The Tables of the Covenant

And he [Moses] 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 34:28.

“When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you. . .” Deut. 9:9.

“And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant” Deut. 9:11.

“And so I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands” Deut 9:15.

With all the familiarity of the Ten Commandments to the world system, ‘ten commandments’ is to be found only three times in the scriptures: Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 4:13 and Deuteronomy 10:4.

Are the 10 commandments rules meant to be inflicted upon unbelievers ( as some seem to think) or are they not the Covenant provided by the Lord God for His people? “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God?” So - to whom are they addressed?

“And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant over laid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant” Heb. 9:3,4.

“But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building” Heb. 9:11.

“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” Heb. 9:24.

The three articles specified in Heb. 9:4 point to God’s provisions in Christ while they are journeying through then wilderness. The golden pot contained one omer of manna - one omer, the provision for a man. Christ is the Golden Pot, a Vessel full of Grace and Truth. Aaron’s rod: it “brought forth buds and blossomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.

“Numbers 17:8 refers to resurrection-life in three stages, all, of course, pointing to Christ. We would suggest that the “budding” of the rod found its fulfillment in the resurrection of Christ Himself; that the “blossomed blossoms” will receive its realisation in the resurrection of “them that are Christ’s at His coming”; while the “yielded almonds” points forward to the raising of Israel from the dead who shall then fill the earth with their fruit.”

Gleaning from Exodus, the Ark, page 195, Arthur W. Pink.

“Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart” Psalm 40:8.

Christ is High Priest; the Covenant Word is within Him; He is the Heavenly Manna, the nourishment for His people; He is the fulfillment of Aaron’s rod that budded: the resurrection, the Truth, the Life! It is Christ who is the Ark of the Covenant, the Mercy Seat! “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” Heb. 4;16.

Ye are not under the law, but under Grace.

Where then is the law to be found?

It is inside the Ark of the Covenant.

It is under the Mercy Seat.

It is under the blood.

It is safe; it is unbroken, and shall

remain so.

If the breaking of the tablets of stone

show forth man’s disobedience in

breaking the law, shall not the obedience

of One show forth the fulfilling of the

law: hence the preserving of the second

set of tablets of the law?

Where then is Grace to be found?

He is sitting between the cherubims;

above the Mercy Seat.

Ought not the heart of man be found

as the residence of the God of all grace?

Shall we not look for the day when

our hearts truly become as the Ark

of the Covenant; that they contain the

unbroken law of God?