I used to be asked to do mini exhortations often during our Thursday midweek service. These are the notes from one such exhortation.
The definition of Exhort(ation) is:
– to urge, advise or caution earnestly; admonish urgently
– an address or communication emphatically urging someone to do something
So, this mini exhortation today is about tables of stone versus tables of flesh (or the human heart).
Exodus 24:12 – “The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.”
This was the beginning of the law in the OT. It was given for a rather large group of people; perhaps well over 1 million. I want to focus on the term, “tables of stone” and ask the question, what comes to your mind when you hear “tables of stone”?
I think : hard, rocky, cold, impersonal, outside the body (indicative of looking at the tables or looking away from them at one’s own leisure).
II Corinthians 3:3 – “..written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
God makes the comparison between tables of stone and tables of the heart. And that’s what I want to talk a little bit about tonight. What comes to mind when you hear “tablets of human hearts”? I think : soft, warm, pliable, personal, inside the body (indicative of not easily turned away from).
Hebrews 8:7 tells us that had the first covenant been faultless there would have been no need for a second. If you continue reading down through, he draws the parallel between the OT law and the NT new covenant; this “tablets of the heart”.
Ezekiel prophesied in 11:19-20 that God would give Israel a new heart and a new spirit within them, He would take out the stony heart and give them a heart of flesh. That they would be to Him a people and He would be to them their God. The writer of Hebrews mentioned this prophecy in 8:10.
Psalm 40:8 reads “I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy law is within my heart.”
Why was David so eager to do the will of God? He had some insight that not many other Israelites had at this time and that was to put the law into his heart, not just read it on the tables of stone occasionally.
Psalm 119:11 “I have hid your Word in my heart that I might not sin against thee.”
I’ve read and even quoted this scripture a ton of times before but just reading it the other day really stuck out to me. David started the sentence with “I have”, this is something he purposed and worked to do, he took the initiative and he did it for a purpose, so that he would not sin against God. Did that mean David never did sin? Of course, we all know that yes he did, but as soon as his sin was revealed to him, because God’s laws were hidden in his heart he had the right response, he did the right thing to make things right with God again.
Bringing it back to the NT, Romans 8:1-5 states,
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.”
“For what the law could not do” – Why couldn’t the law do it? It was hard, cold, rocky, impersonal, something without the body (to be looked at or ignored at will).
How are we going to “walk after the Spirit”? – by allowing God to write on our “fleshly tables of the heart”; by purposing to hide His Word in our hearts; by delighting to do His will, by taking the initiative to act according to His will.
If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed, remember to take it one step at a time and you can start with baby steps. Ask God to give you a desire to want to put His Word in your heart. It can start with a very simple request, keep at it though!