You will put them in the ark

Friday March 12, 2021

You will put them in the ark

Cut two tables of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain ; you will also make an arch of wood. I will write on these tablets the words which were on the first tablets which you broke, and you will put them in the ark. Deuteronomy 10: 1,2

Moses comes down from the mountain on which he has just received the tablets of the Law engraved by the finger of God, and he sees the people in full idolatry before a golden calf. He therefore breaks these two tables and thus eliminates the Law which condemned the people, saving them from destruction.

The Lord cannot stop there ; he gives Moses time to put order in the camp and summons him to give him the same commandments again. Moses did not realize that the people's failure is not only an accident, but that it is, in fact, a testament to their fundamental inability to keep God's Law. If he had understood this, he would have asked the Lord, appealing to his grace, to place the people under another regime than that of this Law which will inevitably condemn them again.

Fortunately, the Lord has a means which will enable him to endure a people whose hearts have not been renewed : the tablets of the Law will be placed in a wooden box, which will soon become, in the most holy place of God. tabernacle, the ark of Jehovah, made of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, and covered with the mercy seat. Why is that ?

Because this ark is a figure of Christ, the One who was to come to fulfill the Law. He alone fulfilled it perfectly in the two commandments which sum it all up : he loved God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind and with all his strength (Mark 12:30) ; and he loved his neighbor as much as himself, and even more, for he loved him more than his own life.

Thus, in the midst of his people, the Lord sees in advance his only begotten Son coming to earth, Jesus who will honor him throughout his life with unfailing obedience, Jesus who will make atonement for sins by his death on earth. cross. The blood on the mercy seat speaks of this bloody sacrifice which will be that of Jesus at Golgotha. Yes ! The Lord beholds this, and the law of condemnation remains well hidden in the ark.

Source (Pleasing the Lord)