Tablets of Stone

Everything in Israel's life and worship revolved around the Tabernacle. The visible proof that God was among the nation was the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. God dwelt behind the veil in the Most Holy Place. That was the most important and holy spot on the whole earth because God's immediate presence was there. Only the High Priest, on the yearly Day of Atonement, was allowed into God's presence in the Most Holy Place. Taking the blood, that had been shed on the altar, and sprinkling it on the Mercy Seat, or lid of the Ark of the Covenant, was Aaron's most important function of the whole year. As the Most Holy Place was the most holy spot on earth, so the Ark of the Covenant was the single most holy piece of furniture. That box was important and holy because of its contents. If we understand the purpose and function of the Tabernacle and its ministry around the Ark of the Covenant, we will automatically understand the nature, function, and purpose of the Ten Commandments. The two are identical and the function of the Tables of Stone never change in the Bible. The function did not "change." It ended! The purpose and function of the Tablets of Stone never changed from the day of their inception at Mt Sinai until the day that "written code" was nailed to the cross.

The "Ark of the Covenant" was so named because of its CONTENT.

We will review one point covered earlier concerning the Ark. The Ark of the Covenant was built for the express purpose of housing the specific covenant document that established Israel as a nation and that covenant document was the Ten Commandments. The Ark of the Covenant housed the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are the Old Covenant. It was called the "Ark of the Covenant" and the "Ark of Testimony" because it was the written covenant testimony against Israel when they disobeyed the covenant terms, or Ten Commandments. All of this is so clear and so simple when we use the terms and phrases used by the Holy Spirit.

Notice how the following texts establish what has just been said:

And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. Ex 25:10

And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee. Ex 25:16 And he spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent above upon it; as the LORD commanded Moses. And he took and put the testimony into the ark, and set the staves on the ark, and put the mercy seat above upon the ark: Ex 40:19,20

It is obvious that the word "testimony" and the word "covenant" are interchangeable in this verse. The Ark of the "Testimony" is the Ark of the "Covenant." It is just as obvious, in the following passages, that the "Testimony" is the Ten Commandments written on the Tablets of Stone:

At that time the LORD said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the LORD spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the LORD gave them unto me. And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the LORD commanded me. Dt 5:1-5

Why were the Ten Commandments placed in the Ark of the Covenant? Why was that box so sacred that humans hands were not even allowed to touch it. To see how holy the Ark was, read II Sam 5 & 6. When we understand why a man was instantly killed by God for merely putting his hand on the Ark to steady it, we will see the nature, purpose and function of the Ten Commandments inside the Ark of the Covenant.

There could be no entrance into the presence of God in the Most Holy Place as long as the Tablets of Stone in the Ark of the Covenant were in FORCE AS A COVENANT.

The nature, purpose, and function of the Ark of the Covenant is the nature, purpose and function of the Ten Commandments! The Ten Commandments began their ministry in the history of Redemption when they were placed in the box that was designed especially to be their home. And exactly what was the purpose and function of the Ark of the Covenant and its contents? What particular function did it play in the life and worship of the nation of Israel?

The answer to this question is easy. The Ark of the Covenant closed off all approach into the immediate presence of God until the terms of the covenant spelled out on the Tablets of Stone had been fully met. Those terms demanded a kind of life that no sinner could produce. It was the failure to obey the covenant terms that closed off the entrance into God's presence. Aaron alone was allowed, one day a year, to enter the Most Holy Place. He always had to take with him some blood that had been shed on the altar of sacrifice. The whole purpose and function of the Ten Commandments in the Ark of the Covenant can be summed up in one word-- DEATH. The message in the box was the same message on the veil. In big letters it said "KEEP AWAY - DO NOT EVEN TOUCH!" It was disobedience to this message that caused Uzzah to die (II Sam 6:6,7).

Paul is saying the same truth in the following passages:

He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone.......... II Cor 3:6,7

Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. Rom 7:9,10

It is true that Paul said the "commandment was ordained to life." However, because of sin, he discovered the commandment was "death to him." The Ten Commandments did indeed promise life to anyone that kept them perfectly. They also promised death to all who failed to keep them. However, the Tablets of Stone could not do either of these things if it did not have the status of a covenant. A bare commandment cannot kill unless the death penalty is connected to it. And no commandment can give life unless the commandment is the terms of a covenant that promises life. Paul specifically says, "the very commandment that was intended to bring life" It is obvious that he talking about the Tablets of the Covenant, or Ten Commandments. Likewise Paul says, "the commandment put me to death." If the Ten Commandments, considered as a covenant, was not a legal/works covenant that promised life for obedience and death for disobedience that Paul's statements do not make sense.

Jesus responded to the rich young ruler as He did only because the Ten Commandments offers life to those who perfectly obey. The young man wanted to "earn" his way to eternal life and Jesus told him to "Keep the Law" (Mt 19:17). When the young man asked, "Which one?", Jesus quoted 5 of the commandments written on the Tablets of the Covenant and threw in the "second greatest commandment of all" (Lev 19:18) for good measure.

