have access to him to hear his instructions p. This denoted their incapacity to comprehend the law, till Christ should come to remove the veil from their hearts % And precisely in the same manner the putting of the law into the ark denoted the incapacity of man to receive it as it is in itself, and the neces- sity of viewing it only as fulfilled in Christ. " Through the law" itself which denounces such curses r, and " through the body of Christ" which sustained those curses % we must be " dead to the law," and have no hope whatever towards God but in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ', who, in consequence of obeying its precepts and enduring its penalties, is to be called by every child of man, " The Lord our Righteousness."]
3. The preparing the tables on which the law was written —
[The first tables were prepared by God himself: but, when they were broken, and to be renewed, Moses was ordered to prepare the tables, and carry them up to the mount, that they might there have the law inscribed upon them by God himself. Commentators have suggested that this was intended to inti- mate, that though God alone could write the law on the heart, means were to be used for that end by people for themselves, and by ministers in their behalf. But I rather gather from it a deeper and more important lesson, namely, that notwith- standing the law was fulfilled for us by Christ, we must seek to have it inscribed on our stony hearts ; and that, if we go up with them to the mount of God from time to time for that end, God will write his law there. I the rather believe this to be the true meaning, because our deadness to the law as a covenant of works is continually associated with a delight in it as a rule of life u ; and because the writing of the law upon our hearts is the great distinguishing promise of the New Covenant x. In this view the direction respecting the tables is very instructive, seeing that it unites what can never be separated, a " hope in Christ" as the only Saviour of the world, and a " purifying of the heart as he is purey."]
Improvement —
1. Let us be thankful that the law is given to us in this mitigated form —
[The law is the same as ever : not a jot or tittle of it was altered, or ever can be : it is as immutable as God himself2.
p Exod. xxxiv. 29 — 35. <i 2 Cor. hi. 13—16. r Gal. ii. 19. 8 Rom. vii. 4. * Gal. ii. 15, 16. Phil. iii. 9.
u See Gal. ii. 19. and Rom. vii. 4. before cited. x Jer. xxxi. 31 — 33. with Heb. viii. 8 — 10. y I John iii. 3. z Matt. v. 17, 18.