Single lesson
God Renews the Covenant with Moses
Exodus 34:1–35
In this lesson, children trace how God gave Moses new stone tablets, spoke his name and character, renewed his covenant, and sent Moses back to the people. They will sequence the passage and notice both God’s mercy and his commands.
Before you teach
Exodus 34:1–35 begins with Yahweh telling Moses to cut two stone tablets like the first ones. Moses goes up Mount Sinai alone, where Yahweh proclaims his name and speaks covenant words. The chapter ends with Moses returning to Israel with shining skin on his face after speaking with Yahweh.
Students will be able to retell the main events of Exodus 34:1–35 in order and identify at least two truths this passage states about God and two responses it calls for from people.
Welcome: What happened first, next, and last?
4 minSay the lesson title and explain that today the class will follow the order of one chapter carefully. Show three simple prompts on a board: new tablets, God’s words, shining face. Ask children to listen for where each belongs in the passage. Explain that the story shows both what God says and how people respond.
Exodus 34:1, Exodus 34:6, Exodus 34:29
Read and explain: New tablets and God’s name
8 minRead Exodus 34:1–9 aloud. Point out that Moses must chisel two tablets and go up the mountain alone. Then slow down over Yahweh’s proclamation: merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness and truth, forgiving sin, and not clearing the guilty. Show the response in the text: Moses bows and worships, then asks God to go with the people and pardon them.
Exodus 34:1, Exodus 34:2, Exodus 34:3, Exodus 34:6, Exodus 34:7, Exodus 34:8, Exodus 34:9
Discuss: Covenant promises and commands
6 minRead selected verses from Exodus 34:10–28. Explain that God says he is making a covenant and that the people must observe what he commands. Notice the repeated instructions about worshipping no other god, making no idols, keeping appointed feasts, resting on the seventh day, and writing these words. Help children see the pattern: God speaks, and his people are to listen and obey.
Exodus 34:10, Exodus 34:11, Exodus 34:12, Exodus 34:14, Exodus 34:17, Exodus 34:18, Exodus 34:21, Exodus 34:27, Exodus 34:28
Make and respond: Sequence cards
8 minChildren make simple sequence cards for five key moments: Moses chisels tablets, Yahweh proclaims his name, Moses worships and asks for pardon, God gives covenant commands, Moses returns with a shining face. After arranging the cards in order, ask each child to choose one card and say what it teaches about God or about a right response to him.
Exodus 34:4, Exodus 34:5, Exodus 34:8, Exodus 34:10, Exodus 34:29
Closing: The shining face and sharing God’s words
4 minRead Exodus 34:29–35. Explain that Moses did not know his face shone because he had been speaking with Yahweh. The people were afraid, but Moses called them near and gave them God’s commandments. Finish by reviewing the sequence together and naming one truth from the chapter: God is merciful and gracious, and God’s people are to worship him and keep his words.
Exodus 34:29, Exodus 34:30, Exodus 34:31, Exodus 34:32, Exodus 34:33, Exodus 34:34, Exodus 34:35
Questions to explore
Why did Moses take two new stone tablets up the mountain?
Look at who gave the instruction and what God said he would write on the tablets, using the words about the first tablets.
Exodus 34:1, Exodus 34:4
What does Yahweh say about himself when he proclaims his name?
Read the description carefully and list the words the passage uses, including mercy, grace, forgiveness, and justice.
Exodus 34:6, Exodus 34:7
How did the people react when Moses came down, and what did Moses do then?
Notice both the people’s fear and Moses’ action of calling them near and speaking God’s commandments to them.
Exodus 34:29, Exodus 34:30, Exodus 34:31, Exodus 34:32
Make, think or respond
Five-Part Covenant Sequence Cards
What you’ll need
- plain paper or card
- pencils or crayons
- scissors
- Bible
Try it together
- Help children choose five moments from the chapter: new tablets, God’s name proclaimed, Moses worships, covenant words given, shining face.
- Children draw one moment on each card and label it with a short phrase.
- Mix the cards and have children place them back in order by checking the Bible verses.
- Invite each child to explain one card with a sentence that begins, "God shows..." or "People should..."
This activity helps children follow the order of Exodus 34:1–35 and connect the events with what the passage says about God and about obedience.
Adapt for your group
- For younger children, prepare the five card titles for them to copy and keep the discussion to short answers from the verses.
- For older or stronger readers, assign small groups different verse sections to summarise, then combine their summaries into one full chapter sequence.
An optional closing prayer
You may pray: “Lord God, thank you for showing your mercy, grace, truth, and holiness. Please help us listen to your words and worship you faithfully. Amen.”
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
Exodus 34
1 Yahweh said to Moses, “Chisel two stone tablets like the first. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
2 Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain.
3 No one shall come up with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Do not let the flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.”
4 He chiseled two tablets of stone like the first; then Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets.
5 Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed Yahweh’s name.
6 Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth,
7 keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation.”
8 Moses hurried and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.
9 He said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, Lord, please let the Lord go among us, even though this is a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
10 He said, “Behold, I make a covenant: before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been worked in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of Yahweh; for it is an awesome thing that I do with you.
11 Observe that which I command you today. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
12 Be careful, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be for a snare among you;
13 but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherah poles;
14 for you shall worship no other god; for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
15 “Don’t make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice;
16 and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods.
17 “You shall make no cast idols for yourselves.
18 “You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib; for in the month Abib you came out of Egypt.
19 “All that opens the womb is mine; and all your livestock that is male, the firstborn of cow and sheep.
20 You shall redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb. If you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. You shall redeem all the firstborn of your sons. No one shall appear before me empty.
21 “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest: in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.
22 “You shall observe the feast of weeks with the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest at the year’s end.
23 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel.
24 For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither shall any man desire your land when you go up to appear before Yahweh, your God, three times in the year.
25 “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. The sacrifice of the feast of the Passover shall not be left to the morning.
26 “You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground to the house of Yahweh your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
27 Yahweh said to Moses, “Write these words; for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
28 He was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mountain, Moses didn’t know that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with him.
30 When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him.
31 Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them.
32 Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all the commandments that Yahweh had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.
33 When Moses was done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.
34 But when Moses went in before Yahweh to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out; and he came out, and spoke to the children of Israel that which he was commanded.
35 The children of Israel saw Moses’ face, that the skin of Moses’ face shone; so Moses put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.