Exodus 34:1
“And the LORD said to Moses, Hew you two tables of stone like to the first: and I will write on these tables the words that were in the first tables, which you broke.”
Here Moses (in his old age) is summoned once more to the top of Mt. Sinai, where the Law is to be delivered afresh to him. He is ordered to bring with him tables of stone like the former ones, to receive their written contents from God’s hand.
Before the covenant could be formally reestablished, before Israel could be replaced in the position forfeited by the idolatry of the golden calf, it was necessary that the conditions (on which God consented to establish His covenant with them) be renewed.
This second set of tablets was to do just that. Hewn by the hand of Moses, it would remind both him and the people of the hardness of their hearts and of their loss through it, not having the law on tables of stone, which were the work of God, but which were the work of man.
This reminds us all that something is always lost by sin....even when it is forgiven.
The Truth
And He said: “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.” (Exodus 34:10)
