Commentary - Exodus 31:18

Bird's-eye view

This single verse serves as the solemn capstone to one of the most significant moments in redemptive history. After forty days of intimate communion on the fiery mountain, God concludes His direct revelation to Moses. The giving of the law, which included the moral, civil, and ceremonial precepts for Israel, now culminates in the delivery of its core summary: the Ten Commandments. This is not merely the end of a long conversation; it is the formal presentation of a covenant document. The verse is intentionally constructed to highlight the absolute divine authority, the enduring nature, and the direct, personal authorship of God in establishing His covenant with His people. It is the ultimate "thus saith the Lord," prepared not by a scribe, but by the very finger of the Almighty. The profound weight of this moment is immediately and tragically contrasted by the scene at the bottom of the mountain, where Israel is already engaged in rank idolatry, demonstrating from the outset man's desperate need for a grace that goes far beyond stone tablets.

Outline

Context In Exodus

Exodus 31:18 is a pivotal transition point in the book. It concludes the massive section (chapters 20-31) where God lays out the terms of the covenant for Israel from Mount Sinai. This section has detailed the Ten Commandments, the Book of the Covenant with its civil laws, and the intricate instructions for the Tabernacle and the priesthood. This verse represents the formal ratification and delivery of the central terms of this covenant agreement. However, its placement is one of the most dramatic instances of irony in all of Scripture. As Moses receives these divinely-authored tablets, chapter 32 opens with the people's rebellion in the worship of the golden calf. The giving of God's perfect, holy law is immediately met by Israel's foundational breach of that law, specifically the first and second commandments. This sets up the entire subsequent narrative: the breaking of the tablets, Moses' intercession, the judgment on the idolaters, and the gracious renewal of the covenant, demonstrating that from its inception, the covenant of law required a mediator and a provision for grace.

Key Issues

Written in Stone

When God establishes a covenant, He does so with formal, legal gravity. Covenants in the ancient world involved sworn oaths, witnesses, and written documents. The events at Sinai are nothing less than the formal establishment of a national covenant between Yahweh as the great King and Israel as His vassal people. These tablets are not a collection of helpful suggestions for self-improvement. They are the constitution of the nation, the marriage certificate between God and His bride. They are called the "tablets of the testimony" because they bear witness, or testify, to the character of God and the obligations of His people. They are a public, objective standard. And the fact that they are written in stone signifies their permanence. God's moral character, summarized in these Ten Words, does not change. While the new covenant internalizes this law, writing it on our hearts, it does not abolish it. The standard remains, fixed and enduring as stone, and it is this unyielding standard that reveals our sin and drives us to the foot of the cross.

Verse by Verse Commentary

18 When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.

The verse begins by marking a solemn conclusion. When He had finished speaking with him. For forty days and nights, Moses had been in the presence of God, receiving the blueprint for the life of Israel. This was not a partnership or a collaboration. This was God speaking and Moses listening. The conversation is now over, and what follows is the formal presentation of the central document that summarizes the whole.

He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony. The subject is God. The law is a gift. It is a grace to be told how to live in a way that pleases our Creator. They are tablets of "testimony" (eduth in Hebrew), a legal term. They are God's sworn witness against the sin of His people and for His own righteousness. There are two tablets, which has traditionally been understood to represent the two parts of the law: our duty to God (commandments 1-4) and our duty to our neighbor (commandments 5-10). It could also represent the two parties to the covenant, God and Israel, with each receiving a copy of the treaty, as was common in ancient suzerain-vassal treaties.

They are described as tablets of stone. This is in direct contrast to the fleeting and ephemeral nature of human words and promises. Stone signifies permanence, durability, and unchangeability. God's moral law is not culturally conditioned or subject to revision. It is fixed. In the New Covenant, Jeremiah prophesies that God will write the law not on stone, but on our hearts (Jer. 31:33), and Paul picks up this theme in 2 Corinthians 3. This does not mean the standard is lowered or abolished; it means the location of the law and the power to obey it are transformed by the Holy Spirit.

Finally, and most remarkably, they were written by the finger of God. This is not a metaphor for divine inspiration in the way the rest of Scripture is inspired. This is a statement of direct, unmediated, divine action. There was no angelic secretary or prophetic scribe. God Himself carved these words. This phrase, "the finger of God," is used elsewhere to denote God's direct and irresistible power. The Egyptian magicians recognized the plague of gnats as the "finger of God" (Ex. 8:19). Jesus said He cast out demons by the "finger of God," which He equated with the Spirit of God, as a sign that the kingdom had arrived (Luke 11:20). The same divine power that defeats pagan magic and crushes demonic forces is the power that authors the Ten Commandments. To trifle with this law is to trifle with God Himself.

Application

The first and most obvious application is that God's law is absolutely authoritative. It is not a product of human wisdom or a consensus of the best ethical thinkers. It comes directly from the mind of God, written by His own hand. Therefore, we are not at liberty to edit, amend, or ignore it. We are called to submit to it, to delight in it, and to teach it to our children.

Second, the context screams our inadequacy. At the very moment this perfect and holy law is being delivered, the recipients are at the bottom of the hill, melting their gold to worship a cow. The stone tablets, from the moment of their creation, served to condemn. They reveal the standard, and our immediate reaction is to shatter it. This should cultivate in us a profound humility. Left to ourselves, we are idolaters. Our hearts are idol factories. The law written on stone, while good and holy, has no power to make us good and holy. It can only expose our guilt.

This leads us to our only hope. The finger of God that wrote the law on stone is a picture of the Holy Spirit who, in the new covenant, writes that same law on our hearts. The power that authored the standard is the same power that enables us to obey it. But this is only possible because of the work of Jesus Christ. He is the only man who has ever perfectly kept this law. He fulfilled its demands. And on the cross, He bore the curse for our every failure to keep it. The law, therefore, serves as a schoolmaster to drive us to Christ (Gal. 3:24). Once we are in Christ, we are no longer under its condemnation, but we are now empowered by His Spirit to joyfully walk in its precepts, not as a means of earning salvation, but as the grateful response of those who have already been saved by grace.