"You have told me to lead these people to the promised land, but you haven't told me who you will send with me. You say that I'm your friend and that I've found grace, favor in your sight. Please show me Your way so that I can know You and may continue to find favor in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people."

"I will be with you," God said, "And I will give you rest."

Moses replied, "But if You aren't going to go up to the promised land with us, please don't make us go one step further; for how will the nations round about know that I and this nation have found Your favor and that we are different from other people if You don't go with us?"

"I will do as you ask and lead this people, for you have found favor in My sight and you are My friend," God told Moses.

Then Moses became even bolder and asked to see God in all His glory!

God said to him, "I will make My Goodness pass before you and proclaim My name before you; knowing one another's names shows that we are friends, for I will be gracious and compassionate to anyone I please. But you may not see the full glory of My face, for that is as the sun in its full strength and you would die. However, stand here on this rock and I will pass by you in My glory. I will place you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed. Then you can look at My back, but not My face."

After this God told Moses to cut out two stone tablets like the ones God had cut out and Moses had broken when the children of Israel sinned. "Bring them up the mountain in the morning and I will write the commandments on them as I did before. No one is to be on the mountain while you are with Me. Not even the flocks and herds can graze there."

So Moses made the two tablets and in the morning climbed up with the tablets in his hands. God descended before Moses in a pillar of cloud and then stood before him (not in His full glory this time) face to face and spoke to Moses about the meaning of God's name. "I am YHVH (after more than 3000 years no one knows how this was pronounced), the merciful and gracious (giving favor to whom He wishes) God, patient and overflowing with goodness and truth. I mercifully forgive the evil lawbreaking, the sins of many thousands who repent, yet not forgiving the sins of those who are set to do evil and will not repent." The name YHVH means "I am that I am" or in terms we understand better "The Self-Existent One" or just the "Eternal".

Moses worshipped God and then asked again, "If I have found grace (favor) in Your sight, Oh Lord, please travel with us, even though we are a stiff-necked people. Pardon our sins and make us your inheritance." Moses had already asked God to travel with them and God had agreed; perhaps it showed a slight lack of faith that Moses felt he needed to ask again, but God knows how we are made and understood Moses' need for reassurance.

"I make this covenant with you, Moses." God replied. "I will do marvels and miracles among your people such as have never been done among the peoples of the earth. All the people around you will see these awesome things I will accomplish with you."

When God made the first two tablets of stone and wrote His Commandments on them with His own finger, Moses was with Him for forty days and nights and had nothing to eat or drink. When Moses went down and destroyed the golden calf and broke the tables of stone and made the new ones he was with the people perhaps two or three days. Now he was on the mountain forty more day without food or water. It was easy for God, the creator of the universe, to sustain Moses in good health. The first forty days that Moses was on the mountain God gave him many laws and statutes for the good of the people and society and many plans and instructions for making of the tabernacle (the tent where God was to dwell until the temple was built) and the clothes for the priests and other things.

This forty days was no different, but the most important of these are recorded in Exodus 34:11-26.

"Do what I command you. I am going to drive out the people of the land I'm giving you: the Amorite, Canaanite, Hittite, Perizzite, Hivite, Jebusite and others. Don't make any agreements with any of these peoples so they won't catch you in a trap and get you to worship their gods. You will totally destroy all of their altars, idols, whether stone, wood or metal. Destroy their sacred pillars - you are to worship no other god than the True God. You will not sacrifice to their gods nor will you eat of their sacrifices. You shall not marry your sons to their daughters or your daughters to their sons.

"All of the firstborn are mine - the clean animals you must sacrifice, an unclean animal you must replace, sacrificing a lamb for the firstborn donkey for instance. If you will not do this you must break its neck. Your own firstborn sons you must buy back.

"You must keep my Sabbath and my Holy Days in their three seasons."

God re-wrote the Ten Commandments on the two tablets Moses had made and at the end of forty days Moses carried them down to the people. The people must have been impressed by the previous forty days and the subsequent troubles for there is no record of any problems this time.

When Moses came down Aaron and the other people of Israel were afraid to come near him; his face shone with an inner light because of his close proximity to God for so long. So after Moses had told the people all the things God had told him, he put a veil over his face - but he would take the veil off when he spoke with God.

After this, and before they set out to the promised land, Moses oversaw the making of the tabernacle of worship, the ark of the covenant, the alter, the other furniture and utensils and the priest's garments. The people gave of their best for everything and the finest craftsmen and women made all the items. The people gave far more than was needed and Moses had to ask them to stop giving.

When everything was ready and the tabernacle was built in the center of the camp, the pillar of cloud came down and covered the tabernacle and the glory of God filled it.

Through all their journeys, when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle the people would pack everything and follow the cloud. When the cloud stayed on the tabernacle, the people would remain in their camp.

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