The Ten Words

"So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first" (Exodus 34:4).

Why two tablets? The commands are few and Hebrew script can be written small. One tablet would have sufficed, all the more since the stones were inscribed on both sides.

God wrote two copies for the same reason contracts are written in duplicate today: both parties keep a copy on file because contracts imply mutual responsibility.

But here’s the difference: God kept both copies of this contract on file—locked in the Ark of the Covenant under the mercy seat, where the blood of the lamb was sprinkled. He did so because he knew Israel would not, indeed could not hold up their end of the deal. God Himself must see to it that the contract remained in force. 

Peter says we are set apart "for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" (1Peter 1:1,2 ). God has asked us to be like Jesus—an impossible high demand. He has given us strength for compliance but immediate forgiveness when we fail to comply. He is, "a God of demand, a God of demand ready to be a God of grace" (Walter Brueggemann).

David Roper
2.15.18