PREVIOUSLY ON EXODUS: God led the Israelites out of Egypt, into the wilderness.
16) The Israelites come to the wilderness of Sin, and everyone grumbles about how hungry they are.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not."
The next morning, a fine, flake-like substance covers the ground. The people ask Moses what it is. He tells them that it is bread sent from heaven, and that they should gather as much as they can eat. The people do so, and none of them go hungry.
The bread of heaven is given the name 'manna' (sometimes spelled 'mana'), and the Israelites live of it throughout their time in the wilderness.
17) The Israelites complain that they have no water. God tells Moses that water will come out of a certain rock if he hits it with the Staff of God. Moses hits the rock, and the people get water.
The army of Amalek appears and attacks Israel. Moses and a few others watch the battle from a hill.
"Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun." Israel wins.
18) Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, father of Zipporah, meets up with the Israelites. They catch up on recent events, and Jethro makes a sacrifice to God.
The next day, Jethro notices that Moses is organising everything and dealing with all the people's disputes. He warns Moses that he is going to wear himself out if he continues doing this, and advises him to appoint chiefs rule over groups of people, and tell everyone the statutes and laws by which they must live. The chiefs should deal with the small disputes, and only bring the major ones to Moses.
Jethro returns home.
19) The Israelites camp at the base of Mount Sinai. Moses climbs up the mountain to meet with God.
God tells Moses that the Israelites will be God's favourites as long they keep obeying him, and that he will be descending in a thick cloud in 3 days time, and he expects everyone to have consecrated themselves and washed their garments by then. And on the third day, noone should touch the mountain, or they will be killed.
'On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast... Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly... And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.'
When Moses reaches the top, God tells him to go back down and come up with Aaron.
20) The Ten Commandments:
I. “You shall have no other gods before me."
II. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments."
III. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain." [It is worth remembering here that God's name is not 'God', God's name is 'YHWH'.]
IV. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
V. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you."
VI. “You shall not murder."
VII. “You shall not commit adultery."
VIII. “You shall not steal."
IX. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."
X. “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”
'Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled... The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.'
God tells Moses not to make gods of silver or gold, and gives him instructions about altars.
21) In this and many of the following chapters, God gives Moses lots of laws and instructions.
Laws about slaves, e.g.
'When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him.'
'When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.'
What to do with violent people/oxes, e.g.
'Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death.'
'Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.'
'When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.'
'When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine.'
'When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye.'
'When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall not be liable. But if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.'
22) What to do with thieves, e.g.
'If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep... If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.'
'If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride-price for virgins.'
'You shall not permit a sorceress to live.'
'Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death.'
Be nice to foreigners who sojourn in your land.
Be nice to widows and orphans.
Do not lend money at interest.
Sacrifice firstborn animals to God.
23) Do not spread lies.
Do not pervert justice.
Every seventh year you shall let your farmland lie fallow, a Sabbath year for the land.
Do not mention the names of other gods.
'You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.'
God promises to send an angel to guard the Israelites on their way to the promised land, and gives a dramatic speech about the promised land:
“When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces... I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.... Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land.'
24) Moses tells the Israelites all the rules, and writes them down in the Book of the Covenant.
Moses, Aaron, and the elders of Israel climb the mountain and see God.
'There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.'
Later, God tells Moses to climb up the mountain to collect stone tablets with the laws and commandments written on them.
'Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.'
25) God gives Moses detailed instructions on how to make the Ark of the Covenant, the Table for Bread, the Golden Lampstand, ...
26) ...the Tabernacle, ...
27) ...the Bronze Altar, the Court of the Tabernacle, ...
28) ...Priests' Garments, the Breastpiece of Judgement
29) How to consecrate priests, involving multiple animal sacrifices.
30) Instructions on how to build the Altar of Incense.
Laws on taxation, e.g.
'The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the Lord's offering to make atonement for your lives.'
How to build a Bronze Basin, how to make incense.
31) God tells Moses to make the items listed above and to keep the Sabbath day free from work.
'And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.'
32) The Israelites get bored and ask Aaron to make some gods for them, because Moses has been up the mountain for awhile and they don't know what's happened to him. Aaron gets all the Israelites' golden earrings and makes a golden calf. The people worship it.
Meanwhile, on the mountain, God tells Moses to head back down because his people have already started to worship something else. God asks to be left alone, in case he gets angrier:
"Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
But Moses calms God down by asking him what the Egyptians would think if he killed them all; they'd think God was evil, and had only saved them from slavery so that he could kill them himself.
Moses goes down the mountain carrying the stone tablets written by the finger of God. When he reaches the camp, he hears people singing and dancing around the calf.
Moses gets angry. He smashes the tablets on the ground in rage. He grinds the calf into powder, mixes the powder with water, and makes the Israelites down it.
Moses asks Aaron WTF he was thinking. Aaron explains.
Moses calls for anyone loyal to God to come to him. The sons of Levi gather round. Moses commands them:
“Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’”
They kill 3000 people.
The next day Moses tells the people that he has to go back up the mountain to talk to God again, and hopes that he won't be too angry. God sends a plague as punishment for the calf.
33) God tells Moses to depart from Sinai; he will send a angel to lead the way to the promised land, and will drive out its current inhabitants. Moses starts to lose confidence, and asks to see God's glory.
“I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name... But, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live... while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” says God.
34) God tells Moses to make new tablets with his commandments on. Writing down everything that was on the first two, which he smashed. God comes down in a cloud and says:
“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
God renews his covenant with Moses and promises (again) to drive out the current inhabitants of the promised land. He reiterates some important commands: worship no other gods ('for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God'), keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, all firstborns belong to God, do not work on the Sabbath day, no leavened bread shall accompany sacrifices.
'So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.'
Moses climbs down, and the Israelites are a bit weirded out because his face is shining. He covers his face with a veil.
35) No work on the Sabbath day. The people contribute items to the priests, to be used in making the Tabernacle. Construction of the Tabernacle begins.
36) Moses notices that the people had donated too much stuff to the Tabernacle Construction Fund, and are still donating things. He commands them to stop donating things. Construction of the Tabernacle continues.
37) The Ark of the Covenant, Acacia Table, Golden Lampstand and Altar of Incense are made.
38) The Altar of Burnt Offering and Bronze Basin are made. Construction of the Tabernacle continues.
39) Priestly garments are made.
40) Construction of the Tabernacle is completed. Moses consecrates it. The Cloud of God descends and the glory of God fills the tabernacle.
'Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.'
END OF EXODUS
No comments:
Post a Comment