Day 43
Exodus 34:1-35:9; Matthew 27:15-31; Psalm 33:12-22; Proverbs 9:1-6
Commandments Written on the Heart
Today’s passage from Exodus is rich and full and mysterious, and will pay back all the effort we expend on it. (We don’t need to understand it all today! We will return!)
Moses goes up the mountain to commune with God, and he carries “two tablets of stone” (34:1) that he has made. God specifies that Moses must make them; Moses will bring himself into God’s presence, fasting and praying “forty days and forty nights.” While he is there, God will write His commandments (His word, His will, His way) on the tablets Moses brings with him.
This is a hopeful sign to us! We want God’s commandments written on our hearts, as the Scripture promises they will be (see Jeremiah 31:33). God promises to “drive out before thee the Amorite, Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite” (34:11).
On the literal level, these refer to the hostile tribes who occupied the land promised to Israel, but the saints of the Church see more in this promise. They understand those tribes to symbolize the hostile sins that persist in our hearts. This promise of victory is great hope to us!
Kevin Holsapple