And Jehovah said to Moses, Write thee these words; for after the tenor of these words have I made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
Moses is on Sinai again, after Israel made the golden calf, and God tells him to write down a covenant "with you and with Israel." Two questions follow: whose words are these, and on what terms does God take a ruined people back?
God had already told Moses to write once before.
In Exodus 24:4 we read, "And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord." In chapter 34:27 God gives another command to write: "Write these words." The Hebrews speak of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, as "the law" and "the law of Moses." The book of the law, the law of Moses, now divided into five parts, already existed in the time of Joshua (Joshua 1:8).
Commentators differ on what Moses wrote here. One says Moses wrote the terms just given, while God wrote the stone tablets.
The Lord then told Moses to write these words of the covenant (v. 27). Moses did not write on the stone tablets. God had said that He would write on these (the Ten Commandments). Moses was to write what God told him in verses 10 to 26.
Either way, the hand that held the pen does not decide whose words they are.
This time the hand of Moses wrote the words. Yet they were just as truly the words of God Himself as when His own finger had written them. So Moses could say, "These are the words that the Lord has commanded" (Ex. 35:1).
The word "you" matters here. After the calf, God had started calling Israel Moses' people.
The covenant under the law had been broken. The intercession of Moses made way for another covenant (Exodus 33:14, 19), and we have its basis in Exodus 34:27: "And the Lord said to Moses, Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." Notice: with you. There is a remarkable change in the language of God. In Egypt, God had always said, "My people, my people." But when Israel made the golden calf, He uses their own word — "your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt." For Israel had said, "As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 32:1). God takes them up in their own words.
God makes the covenant with Moses first. So Israel's place rests on their mediator, not on themselves.
God looks at the people only in relation to the mediator, as in verse 27: "In accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." The Lord goes on, "And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you."
The terms written here are not the bare law of Sinai, and they are not the gospel either.
Through the mediation of Moses, God puts the people under grace in a measure, as far as His present dealings go. The people humbled themselves, and they are spared, and God's presence goes with them. God retreats into His own sovereignty to be gracious and show mercy. As the LORD He then declares His name. This is not the gospel, founded on accomplished redemption, full forgiveness, and acceptance in Christ, who has wrought it. It is the terms of God's forbearing mercy in His government of Israel. It was a mixture of grace and law. Grace spared them and, for the present, forgave them. But they were put back under law again, and under law, as a strict and absolute rule, Israel had wholly failed.
The verse also answers a question people still ask: who did God give the Ten Commandments to?
The Lord Himself spoke the Ten Commandments in the hearing of the people, and Scripture calls them the "words of the covenant." "Write these words," He says to Moses, "for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel… and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments." So it is very clear that God addressed the Ten Commandments to Israel, the covenant-people, and formally to no one else.
- Written — God tells Moses to write, as He did at Exodus 24:4. This is how "the law of Moses" came to exist.
- Authored — commentators differ on how much Moses wrote and how much God wrote. Either way, the words are as truly God's as what His own finger engraved.
- Mediated — God makes the covenant "with you and with Israel." After the calf, the people's place rests on the man who interceded for them.
- Mixed — the terms join mercy to law. This is God's forbearing government of Israel, not the gospel that comes in Christ.
- Limited — God addressed these "words of the covenant" to Israel, the covenant-people, and formally to no one else.
-- And he was there with Jehovah forty days and forty nights; he ate no bread, and drank no water. -- And he wrote on the tables the words of the covenant, the ten words.
The chapter ends with Moses back on the mountain for a second forty days. He goes without food or water, and the covenant words go into writing again after Israel's collapse into idolatry. The verse raises two questions: what was Moses doing up there, and whose hand wrote on the stones?
This was Moses' second long stay in God's presence. The fast points to God's supply, not to Moses' strength.
"In accordance with these words," the Lord made a covenant with Moses and with Israel (v. 27). The words "with you" are significant. They show that Israel's place now depended on the mediator, and they point to the position Moses now held. For the second time he had been forty days and forty nights — in a state above nature — in the presence of God. He neither ate bread nor drank water. God in this way sustained His servant in His own presence, and enabled him to listen to His voice and receive His words.
The verse says how long he stayed, not what filled the time. One writer answers that these days were about enjoyment, not endurance.
And what do you think Moses was doing during that second forty days? I believe that he downright enjoyed God. He enjoyed the Lord's company those forty days and forty nights... He was in the enjoyment of His grace, as well as the deep sense of the mercy of the Lord. He had the sense that God would spare His people, guilty though they were. That was a wondrous forty days for Moses.
Commentators differ over the "he" who wrote. Some read it as Moses writing the second tables himself. They treat that as the key difference between the first giving of the law and the second:
But the blessed God still has resources in Himself, and again He takes up the people. Again the law is given, word for word the same, and not one detail reduced; for the holiness of God's nature can know no change. But there is this difference, and it is characteristic: it is now written by the hand of the mediator (Ex. 34:28), and not by God Himself. The law is in the hands of the mediator, and now we hear the new glad tones of long-suffering goodness and mercy.
Others separate two pieces of writing in this chapter. Moses was told to write the words of verses 10 to 26. God had said He Himself would write the ten commandments:
Moses did not write on the tables of stone. God had said that He would write on these — the ten commandments. Moses was to write what God told him in verses 10 to 26. For a second time Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights, neither eating nor drinking. Since he drank nothing at all, God must have kept him alive by a miracle. Then God wrote on the tables the ten commandments.
The verse gives the ten commandments another name, and that name settles who they were given to.
Jehovah Himself spoke the ten commandments in the hearing of the people, and they are directly called the "words of the covenant." He says to Moses, "Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel... And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments." So it is very clear that the ten commandments are not formally addressed to anyone other than Israel, the covenant people.
The second giving of the law had a different character, and it changed where the tables ended up.
On the second occasion what a difference! The lawgiver was called into the presence of God, who then was pleased to give a mingling of mercy along with law. It was not law alone, and not grace alone, but rather the mingling of grace along with law... On this occasion the law was still committed to man; but it was shut up in the ark, not displayed with all its terrors before the eyes of men.
Moses' fast has an obvious echo later in the Bible. The comparison shows a difference, not a likeness.
We see the difference in the glory of Christ's person from another. Moses had to fast forty days to be with God on the mount. Christ as a living man on earth was always with God. He fasts forty days to be with Satan, tempted in the wilderness.
- Sustained. Forty days without bread or water put Moses "in a state above nature" — God kept His servant alive so he could keep listening.
- Enjoyed. The time was not empty waiting. Moses had just heard God proclaim Himself merciful and gracious, and he spent the days in His company.
- Written. The tables came back carrying the ten commandments. Commentators differ over whose hand wrote them: God's, or Moses' as mediator.
- Covenanted. God calls these ten words "the words of the covenant." He made that covenant with Moses and with Israel, so the words address that nation.
- Mingled. Grace was now mixed with law, and the ark hid the tables. The law was still committed to man, but no longer displayed with all its terrors.