It is All About Love

Proceeding along the slopes of the Holy Mountain, we will go back to Exodus to see what else occurred between God and His people on the mountain. Having read through verse eight of chapter twenty-four, we will continue on from there. Most often when considering the encounter between God and His people at Mount Sinai, we assume that it was Moses alone who saw God. However, the scriptures seem to paint another picture.

Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity. But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank. (Exo. 24:9–11)

The actual account of this meeting between God and Moses is much different than common perception. Rather than meeting with God all alone, Moses was actually accompanied by seventy-three elders of Israel! “They all saw God and ate and drank!”

It is extremely interesting to note what happened when these men met with God as well as what they saw as they met with Him; it is here that some interesting facts about God’s law and the covenant come to light.

The scene is spectacular. Moses with his elders standing in the presence of the Ancient of Days! Under His feet was a sapphire stone. Sapphire is a sky blue stone, and many such stones have in them what is referred to as a star. This stone, upon which stands the throne of the Almighty God, was like the sky in its clarity. Moses stood in such a place where mortal man had never stood before. It can scarcely be imagined the awe that weighed upon these men. Then the Creator of the universe opens His mouth and says, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them” (Exo. 24:12). It is at this point that God called Moses apart to speak to him personally. Here something happened that would impact the world in a way that is still felt today; it is here that God gave to Moses the tablets known to us as the Ten Commandments.

There is something that is said here that I find very appealing. For the most part, it goes unnoticed due to something that is lost in translation to the English language. It is found in this portion of the text, “I will give you tablets of stone.” In the Hebrew language the word used here for stone looks like this: אֶבֶןh. In Hebrew the text is read right to left. What is particularly interesting is the character seen at the beginning of the word: h, pronounced “hĕ.” What is significant about this letter is that when it proceeds a noun as it does in Exodus 24:12, it is a definite article. Seeing that it has the definite article, it is defining a specific stone rather than just any stone. In a literal translation of the text it would read: “I will give you tablets of the stone”, designating a particular stone. Using the proper syntax, it can only be referring to the previously mentioned stone. The only stone mentioned in this chapter is the sapphire stone on which God’s throne sits. This text is referring to this stone. What this means is that the Ten Commandments—these tablets of stone—were actually cut from the blue stone (the sapphire) that was seen under the feet of God! God Himself cut the Ten Commandments out of the very foundation under His own throne!

The idea that the Ten Commandments were cut from the blue stone is given further support by the very clothing worn by the people of God. He had instructed the people of Israel to add ten tassels on the fringe of their garments as a reminder of His commandments to them. Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined. (Num. 15:38–39)

The very clothing God’s people wore served as a constant reminder of that law which God Himself has inscribed on the tables of sapphire with His own finger.