Tablet of Our Heart

Verse of the day: Exodus 34:1 And the LORD said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke.”

Once again, we come face to face with God’s grace. The original tablets, which were hewn and written by the very hand of God, were broken by Moses when he returned from Mount Sinai and found the people worshipping the golden calf (Exodus 32:15-19). After pleading to the LORD on Israel’s behalf, God promises that He will go with them, as they continue their wilderness journey toward the Promise Land (Exodus 33:12-17). Here, rather than producing the tablets with His own hands, as He did at first, God instructs Moses to hew the tablets, and He (the LORD) will rewrite His commandments on them. We see a picture here of how our hearts had the Law of God written on it, but sin marred our hearts, requiring that they be rewritten with the Blood of Jesus. Romans 2:14-16 read, “for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) 16 in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.” Whether we acknowledge it or not, God’s Law is already etched in the hearts of men. We know this when our conscious is pricked, upon doing wrong, without anyone telling us that what we did was wrong. However, our sin nature fights against it, and by the Law that was both written on the tablets and on the pages of our Bibles, our sin nature is revealed, showing us our desperate need of a Savior. As born again believers, Jesus has made us fellow benefactors with Israel of God’s promise that with the new covenant His laws would be put in our minds, and written on our hearts (Hebrews 8:10). The LORD put it this way in Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Note that this time around, although God was rewriting the Commandments, Moses cooperated in hewing the tablets. So it is in our relationship with Christ Jesus. Our salvation comes by faith alone. There is no work, or amount of works, that will earn us our salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5). However, as Christians, we are still responsible for working out our salvation, with fear and trembling, or reverence and humility (Philippians 2:12-13). Although God’s Law was put in our minds, we must now renew our thinking and not be conformed to this world (Romans 12:2). How do we do that? We renew our minds by revamping our belief system using the Word of God. This is effort on our part. This means that we must choose to actually pick up our Bible, read it, study it, and actively put our new belief system to practice. Although we are not subject to the Law, in respect to the sacrificial or ritualistic system of the Law, we are still responsible for carrying out the moral law. Jesus has enabled us to carry this out by the new commandments He gave us, which encompass the whole Law. In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus said, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Our Christian walk is one of cooperation. As we discussed in the previous devotional, “More than Just God”, our cooperation should not just be out of duty, but out of a desire stemming from a friendship relationship with Jesus. The Spirit will produce His fruit (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; Galatians 5:22-23), but in order for that fruit to be seen, we must cooperate with the Spirit by not quenching Him (1 Thessalonians 5:19-25), and by choosing to put them to practice. This is not so that we can boast about how good we are, for there is none that is good except Jesus (Luke 18:19; Romans 3:10-12). The bottom line is that when we truly love God, and our neighbor, as Scripture commands, we will make a cooperative effort to put the Law that is written in our hearts on full display for the glory and praise of our Heavenly Father, through Christ Jesus (Matthew 5:16).

Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).