THE RESTORATION OF THE TWO TABLES, AND RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT.
EXPOSITION
THE TWO TABLES RENEWED. The fervent and prolonged intercession of Moses had brought about the pardon of the people; and that, together with their repentance and their prayers (Exodus 33:7), had been accepted as a renewal of the covenant on their part; but it remained for God to renew the covenant on his part The first step to this was the restoration of the tables, which were essential to the covenant, as being at once the basis of the law and of the ordained worship. To mark, however, that something is always forfeited by sin, even when forgiven, the new tables were made to lose one glory of the first—they were not shaped by God, as the first were (Exodus 32:16), but by Moses.
Hew thee two tables of stone. Literally, "of stones"—two separate tables, i.e; made of two separate stones. Moses is required to do this with strict justice, since it was by his act that the former tables were broken (Exodus 32:19). Upon these tables. Literally," upon the tables," which has exactly the same force. The words that were in the first tables. It is quite true that we have not yet been explicitly told what these words were. (See Exodus 31:18; Exodus 32:15, Exodus 32:16, Exodus 32:19.) It has been left to our natural intelligence to understand that they must have been the "ten words" uttered in the ears of all the people amid the thunders of Sinai, as recorded in Exodus 20:1-2, which are the evident basis of all the later legislation. We have, however, in verse 28, and still more plainly in Deuteronomy 10:4, and Deuteronomy 5:22, the desired statement. The fiction of a double decalogue, invented by Goethe and supported by Hitzig, and even Ewald, is absolutely without foundation in fact.
Be ready in the morning. An interval was required for the hewing of the tables. It was made as short as possible. In the top of the mount. Where he had been with God previously (Exodus 19:20; Exodus 24:12, Exodus 24:18).
No man shall come up with thee. This time, no one, not even Joshua, was to accompany Moses. The new manifestation of the glory of God was to be made to him alone. Neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount, etc. Compare the injunctions given in Exodus 19:12, Exodus 19:13. The present orders are even more stringent.
Moses obeys all the directions given him to the letter—hews, or causes to be hewn, the two tables, making them as like as he can to the former ones—rises early, and ascends the mountain to the appointed spot—and takes with him the tables, for God to perform his promise (Exodus 34:1)of writing the commandments upon them. It has been questioned whether God did actually write the words upon the second tables; but Kurtz's arguments upon the point are unanswerable.
HOMILETICS
The second promulgation of the moral law, by the renewal of the two tables
may teach us—
I. THAT ALL COVENANT WITH GOD MUST REST ON THE BASIS OF THE MORAL LAW. Moses had not asked for a renewal of the tables. He had requested the return of God's favour and the renewal of God's share of the covenant. It was God who made the restoration of the tables a condition. God, that is, will not divorce favour from obedience, privilege from the keeping of his law. Man desires the rewards that God has to bestow, but is not anxious to have the rewards tied to a certain course of action. God insists on the combination. He can only enter into covenant with those who accept his law as their rule of life. This is not for his own sake, but for theirs. They can only be fitted to enjoy his favour, and the rewards which he has to bestow on them, by leading a life in accordance with his law and acquiring the character which such a life forms in them.
II. THAT THE MORAL LAW IS ETERNAL AND UNALTERABLE. The broken tables must be restored. In restoring them no change must be made. Their very form must resemble as nearly as may be the form of the preceding ones. This, of course, was typical. It foreshadowed the further—not mere resemblance, but—identity of the words that were to be written on the tables. From first to last, "the words were those that were in the first table" (Exodus 34:1). There is no hint of any alteration. Even Christianity changes nothing in the law that is moral. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets," says our Lord; "I am not come to destroy but to fulfil" (Matthew 5:17). No "jot or tittle" of the moral law is to pass away. Even with respect to the Sabbath, which verges upon positive law, nothing is changed but the day of the week, and to a small extent the method of observance. Apostolic writings show us the Decalogue as still binding (Romans 13:9; Ephesians 6:2; James 2:11; etc.).
III. THAT BREAKING THE MORAL LAW IMPOSES ON US FRESH OBLIGATIONS. "Hew thee"—literally, "hew for thyself"—"two tables of stone," said the Lord to Moses; repair the loss caused by thine own action. Repentance is no part of man's original duty to God; but if he once break the moral law, it becomes obligatory on him. Every infraction involves this new duty; some infractions involve more. Fraud involves the duty of restitution; calumny, that of retractation; insult, that of apology; and the like. Each of our sins lays upon us as a new burthen, not only of guilt, but also of labour, to efface it. We had best refrain from evil, even in our own interest, or we may increase our burthen till we sink under it.
HOMILIES BY J. URQUHART
The renewal of God's covenant.
I. THE FIRST EFFECT OF RECONCILIATION IS THE RE-WRITING OF THE LAW. Moses ascends that God may again inscribe his commandments upon the tables of stone; Jesus, that God may write them upon the fleshly tables of the heart. The sprinkling of the blood is "unto obedience." We are to be "zealous of good works."
