Good Morning.

And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other they were written. Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. (Exodus 32:15-16)

There is something revealed here that we didn’t get to see in the movie with Charlton Heston and that is, the commandments were engraved on the front and back of the two tablets. That is interesting to me because that means, the Creator took His time in writing these instructions. When He ran out of room on one side, He turned the tablet over and continued writing the remaining words that were to be shared with His people. That might not impress everyone reading this, but to me that says a lot. He was writing a ketuvah (marriage contract) for His prospective bride and was careful to be thorough and precise. 

That these words were written in stone has been, oftentimes, interpreted as meaning they were rigid and without heart — purely legalistic ritual. The reality is the message being conveyed is that these words, like stone, were for all time. In fact, through the prophet, He promised His people that these very same words would be written upon their hearts. The implication of that statement is that His people, rather than being resistant to His Words, would have a heart to do them because they want to and because they love Him.

The Hebrew word that is translated “engraved” also means “freedom” implying, of course, that His Words equate to “freedom” — not to do what we want but, in doing what He commands, we are set free from the bondage of our carnal inclinations. That may come as a surprise to many seeing that we have been told over and again that God’s instructions given at Sinai amounted to bondage. To the contrary, the way God encourages us to live leads to an abundant life free from the consequences of doing what seems to be right in our own eyes. Let us consider that Messiah Himself likened the Scriptures to eternal life (John.5:39).

So then, let our prayer for today be that our hearts are tender and receptive to His Word. May we walk in the freedom that we have in Messiah and be faithful to obey His instructions to us that it may be evident that we are His.

Blessings and Shalom,  

Bill 

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