Exodus 32:15-16 "And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables."
God had been communing with Moses for forty days and nights when the children of Israel decided to make for themselves an idol. Aaron declared the day after the golden calf’s casting to be a feast day to the LORD. It was not a feast that the LORD was pleased with. He told Moses to get down from the mountain because the people had corrupted themselves.
Moses did not come away from communing with God empty-handed. In his hands were two tables (tablets) of finished stone, polished and prepared by God. These were the two tables of the testimony which God had given and put in Moses’ hands. Upon these tables were written the law of God.
Why were there two tables? Certainly, God was able to fashion a single table to hold this testimony. We know that when Jesus spoke of the two great commandments (Matthew 22:37-40), He said that all the law and the prophets hinged on these. Certainly, the law and the prophets were a testimony of God.
It is also true that the old and new covenants are the testimony of God. We see in them the purpose of God and the fulfillment of that purpose in Jesus Christ. Whether you see the significance of the two tables as representing the law and the prophets or the two covenants, one thing is absolutely true. They were ONE testimony written in such a way that it was all Moses could carry.
This was not in any fashion the work of man’s hands. The tables were the work of God. The writing was the writing of God. That was graven upon the tables was the power of God. The glory of the testimony belonged to God and Him alone.
Dear ones, if you have been blessed with the true testimony of God, know that this is all that we are to carry. We are not to tout man’s work as being necessary to the testimony of God. By the grace given us through the Holy Ghost of God, we see that law and the prophets pointing to Christ and His kingdom. By that same power, we see what it is to grow out of the law service and into the service of grace.
We know that God prepares the tables (heart – 2 Corinthians 3:3). We know that the testimony (law) of God is written there by the hand of God (Hebrews 8:10). Our lives are His, and the testimony that we are called to live is His. May we, as lively stones (1 Peter 2:5), bear His testimony to all the world.