Moses told the people that The LORD told him to hew two tablets like the first which he had broken because of their idolatry and to go back up the mountain and He would write out the Ten Commandments again exactly as the first time. This time he was to make a wooden ark (box) of acacia wood to put the two tablets in, and he showed them to the people (v1-5). As we noted earlier, the Commandments were exactly like they were when first given (5:22). Moses had smashed them because they had broken God’s law, but God restored them for the people, written by God’s own hand.
These were not man’s laws, but God’s laws and we have God’s word today and like them, we need to get back to and rely on God’s word for our guidance.
Verses 6-9 seem to be a parenthesis; it is literally in brackets, and I wonder if it is simply a reminder of where they had travelled from, the wells of Bene Jaakan, to Moserah where Aaron died and was buried. Eleazar his son became priest in his place. They then went to Gudgodah and then to Jotbathah, a land of rivers. At that time, the Levites were allotted the job of carrying the ark of the covenant and to stand and minister before The LORD. Because of this they were not given an inheritance among the people of Israel, but the other tribes were to contribute a tithe to sustain them. Thus, The LORD was their inheritance. The LORD was showing the people the importance of the priesthood and how they needed to be right with God and sin needed atonement.
When they sinned by worshiping the golden calf, God could have disowned them and wiped them out, but in His great mercy He did not. Moses reminded them (v10,11) that he stayed in the mountain for forty days and nights and pleaded with God on their behalf and The LORD told him to move on in their journey towards the Promised Land. The important thing was that they followed The LORD and kept His commandments and, therefore, Moses told them clearly what The LORD God required of them (v12,13) – “…. to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good?”
The LORD God even told them why they should obey Him. It was simply because He loved them and chose them above all other peoples. This was amazing when one considers who He is, the God of all the earth and heavens (v14,15). They were His special possession and thus they were privileged.
Thus, they were to fear Him – to honour and revere Him; to walk in His ways; to love Him; to serve Him; to keep His laws. All this was for their good and similarly for us, obedience to God is not for His benefit but ours. They were also to commit themselves to The LORD – the reference in v 16 is to circumcise their hearts to God. They had already been commanded to circumcise boys as a sign of being given to God, but this was not a physical circumcision but a spiritual one. It was removing things from the heart which were not honouring to God, and which were interfering with their love and commitment to God. They were also not to be ‘stiff-necked’, again, this is not a physical ailment but a spiritual hardness against God and doing our own thing, rather than pleasing him. These were inner transformations which only God could do in them.
The chapter ends (v17-22) with a call to obedience and reverence for The LORD their God, to recognise who He is, and what He has done, and how they could show that to others. What a great God He is! Lord of lords, God of gods, great, mighty and awesome. In Isaiah 40 the question is asked more than once – Who can compare with this God? The simple answer is, “No-one”.
He takes no bribes, shows no partiality, administers justice for the fatherless and widow, loves the stranger and gives him food and clothes. He reminds them that they were strangers in the land of Egypt and thy should show compassion on strangers too. They went into Egypt as seventy people and came out in a great multitude. God, even though He is great, the greatest, asks for our obedience not just because of all that but because of what He has done for us. He alone is our praise and worship.
In Micah 6;8 We have an indication of what God requires from us – ‘He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” Notice that God has ‘shown us’, He has given us the example. We are to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.
Let us praise, worship and obey our God because of what He has done for us in the ultimate gift of His Son, our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself to pay the price of our redemption. He alone is worthy of our praise and worship which entails our whole lives being lived for Him.
