Ten Commandments – Third Time’s the Charm (Deut. 10.1-5)

Like the majority of Americans, if asked about the Ten Commandments, I would say something like… Moses was on a mountain, God spoke them, then Moses went down from the mountain.  After a closer reading of Deuteronomy though, I have recently come to realize that’s not the complete story.  It’s sort of like many Bible stories we’ve heard so many times – true, but often not the whole truth. 

First of the Ten
The first time the ten commandments were given, it was by the divine audible voice of the Lord, from a mountain “ablaze with fire” which is described in Deuteronomy 5.22-33.  The Israelites, out of fear, suggested Moses go up intermediate for them, and then they dared to say “Tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you.  We listen and obey” (Deuteronomy 5.26).  Of course, as usual, they talked about obedience more than actually obeying.

Second of the Ten

This time, the Ten Commandments were given to Moses on two stone tablets.  He went up to the mountain, and stayed 40 days and 40 nights.  These Ten Commandments were “inscribed by the finger of God” (Deuteronomy 9.10).  Then, God tells Moses to hurry down the mountain, because the Israelites are already breaking the one about having false gods.  In addition, in verse 12 God tells Moses that “your people” who “you” brought down out of Egypt have become corrupt.  The Israelites are God’s chosen people he delivered, but at the same time there’s a layer of frustration with God about how quickly they turn away from such a divine, miraculous deliverance with such obvious signs of God’s power and authority.  The Israelites have seen the true God firsthand, yet yearn in their hearts for visible representations of false gods.  The heart of the Ten Commandments is that God yearns for the hearts of his people above all else.

Moses was furious, and in his rage, he smashed to pieces the Ten Commandments.  Remember the significance - God himself wrote these with his finger.  Yet Moses illustrates passion for complete obedience is more important to him than even something written by God’s finger and handed to him.

Third Time’s the Charm

In the third time God gave the Ten Commandments, Moses has to put a little effort into it this time (Deuteronomy 10.1-5).  God speaks to him, and tells him he has to make the tablets this time around.  God isn’t going to just hand them to him as before.  In addition, he’s told to make a wooden chest to put the tablets in.  God still does the actual writing though!  “I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.  Then you are to put them in the chest” (Deuteronomy 10.2).

Did you catch the emphasis here?  On first writing of the Ten Commandments, “which you broke,” emphasizes the reality here – God wrote them, Moses broke them.  It’s God not very subtly reminding Moses about the last time.  There’s no indication it was wrong of Moses to break them though.  This reminds me of Jesus in the New Testament asking which was the greatest law in the Old Testament, which is to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength.  Moses typifies a godly man who, despite having something written by the finger of God, put concern for the hearts of his people far above all else.

Think about this:  One of three times in the Old Testament God wrote something with his finger, and Moses smashed it because he was confronting Israelites in their sin.  (The first Ten Commandments, and the other was in Daniel, on a wall).  Scripture is vastly important, but scripture written with the finger of God on tablets God himself gave to Moses?  Here this emphasizes the heart of the Old Testament – scripture itself is not enough, but is only a shadow of greater truths.  The spirit of the Law is vastly more important than the letters of the law.

So, the third time, God re-writes the ten commandments with his finger, again!  He also directs Moses to keep them in a chest to preserve them for future generations.  And, at the time Deuteronomy was written, they were still there in that chest. 

Applications?  Definitely.

Obedience is more important than scripture

Coming from me, I value scripture incredibly highly; it is difficult to say that anything in this world is more important.  Yet, the giving of the Ten Commandments three times shows that the Word in our heart along with obedience is more important than the Word on the page.  Pages and Tablets of Stone can be broken, but God desired his people to follow the spirit of the law, even before the Word was written.

Obedience and soft heart, even before God speaks

Hard to believe, but think about the timeline here.  The scripture the Israelites had may have only consisted of the book of Genesis.  That book has the heart of the law, without the letters clearly spelled out like the ten commandments.

But even before Genesis was written, there were only mere glimpses of the law that showed the spirit of the law.  With only pieces of Genesis and oral tradition, people were still righteous or wicked in God’s sight.  How?  Because the spirit of the law was prevalent, and God demanded obedience and a heart turned toward him despite not having a whole lot of specific details.  Of course, there was no expectation they should believe in Jesus Christ, because the spirit of the law only vaguely pointed toward that direction.  Obedience to the spirit of the law matters more than obedience to the letter of the law.