If chapter thirty-four seems like a repeat of what we have heard before in this book, it’s because it is a repeat, and there is a reason for it.
When God gave Moses the ten commandments, they were the rules of His covenant. Israel’s idolatry signaled a breaking of that covenant which they had readily agreed to obey. The creation of two new stone tablets initiates the renewal of that covenant. But God doesn’t intend to give the tablets every time Israel is unfaithful. The renewal of it here shows God’s willingness to stick with Israel despite the fact that she is a “stiffnecked” people.
At the end of the chapter is an interesting event. Moses’ face, having been forty days in the presence of the Lord is glowing. It must have been a frightening sight. And so, Moses, in order not to scare anyone, covered his face.
The New Testament takes another tact with this. Covering his face was a way of hiding the fact that the glowing face was glowing with decreasing intensity. Moses’ slowly disappearing “shine” might have opened the door for some critics to assert He no longer had a relationship with God.
You may want to argue with this observation, but it is the observation Paul made in 2 Corinthians 3. He did it there to make this observation: Moses may have had a decreasing glory of God in his life, but we, as Christians, because of Christ, are intended to have an increasing one.