The Tablets of Testimony are the two stone tablets that YaHVaH inscribed for Mosheh. Traditionally, we are told only the Ten Commandments, 5 on each side, are all that is written on these two stone tablets. Remember what they traditionally say are the Ten Commandments is Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21.
We know from Scripture the Commandments in Exodus 20:2-17 were spoken to Mosheh and the entire people at Mount Sinai by YaHVaH before Mosheh ascended to get the two tablets. They were; however, written in the Book of the Covenant (see previous chapter Book of the Covenant). According to Deuteronomy 9:10, they are also on the Tablets of Testimony.
Before discussing Deuteronomy, look at Exodus 24:15 through 31:18. “And ascended Mosheh the mountain . . . and was Mosheh on the mountain forty days and forty nights” Exodus 24:15,18. While upon the mountain, YaHVaH begins communing with Mosheh from Exodus 25:1 and ends in Exodus 31:12-17 with the command to observe the Shabbath. Verse 18 reads, “When He finished speaking to him on Mount Sinai, He gave to Mosheh the two Tablets of Testimony, tablets of stone, inscribed with the finger of Elohiym.” The Tablets of Testimony (Luchoth Ha’eduth) were inscribed with all of YaHVaH’s words from Exodus 25:1 to 31:17. Most of these words describe the Tabernacle YaHVaH wants built and what the priests are to wear and how to offer sacrifices. However, they also include taking a census of the people and working six days then resting and observing the Shabbath.
What happens next is amazing. In less than a month and a half, Yisrael violates the commandments spoken to them they agreed to do and obey (Exodus 24:7). They make themselves a golden calf and bowed down to it. YaHVaH was angry and told Mosheh to descend from Him, and He would annihilate these people while making Mosheh a great nation in their place. Mosheh prays that YaHVaH not kill the people and YaHVaH relents; however, Mosheh descended with the two Tablets of Testimony in his hand, “Tablets inscribed on both their sides, and each side they were inscribed. The Tablets were Elohiym’s work, and the script was the script of Elohiym engraved upon the Tablets.” Exodus 32:15,16. If they only had the Ten Commandments on them, they why so much engraving? Because they had much more on them. Mosheh sees the people’s evil, breaks the Tablets, and makes them drink the ground up powder of the golden calf in the water. Wow!
If that was not enough, Mosheh weeds out those who are not for YaHVaH by calling out swords against their fellow men. The Levites rose to the occasion and 3,000 men died. This would be the reason the Levites were given to serve in the Temple instead of the first-born males. The Levites had shown they were committed to YaHVaH and His Word.
YaHVaH instructs Mosheh to carve two stone tablets like the first ones, and “I shall inscribe upon the tablets the words that were upon the first tablets that you shattered” Exodus 34:1. Mosheh ascends Mount Sinai with the tablets and YaHVaH tells him the Ten Words, Exodus 34:6-26. Now YaHVaH told Mosheh He would inscribe what was previously on the other Tablets, but then He tells Mosheh, “Write these words to you, for according to these words [Exodus 34:6-26] have I sealed to you a covenant and to Yisrael” Exodus 34:27. Mosheh had stayed with YaHVaH another forty days and forty nights with fasting, the “He wrote upon the Tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Words” Exodus 34:28.
Back to Deuteronomy 5. Yes, these Commandments are also upon the Tablets of Testimony. This is proven by reading verse 22, “These words [Deuteronomy 5:6-21] spoke YaHVaH to all the congregation on the mountain, from the fire, the cloud, and the dense cloud, and a great voice, never to be repeated, and He inscribed them upon two tablets of stone and gave them to me.”
Therefore, according to Exodus 31:18, Exodus 34:1, Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 5:22, and Deuteronomy 9:10a, the following Scriptures were all inscribed on the two Tablets of Testimony; some by the finger of Elohiym and some by Mosheh himself:
Exodus 20:2-17, Exodus 25:1 to 31:17, Exodus 34:6 to 34:26, and Deuteronomy 5:6-21.
Enjoy reading all of these Scriptures and see what YaHVaH deemed important to place on the two stone Tablets of Testimony that were then placed inside the Ark of the Covenant.
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