Still 'fine-tuning' our process. You can get to the original article HERE
NOTE: THIS ARTICLE is a reprint from the blog of reverend Kevin Rogers of New Song Church in Windsor, Ontario and is reproduced here for your convenience. You can visit the his blog called "The Orphan Age" HERE.
I always pictured Cecil B. DeMille’s movie depiction of
Moses holding the two stone tablets. They were huge like grave markers with
large print. In reality, they had to be small enough to carry up and down a
mountain.
In keeping with ancient Near Eastern practice, these were
probably duplicates of the covenant document, not two sections of the Ten Commandments.
One copy belonged to each party of the covenant. Since Israel’s copy was to be
laid up in the presence of God (according to custom), both covenant tablets
(God’s and Israel’s) were placed in the ark. Because it was God’s covenant, and
the stipulations of the covenant were his.[1]
While the stone and its’ placement in the Ark of the
Covenant were intended to be preserved, the real finger of God was trying to
write the Law on the hearts of the people.
Hebrews 10:
16 “This
Is The Covenant I Will Make With Them
After That Time, Says The Lord.
I Will Put My Laws In Their Hearts,
And I Will Write Them On Their Minds.”
So, Moses comes down the mountain with two copies of the Law
in hand. One copy is God’s and the other belongs to His People. But instead, of
people waiting in reverence for Moses’ return, they grew impatient and wondered
if he was coming back. They came to Moses’ assistant Aaron and asked that a
golden calf idol be made, so they would have a god to call on.
Aaron quickly obliged and Moses returned after 40 days on
the mountain to find the people singing and worshipping the golden calf. God
was angry with the people and Moses interceded on their behalf asking God to
spare them. But as Moses approached the base of the mountain, he became full of
anger as well.
Exodus 32:
19 When
Moses Approached The Camp And Saw The Calf And The Dancing, His Anger Burned
And He Threw The Tablets Out Of His Hands, Breaking Them To Pieces At The Foot
Of The Mountain. 20 And He Took The Calf The People Had Made
And Burned It In The Fire; Then He Ground It To Powder, Scattered It On The
Water And Made The Israelites Drink It.
God was displeased with the people and now Moses is burning
with anger. In smashing the Law, he was losing sight of its purpose. The
willingness to abandon God and worship another pointed to the lack of direction
and relationship the people had with God. They knew they needed a god and would
worship another if Yahweh didn’t meet their expectations.
God’s gift of the Law was to train their hearts in knowing
right from wrong. The wilderness wanderings would be a series of heart tests to
see if they would follow Yahweh or go another direction.