Shabbat shalom, my apologies for being unable to preach last week for health reasons, and for a similar reason, this presentation will be shorter than usual. Last time we were in Athens dealing with the postmodernists. This week we are going back to Mt.Sinai to pick up on something important that is missed by most, something that is of immense prophetic significance as well as being helpful to us in trying to understand why Yahweh has done things the way He has historically.

You all know the story of the giving of the Torah (Law) on Mount Sinai and are familiar with the two tablets of stone inscribed with the 10 Commandments, on both sides, by the finger of Yahweh), better known to the Hebrews as the Ten Devarim or Words. When Moses climbed the mountainside and into the cloud of glory to meet with Yahweh those tablets were all ready prepared and waiting for him. This is what the account says in Exodus 24:12-18 (Evidence Bible/EB, p.110):

"Then Yahweh said to Moses, 'Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the Torah (Law) and Mitzvot (Commandments) which I have written, that you may teach them.' So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of Elohim (God). And he said to the elders, 'wait here for us until we come back to you. Indeed Aaron and Hur are with you. If any man has a difficulty (problems) let him go [back] to them.' Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain. Now the glory of Yahweh rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. The sight of the glory of Yahweh was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights...And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of Elohim (God)" (Ex.24:12-18; 31:18. NKJV).

You know what happened next. The people got tired of waiting, didn't they, and decided to take matters into their own hands, and revert to a spot of Egyptian heathenism, descending back into idolatry and depravity. Apparently 40 days was a bit long for them and was all the excuse they needed to break the covenant - and for their trouble they paid with a 40 year wandering through a blisteringly hot, arid desert, troubled by wild tribesmen like the Amalekites. Anyway, Yahweh tells Moses in advance that the people have apostacised even before he descends from the mountain to see the chaos for himself, and quite a distressed conversation takes place between the two. Again we read in Exodus 32:15-19 the following (EB, p.122):

"And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other they were written. Now the tablets were the work of Elohim (God), and the writing was the writing of Elohim (God) engraved on the tablets. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, 'There is a noise of war in the camp.' But he (Moses) said:

'It is not the noise of the shout of victory,
Nor the noise of the cry of defeat,
But the sound of singing I hear.'

"So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. Moses' anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain" (Ex.32:15-19, NKJV).

Now I don't know how heavy those tablets were. The movies give the idea that they were massive in which case they must have weighed a ton, like this stone here. Or they may have been on thin slate in which case they would have been quite light. We don't know. All we know is that they shattered into many pieces when Moses threw them down, sufficiently so that they were not recoverable.

Then, according to the text, follows the punishment of the people, and a chapter-and-a-half later, new important instructions follow. I want you to follow carefully and to see if you can spot two big differences between the preparation of the first set of tablets and the second. Let's go to Exodus 34:1-5 and see (EB, p.124):

"And Yahweh said to Moses, '[You (Moses)] cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke (shattered). So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there on the top of the mountain. And no man shall come up with you [this time], and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain; let neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain.'

"So he (Moses) cut two tablets of stone like the first ones [cut by Yahweh]. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him; and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone [he had cut]" (Ex.34:1-5, NKJV ).

So what's the lesson we are to learn from the new instructions given? Firstly, Yahweh told Moses, in effect: "You smashed the first tablets so you make the second set yourself". Thus if you have deliberately broken something Yahweh has given you supernaturally, you are obliged to replace it yourself. You chizzel it out of the rock and see if you like the hard work involved in that! This is the principle of restitution, and restitution costs. The Torah given by Yahweh to Moses taught that a thief had to return not only what he stole from the victim but a bit more too for all the trouble the victim had been put through. How that would revolutionise the legal system in our world if what people deliberately destroyed they were forced to rebuild themselves or at least pay the cost for the replacement...and a little more for all the invonvenience caused to the victim. Rioters would not go around destroying public property if they knew they would have to pay for what they damaged or destroyed! They wouldn't burn down a building if they knew they would have to pay for an entirely new building which might take them 10-20 years to pay for! The way it works in our world, insurance companies or the government (i.e. tax payers) cough up, which is not right.

So the people of Israel have been punished for breaking the covenant (and you remember what happened with the slaughter and the plague) and now Moses is punished for breaking the tablets (by making him replace them). Yahweh did not make the tablets the second time round! Like I said, it must have taken Moses a good while chizzling two new tablets out of solid rock because I don't suppose anyone was allowed to help him! He did this alone, unaided, and he went up to the mountain alone too. So consider that when in a fit of bad temper or ill-considered action you go and break or damage something Yahweh has prepared for you, whether it be a physical object, a relationship, or Yahweh's trust, especially if you are a minister as Moses was! We'll come back to this in a moment.

So what have we already seen is the difference between the first two tablets of stone and the second? Yahweh cut the tablets out Himself the first time whereas on the second occasion Moses had to laboriously chizzel them out of rock himself, in the swealtering heat, modelling them in shape and thickness on the first set. That can't have been easy. The first time he went up the mountain empty-handed and returned with tablets cut and written by Yahweh Himself, but on the second occasion Moses makes the tablets himself and then ascends Mount Sinai with them blank and ready for Yahweh to write on, a bit like this slate here. Now what happens next is exceedingly interesting and important, and has been what I have been leading up to - a minor detail for some, no doubt, but of immense significance to the prophetic eye.

