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Parallel passages: 1Kings 18:1–40; 2Corinthians 3:1–18; Numbers 19:1-22; Ezekiel 36:16-38; Hebrews 9
Many Christians say that God’s law will be written on our hearts. But God’s law as written in the Torah has been taught to be largely irrelevant. And that sows seeds of confusion as to which words of God are “relevant” without clear commands from Heaven to treat the law otherwise.
Truth is, we are all writing something on our hearts. We can either allow God to write His laws on our hearts then live out those laws in our daily lives, or we can inscribe the laws of the spirit of this current age on our hearts and live and act just like the world around us.
Who is chiseling your character on your heart, yourself or God?
Here are key topics covered in the Torah reading כי תשא Ki Tisa (“when you take”; Exodus 30:11–34:35):
- Census by proxy: You are not just a number to God, but each person is impartially counted. Every person has a particular role to play in the world, but all people are equal with God.
- Tabernacle basin, oil and incense: Our deeds and the groaning of our souls must be cleaned, set apart from the normal direction of the world.
- Memorialize the Shabbat: Remember where you come from, where you’re going and Who is taking you there.
- Two tablets vs. golden calf: Do you trust the testimony of the LORD or the testimony of people?
- Intercessor with a rod of iron: Moshe calls for judgment on the revelers but compassion on the whole congregation of Israel, and 3,000 people died in judgment that day. But at the first Shavuot (Pentecost) after Yeshua’s resurrection (Acts 2), Peter’s powerful sermon brought 3,000 descendants of Israel to redemption in Christ.
- “Show me Your glory”: The LORD is compassionate (gracious and patient), dependable (loyal and trustworthy) and just (punishing the unrepentant).
Just as the items dedicated to the Tabernacle were cleaned in the water basin/laver, so are we. Those who were dedicated to service in the Tabernacle were anointed with oil, which is a symbol of the power and authority given to them to fulfill that duty. The incense burned in the Tabernacle represents the prayers of the people to God. The High Priest on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) even takes some of that incense into the most holy place with him to place those prayers directly in God’s face.
What is in a Name? (Exodus 34)
Some focus on “the Name” as being a particular Hebrew spelling and pronunciation, but the wider meaning of shem (“name”) is “reputation” or “character.” And this passage, after Moshe asked to see the LORD’s “glory” (literally, “weight”), this was Heaven’s testimony:
Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
Exodus 34:6–7 NASB
You notice here that God lists the worst sins first that He willingly forgives, which is iniquity. Iniquity is only covered on Yom Kippur, and we see a glimpse of God’s character here.
“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.”
1Corinthians 13:4–8 NASB
“For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”
2Corinthians 7:10 NASB
Sorrow because you got caught is not a sorrow that leads to repentance and salvation. Real sorrow — “godly sorrow” (2Cor. 7:11 NASB) — that leads to salvation is the kind of sorrow that provokes repentance. All of us have been delivered from our own Egypt, our “house of bondage.” We have all been cleaned of those things that separated us from God, and in His compassion, He brings us to Himself. As we willingly submit to His transforming power, we come closer to Him in good character.
What is a ministry of the New Covenant? (2Corinthians 3:1–18)
- ‘Tablets of human hearts’ vs. ‘tablets of stone’
- ‘Servants of a new covenant’
- ‘The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life’
- ‘Ministry of death’ vs. ‘ministry of the Spirit’
- ‘Ministry of condemnation’ vs. ‘ministry of righteousness’
- ‘What had glory … has no glory’
- ‘Reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted’
One thing to look at closely is that as Moses comes down the mountain with the tablets, he is bringing the testimony of God with him. The 10 commandments are the cliff notes of God’s nature.
When Moses later speaks to the second generation, he encourages them to write God’s law on their hearts (Deut. 30:10). The prophet Yo’el much later would implore Israel in rebellion to turn back to God in mourning, to rend their hearts, rather than their garments (Joel 2:13). Heaven’s servants implored them to internalize God’s precepts so that the righteousness in God’s law come from the inside out, rather than something they merely wear like a garment that can be removed at will.
“Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart.”
Proverbs 3:3 New American Standard Bible — NASB 1995
“My son, keep my words And treasure my commandments within you. Keep my commandments and live, And my teaching as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart.”
Proverbs 7:1–3 New American Standard Bible — NASB 1995
“The sin of Judah is written down with an iron stylus; With a diamond point it is engraved upon the tablet of their heart And on the horns of their altars, As they remember their children, So they remember their altars and their Asherim By green trees on the high hills.”
Jeremiah 17:1–2 New American Standard Bible — NASB 1995
It works both ways, we can either have God’s character written on our hearts and live the way God calls us to live or we can inscribe the faulty principles of the world on our heart and live in the corrupt ways of the world.
God foretold that His ways will be written on our hearts. We see in archaeology all over the world examples of laws written on stone. Many of those codes were lost to time and written in languages that most people no longer know. Ultimately, what is written by God on our hearts and lived out will endure for all eternity.
Summary: Tammy