14 day plan

If rocks could talk, if stones could speak...

Day 3 of 14

NIV

Exodus 24:12

12The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”

Reflection: Stone Book 

 ‘When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant law, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.’ Exodus 31:18 

 Jewish tradition describes them crafted of sapphire or possibly lapis lazuli – blue like the heavens and God’s celestial throne. There are traditions, depictions and relics aplenty: Square or rectangular? Sharp or rounded corners? ‘Engraved’ as we think of the word, or bored through? Not important, really. What’s important is that God makes a covenant and the required response is obedience.  

 Not until later is the Covenant itself put into writing. But God makes sure the Law is in writing. You could live by laws passed down through word of mouth. (Illiterate people are exceptionally good at putting things to memory.) It’s only ten conditions of obedience. Ten words on ‘how to manage desire within a society.’* But God literally grounds these laws in stone.  

In essence: 

I am distinctive from all other gods so love and worship only me;  

human life is precious so love and respect each other.  

 While this is set in historic time and place, it agelessly expresses the nature of God: a covenant-making God who claims people and guides them to a new life as his own.** And just when we’re feeling heart-warmed at this pact between two seemingly agreeable parties, we get to the part of the story where the first set of tablets, inscribed by the finger of God, are shattered. Keeping pacts is just not what mankind is naturally good at doing. When we’re impatient, bored, far from home…infidelity comes easily. 

 Moses encounters God’s treasured people in the showy act of apostasy. There and then, in their crass golden-calf idolatry, they’ve already torpedoed the covenant. God and Moses are outraged. The law-stones are literally smashed to smithereens. But God picks up the pieces. Remember, that’s the ageless nature of God. He mercifully keeps guarding his people from the way of death and pointing the way to life.*** He rewrites a set of stones to be safeguarded in the Ark of the Covenant and later in the Temple.  

 Prayer: 

Oh, merciful God! Thank you for picking up the pieces and persisting in forgiving love. Thank you for Jesus who, through your New Covenant, has internalised your law in my heart. Thank you for your living Spirit who enables me to live in grateful obedience.

“No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice. My body rests in safety. For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave. You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever (Psalm 16:9-11 NLT). 

Footnotes

*Andrew Cameron, Exploring Exodus p.131 

**BS Childs, Exodus p.401 

***Ibid, p.398 

 

 

The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

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Exodus 24:1-18

The Covenant Confirmed

1Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, 2but Moses alone is to approach the Lord; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him.”

3When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” 4Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said.

He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. 5Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. 6Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. 7Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”

8Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

9Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up 10and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. 11But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.

12The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”

13Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. 14He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them.”

15When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, 16and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. 17To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. 18Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.