EXODUS WEEK 12 - HIS LAW ON OUR HEARTS

A New York family bought a ranch out West where they intended to raise cattle. Friends visited and asked if the ranch had a name. "Well," said the would-be cattleman, "I wanted to name it the Bar-J. My wife favored Suzy-Q, one son like the Flying-W, and the other wanted the Lazy-Y. So we're calling it the Bar-J-Suzy-Q-Flying-W-Lazy-Y." "But where are all your cattle?" the friends asked. "None of them survived the branding."

There’s a big difference between something written lightly and something branded or carved deeply into something. There's a difference between the student who writes on their desk in ink, and the one who carves their name into the desk. Chalk can be erased. Ink can fade. But when something is engraved, it stays. 

That’s the picture we learn from Scripture. Under the old covenant, God's law was written on tablets of stone. The Law was given to show us what our sinful nature looks like and behaves like - but here's the deal, there was no power in the Law to make things new or to change anyone's heart. And so God decided to lead His people into a place where He would carve the Divine Law into His people deeply, permanently, by His own hand.