II. THE AWFULNESS OF GOD'S HOLINESS MORE EVIDENT IN THE RESTORATION THAN IN THE FIRST GIVING OF THE LAW. Formerly Moses had been accompanied so far by the elders, and further still by Joshua. Now he must go up alone. No man is to be seen throughout the mount. Neither flocks nor herds are to feed before it. The terrors of Sinai awe the heart less than the cross of him who treads the wine-press alone.
III. THE REDEEMER'S ZEAL. "And Moses rose up early in the morning." He cannot loiter; for man's life hangs upon the issue; the world's cry rings in his ears. "For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace," etc. (Isaiah 62:1).
IV. THE MEDIATOR MUST MOULD THE HEART TO RECEIVE GOD'S LAW. "He hewed two tables of stone, like unto the first." The power of Christ's love must cut between us and sin, and give again the form man wore when he came from the hands of God. We must experience the circumcision of Christ. Christ's work may be measured by the heart's tender receptivity for the re-writing of God's law.
V. THERE MUST BE UNION BY FAITH WITH CHRIST IN HIS RISEN LIFE. He "took in his hand the two tables of stone." We pass up with Jesus into the presence of God. That the law may be written upon the heart, our life must be hid with Christ in God.—U.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
The second set of tables.
Jehovah graciously answered the supplications of Moses (Exodus 33:12-2) so far as it was possible to answer them. Supplications may be very importunate, and, therefore, so far well pleasing to God, and yet at the same time they may be faulty in two respects: first, they may ask for things which it is impossible altogether to grant; and, secondly, they may omit from the field of view, certain other things which form a necessary accompaniment of every Divine gift. In all his supplications, Moses said nothing about these broken tables; it would be too much to say that they were never in his thoughts. But whether in his thoughts or not, they assuredly had to be considered and provided for. Moses had asked for the presence of God to go with Israel; and the presence of God meant for one thing the commandments of God. Furthermore, all the elaborate furniture of the tabernacle had for the centre around which it was gathered, these very tables of stone. When Moses broke them, he broke the holiest thing in all Israel's belongings; these tables, appointed to rest within the ark, and underneath the cherubim. No word of censure indeed is uttered against Moses for having broken them; but it does not therefore follow that he is to be praised for having broken them. The action, so to speak, was one to be regarded neither with praise nor blame, but simply as an inevitable result of Moses' sudden and violent wrath. When Moses broke the tables, he was not in a mood of mind for considering anything but the monstrous transgression before his eyes. What had happened to the fragments we are not told; except this much, that they were no longer available. All that Jehovah does is simply to command from Moses the preparation of new tablets. As Moses prepares them, he may safely be left to his own thoughts. Whatever lesson he needed in respect of self-control, the opportunity was given him to learn. Opportunity was also given to learn the need of being continually on the watch for manifestations of human weakness and instability. If Moses was in so many things the type of Christ in respect of mediatorial office, it was, alas! also true that he was unlike Christ in respect of penetrating insight into human nature. Moses was not like Christ; it could not be said of him that he knew what was in man.—Y.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Renewal of the tables, and fourth intercession.
One more mighty effort of intercession, and Moses will bear away the blessing which he seeks. It needs, however, that it be a mighty one. The covenant is not yet restored in its integrity. The people's sin is not yet perfectly forgiven. God, indeed, has promised to go with them, but he has not said, as of old, "I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God" (Exodus 6:7). The new relations are not those of perfected friendship. They are moreover, unstable. New transgressions of the people may at any moment upset them. Moses, accordingly, would not only have the covenant renewed—restored in its old completeness and integrity—the last trace of the Divine displeasure wiped away—but would have God give him a pledge of grace beyond anything he has yet received—a pledge that he will show great forbearance with the people: that he will not deal summarily with them, or cast them off, on account of backslidings which he now perceives to be inevitable (Exodus 34:9). It was a high thing to ask: too high, Moses may have thought, for him to be able to attain to it. If he did, it could only be as the result of an earnestness, a perseverance, and a sublimity in intercesssion beyond everything of which he had yet felt himself capable. The strength he needed, however, was not to be withheld from him. He had already, though, probably, without this being present to his mind as a motive, put himself in the way of getting it, by asking for a vision of the Divine glory. From this would flow into his soul a spiritual might which would make "all things possible" to him. By sheer power of prayer, he would obtain what he desired. Jehovah, on his side, was too well pleased with his servant's zeal and devotion, too willing to be entreated of him, too entirely in accord with the object of his supplication, not readily to grant him the opportunity of pressing his request.
I. JEHOVAH'S "COME UP HITHER" (Exodus 34:1-2).
1. The command to hew out tables (Exodus 34:1). Formerly, it was God himself who furnished the tables on which the law was written (Exodus 32:16). Now, the tables are to be provided by Moses. This may have had reference to the facts
(1) that it was Moses who had destroyed the former tables (Exodus 32:19); and
(2) that it was by the mediation of Moses that the covenant was being renewed. It was a suitable reward for his intercession, that God should give him this honour of supplying the tables on which the covenant terms were to be inscribed.