It is silly and contradictory to ask, "If a son of Adam perfectly kept the Ten Commandments, would he still not have his original sin?" The question states a contradiction. If the person perfectly kept the law it would prove that he did not have original sin in the first place. It is impossible for any son of Adam to obey the law perfectly simply because every son of Adam has a sinful nature inherited from his father Adam that keeps him from perfect obedience.

The second fact, that all men have a sinful nature, absolutely precludes the first situation, a son of Adam perfectly obeying the Ten Commandments, from ever being even a possibility. No sinner can earn righteousness by obeying the Tablets of Stone simply because no sinner can obey them. However, the Tablets of the Covenant still offers life and righteousness just as surely as they threaten death and damnation. The problem that prevents anyone from earning righteousness by keeping the Old Covenant is in the nature of the sinner and not in the nature of the covenant.

As long as the covenant in the Ark of the Covenant was in force it closed off approach to God. It said, "Stay Away!" No one could meet the terms of that covenant. The "words of the covenant," or Ten Commandments, clearly demanded perfect obedience. No one could give the perfect obedience the covenant demanded and thereby earn the righteousness that it promised. Once the covenant had been broken, a sacrifice must be offered to take away the curse of the broken covenant. The entire ministry of the priesthood revolved around the sins against that covenant in the Ark. The blood sprinkled on the Mercy Seat in the Most Holy Place made the Israelite ceremonially clean for one year but that blood could not "cleanse the conscience" (Heb 9:15; 10:2,22). Aaron could neither present a holy sinless life to the covenant nor could he present a blood sacrifice that was sufficient to truly atone and deliver from the curse of the broken covenant.

The whole purpose and function of Aaron's ministry was a constant reminder of sin against the covenant in the Ark of the Covenant. Everything was designed to remind people of their sin. Those in whom the covenant wrought true repentance were given hope in a coming Deliverer. However, even they had to live their day by day life under the threat of the Old Covenant.

The Lord Jesus Christ, our Surety of the covenant, was born under the very law covenant housed in the Ark of the Covenant. He fulfilled everyone of its demands and earned the righteousness that it promised. He then died under the curse of that law covenant (Gal 3:14) and forever removed its curse from His people. It was at the exact moment of His enduring that covenant's curse unto death that the New Covenant was established and the Old Covenant (the Ten Commandments), and everything that attended it, was disannulled because it had been fulfilled. The absolute proof of this was God renting the veil from top to bottom. The sign that said "Stay Out" was changed to "Enter Boldly." The change was possible because the terms of the Old Covenant have been fully met. The Tables of Stone have been done away and the New Covenant has been established forever in the blood and righteousness of Christ.

The priesthood, services, sacrifices etc., all started and ended at the same time as the Old Covenant that necessitated their being established.

It is not possible to understand the Biblical teaching on the change of covenant that is so clearly set forth in the Book of Hebrews until we see the particular truth we are discussing at the moment. This is the whole burden of Hebrews chapters 8-10. Notice one section:

Now the first covenant had regulations for worship (Don't confuse the actual covenant, the Ten Commandments, with all of the "regulations") and also an earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lamp stand, the table and the consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, which had the golden altar, and the gold covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the jar of manna, Aaron's staff that had budded, and the stone tables of the covenant [Remember the Ten Commandments were written on those Tablets]. Heb 9:1-4.

The whole purpose for the priesthood and sacrificial system coming into existence was to administer the Old Covenant:

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. Heb 9:15

Everything pertaining to Israel's special national relationship to God, including the Tablets of the Covenant (Ten Commandments), ended when the Christ, by His obedient life and death, met every claim and demand of the Old Covenant written in stone. Deliverance from the just claims of that covenant was necessary before the true Israel of God could be created and established on the New Covenant. The setting "free from the sins committed under the first covenant" is what required Christ to be "born under the law" (Gal 4:1-7). The Tables of Stone are now as obsolete as both the Ark that housed them and the priestly ministry that sprinkled animal blood on the lid of the Ark.

The relationship of the Law Covenant (the stone tablets in the Ark) to the Mercy Seat (the lid of the Ark) is one of the clearest pictures of the Gospel in the OT Scriptures. It also sets forth the Biblical relationship of the law and grace. The Tablets of the Covenant (Ten Commandments) in the Ark represents the just demands of the law covenant. There is the Law! The lid of the Ark covers the broken covenant of law with the blood of atonement. There is the Gospel! There is not an ounce of "grace" or "Gospel" in the law covenant in the box. It is pure law demanding perfect obedience as the condition of blessing and death for disobedience. The blood on the Mercy Seat covers and hides the broken covenant and the sins against that covenant. That is grace! It was indeed very "gracious" of God to give the law covenant to make know sin, and it was even more gracious to provide a payment to cover the sin. But there was no grace in the terms of the covenant in the box. John Newton had it right. "It was Grace (using the law in the box) that taught my heart to fear; And Grace (through the blood on the Mercy Seat) relieved that fear."

Some theologians will challenge the truth that the Ten Commandments offered life and righteousness for perfect obedience. They deny this Biblical fact only because their theology simply cannot acknowledge the validity of any kind of a covenant of works after Gen 3:15. Our response to such a view is this: If the Ten Commandments are not a legal/works covenant that can award life and righteousness then we as believers have no righteousness. Our righteousness is an earned righteousness. It was earned by Christ keeping some law covenant that had the authority