"And the LORD said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke” (Ex. 34:1).
God directed Moses to prepare a new set of tablets after the first had been broken because of Israel’s idolatry. Previously, God Himself had provided the tables and written on them. But for the replacements, Moses had to hew out the tables, and God only wrote upon them. God used man’s efforts as His means to deliver His holy, inerrant Word. Following the Fall, God used the ministry of prophets to bring His revelation to sinners. Through the Scriptures, which have been delivered by men, sinners can now know God’s will. But the writing is still God’s, though He uses human agents, for all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God. Further, only God can write His law on the heart (Jer. 31:33).
One thing that we need to observe from this passage is that God, being reconciled to Israel through the intercession of Moses (a pre-figure of Christ), ordered the tables to be renewed. This reminds us that, even under the Gospel of peace and reconciliation by Christ, the moral law remains the standard for our lives. Though we are saved in Christ, we are obligated to obey the law of God. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, but not from the command of it. The moral law still speaks with authority today. When our Savior, in His Sermon on the Mount, expounded the moral law and vindicated it from the corruption with which the scribes and Pharisees had twisted it (Matt. 5:19), in effect He renewed the tables, reducing the law to its primitive sense and intention.
The best evidence of the pardon of sin and peace with God is the writing of the law in the heart. The first token God gave of His reconciliation to Israel was the renewing of the tables of the Law, thus the first article of the new covenant is “I will write My law in their heart” (Heb. 8:10), and it follows, “for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness.” The heart that has the law of God written on it loves God’s law. It wants to obey the will of Christ and delights in doing it, though the sin nature opposes it. Jesus Christ said that, if you love Him, you will obey His commandments. He also said that you will know a tree by its fruit—the fruit of a holy and righteous life, of the marks of the Spirit, and of love for one another. With a renewed heart and by the Spirit’s power, we now have the freedom to obey God’s good and holy law.
What is your attitude toward the law of God? Do you love it, or do you resent it and oppose it? Do you want to obey it, or do you think that it doesn’t matter whether you obey it or not? Do you think the Christian is obligated to obey the moral law of God?
