Exodus 34: The Richness of God
Monday, November 3, 2025
When Moses sees the people worshiping a golden calf they have fashioned for themselves (Exodus 32:19) he smashes the tablets containing the Ten Commandments in a fit of wrath. In today’s Noontime we read of the renewal of these tablets. Even in the face of a willful turning away, God shows his chosen people kindness and mercy. And God shows us this same gentleness and compassion today.
Paul writes to the Colossians (3:12-14) and to us: Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection.
Moses describes God as merciful and gracious, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, continuing his kindness for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin. Moses also speaks of how God chastises us – all the while loving us as a loving parent wishing the best for his child.
The Psalm in the Morning Prayer today is Psalm 36:6-10 and it reminds us of the depth and breadth of God’s love. It also reminds us that God will be painfully truthful with us in order that we also grow in mercy and goodness and truth and justice and light: Your love, Lord, reaches to heaven; your truth to the skies. Your justice is like God’s mountain, your judgments like the deep. To both man and beast you give protection, O Lord, how precious is your love. My God, the sons of men find refuge in the shelter of your wings. They feast on the riches of your house; they drink from the stream of your delight. In you is the source of life and in your light we see light.
The MAGNIFICAT mini-reflection (Cameron 132-133) helps us to understand why we gather to celebrate Eucharist as often as possible: Through the mystery of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, God has destroyed death forever by transforming it from the end of our story to a passageway into eternal life. In the Eucharistic feast, we taste the promise of the fulfilled. It is in and with and through Christ that come we come to know the fullness of God’s love, that he gives his own child so that we might live. Such is the richness of God. Such is his gift of light and life to us.
Toward the end of exodus 34 we read about how Moses’ face is so transformed into light that he puts a veil over his face. God’s radiance is reflected in Moses’ face. All of this goodness is nearly too much to bear.
The MAGNIFICAT Morning Intercessions help us to make the connection between God’s feeding of the Hebrews in the desert with God’s abiding love for us in the 21st century. They let us know that God’s eternal message of peace that made Moses’ face radiant in joy is the same message God has for us today. When we cry out in sorrow, God nourishes us. When we wander in the darkness, God brings us the gift of eternal life.
God feeds us with the finest wheat: our Lord Jesus Christ, source of our life. And so we pray . . .
You feed us at the table of your word: nourish the thoughts of our heart.
You feed us with the bread of life: grant that we may live in the spirit of self-giving love.
You feed us with the pledge of eternal life: grant that we may receive our daily bread with gratitude.
God of life, you invite all peoples to the feast of life in your kingdom. Forgive us when, in our foolishness, we refuse your invitation to pursue other interests, and bring us back to your table that we may continue to grow in the life of Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord for ever. Amen.
God is the Good Shepherd of all creation; he is the patient night-watcher and the constant day-herder. God is the wise and loving one who knows us from the womb until our last breath. God nourishes and feeds; he rescues and saves. God always calls us to return. For God is rich in kindness and mercy, quick to forgive, slow to anger, always calling us home.
A re-post from October 9, 2011.
Cameron, Peter John, Rev., ed. “Mini-Reflection and Prayer for the Morning.” MAGNIFICAT. 9 October 2011: 251. Print.
Images from: https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-good-shepherd/28013a12-7a77-4a4f-9b26-85422f4d7afe and https://fineartamerica.com/featured/sunset-over-wears-valley-tennessee-mountain-art-reid-callaway.html
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