Broken Tablets - Broken body

After preparing to preach on Moses two weeks ago (‘Moses – Shining faces’ Exodus 32 and 33) the image of Moses coming down the mountain and breaking the stone tablets in his fierce anger has stayed with me. The tablets were the work of God – how did he dare to do it? What would be the consequences of such a terrible deed?

 

In this week’s reading in Daniel 9 we have moved forward some centuries to the time of the prophets and leaders of exile, Ezekiel and Daniel. Daniel’s job was to begin a line of trusted Jewish royal servants and administrators, who would in due time organise the return home.

 

Ezekiel’s job was to explain to God’s people their intense suffering, and give them a new heart (Ez 36:26). His problem was that they were a broken people – they felt crushed by a burden of guilt. Had not God promised Moses in Ex 34:7 that he would visit the iniquity of the parents on the children, to the third and fourth  generation? The exile lasted 70 years – three generations.

 

Daniel’s prayer in Chapter 9 echoes closely this context

Daniel does not seek to excuse the people. The heart of his prayer is in verse 19

 

Daniel urges God to act because of his mercy and because his people and city bear his name. It is the same argument that Ezekiel uses in Ez 36: 22

 

We too are a people that bear God’s name. In the second covenant of Sinai (new stone tablets), God promised that through his people he would perform marvels, so that all the people around would see the work of the Lord (Ex 34:10)  But this covenant was soon broken as the first had been. The people could never, and would never keep their side of this agreement.

 

The writer of Hebrews compares Jesus and Moses; in Hebrews 8:6 - Jesus ‘is the mediator of a  better covenant which has been enacted through better promises’.

 

The artist Sieger Koder has painted a picture of the last supper.  In it the disciples are seen from Jesus perspective gathered round the table. On the table is the bread, broken into pieces, with a cross shaped shadow falling on the pieces. The message is clear: through these fragments broken bread broken body, new life will come. The disciples seem bemused and confused: they have not understood.

 

Daniel’s prayer is heard because Daniel is greatly loved (v 23) and he is given a vision of the future. But his hope, the full restoration of God’s city and God’s covenant, was never realised. The exiled people still had to pay the price, until the seventy years was over.

But we have a different covenant: for us the price is already paid, there is no condemnation. And we are free to take our place in his kingdom.