Deuteronomy 10:3, commentary and pictures

Moses obeyed the command to build a chest of acacia wood, cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and climb the mountain carrying the tablets in his hand. There God Himself wrote on the second tablets the same ten commandments He had spoken amid fire, inscribing them a second time with His own finger precept by precept and giving them to Moses. Moses then came down and placed the tablets in the ark he had made, where they were hidden and preserved as a lasting witness still in the ark when Israel heard the covenant before entering Canaan. That ark was made to hold God's law as the depository of the Decalogue, representing God Himself and bearing the token of His presence day and night as the glory and strength of Israel. That same law remains in the ark in the heavenly sanctuary in its hiding place, to be brought forth when judgment begins to testify to its binding claims, justifying the obedient and condemning the disobedient according to their works.

The Second Tables Preserved

Moses in obedience to the command made an ark of shittim wood, also called acacia wood, to receive the law. He hewed two tables of stone like unto the first tables and went up into the mount having the two tables in his hand. This making of the chest and preparing of the stones and ascending with them is what the verse records.

God came down from the highest heaven to Sinai and wrote upon the second tables the same words that were in the first tables which were broken. Those words were the ten commandments which He had spoken out of the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly, and He gave them to Moses. They were written the second time with His own finger, precept by precept, commandment by commandment.

Moses came down from the mount and put the tables in the ark which he had made, as commanded. There in the ark of the testament they were to be hidden and preserved and immortalized as a lasting witness. Their sacred precepts were still preserved in the ark when Israel publicly heard the covenant terms before entering Canaan.

The ark constructed in the wilderness remained in the tabernacle and was borne from Horeb to Jerusalem during Israel's forty-year pilgrimage. When Jerusalem was about to fall, righteous men still in the city determined to place that sacred ark holding the tables of stone traced with the precepts of the Decalogue beyond the reach of ruthless hands. With mourning and sadness they secreted it in a cave, hidden from Israel and Judah because of their sins to be no more restored to them. That sacred ark is yet hidden, never disturbed since it was secreted.

The Ark and God's Presence

The ark made of shittim wood was a sacred chest fashioned to be the depository of the ten commandments, holding the tablets of God's law traced with the precepts of the Decalogue in the ark of the testament. Moses made that ark, hewed two tables of stone like the first, and went up into the mount having the two tables in his hand, and those tablets were then placed in the ark. The law kept in the ark is the representative of God Himself and a symbol of His presence. As such the ark was the glory and strength of Israel, with the token of the Divine Presence resting upon it day and night.

The ark itself had no power to protect or save Israel apart from God. When Israel disobeyed the commandments contained in it, that disobedience separated them from God, so the ark could not give them victory. Even though they looked to it as a sacred object, without obedience and the presence of God it availed them nothing.

The commandments written by God and placed in the ark remain there as a lasting witness. They are the standard of righteousness, given as counsel precept by precept and commandment by commandment to be immortalized, understood, and obeyed. Obedience to that rejected law would have been life itself, preserving happiness and peace and producing sanctified love, beautiful characters, holiness, and purity in the world.

Judgment and Call to Obey

The stone tablets of God's law given to Moses and placed in the ark are in the heavenly sanctuary, in the ark in the heavenly temple, where they are now in their hiding place. They will be brought out from that hiding place and be present when judgment begins. Engraved by God's finger, their commandments will then testify to the truth and binding claims of God's law, with people judged by that law and their recorded deeds determining their sentence. That showing will make plain how indelibly God records His truth when sentence is pronounced against every evil, seducing science produced by the father of lies.

Kept in the ark where Moses put them as commanded, hidden and preserved after God wrote on them the same words that were in the first tables which were broken, the ten commandments spoken out of the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly, the law justifies the obedient and condemns the disobedient. It is the standard of righteousness and will stand before both the obedient and the disobedient at the last judgment. There people are judged by that law according to their works, with their recorded deeds determining their sentence, the wicked convicted, and those who choose to disobey surely receiving sentence according to their works. Every departure from the counsel God came down from the highest heaven to Sinai to give precept by precept and commandment by commandment, written upon tables of stone and put in the ark of the testimony to be immortalized, is written in the book. It will be brought forth in that great day when sentence is pronounced against every evil, seducing science produced by the father of lies, showing how indelibly God records His truth.

The commandments thus preserved, written the second time with His own finger, are to be understood and obeyed, and the promises of God connected with them are to be repeated again and again. They are to be set before men with the blessings of obedience and the warnings against disobedience, with more to be said on the subject of transgression and disobedience. The law they rejected was their life, for obedience would have preserved happiness and peace and produced sanctified love and beautiful characters, and the world would have been filled with holiness and purity.

Families who claim to believe the truth that the Lord is at the door and that the judgments of God are in the world must examine what they are doing and obey that immortalized counsel. They must not let temporal business overwhelm obedience, because the Lord is coming.