Now we know - because we were told - that when Yahweh inscribed the second set of tablets that the contents were exactly the same as before. These were not modified commandments, as some teach, with the first set containing a 'higher law' (which they call the 'Melchizedek law') and the second a 'lower law' (which they call the 'Aaronic' or 'Levitical law'), a lesser law being given on account of the earlier rebellion and apostacy. The Mormons came up with that particular idea and unfortunately a few contemporary messianics and others have been corrupted by it. (There are, of course, two separate Melchizedek and Aaronic Covenants but these have nothing to do with these two tablets). Those ten commandments are, and were, immutable - what could possibly better them? They reveal Yahweh's heart, explaining what loving Elohim (God) and loving your neighbour consist of - the Two Great Mitzvot (Commandments).

So with that issue resolved, I hope, I want to ask you a second question, and it's this : Did Moses witness Yahweh writing the first set of tablets? We're not exactly told, and even though you may have been fed with some ideas and images in the movies, it looks to me as though they were already prepared in advance, before Moses arrived to collect them. Yahweh wrote the words and prepared the medium they were written on (the stone tablets). On the second time round, we know Moses prepared the medium (the blank stone tablets themselves), but when and how did Yahweh write on these fresh tablets the second time round? Now it gets really interesting.

Firstly, let's read what happened next the way it is worded in virtually all our English Bibles by turning to Exodus 34:28b-29 (EB, p.126):

"[Yahweh] wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses' hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him" (Ex.34:28b-29, NKJV).

This wording is very strange because obviously the two tablets would have been in Moses' hand when he descended from the mountain since he was alone - you'll notice how the New King James Version (NKJV) has bracketed this information as though the translators weren't sure what to do with it. Indeed, there is disagreement between versions as to how to translate this properly. Thus the English Standard Version (ESV) writes it:

"When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with Elohim" (v.29, ESV).

Or listen to this clumsy messianic translation (but note the extra information):

"He (Yahweh) wrote the (alef-taw) words of the covenant, the ten commandments. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mountain, Moses didn't know that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with [Yahweh]" (ATOT).

Can I just draw your the appearance of " (alef-taw)" in the text? You won't find that in your English Bibles as these two letters (A-Z or Alpha-Omega) are never translated. However, they're important, because they signify Messiah or Christ. More about that another time, though we've talked about it before.

OK, let's cut to the chase and translate the second part of verse 28 and verse 29 literally from the Hebrew - pay close attention:

"He (Yahweh) wrote on the tablet the words of the covenant, the Ten Devarim (Words, Commandments) - it (the writing process) was [done, accomplished] on (during) the descent of Moses from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in the hand of Moses as he descended from the mountain. Moses did not know that the skin had become radiant" (Ex.34.28b-29, Literal Translation).

In other words, Yahweh supernaturally wrote the 10 commandments out on the two tablets as Moses was carrying them down the mountain. So there Moses is, with the two tablets in his hands, and Yahweh is writing on them, invisibly one assumes, front and back, as he clambers down the mountain over the rocky terrain. This is a wild, rugged, landscape - there was no beaten track (as is evident if the Saudi Arabian site at Jab Al Lawz is the correct one, as I believe it is [1]), so Moses had to have his eye firmly on the ground all the way so as not to stumble or tread on any snakes or scorpions - his eyes weren't presumably transfixed on the tablets he was holding, the act of divine inscribing just happened. How long it took, we don't know. Maybe it was instantaneous, maybe it wasn't. At any rate, he started his descent with the same blank tablets with which he had ascended, and by the time he reached the bottom, Yahweh had rewritten them as before. Imagine that!

So to summarise what we have learned:

Why is this significant? We've already mentioned the Law of Restitution - for his fit of bad temper (the second time it really got him in trouble, at Meribah, when he took credit for a miracle and was forbidden to enter the Promised Land for his presumption) in breaking Yahweh's sacred handiwork. We also corrected the error that the first tablets contained a higher Melchizedek Law and the second set contained a lower Aaronic/Levitical set. However, what I would like to suggest to you today is that there is a prophetic picture of what restoration looks like after apostacy, on many levels (from the personal to the national), and describes what would later happen in the New Covenant of Messiah (Christ) - in the Messianic Community or Church over the centuries.

When we are born again, the Besorah (Gospel) is fresh and alive in us. When we fall away because of neglect and sin, we are apt to return to our own unsaved, pagan ways, as Israel did. But restoration is not instantaneous as a rule. Repentance is a journey. We have to get the tablets of our heart reformed so that Yahweh can write on them as we bring our heart to Him by symbolically ascending the mountain of the Covenant, step by step, following in the sacred tavnith (pattern) of the divine moedim or appointments.

On a national, New Covenant or Messianic Israelite level, restoration takes time because so much truth has been lost over the centuries. Christendom has committed idolatry by combining paganism with its worship and practice. The 'day' of national repentance is a long and arduous one, as we work through our repentance as a community one mitzvah (commandment) at a time. Idolatry is more deeply engrained than we realise. Yahweh's ministers have to bring the restored emet (truth) back to Messianic Israel through their own journey up and down the mountain of Yahweh. They cannot properly or adequately teach or lead others until His Torah has been written on the tablets of their heart, often without them realising it has been happening, until they arrive at the foot of the mountain. But Yahweh has been at work all along, silently and invisibly 'writing'. The leaders must be made ready themselves before they can teach with any authority, leading by example.

I am out of time, I would like to have said more, but I hope you will forgive me for keeping this brief, as I am really not up to much more at this time. There is much more to be extracted from the passages we have covered today. Have a blessed Sabbath! Amen.

Endnotes