Jesus wrote a second time on the ground. The first stone tablets written by the finger of God were broken (Ex 32:19) and the second set (Ex 34:1) were laid in the Ark of the Covenant (Deut 10:3-5), which would put them directly under the mercy seat with its sprinkled blood, a truly significant location. It’s as if God were saying that we couldn’t keep the law, so it must be covered by His mercy given as a result of shed blood.

Ex 32:19  When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.

Ex 34:1  The LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

Deut 10:3-5  So I made the ark out of acacia wood and chiselled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. The LORD wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments he had proclaimed to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me. Then I came back down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD commanded me, and they are there now.

It may or may not be that Jesus at this time wrote down the sins of the men. Our sins, however, are not written in sand (Jer 17:1). Matthew Henry points out that they are “never to be forgotten till they are forgiven.” Thank God for Jesus and His shed blood!

Jer 17:1  “Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.