FEBRUARY 21, 2026 – WRITTEN DOWN

READ:  Ex. 34:18–28: … And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.’ So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

The LORD desires the undivided attention of His people, in the awareness that they owe everything to Him. Therefore they must annually celebrate the feast of deliverance from Egypt, as the LORD has prescribed (v.18).

They must also continually keep in mind that everyone and everything belongs to the LORD (vv.19–20), since He has redeemed them all and made them His possession.

This awareness must express itself in the communal observance of the Sabbath, even in the busiest times (v.21), and additionally in the celebration of the three annual major feasts (cf. Ex. 23:14–19).

Subsequently, the LORD gives a number of specific regulations that He had already commanded earlier (vv.25–26). Moses is instructed to write down all these matters spoken by the LORD, which forms the basis of His covenant with Moses and Israel.

In addition, the LORD makes two new tablets, on which He Himself again writes the Ten Words of the covenant. This distinction separates the regulations written by Moses from the Ten Words written by the LORD Himself and assigns them a different value.

Thus the second period of forty days and forty nights that Moses spent with the LORD on the mountain comes to an end, equal in length to the first period.

Again, it was not necessary for Moses to eat or drink, since the LORD directly supplied him with the strength he needed during that entire time.

What place does our baptism (cf. v.18) have throughout our life?
Sing: Ps. 77:4,5