Tables Of Stone

Preparing For Man's Redemption

Tables of Stone Covenant

God performed many miracles of blessing upon the Israelites, the most prominent being the leading of millions of slaves toward a land promised years before to Abraham.

Three months after they departed Egypt and around four hundred years after God's promise to Abraham they camped at Sinai. Here God appeared, delivering to Moses his commandments. "The 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 commands I have written for their instruction'." (Exodus 24:12) We refer to them as the Ten Commandments and they are listed below. (Exodus 20:3-17) ° "You shall have no other gods before me." ° "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments." ° "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. ° "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." ° "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you." ° "You shall not murder." ° "You shall not commit adultery." ° "You shall not steal." ° "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." ° "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

Read them again and notice that they are laws, rules, regulations, things to do and things not to do. Did you find any statement of forgiveness or faith? No! Did you notice that only one or two dealt with man's heart, mind or attitude? No! This covenant was designed to bring us to Christ, and as stated in Hebrews, is replaced by a new one, a covenant that forgives wickedness. "For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: 'The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord'." (Hebrews 8:7-9 quoting Jeremiah 31:31)

"'This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more'." (Hebrews 8:10-12)

"By calling this covenant 'new,' he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear." (Hebrews 8:13)

When Jesus came, he preached a message of repentance, a message of God's grace and of faith, love and reconciliation. His mission was "to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." (John 4:34) He opened the way for forgiveness of sin by willingly giving his life as the atoning sacrifice for OUR sins, to all who believe on Him and who "wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.” (Romans 6:17)

"Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So, the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law." (Galatians 3:23-25)

"And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:13-14 NKJV)

God's love and mercy provided the perfect blood sacrifice in His Son. Christ's death established the “new covenant", providing for the forgiveness of sins and freedom from sin to all who obey the call to repentance and obedience. (Read Hebrews 9:16-28).

So "Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment"! (James 2:12-13)