God has chosen three times to record in His own handwriting that which He wished man specially to notice. Once the finger of the mighty God traced the letters in the solid stone; a second time on the plaster of a king's palace wall; a third time in the drifting sand. We hear of things written in heaven, but how solemn when God stoops to write on earth!
The Writing on Stone
In Deut. 9:1010And the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the Lord spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. (Deuteronomy 9:10), God wrote the law on two tables of stone -"written with the finger of God." God is holy; man is sinful, and has no righteousness of his own that will enable him to stand in the presence of a righteous God. If Israel of old wished for God's favor, they must walk before Him in a way to obtain it. God therefore gave Israel the law, being a standard of what He required from man; so that Israel could now say-"It shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He hath commanded us." Deut. 6:2525And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us. (Deuteronomy 6:25). Yes, "if." No one but the man Christ Jesus ever attained to that, or ever could.
God wrote the law in stone, a type of its unbending, enduring claims on man. For though it finds a man helpless to keep it, yet it abates not one jot of its claims. "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Gal. 3:1010For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. (Galatians 3:10).
The Writing on Plaster
In Dan. 5:5, 24-285In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. (Daniel 5:5)
24Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written. 25And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. 26This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. 27TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. 28PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. (Daniel 5:24‑28), again God writes, this time the sentence of judgment on a guilty king. On the plaster of the palace wall, over by the candlestick, where the light enabled all to see it, a Hand was seen writing: "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." No need to record that on stone! On plaster, emblem of weakness and speedy decay, that awful sentence would stand as long as needed. "That night was Belshazzar slain.”
Babylon's mighty city has long been blotted off the face of the earth; the plaster wall, with God's handwriting on it, long ago decayed, its dust become the sport of desert winds. But your condemnation, my reader, if still unsaved, stands recorded on the pages of God's own Word, which shall endure forever. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." John 3:1919And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19).
The Writing on the Ground
In John 8:3-113And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, 4They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. 5Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? 6This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. 7So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. 8And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 9And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 10When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? 11She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. (John 8:3‑11) we behold God writing the third time. In the One stooping to write on the ground we see "God manifest in flesh." The Jews had brought to Him a woman guilty of adultery. Moses said "that such should be stoned, but what sayest Thou?" they ask. The Lord from Sinai had given that command. Can He now say contrary to His own command through Moses? He is silent; He stoops, and writes on the ground. Scoffers say it was to gain time to think. Away with such Satanic insinuations, as though man, a thing of dust, could put his Creator into a dilemma! His silence! What a proof, even under the law, that "God is slow to anger," that "judgment is ever His strange work"! At last He answers the Jews. "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
If stone flinging is to begin, all around must be stoned. Again He writes on the ground. Writes what? Scripture says not what He wrote, but records what He said.
Christ is seen as God delighting in mercy. Did He then wink at sin, and annul His own laws? Nay; He had come to take "the guilty culprit's place, and suffer in his stead." He had not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. The Jews had made Him the judge in this case. I love to think that in that capacity, while He had written the law in stone, He wrote possibly the sentence of death on the ground where the next gust of wind could blow it away! It was a sentence no man was able to execute, and the Lord, alone qualified to do so, would not. He was going to die for such as she, and thus the law would be carried out. As a man who writes on the shore may see the waves wash it all away, so what the Lord wrote was never recorded—only the gracious words of forgiveness.
The waves of God's awful judgment soon rolled over Him, and wrung from Him the cry, "All Thy waves and Thy billows have gone over Me.”
My reader, are you convicted of sin, and do you find, like this woman, there is no escape? Have you been brought into God's presence about it as she was? Oh, listen to the words: "Neither do I condemn thee." Oh, what a God, to take such infinite pains to draw us to Himself! Oh, what a Savior, in such wondrous pity and grace to love us so much as to die for us, in order that His precious blood might cleanse away our sins and fit us for His own presence throughout eternal ages!
Accept this Savior now!