Bible Talks

From: Messages of God's Love: 1937

God’s Words on Stone Exodus 20:3, 4, 5³Thou shalt have no other gods before me. ⁴Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: ⁵Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; (Exodus 20:3‑5)

1St. “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.”

2nd. “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.”

Those are the first two of the ten rules, or commandments, God gave to the people of Israel. The first stones on which God had written them were broken by Moses, and God told him to cut out other stones and bring them up Mt. Sinai. Moses did, and from the cloud of glory God gave him the same words again. Moses carried those stones down to the people, and read the words to them (Exo. 34:1-5, 27, 28¹And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest. ²And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount. ³And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount. ⁴And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. ⁵And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. (Exodus 34:1‑5)
²⁷And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. ²⁸And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. (Exodus 34:27‑28); Deut. 10:1-6¹At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. ²And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. ³And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. ⁴And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the Lord gave them unto me. ⁵And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me. ⁶And the children of Israel took their journey from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan to Mosera: there Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest's office in his stead. (Deuteronomy 10:1‑6)). Those stones were, no doubt flat slabs, and the words cut, or graven, on them. Moses placed them in a chest, or ark, made to hold them, which we read much of later, and which was safely kept many, many years by the nation of Israel.

The people learned the words on the stones and taught them to their children (Deut. 6:6-10⁶And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: ⁷And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. ⁸And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. ⁹And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. ¹⁰And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, (Deuteronomy 6:6‑10)). They are also called the testimony, or covenant, of God with Israel, and taught them exactly what was right in honor to God, and for the good of their families and neighbors. If they did not keep the rules, they were to be punished.

But the words on stone did not promise life with God in heaven: they were how to live on earth. For life in heaven, they could trust to God’s mercy only.

To be continued.

ML 05/02/1937

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