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Class-Book of Old Testament History

<hr class="sect_35" /> <h3> CHAPTER <abbr title="6">VI.</abbr> MOSES IN THE MOUNT—THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CALF. <abbr title="Exodus">Exod.</abbr> <abbr title="chapters 24 through 34">xxiv.–xxxiv.</abbr>   B.C. 1491.</h3> THUS the Covenant was formally ratified, and the nation solemnly devoted itself to the service of the God of Israel. Further revelations, however, awaited Moses, and after committing the charge of the people to Aaron and Hur (<abbr title="Exodus">Ex.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 24">xxiv.</abbr> 14), he again went up into the mount accompanied only by Joshua, his minister and attendant. After an interval of six days the voice of God summoned him to ascend alone yet higher into the midst of the cloud that still overhung the mount, and for forty days and forty nights he there remained in mysterious converse with Jehovah. During this period the Lord showed him in vision a representation of the sanctuary (<abbr title="Hebrews">Heb.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 8">viii.</abbr> 5), which He required should be the solemn place of meeting between Him and the people, and gave him the necessary instructions for its erection (<abbr title="Exodus">Ex.</abbr> <abbr title="chapters 25 through 28">xxv.–xxviii.</abbr>), together with full particulars respecting the order of its services and ritual (<abbr title="Exodus">Ex.</abbr> <abbr title="chapters 29 and 30">xxix. xxx.</abbr>), as also the names of the two men who were to be employed in building it, <abbr title="in particular">viz.</abbr> Bezaleel of the tribe of Judah, and Aholiab of the tribe of Dan (<abbr title="Exodus">Ex.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 31">xxxi.</abbr> 1<abbr title="through">–</abbr>11). At the same time Moses received two tables of stone, on which the Ten Commandments had been written by the finger of God. While, however, the Israelitish leader had been engaged in solemn converse with the Supreme, a far different scene had been going on in the plain below. His prolonged absence had filled the Israelites with doubt and perplexity. When the glory of the Lord descended upon Sinai, they had, indeed, felt the mountain quake, they had heard the thunder roar, they had seen the lightning flash, but of Jehovah Himself they had beheld no form or similitude. Now to believe in One who did not, like the gods of every other nation round about, reveal Himself under any palpable figure, was not easy for men who had so long lived amidst the fascinations of the idolatrous rites of Pagan Egypt. As weeks therefore passed away, and still no sign appeared of the return of their leader, the people began to lose their trust in Him whom they had promised to obey. They wished to break up their long encampment; but who would go before them, and guide them in the way? Yearning therefore for some visible representative of Jehovah, and possibly yielding to the suggestions of some of the Egyptians amongst the mixed multitude in the camp, they gathered themselves together before Aaron, with the petition that he would make them gods to go before them, for as for Moses, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, they knew not what was become of him. Unable to stem the popular clamour, and taking refuge in an unworthy expediency, Aaron bade them bring him the golden earrings of their wives, their sons, and their daughters, and of these he fashioned a calf, probably according to the well-known form of the Egyptian Apis or Mnevis, whose worship the people must often have witnessed during their sojourn in the Nile Valley. Then building an altar he proclaimed a three days’ festival to Jehovah. Accordingly, with the earliest dawn of the following day, the people arose, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before the image, exclaiming, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and concluded the ceremony with one of those licentious orgies, accompanied by song and dance, which were so common amongst heathen nations (<abbr title="Exodus">Ex.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 32">xxxii.</abbr> 4; <abbr title="First Corinthians">1 Cor.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 10">x.</abbr> 7). It was while they were in the very act of celebrating this idolatrous festival that Moses, accompanied by Joshua, returned from the presence of the nation’s invisible King. He had already received Divine intimation of the apostasy of the people, and in his capacity of Mediator had already interceded in their behalf. Now with the two tables of the Law in his hands he descended the Mount. To the ear of his companion the noise of the host, as it ascended upwards from the valley below, sounded like the noise of war in the camp. But Moses knew otherwise. It is not the noise of them that shout for the mastery, he replied, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome, but the noise of them that sing do I hear. Then as he drew near the camp, and beheld with his own eyes the heathenish orgies that were going on, his feelings overmastered him; his anger waxed hot, and he cast the Tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the Mount. Next advancing towards the senseless image, he seized it, burnt it with fire, reduced it to powder72, strewed the ashes on the neighbouring brook of Horeb, and compelled the people to drink thereof. Then after sternly rebuking his brother for conniving at so heinous a sin, he stationed himself at the entrance of the camp, and bade all, who still remained faithful to Jehovah, gird on their swords, and without regard to family tie or private friendship, slay the offenders from gate to gate with the edge of the sword. It was a severe but necessary test of the fidelity of the people, and the sons of Levi were found faithful. With a zeal very dissimilar from that which had animated their forefather at Shechem (<abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 34">xxxiv.