In our recent consideration of the Glory of the Bridegroom, we saw how Jesus manifested His glory in His first miracle at the wedding in Cana–how He came to fulfill the old marriage covenant (the Torah) and to establish a new marriage covenant in His own blood.

This past Sunday, we considered the old covenant marriage that took place at Mount Horeb (Sinai), as Yahweh pledged Himself to be Israel’s husband and Israel reciprocated, vowing to keep the terms of the bridal covenant. Standing witness to the covenant made that day were two special witnesses: heaven and earth.

In order for a marriage to be valid, there must be witnesses. In the typical church wedding there are usually dozens of witnesses, but generally two are required to sign the marriage contract (covenant), testifying that they were present to hear the vows made by the wedding pair. Only credible witnesses who were actually present can be called upon later to testify if some question is raised.

Heaven and earth are particularly credible witnesses because they have been present from the very beginning, for in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. We know from the sequence of the days of creation, that the two witnesses were preceded only by the Bridegroom, Himself. On the first day Light (the Bridegroom, cf. John 1) was called out of the darkness. On the second day, heaven (the sky) was created and on the third day the earth (land) was created.

The two witnesses have watched the love story unfold from its first chapter in the Garden. They stood witness to the betrothal agreement made on oath to the Bride’s father, when the LORD said to Abraham, I will make your offspring greater in number than the dust of the earth (Genesis 13:16) and more numerous than the stars of the heavens (Genesis 15:5). And heaven and earth were also there as active witnesses during the days of the wedding itself at Horeb (Exodus 19-24). The wedding canopy of cloud appeared in the heavens and the voice of Yahweh came to the people out of heaven. The earth shook beneath the feet of the Bride and fire appeared on the top of the mountain.

In Deuteronomy (the marriage covenant renewal document), Moses explicitly calls heaven and earth as witnesses against any future idolatry (Deuteronomy 4:26). Heaven and earth could only serve as witnesses in this regard if they had been present to hear the original vows. (Israel’s idolatry is called adultery by the prophets, who later bring a covenant lawsuit against the Bride.)

In this same context (Deuteronomy 4:32), Moses dares the people to “ask about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened . . .?” (emphasis added) Moses then goes on to explain the “this” by recapping the love affair of the Bridegroom for His Bride, manifested in the wonders He did for her in rescuing her from Egypt and speaking to her from the fire on the mountain. He then reminds the next generation of the Bride that the two witnesses were, indeed, present at Mount Sinai. “From heaven he made you hear his voice to instruct you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire.” (Deuteronomy 4:36, emphasis added.)

On the first day of the wedding (which lasted a week), when the LORD spoke to them out of the fire, the people trembled in fear and could not bear to hear his words directly. They asked Moses to be a mediator to the covenant, saying to him, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” (Exodus 20:19)

The Bridegroom (Yahweh) agreed to this plan, speaking the terms and the promises of His covenant (plighting His troth) to Moses, who in turn came down and told the people what He said. And the Bride (Israel) pledged her troth in return, saying, “I will.” (Exodus 24:3, “Everything the LORD has said, we will do.”)

Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said, and the following day he presided over a ceremony to confirm the covenant. An altar was made at the foot of the mountain. Twelve stones representing the twelve tribes were set up. Sacrifices were offered on the altar. In accordance with the ancient practice of establishing important covenants in blood, Moses took half of the blood of the sacrifices offered to God and sprinkled it on the altar. All the words of the Book of the Covenant Moses had written were read back to the people, and the people confirmed the vows they had made the day before. Then Moses then took the other half of the blood and sprinkled it on the people saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.” (Exodus 24:8)

Then, in what has to be one of the most astonishing texts in all of Scripture, Moses and Aaron and Aaron’s sons and the 70 elders of Israel “went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.” (Exodus 24:9-11)

Much could be written about this mysterious event, but may it suffice here to say that this is no less than a description of the wedding feast that naturally would have followed a marriage ceremony. The wedding canopy of cloud remains in place for six days and then on the seventh, Moses is called into the cloud to receive the stone tablets inscribed by the finger of Bridegroom.

Despite the fact that most modern reproductions of the Ten Commandments depict the first four commandments (“love toward God”) engraved on the first tablet and the last six (“love toward neighbor”) engraved on the second tablet, the original tablets were likely two identical copies engraved with all ten commandments (or words) front and back. But the ten commandments were not simply a code of ethics set in stone, they were the terms of the covenant, to which the tablets served as testimonies.

We alluded in a previous post to the similarity of the Torah to ancient mid-eastern treaties between kings (suzerains) and the vassal states they conquered. Those treaties now called Suzerainty Treaties were written in duplicate. One copy was kept by the king in his own palace; the other by the vassal, typically in his shrine or temple under the feet of his particular deity. (For more on this, see Meredith Kline’s article, The Two Tables of the Covenant, Westminster Theological Journal, 1960.)

Since the Bridegroom King of this covenant was Yahweh, the God of heaven, who at the same time was the Deity who chose to dwell with His Bride Israel in a tabernacle on the earth, the two tablets given to Moses were kept together in the same place in the tabernacle of the testimony within the ark of the covenant. The tabernacle/temple is the place where heaven and earth came together, where the God of heaven lived among His people on the earth. The stone tablets can be understood, then, as the testimonies of the two witnesses, one of the tablets belonging, as it were, to heaven, the other to earth.

In another post we will look at the new marriage covenant established in the blood of Christ and at the two witnesses which were present, and which continue to bear testimony to the promises made on that day.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.