The Law In The Hand Of Christ
The Law In The Hand Of Christ
A Sermon, Preached May 24, 1761, at Broad-Mead, in Bristol
And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me—Deuteronomy 10:5
MOSES being called up to mount Sinai, the Lord delivered to him two tables of stone, with the writing of the law upon them; when he descended from thence, perceiving that the children of Israel had sinned, by making and worshipping the golden calf, in great indignation at it, he cast them out or his hands, and broke them at the bottom of the mount: for this sin wrath came upon the people, and many of them fell by the sword of the sons of Levi; upon which Moses had compassion on them, and entreated the Lord for them; who promised to make his goodness before him, and proclaim his name gracious and merciful, and ordered him to hew two tables of stone like the first, and come up into the mount, and bring them with him, and he would write upon them the same words which were on the first; and also directed him to make an ark of shittim wood to put them in; all which he did: for having hewed two tables of stone, he carried them up to God in the mount, who wrote on them the ten commandments, according to the first writing, and gave them to Moses; who having received them, turned himself, as our text says, from the place where the divine Majesty was; and came down from the mount, from mount Sinai, with the two tables in his hands, and the, writing of God on them, one table in one hand, and the other in the other hand; and put the tables in the ark which he had made, or ordered to be made by Bezaleel; for it was the same with that he made, and not a temporary one made for the present purpose till that was finished: and there they be as the Lord commanded we; there the two tables were when Moses rehearsed what is contained in this book on the plains of Moab, which was about eight and thirty years after the delivery and renewal of the tables on mount Sinai; and here they were in Solomon's time, when the ark was brought into the temple built by him; and when, as it is said, there was nothing in it, save the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb; (66) and here they continued as long as the ark was in being. In discoursing on these words, and in order to improve them to some spiritual purposes, I shall consider,
I. The ark Moses made, into which the tables were put, as a type of Christ.
II. What was put into the ark, the two tables of stone on which the law was written.
III. What the putting of the tables into the ark signified; and,
IV. The continuance of them there; there they be as the Lord commanded me.