And the Lord said unto [Moses], “They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet (Messiah) from among their brethren (Israel), like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.” (Deuteronomy 18:18-19).

The first two tablets given to Moses, who foreshadowed the Prophet to come later, were made by God, who engraved the Ten Commandments on them with his finger, as it is written,

“And Moses turned and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both sides; on the one side and the other were they written.” And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.”

Why were they written on both sides?

Might we discover the answer in 1st Corinthians 9:14? This verse states, “Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.”

When Moses displayed the commandments to the people, he also faced them. For those who preach the word of God must also live by it. Judgment starts at the house of God; we can’t preach God’s laws and be free from them.

Moreover, Moses broke the first tablets when he came down from the mount and found the people eating and drinking, dancing naked, worshiping the golden calf, and engaging in sensual immorality.

“And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.”

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou breakest.”

The first tablets were both made by God and inscribed by Him, while Moses made the second set. Thus, Moses becomes a participant in making the new tablets. However, Moses did not engrave the commandments into the stone tablets on either set. The Lord reserved that work for Himself because the commandments are given directly by the hand of God, not by man.

Moses, being a prefigure representing the Prophet who was to come later, hewed out a new set of tablets to replace the ones God made that were broken. Likewise, Christ brought a New Covenant to replace the first one that was broken. However, just as the same commandments written on the first tablets were the ones written on the latter, the law did not change; Jesus said he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.

Jeremiah prophesied, by the word of the Lord, that a new covenant would be given, not according to the covenant that God made with their fathers in the day that he took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, for they broke that covenant. (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

As Moses was commanded to make new tablets to replace the first, so Christ would provide a new covenant to transition from the first. This time, however, the law would not be graven into stone but upon the tables of the heart, as written, “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” (Psalm 40:7-8)

Jeremiah also wrote, saying, “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33)

As Moses broke the first tablets made by God and was commanded to make other tablets to replace them, Christ fulfilled the very picture of replacing the first tablets that had been broken. Christ, as the Son of Man and Son of God, participated with the Father through obedience in bringing the New Covenant to be written upon the heart.

Both covenants were engraved with the law by God, first in stone, and the latter through Christ upon the fleshly tables of the heart. In both cases, God chose a man as an intermediary to deliver his covenant, beginning with Moses as a prefigure of Christ and then sending Christ himself to fulfill that which was spoken of him.

However, unlike Moses, who at the waters of Meribah in disobedience smote the rock twice to bring forth water, Christ was to be smitten only once. And although Moses was called faithful in all his house, he fell short of perfection for this disobedience in smiting the rock twice and not giving glory to God alone. For this, Moses was not allowed to lead the people into the promised land—nor was he allowed to enter.

Christ, on the other hand, being the Word of God, walked in perfect obedience; neither did he fail in any point, giving him full rights to lead those who follow and obey him into the kingdom promised by God. 

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved​.” (1 Timothy 2:5– Acts 4:12)