In the beginning of Exodus 34, God commands Moses to bring up stone tablets and then instructs him to write His commandments. In the movie Ten Commandments, I recall God ended up striking the tablets with lightning, while announcing each commandment. Also, I recall Moses ended up dropping and then breaking those tablets after he descended the mountain because he was fed up with his people getting so carried away with worshiping the golden calf that was made by his brother, Aaron. I think at the moment that Aaron was a believer and strong supporter of Moses, but he had a weakness for being swayed by the mass and was probably afraid of being ostracized or something while Moses, the charismatic leader, wasn't there with him.
Moses makes an intercession prayer for his people on Exodus 34:9, "Then he said, 'If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.' "
I noticed that Moses used the word, which is translated by Bible scholars to be, stiff-necked or to my idea as being very stubborn. I believe I noticed another key verses with Exodus 34:6-7 which says "And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, 'The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in 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.' "
This is pretty awesome in that it gives off the idea to me that God has in mind of forgiving people who aren't even born yet in the present. This gives me a comfortable and warm feeling in that God isn't just about pouring His wraith and killing everybody. There was a moment where God told Moses that he would wipe his people and rebuild a nation through Moses. I'm sure God was being right, but then Moses prayed to God to hold on to His people and God actually listened to him! It looks like God really favors providing forgiveness over destroying lives He created.
In Exodus 34, God makes mention later in the chapter to Moses about how He is preparing the famous "promised land." Towards the end of the chapter, Moses ends up getting a shiny face that scares the heck out of the people so he has to wear a veil. This shininess appears whenever he has a direct conversation with God. This is crazy how Moses is one of the few Bible characters to be able to have a direct chat with God. The Bible also claims in this chapter that Moses lived with no food and water for 40 days and 40 nights. How is that even possible? Is that the actually brink of a person surviving with subsistence?
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In Exodus 35, at the beginning, Moses reinforces to his people about observing the Sabbath Day, which is working six days and then resting on the seventh. It's really nice to take a breather after hard work!
Moses asked his people to give offerings to create a tabernacle, which was a tent where God would show up. The small picture is a depiction of the tabernacle and something I found under five minutes. I really liked all the details and colors that went into it. The Bible takes about how the linen had all sorts of fancy colors to go with it, especially purple! I heard from my buddy that purple being the favorite color depicts the person being a warm-hearted person.
The donations were also about free-will. The Apostle Paul mentions in the New Testament that God loves a cheerful giver.
Moses also found out that there were some artisans who were gifted with building God's blueprint. I was told that this blueprint of a tabernacle reflects on imitating the true nature of heaven, so it had to be exactly right.
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In Exodus 36, what I found to be so crazy was that the people gave so much that Moses had to command the people to not bring anymore! This is amazing, and also I think the verses reflect on how if a person truly had the heart to help out with constructing the tabernacle, then he would be accepted. I'm not really sure if women were accepted in making the design, but I'm sure her offerings were graciously accepted. Exodus 36:6 has Moses telling his people, "Let neither man nor woman do any more work for the offering of the sanctuary."
Exodus 36:8 mentions how the gifted artisans did most of the work of creating those elaborate designs, so maybe even if our hearts were in the right place, we might not be that special to participate in making it.
