Exodus 31: 18….What does this mean?

And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

Comment: Why such a short reading? Because it so important. Does God have a finger? Jesus was God and He had ten fingers! In an earlier chapter of Exodus (8 v 9) some of the Egyptians used the expression to mean this was the ‘work’ of God. ‘Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.‘ Is that what it means? Is it metaphorical? In Daniel ch 5 v 5 we read ‘Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote.’ This is obviously a lie or accurate! History tells us that the events described in Daniel were a record of what happened and of what was to happen! I am confident for my basis of living that what we have as the ‘Ten Commandments’ are directly from God. Did Jesus write them with one of His fingers when He descended on the mountain in a Christophany? Did an angel write them at the command of God. Interesting to ponder but in some senses irrelevant. BUT they are directly from God, part of His unchanging Word – part of His written Word, as Jesus is His Living Word! Should they remain written on stone or be written on our hearts (our core)?

Prayer: I humbly pray please help me to know Your Word, both Your Written and Living Word, oh my Father.

Exodus 20 1 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”