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How were the Ten Commandments Given?
By Rev (Dr) Timothy Tow
(Preached at Sunset Gospel Hour, 7 July 2002)
Text: Deut 5:1-29; 9:10-21; 10:1-5
There are two accounts recorded by Moses on the
giving of the Ten Commandments. The first is in Ex 19:16-21:26;
31:18-32:28; 34:1-4. The second is recorded in Deut 5:1-29; 9:10-21;
10:1-5. Deuteronomy means second giving of the Law. Deuteronomy is
Moses’ instruction to the children of Israel at the end of his life
and of what greater importance is the giving of the X Commandments?
For brevity I have chosen to speak from Deuteronomy and not Exodus.
The delivery of the X Commandments was made on
the top of Mt. Sinai, over 7,000 ft above sea level. This is one of
the most attractive places to visit, yea to climb in our 10
Pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Younger members vied with one another
to climb the Mountain of Moses from 1.00 am to arrive on the top
before sunrise to see the glory of the morning sun, but the more to
reflect that this was the place of the giving of the X Commandments
to Moses. The actual distance climbed is 3,000 ft for our coach has
climbed 4,000 to reach the foot of the mountain. Moreover there are
camels to take you half way up at $10 per ride.
The whole process of giving of the Law took
forty days and forty nights, amidst thunder and lightning, fire and
smoke, the blowing of trumpet and the voice of Almighty God speaking
to men. Then God wrote the sentences of the X Commandments with his
own fingers over the two tablets, front and back. In the climax of
the forty days and nights, rebellion to God’s promulgation of the X
Commandments arose from the ground. The people had made a golden
calf to substitute for Jehovah saying this was their god, whereupon
Moses’ wrath was kindled. When he was confronted by this golden
calf, he became so angry that he threw the two tablets of law to the
ground, symbolically, God’s Commandments were broken. The golden
calf the children of Israel had made was ground into fine powder and
mixed with water for the punishment of Israel to drink. Can puny man
rebel against God’s Word with impunity?
To reestablish the giving of the Law, God
commanded Moses to hew another two tablets of stone and bring with
him back to the mountain top. "And he wrote on the tables, according
to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the LORD spake
unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the
assembly: and the LORD gave them unto me. 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" (Deut 10:4-5).
The Ark of the Covenant was the only holy
furniture kept inside the Holy of Holies. God’s sacred commandments,
intact and were written on both sides of the two tablets so nothing
could be added and nothing could be subtracted and kept secure from
any human intrusion. "For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in
heaven" (Ps 119:89).
The restoration of the two tables is to show
that "heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass
away." Not one letter or even the cross of a ‘t’, and the dot of an
‘i’. "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot
or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law." Jesus says, "The
scripture cannot be broken" (Jn 10:35).
To doubly confirm that heaven and earth shall
pass away but God’s words shall not pass away, we have the record in
Jeremiah 36 of how the prophet asked his secretary Baruch to write
words of condemnation against the House of Judah and caused it to be
read to Judah. When the roll Jeremiah dictated to Baruch was read
before Jehoiakim, king of Judah, he cut it up and burned it wholly
in the fire. Did God’s Word become ashes? God told Jeremiah to
repeat His Words to be written by Baruch again and add more words
for the punishment of King Jehoiakim. Can puny man rebel against
God’s Word with impunity?
This leads us to the doctrine of God’s special
providential care of the text of Scripture. This is affirmed by the
Westminster of Confession. It states the Scripture is "kept pure in
all ages." This is doubly attested by David in Psalm 12:6-7, "The
words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of
earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou
shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." The doctrine of
the special providential care of the text of Scripture, however, is
denied by even some fundamentalist scholars. Dr Carl McIntire has
this commentary to make: "What is interesting about all this is that
in talking about the mighty acts of God and trying to make out of
our God a great and powerful God, they have produced for us a God
who is unable to give us a record that is true! They believe in the
infallibility and inerrancy only in the autographs, but not in the
subsequent copies."
We believe the Textus Receptus (Received Text)
upon which the KJV is based is preserved intact for the Church so
that we can say we have the Word of God in our hand. But those
versions that are based on Westcott and Hort who supplant with their
corrupt text have made changes and deletions in 9,900 places in the
New International Version (NIV). What a rebellion against the Lord
God Almighty like the children making a golden calf in the face of
the X Commandments and as King Jehoiakim cutting up Jeremiah’s
scroll and burning it in the fire. The NIV is not as the Westminster
Confession says, "Kept pure in all ages." It is a corrupt text that
extends to the length of I and II Peter. God will surely preserve
for us a pure Bible as He preserved the X Commandments to us to this
day. Let me say it again, it is the Textus Receptus on which is
based the KJV. Jesus says, "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my
words shall not pass away" (Luke 21:33).
Amen.
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