Exodus 31

Exodus 31:13

Augustine of Hippo: What does it mean that, by commanding the Sabbath to be kept, the Scripture says, “It will be an everlasting covenant in me and in the children of Israel?” (Exodus 31,16.17) It does not say: between me and the children of Israel. Does he say it this way perhaps because the Sabbath means rest and we have no rest except in it? Because, evidently, he calls the children of Israel all his people, that is, the descendants of Abraham. And there is one Israel according to the flesh and another according to the spirit. For if only Israel were called descendants according to the flesh, the Apostle would not say: See Israel according to the flesh (1 Corinthians 10,18). Here, of course, it indicates that there is an Israel according to the spirit, who is a Jew in the interior and in the circumcision of the flesh (Rm 2,29). Therefore, perhaps it is necessary to make a separation, reading like this: It will be an eternal covenant in me. And then the other meaning would be: And for the children of Israel it will be an eternal sign, that is, a sign of an eternal thing, as, for example, the stone was Christ, because the stone signified Christ (Cf 1Co 10,4). Therefore, it is not necessary to unite the phrase thus: It will be eternal covenant in me and in the children of Israel, as if this covenant was in God and in the children of Israel. But it must be put like this: It will be eternal covenant in me - because in God eternal rest has been promised - and for the children of Israel it will be an eternal sign, because the children of Israel received this sign to keep it, a sign that means rest eternal for the true Israelites, that is, for the children of the promise (Cf Galatians 4,28) and for those who will see God face to face as it is. 140 (Exodus 31.18). Immediately after he ceased speaking with him, he gave Moses on Mount Sinai the two tables of the covenant, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God. Even though God has spoken so much, he gives Moses two tablets of stone, called tables of the covenant, which they would have to put in the ark. It is not strange that all the other things that God commanded are understood to depend on those ten commandments, written in the two tables, if they are investigated with diligence and understood correctly. Just as these ten commandments depend, in turn, on those two, the love of God and neighbor, on which all the law and the prophets depend (Matthew 22,40). 141 (Exodus 32.2). Aaron orders the people to remove the earrings from the ears of women and daughters to make divinities with them. It is not absurd to think that he wanted to send them a difficult thing to somehow separate them from that purpose. However, that very difficult fact, that there was gold there to make an idol, I think it refers to those who are grieved if the Lord commands them to do something similar to get eternal life or endure it with calm spirit. 142 (Exodus 32.8). When the Lord tells Moses what the people did with the calf, with the idol of gold that they had made, he tells him that the people exclaimed thus: These are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt (Exodus 32,9). It is not read anywhere that the Israelites said that, but God reveals that this was their intention. They carried in their hearts the content of those words, which could not be concealed from God. — QUESTIONS ON EXODUS, Q. 139 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Exodus 31:15

Ambrose of Milan: They were also commanded to keep the holiday of the Sabbath one day in the week, so as to be subjected to no burthen, and I would that being thus released from earthly works they had escaped, carrying with them to that perpetual sabbath of future ages the burthen of heavy crimes. But as God knew how prone to fall the people were, He enjoined a part upon the weaker by the observance of one day, He reserved the fulness for the stronger: the Synagogue observes the day, the Church immortality. In the Law therefore is a part, in the Gospel is perfection. — Letter 74.5

Bede: Indeed by the fleshly sabbath, which was kept according to the letter, the people were ordered to keep free from all servile work on the seventh day. [The meaning of] the spiritual sabbath, in the light of the sevenfold spiritual grace which we have received, is that we should remain on holiday from the unrest of vices not only on one day but every day. For if, according to the Lord’s voice, “Everyone who commits sin is a servant of sin,” it is clear that sins are properly understood as servile works, and we are ordered to walk free of them, as it were on the seventh day, in the partaking of spiritual grace. [We are ordered] not only to keep from wrong deeds but also to devote ourselves to good deeds. — Homilies on the Gospels 1.23

Exodus 31:18

Augustine of Hippo: This law was “written with the finger of God,” and this finger of God the New Testament explicitly identifies with the Holy Spirit. For when one Evangelist has “By the finger of God, I cast out devils,” another says this same thing thus: “By the spirit of God, I cast out devils.” Who would not have this joy in the divine mysteries, when the redemptive doctrine shines with so clear a light, rather than all the powers of this world though they be infused with unwonted peace and happiness? — LETTER 55

Augustine of Hippo: Now, to make our statement all the clearer, let us look at the Decalogue itself. It is certain, then, that Moses on the mount received the law, that he might deliver it to the people, written on tables of stone by the finger of God. It is summed up in these ten commandments, in which there is no precept about circumcision, nor anything concerning those animal sacrifices which have ceased to be offered by Christians. Well, now, I should like to be told what there is in these ten commandments, except the observance of the Sabbath, which ought not to be kept by a Christian,—whether it prohibit the making and worshipping of idols and of any other gods than the one true God, or the taking of God’s name in vain; or prescribe honour to parents; or give warning against fornication, murder, theft, false witness, adultery, or coveting other men’s property? Which of these commandments would any one say that the Christian ought not to keep? Is it possible to contend that it is not the law which was written on those two tables that the apostle describes as “the letter that killeth,” but the law of circumcision and the other sacred rites which are now abolished? But then how can we think so, when in the law occurs this precept, “Thou shall not covet,” by which very commandment, notwithstanding its being holy, just, and good, “sin,” says the apostle, “deceived me, and by it slew me?” What else can this be than “the letter” that “killeth”? — ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 14.23