Exodus 31:18

Two tables of testimony— So named for the reason given, ch. Exodus 25:21. These tables were of stone; and it was usual, in the most ancient times, to engrave laws on tables of marble, wood, brass, &c. The ten commandments upon these tables are said to have been written with the finger of God: so the heavens are said to be the work of God's fingers, Psalms 8:3 while in the parallel place, Psalms 33:6 it is said, that the heavens were made by the word of the Lord; by which one would conceive, that the immediate agency of God was implied without any subordinate ministration. See ch. Exodus 32:16. Others, however, conceive, that the ministration of angels was used; but there are matters of too abstruse a nature for us to understand perfectly at present. Bishop Patrick very judiciously observes, that "many Pagan nations boasted of deriving their laws immediately from God. Thus the Brachmans report in their histories, that the book of their law (which they call Caster) was delivered by God to Bremavius upon a mount in a cloud; and that God gave also another book of laws to Brammon in the first age of the world. The Persians say the same of those of Zoroaster; and the Getes of Xamolxis. Nay, the Brachmans have a Decalogue like this of Moses, and accurate interpretations of it, in which, they say, there is this prophecy, that one day there shall be one law alone throughout the world. This evidently shews how well the world was anciently acquainted with these books of Moses, and what a high esteem they had for them."

REFLECTIONS.—Moses is now dismissed, and the tables of the covenant given him to lay up in the ark for a perpetual remembrance. The stones on which the commandments were written, fitly represent the hardness of men's hearts; and the finger of God, that Almighty Grace which can, even on such hearts as ours, inscribe his holy law.