Exodus 34

Exo. 34:1, Moses was commanded to hew two tables of stone like the first that were broken, signifying that after man had broken the Law which God wrote at first on the tables of his heart in innocency, which was God's own workmanship, that in order to the Law's being written on the table of the heart again after the Fall, the heart needs to be first prepared by being hewed by Moses - i.e., hewed by the Law of Moses, or by legal convictions, but that the Law can go no further than this. It can prepare the heart, but it is Christ's work, and His only, to write the Law in the heart: Romans 8:3; Romans 8:4 - "What the law could not do," etc. Moses was commanded to prepare these second tables to bring them with him that He might write the Law on them, when He should cause all His goodness to pass before him, and proclaim His sovereign mercy in forgiving iniquities, etc., which should preserve these tables from being broken as the first were, would prevent a final breach of Covenant between God and the people (compare Exodus 33:19; Exodus 34:1-7; Exodus 34:10; Jeremiah 31:31-33; Jeremiah 31:32; Jeremiah 31:40). There is this in the nature of the case that confirms that the breaking of the first table was a type of the breaking of the first Covenant, and the utter impossibility of men's obtaining life by the Law. Moses himself in all probability cast away the tables and broke them beneath the Mount when he came to see the golden calf, under a strong apprehension that was impressed on his mind by what he then saw, that it was not worth the while to carry this holy Law to such a people under any notion of the keeping it, and so obtaining God's favor by that means. The ten commandments at first were given with thunder and lightning and earthquake; but now the second time with a gracious proclamation of mercy, long-suffering, abundant goodness and truth, and forgiveness of iniquity, transgression and sin, yet mercy perfectly consistent with infinite holiness and strict justice, "which will by no means clear the guilty." When the children of Israel had broken the Covenant, Moses cast it away and broke the tables in pieces, which represents God's utterly casting away that Covenant made at first with mankind as now entirely useless, the obtaining life in that way being now utterly and everlastingly to be despaired of, (see Exodus 32:19; Exodus 34:1).