The Four Times God Wrote

In a world of crafters and inventors of many beautiful and useful things, I sometimes wonder just how important writing is. God has affirmed it to me in many different ways and for many reasons. However, this thought He impressed on me some time ago spurs me on more than anything else. I write because God wrote.

His face shone with the reflection of being in the very Presence of God for 40 days. The many words God had shared with him, unlikely leader of His people, almost seemed as if they’d come from a dream. Now, as he trudged down the mountain with Joshua at his side, he carefully cradled the stone tablets in his arms. Perhaps, when they stopped for a rest, he traced the words on them with a trembling finger. His human hands could not have recorded that many words within that hard of a surface. It was not a dream after all. The writing, graven on the tablets in his arms, was etched by the very finger of God. God wrote the Law with His very own Hand. They continued down the mountain and reached the camp they had vacated less than two months before. When Moses saw the scene before him, a flagrant disregard for all those beautiful words he held in his arms, his anger exploded and the words so carefully crafted shattered into pieces at his feet. Man broke the Law God wrote.

The atmosphere was charged with the same dark energy of that long-ago worship of a calf at the bottom of the mountain. Using the sacred drinking vessels from the Holy Temple, King Belshazzar and his court held a feast of worship to their gods. The gods were made from the same elements they gulped their strong drinks from and from the same powder Moses had strewn in the water and required the Israelite people to gulp down after their sin. The celebration and chaotic din came to a sudden halt when the king, pale and shaking violently, pointed to the wall of the banquet hall. There on the wall, the finger of God wrote once again. This time, God wrote Judgment with His very own Hand. When Daniel was later summoned, he translated the words of warning. That night, the palace was invaded and the king was executed. Man deserves to die for the Law he breaks.

The scene was the Jewish temple, early in the morning, where Jesus sat and taught the people the Law His Father had written millennia before. A commotion at the door interrupted His Voice as the group of scribes and Pharisees dragged a woman into the synagogue and tossed her unceremoniously at His feet. It wasn’t the first time a woman was objectified and used nor was it the last. It wasn’t the first time the Law written by God would be objectified and used nor was it the last. The pious group demanded Jesus’ answer, trying to use Him, too. In that moment, Jesus stooped down, right next to the humiliated woman. Then, the Word, Who had etched the Law and Judgment with His Almighty Finger, wrote in the dust of the ground. On this day, kneeling next to a woman condemned to death and possibly her unrepentant cohort in Law-breaking, Jesus wrote Mercy with His very own Hand. After her accusers left, heads hanging in shame, He bid the woman to go and gave her freedom to let go of her sin as well. Mercy fulfilled the Law’s requirement and took the place of the Judgment required by the breaking of the Law.

When Jesus left our planet, He promised not to leave us alone. He had completed His work — He had taken the Law and Judgment upon Himself and the punishment for our breaking of the Law. He had shattered the bonds of death itself and soon would break through the boundaries of gravity to return to His Father. But, before He left, He promised a Comforter Who would continue to guide us into truth. The Law and Judgment had been satisfied by the Mercy extended through His death in place of ours. But His sacrifice was too precious to let us forget. The Comforter He sent us was His own Holy Spirit Who still writes today. Now, the writing isn’t on tablets of stone, a palace wall or a dusty synagogue floor. No, the Holy Spirit is still writing, but now He writes directly in our hearts (Romans 2:15) when we allow Him to have the pen.

If I can presume to translate the message He’s writing on my own heart, here it is: The Law was precious and written by God. You broke the Law like those shattered tablets Moses threw. God wrote Judgment to satisfy His broken law, and you were condemned to die for your sin. But Jesus stooped beside you in the mess of sin you made and wrote Mercy because He paid for that sin in His own horrible execution on your behalf. Now, the Law is precious because Judgment is gone and Mercy is ever present.

The Holy Spirit writes the Law on my heart, and I rejoice in it because Mercy has etched it so deeply that breaking that Law would break my very own heart.