The Bible is the word of God. The Lord inspired every word of it (2 Tim. 3:16), and He has kept His words pure throughout the generations just as He promised (Ps. 12:6-7). He used men to write His words, but in the Bible, there are three occasions when God Himself wrote something with His own hand. Each occasion is associated with a different member of the Godhead, and each occasion was for a different purpose.
I. The Father Wrote Commandments (Ex. 31:18; 32:15-16)
After God delivered Israel out of Egypt, He gave them His righteous law and made a covenant with them. If they kept His commandments, they would be blessed, but if they didn’t, they would be cursed. The law contained 613 commandments under three main categories: ceremonial, civil, and moral. God wrote the ten commandments Himself on two tables of stone (Deut. 4:13). Christ divided the ten commandments into two main groups (Matt. 22:35-40). Nine of the ten commandments are moral principles that still apply today (the sabbath was a sign between God and Israel, Col. 2:16). The human conscience bears witness with the moral law (Rom. 2:14-15). Self-righteous religious people think they are going to be saved because they keep the commandments. Yet, most of them can’t even quote the ten commandments! The law was written on cold tables of stone. It commands righteousness, but does not provide it. Therefore, it had a ministry of condemnation and death (2 Cor. 3). It was given to reveal the righteousness of God and the sinfulness of man (Rom. 3:19-20). In this present age of grace, we are not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Christ (Rom. 3:21-28).
II. The Spirit Wrote for Conviction (Dan. 5:1-6, 22-28)
The “part of the hand” that wrote on the wall was sent from God (v.24). The Spirit of God used the writing to bring conviction to the heart of the evil king. Belshazzar knew who the true and living God was, and yet he praised his idols while drinking wine out of the vessels from the temple in Jerusalem. He was weighed in the balance of God’s judgment and was found wanting. He was so convicted that he was shaking in his boots and his knees were knocking. The handwriting on the wall for all sinners is that we deserve death and hell. You will not trust Christ as your Savior until you are convicted by the Spirit of your lost condition.
III. The Son Wrote in Compassion (Jn. 8:1-11)
This passage is omitted from the corrupt Vaticanus and Siniaticus manuscripts. The new versions, which rely on those corrupt manuscripts, contain footnotes that cast doubt on the authenticity of the passage. The scribes and Pharisees contrived this situation (where was the man they caught her with, Lev. 20:10?) in an effort to find fault with Christ. If He said that she should be stoned, they would claim He lacked love and mercy. If He said to let her go, they would claim that He didn’t follow the law. Of course, the Lord handled it in perfect wisdom and the result was that the woman’s accusers walked away under conviction. What did He write? Perhaps it had something to do with Jer. 17:13. Christ had compassion on the guilty woman because He did not come into the world to condemn it, but to provide salvation (Jn. 3:17). We now know, through the revelation in Paul’s epistles, all that Christ accomplished by His cross. Praise God that “There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1)!
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