(3) The Two Stone Tablets Incident

(3) The Two Stone Tablets Incident

① The Meaning of the Two Stone Tablets

Exodus 20:2 "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." Exodus describes Moses leading the Israelites to Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments from God. Exodus 20:2 refers to the two stone tablets God had initially created. However, when Moses went up Mount Sinai and did not come down for a considerable period of time, the people, led by Aaron, made a golden calf and began to worship idols.

Exodus 32:1-4 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered together and said to Aaron, “Up, make us gods who will go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” Then all the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. Then he took the gold rings from their hands and graved them with an engraving tool and made them into a molten calf. And they said, “These be your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

So Moses came down from the mountain and saw the people worshiping idols, so he broke the two stone tablets God had given him. God said in Exodus 34:1, "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Cut two stone tablets like the first ones; and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.'"

The first two stone tablets and the second two stone tablets differ slightly in the content of the second commandment.

Exodus 20:4-6 “You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth… ”

Deuteronomy 5:8-10 “You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth… ”

A retranslation of Chapter 5, Verse 8, is, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything on the earth or in the water or under the earth or in the heavens.”

The first stone tablet forbids making for yourself an image in the sky, on the earth, in the waters, or above. The second prohibits not only making images in the sky, but also on the earth, under the earth, in the waters, or in the waters. The first prohibits making images in your mind, and the second prohibits making images in your mind, even images of visible things. The imagery extends to visible things, both within and outside your mind. This demonstrates how serious idolatry has become.

The image in the mind signifies an invisible image. Each human being creates an image of God that fits their own concept. Agrarian societies and those whose livestock is their livelihood envision God as a source of abundance. This further develops into the symbolic representation of the ox as God. A prime example is the creation of the golden calf by the Israelites. The second stone tablet expresses God's concern over humans' amplifying images of tangible plants and animals.

The first two stone tablets represent the Ten Commandments, the representative laws of God, recorded in the Book of Exodus. These stone tablets contain the words God gave to the Israelites on Mount Sinai through Moses. However, these tablets were broken due to the people's sin. This implies that the people, with their fleshly hearts, were incapable of fully keeping the law.

However, the second set of stone tablets is recorded in Deuteronomy as the words of God spoken by Moses to the new people born in the wilderness in the land of Moab at the entrance to Canaan. This is not a law, but a law of the Spirit written on the heart. While the first two stone tablets were written like commands to children, requiring them to follow the written words, the second two stone tablets were written on the heart, as if speaking to adults, so that they would be guided by the Holy Spirit and act with a spiritual mind. This signifies the fulfillment of the law through the power of the Holy Spirit.

At the entrance to Canaan, Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan, but the zealous spies reported that anyone entering Canaan would die. When all the people heard this, they wept and mourned. God became angry and made the people wander in the wilderness for forty years until they all died. Only the two spies, Joshua and Caleb, the new children born in the wilderness, and the children under the age of 19 at the time of the Exodus were allowed to enter Canaan.

So, Moses urges them, as they enter Canaan, not to repeat the mistakes of the previous generation, but to engrave God's word in their hearts and live accordingly. He means to engrave it in their hearts. This means to keep and protect God's word in their hearts, never to forget it, and through it, to help the people understand God's will.

The first and second stone tablets resemble the first and last man, Adam. The first man, Adam, was Christ, who gave him a sinful body, while the second man, Adam, was Christ, who gave him a spiritual body. Therefore, the second stone tablets are like a temple established within the hearts of believers. The first stone tablets are broken (dead), and the second stone tablets are newly engraved (reborn) and placed within the Ark of the Covenant (the temple within the hearts of believers).

Psalm 40:8 says, “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” The second stone tablet is within my heart.

The second stone tablet is the new law, those under the law of Christ. 1 Corinthians 9:21 says, "To those who are not under the law, I became like one not under the law (though I am not without law to God but under the law to Christ), so that I might win those who are not under the law."

The first stone tablets were given, but humanity's inability to keep them was demonstrated through the incident with the golden calf. Yet, within them, God's mercy and compassion overflowed. This is the second stone tablet. Therefore, along with the second stone tablet, the name of the Lord is proclaimed. While the first stone tablets were about the first man, Adam, and his sin, the second stone tablets are about the grace of Christ, the last man, Adam. While the first stone tablets signify the death of the cross, the second stone tablets signify resurrection.

In John 1:17 it says, “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” In Matthew 9:13 it says, “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

 

② The Radiance of Moses' Face

Exodus 34:29-30 "As Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hand, Moses was not aware that the skin of his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. When Aaron and all the Israelites looked at Moses, they saw that the skin of his face was radiant; and they were afraid to come near him."

This aligns with the principle that contact with holy objects sanctifies. In other words, Moses severed all other relationships and focused solely on communion with God. As a result, God's glory, or holiness, naturally manifested in Moses. "Behold, the skin of his face shone brightly," a direct translation of the phrase, means "Behold, the skin of his face shone brightly," vividly depicting the people's astonishment at the radiance of Moses' face.

"And they were afraid." The original word for "shining" in the preceding verse, "karan," also means "horned." Perhaps the radiance from Moses' face resembled a horn, which likely fueled the people's fear. The Apostle Paul elevated this radiance from Moses' face to the glorious radiance of the New Covenant in the context of redemptive history (2 Corinthians 3:7-18).

Exodus 34:31-33 “Then Moses called them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation came to Moses, and Moses spoke with them. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them all the words the LORD had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. When he had finished speaking to them, he put a veil on his face.”

The elders of the congregation refer to the elders of Israel. "He covered his face with a veil." This was to prevent the people from being dazzled by the radiance emanating from Moses' face and neglecting the word of God he was preaching. However, Paul later cited this incident as a metaphor for the darkened spiritual state of the Jews, who were so fixated on the law that they failed to perceive the radiant glory of Christ, which the law pointed to (2 Corinthians 3:7-18).

Exodus 34:34-35 “But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would take the veil off until he came out. Then he would come out and tell the Israelites everything that the LORD had commanded him. Then the Israelites saw that Moses’ face shone; so Moses put the veil back on his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.”

This is the biblical account of Moses descending Mount Sinai after making a covenant with God. Moses' face shone as he remained with God for forty days and nights, speaking with Him. This radiance was the radiance of God's glory, a sign of his deep communion with Him for forty days.

Jesus' face was transformed on the Mount of Transfiguration. Likewise, believers are transformed in Christ. A transformed face signifies being born again into a new being. It signifies the death of the former flesh and the transformation into a new being.

Romans 6:4-6: "Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be in a resurrection like his. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin."