The Jesse Tree: Day 10

Three months after the night of Passover, Israel arrived at the foot of Mount Sinai. They had seen the plagues, the parted waters, the pillar of fire, and now they stood before a mountain wrapped in smoke and thunder, and heard God’s booming voice shake the mountain. But this was not the voice of an enslaving tyrant, like Pharaoh. It was the voice of a Father teaching His children how to stay free. Slavery in Egypt had shaped every rhythm of their lives. But here, at Sinai, God was rewriting their identity. He was giving them a covenant, a sacred relationship built on His grace and their trust.

In Jewish tradition, the giving of the Law is called Matan Torah, the “gift of the Torah.” The rabbis taught that the Law was God’s wedding contract with His people, that Sinai was a marriage ceremony, and that the tablets were like the marriage covenant itself. The first words God spoke make this clear: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” Before a single command was given, God reminded them of grace. The commandments were a response to the redemption already given.

The two tablets were more than rules; they represented a relationship. In the ancient world, covenants were often written on duplicate tablets, one copy for each party. At Sinai, the duplicate tablets of the Ten Commandments were both placed in the ark of the covenant, symbolizing that God Himself would hold both sides of the promise.

But while the Law was good, it revealed a deeper problem: sinful hearts. The prophet Jeremiah lamented that the Law was written on stone but not on their hearts. And so the Lord spoke to Jeremiah of a new covenant, when God would write His law within His people (Jer. 31)

Centuries later, on another mountain, Jesus would say, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” In Him, the law reaches its goal. The same God who wrote His words on stone has written His grace on our hearts with his blood. The same voice that thundered on Sinai would cry out from the cross, “It is finished.”

At Advent, we remember that the Law was never the destination; it was the sign pointing to Jesus. The symbol of the two tablets reminds us that one day, when Christ returns, His law will be perfectly lived out in a restored world, where every heart will delight in His will.