Saturday 08Jan2022
Shabbat Shalom. Today is the Seventh Day of the Biblical Week. It is Sabbath. Let us rest from all our work in keeping the Fourth Commandment.
From my Old Testament readings today, the accounts in Exodus chapters 24, 31, and 32 tell us that God gave Moses two tablets of stone after Moses had spent forty days and forty nights on the mountain to which God had called him and his helper Joshua. (Exodus 24:18)
From Exodus 24:12, we learn that the stone tablets contain the law and commandments which God had written for the instruction of the children of Israel.
Exodus 24:12, 13, 15 - 18 NRSV New Revised Standard Version
12The LORD said to Moses, ‘Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.’ 13So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God.
15Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. 17Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.
Further on, Exodus 31:18 tells us that the two tablets were called "tablets of the covenant", and were written with the "finger" of God.
Exodus 31:18 NRSV
18 When God finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
And finally in Exodus 32:14, we can read that the two stone tablets were written on both sides, on the front and on the back. This verse also states that the writing on the tablets was the writing of God Himself, engraved upon the tablets.
Exodus 32:14 - 16 NRSV
15 Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain, carrying the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, tablets that were written on both sides, written on the front and on the back. 16The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved upon the tablets.
