, when it is time to meet with the Lord on the mountaintop, a brother should leave his wife at the foot of the mountain. When we meet with the Lord in this way, we need to forget everything and everyone. Forget your possessions, your education, your occupation, your future. Go to the Lord alone without anyone or anything.
When it is time to meet with the Lord alone, we should be free even from our necessities. Moses did not bring anything to eat or drink, and he did not have something on which to sleep. This indicates that when we stay with God, we need not be concerned for our eating, drinking, or sleeping. Actually, there is no time for these things. When we go to meet with the Lord alone, we must be totally free from everything. We must be free from our relatives, our possessions, and even our necessities. Moses was free in this way when he went to the mountaintop to meet with the Lord early in the morning.
We have seen that in order to meet together, Moses went up and the Lord came down. They met at a neutral place, and this neutral place was the mountaintop. This indicates that the Lord was not too demanding of Moses. On the one hand, He asked Moses to come up. On the other hand, He came down to meet with Moses on the mountain.
Exodus 34:29 says, “And it came about, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai—and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hands when he came down from the mountain—that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone in His speaking with him.” The last part of this verse is a problem for Bible translators. Should the rendering be “in His speaking with him,” or “in his speaking with Him”? The rendering “His speaking with him” indicates that the Lord was speaking with Moses. But the rendering “his speaking with Him” means that Moses was speaking with the Lord. I definitely prefer the former because here the main thing is not Moses’ speaking but God’s speaking. Therefore, verse 29 is saying that the skin of Moses’ face shone in the Lord’s speaking with him.
Actually in this chapter Moses spoke hardly at all. In fact, when the Lord was declaring His name, Moses may even have been frightened. Verses 6 and 7 say, “And Jehovah passed by before his face and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah, God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and great in kindness and faithfulness; keeping kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons, and upon the sons’ sons, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.” According to verses 8 and 9, Moses bowed himself down and said to the Lord, “If I have found favor in Your eyes, O Lord, let the Lord, I pray, go in our midst, for it is a stiff-necked people; and forgive our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your possession.” After Moses spoke like this to the Lord, the Lord continued speaking with him. The point here is that this was not the time for Moses to speak. Instead, it was the time for God to speak. Moses received an infusion not through his speaking to God, but through God’s speaking to him.
When we meet with the Lord alone early in the morning, we should not speak too much. Rather, we should let God speak to us. If we talk too much in our meeting with the Lord, we shall not receive an infusion. God’s infusion comes with His speaking. If God would not speak to you, this indicates that He would not infuse you with anything of Himself. But if God speaks to you, you will receive an infusion from Him.
At the very beginning of this chapter, the Lord told Moses that He would “write upon the tablets the words which were on the first tablets.” But, instead of doing this right away, the Lord talked to Moses about many other things. Only toward the end of His long conversation with Moses did God write upon the tablets “the words of the covenant, the ten words” (v. 28). This indicates that it was not God’s main intention to write the Ten Commandments on the two stone tablets. God’s main burden was to speak to Moses concerning the things covered in this chapter in verses 10 through 27. In these verses we have a lengthy record of God’s conversation with Moses, a conversation that covered many points. In these verses nothing is mentioned regarding the Ten Commandments. If I had been Moses, I may have asked God about this and said, “Lord, what are You doing here? You asked me to bring two tablets, and here they are. The tablets are ready for You to write on them. Why, then, are You talking to me about so many other things?” Moses, of course, may have been frightened at that time, and he did not presume to say anything about what the Lord was doing.