Meet with God, Part 4

“So Moses cut out two tablets of stone like the first; early in the morning he went up to Mount Sinai, just as the Lord had commanded him, and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the Lord by name.”  –Exodus 34:4-7, NET

After God agrees to Moses request, but before He actually does so, God tells Moses to bring with him two new tablets of stone (Exo 34:1). The previous two, which Moses smashed before an idolatrous people (Exo 32:19), “were the work of God” (Exo 32:16), apparently cut and engraved by the very “finger of God” (Exo 31:18; Deu 9:9-11). The same finger that was responsible for the miraculous signs in Egypt (Exo 8:18-19) to free these “stiff-necked” people (Exo 32:9).

But now, God asks Moses to do the chiseling (Exo 34:1). “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Write down these words” (Exo 34:27), and Moses “wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments,” (Exo 34:28).

Wait… God said earlier “I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets,” (Exo 34:1; see also Deu 10:1-4).

I’m confused. Which is it?

“Above all, you do well if you recognize this: No prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination, for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” –2 Peter 1:20-21, NET

There is no contradiction. Moses may have done the engraving, but God did the writing. These were HIS words, not Moses’. Pity the man that seeks to divide scripture by “author,” exalting one passage above another based on some contrived hierarchy. “All scripture is God-breathed” (2Ti 3:16), whether inscribed miraculously by the “finger of God” or written by a human hand.

See that all of Scripture comes from the mouth of the Almighty. And it is there that the LORD still meets with His people.