View the command to hew out tables as
(1) Retrospective. God had already promised that his presence should go with Israel (Exodus 33:14). This implied, on the part of the people, return to their obedience. The law is unalterable. God can walk with men only as they are willing to walk with him in the way of his commands. The tables testified to the unchangingness of the obligation.
(2) Anticipative. It had in view the fact that, through Moses' intercession, the covenant was about to be restored.
(3) Promissory. It gave Moses encouragement to entreat for its restoration.
2. The command to ascend the mount (Exodus 34:2). The summons to ascend the mount was,
(1) An answer to prayer—"Shew me thy glory" (Exodus 33:18).
(2) A preparation for vision.
(3) An opportunity for intercession.
3. The command to preserve the sanctity of the mount (Exodus 34:3). This was to be done by keeping man and beast from approaching it. Moses was to ascend alone. The command—a parallel to that in Exodus 19:12-2—has for its end the warning back of intruders from what, for the time being, is "holy ground" (cf. Exodus 3:5). Other reasons are, that there might be
(1) No interruption of communion.
(2) No distraction in intercession.
(3) No injury done by the manifestation of the Divine glory.
"The manifested glory of the Lord would so surely be followed by the destruction of man that even Moses needed to be protected before it" (Exodus 33:21, Exodus 33:22).
II. THE NAME REVEALED (Exodus 19:4-2).
(1) Jehovah "passed by before him" (Exodus 19:5), i.e; gave him the glimpse of his glory promised in Exodus 33:22, Exodus 33:23.
(2) He "proclaimed his name"—i.e; made known to Moses the essence of his character. This was the higher revelation. The other is only alluded to; this is dwelt on and expanded (Exodus 33:6, Exodus 33:7).
1. The name itself. Note here in regard to it—
(1) It unites mercy and justice.
(2) The merciful attributes preponderate.
(3) The word which syllables it is "Love."
Love is the union of goodness and holiness. The history of revelation has been but the spelling out of this name. Christ is the perfect embodiment of it.
2. The effects on Moses.
(1) It awed him (Exodus 33:8).
(2) It encouraged him. It gave iron a new ground of confidence in entreaty (Exodus 33:9).
(3) It strengthened him. Cf. the chorus of the archangels in Goethe's "Faust"—
"Though none may fathom thee—thy sight
Upon the angels power bestows," etc.
III. THE COVENANT RESTORED (Exodus 33:9, 27, 28).
1. The intercession. This fourth and last intercession presents us with several noteworthy features.
(1) It was very prolonged. The account here is summary; but Moses tells us in Deuteronomy (Exodus 9:25), that he "fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights as at the first," and prayed earnestly that the people might not be destroyed (cf. verse 28).
(2) It included intercession for Aaron (Deuteronomy 9:20).
(3) It is marked by a deep perception of the root of depravity in the people's nature. Moses has no longer the same optimistic views regarding them as when he disputed with God the necessity of giving them further warning about not approaching the mount (Exodus 19:23). Note how, in the first intercession, it is the people's danger; in the second, the people's guilt; and in the last, the people's depravity, which is chiefly before the intercessor's mind. He here pleads the innate tendency as a reason why God should deal mercifully with them (verse 9). Human nature does not improve on closer inspection. But there is weakness as well as sin in its condition. The Divine ruler may be trusted to make the requisite allowances (cf. Genesis 8:21).
(4) It is marked—and this is the outstanding circumstance in connection with it—by the degree in which Moses is now able to identify himself with the people for whom he intercedes. "Let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us …. And pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance" (verse 9). More than ever he feels himself one with his nation. Intercession has perfected sympathy. But not intercession alone. It may be inferred that no act had more to do with this result than the supreme act of self-devotion, already considered, in which he expressed his willingness to die, and, if need be, to be blotted out of God's book, for the salvation of the people. In that amazing act, the last traces of selfishness must have perished. He has given himself for Israel, and is thenceforth one with it. Subsequent intercessions can but develop, and give clearer and fuller expression to the sense of unity with his people born within him in that supreme hour in his experience. Sinful as the people are, accordingly, Moses, in his present entreaty does not shrink from including himself among them. "Our iniquity"—"our sin." The just takes part with the unjust. He makes their sin his, and pleads for its forgiveness. The worse they show themselves, the more earnestly he holds by them, and endeavours to sustain them by his prayers. If sympathy be a qualification for the task of mediation, Moses thus possesses it. His intercession, in this respect, throws striking lights on Christ's.
2. The success. The prolonged, fervent, and sympathetic intercession of Moses did not fail of its reward. "The Lord," he tells afterward, "hearkened unto me at that time also" (Deuteronomy 9:19). Nothing was wanting to the completeness of his success. The last frown had. disappeared from the countenance of Jehovah. Covenant relations were perfectly restored. The people were reinstated in privilege. No wonder that the mediator's face "shone" as he descended from the mount! We, too, have an intercessor whom the Father "heareth always" (John 11:42).—J.O.