The Two Stone Tablets
The following is an excerpt from Dan’s book The Two: Shadows of the Gospel.
Israel was called out of Egypt and freed from slavery to be God’s people. God had chosen them based on His covenant with Abraham. As His people, they were to represent God to the world as a “kingdom of priests.” (Exodus 30:6) They were to show the world who God was as His representatives. In order to do this, a new covenant would need to be ratified with Israel. This covenant would be different from the one that God had made with Abraham. Abraham’s covenant was “unconditional.” This meant that there was nothing required of Abraham to bring these promises to completion. God was the covenant maker, and He would be the covenant keeper. However, with this new covenant with Moses, it would be conditional based on their obedience.
Moses met with God for forty days on top of Mount Sinai. This was so that He could receive the law which would describe how Israel was to represent God in the world. This law would also describe who God was and what God cared about. What he received on the mountain was “written with the finger of God.” (Exodus 31:18) The first of these laws was that Israel was to have “no other gods…”. (Exodus 20:3) While Moses was still on the mountain, the people grew impatient and demanded gods to worship. (Exodus 32:1) They didn’t even know if Moses was still alive and wanted action now. Aaron gave in to their pressure and made a golden calf from the jewelry that they had given him. This angered God as the people worshipped and gave credit to a statue for delivering them from the hand of the Egyptians. They had broken the first commandment immediately. This was reminiscent of the Garden of Eden all over again. God had given a command, but it did not take long for people to rebel against God. Adam and Eve received a death sentence for their disobedience, but what would Israel receive for their idolatry?
God knew what the people were doing down below. He told Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you." (Exodus 32:10) Israel invited the wrath of God upon them for their rebellion, and God was in His right to pour out His wrath upon them. God was ready to get rid of all the people and to start over with Moses. However, something amazing happened when Moses heard God speak these words. He spoke up for the people and for God’s glory by bringing up the covenant that God had made with Abraham. He said, "O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? (Exodus 32:11) As a result, God withheld His wrath from the people because Moses interceded for them. Moses had saved the people from instant destruction.
Moses then went down the mountain to see what had made God so angry. He was also furious at what he saw the people doing. He smashed the two stone tablets that God had given him and also burned the golden calf that the people were worshipping. Moses then questioned Aaron about what he had witnessed, and Aaron blamed the people. Things hadn’t changed much since the Garden of Eden. People were still disobeying God and blaming others for their actions. Judgment was still to come for some in Israel, as three thousand of them died by the sword that day by the Levites at the command of Moses. (Exodus 32:25-29)
Moses took their sin very seriously. Just because God’s wrath had been averted for the moment did not mean that God would not judge these stiff-necked people for another sin tomorrow. So, Moses told the people, "You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin." (Exodus 32:30) Although God’s wrath had been averted, there was still atonement that needed to be made. Moses knew that there was a price for sin, and that price was necessary for the glory and holiness of God. Just as the animal had provided atonement in the Garden of Eden so that Adam and Eve would live, Israel needed atonement now to live as well. “So Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” (Exodus 32:31-33) Moses was willing to be removed from God’s book if it meant that Israel would be forgiven. Moses was willing to be cast out for the sins of his people. As great as Moses’ request was, it would not have been possible for Moses to take the blame for Israel. Instead in this narrative, our appetites are whet for one who will do what Moses told God he would do. Just as Israel needed someone to intercede for them, so do we.
We have Jesus as our intercessor on behalf of us guilty sinners. Paul boldly writes, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised-who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34) As Israel needed someone to take the fall and be blotted out so they would be forgiven, we need someone as well. It was Jesus who cried out on the cross while He was being “forsaken” by His Father. (Matthew 27:46). It was Jesus who, while dying, prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) Jesus never fails in his intercessory work on behalf of sinners. The Father always forgives those who belong to Christ. The writer of Hebrews even writes, “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25)
Moses stands as a shadow of Christ as our great Mediator! Those two stone tablets not only brought condemnation back then, but they also bring condemnation today. For it is by God’s law that we know that we are sinners in need of a Savior. It is in Jesus that God provides for us the Intercessor who is willing to intercede and be blotted out for us. The law cannot save, as Toplady wrote in his famous hymn Rock of Ages.
“Not the labors of my hands
can fulfill thy law's demands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone;
thou must save, and thou alone.”[1]
Jesus is the perfect One to stand on behalf of sinners. Moses was a sinner and imperfect himself. However, the great Advocate we would need is only to be found in Jesus Christ. John writes, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:1–2)
Only Jesus will suffice to save us from our sins. “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” (1 Timothy 2:5-6)
This is the two. This is the gospel.
Jesus died and rose again!
[1] Words by Augustus Toplady (1776). Public Domain.