</abbr> 25, 26), instead of siding with Aaron, though their tribal leader, they arose and slew about 3000 of the offenders, thus effacing the blot on the memory of their tribe, and qualifying themselves for high functions in the sanctuary (<abbr title="Exodus">Ex.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 32">xxxii.</abbr> 25<abbr title="through">–</abbr>29). In order to make an atonement for the people’s sin, Moses, on the next day, re-ascended the mount, and solemnly interceded with the Almighty on their behalf. Standing in the gap (<abbr title="Psalm 106">Ps. cvi.</abbr> 23) between a justly offended God and an erring nation, he offered, if no other way of forgiveness was possible, freely to surrender his own life, and to suffer the blotting out of his own name from God’s Book. Eventually his intercession prevailed. The Almighty promised that the nation should not be cut off, and that He would send His Angel before them, who should lead them into the land promised to their forefathers. But further punishment certainly awaited them; in the day of His visitation, He would visit their sin upon them, an earnest of which they speedily experienced in the shape of plagues (<abbr title="Exodus">Ex.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 32">xxxii.</abbr> 35), with which the Lord plagued the people, because of their sin in turning His glory into the similitude of a calf that eateth hay (<abbr title="Psalm 106">Ps. cvi.</abbr> 20). The announcement of Moses that their journey into the Promised Land was not to be suspended, but that Jehovah would not go up in their midst, was received by the people with much lamentation (<abbr title="Exodus">Ex.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 33">xxxiii.</abbr> 4). Their sorrow was accepted as a sign of repentance, and Moses caused his own tent to be pitched at a long distance without the camp, and named it the Tent, or Tabernacle of Meeting (<abbr title="Exodus">Ex.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 33">xxxiii.</abbr> 7). Then, accompanied only by Joshua, he passed through the long line of the people’s tents, at the doors of which they stood and watched him, and, as he entered his own, the Cloudy Pillar, which hitherto had rested on the top of Sinai, descended, and stood before it, and amidst the joyful reverence of the watching host, the Lord conversed with Moses, face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend (<abbr title="Exodus">Ex.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 33">xxxiii.</abbr> 11). The descent of the Cloudy Pillar, and its position at the entrance of the tent of Israel’s leader, though at a distance from the people, was a sign that his intercession had prevailed. In spite of their recent sin, Jehovah had not forgotten to be gracious, He would fulfil His promise, and the nation should be led into the land assured to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and every one, who sought the Lord, might draw nigh, and consult Him through His servant Moses in the appointed place of meeting. Emboldened by this measure of success, Moses expressed a desire, since he was the ordained leader of the people, and had found grace in the sight of God, that he might be permitted to behold the essential Glory of Him, with whom he was privileged to speak face to face (<abbr title="Exodus">Ex.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 33">xxxiii.</abbr> 13). He asked for more than he, or any other finite creature, could endure. The Face—the essential Majesty—of Jehovah no man could see and live. But if he ascended the mount on the morrow, and took precautions that no man or beast appeared in sight, and brought with him two fresh tables of stone hewn out of the rock, the Lord promised that he should see so much of His Glory as mortal eye could bear. Accordingly on the morrow with two fresh-hewn tables he ascended, and awaited the mysterious revelation. Every precaution had been taken; no man was allowed to be seen throughout all the mount, no flock or herd was suffered to feed before it (<abbr title="Exodus">Ex.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 34">xxxiv.</abbr> 3). Alone, unattended even by the faithful Joshua, the accepted mediator between the people and their invisible King stood in a cleft of the rock. And while he stood “covered with Jehovah’s hand,” the Lord passed by and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and fourth generation. As Moses listened to this proclamation of the incommunicable attributes of the Most High—“Justice and Mercy, Truth and Love”—like Elijah after him in a cleft of the same jagged rocks (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 19">xix.</abbr> 9<abbr title="through">–</abbr>13), he bowed his head towards the earth and worshipped, and interceded for a more complete renewal of the broken covenant between Jehovah and His people. His prayer was heard. The Covenant was once more renewed, and for a second period of forty days and forty nights Moses remained in the Divine Presence, and received fresh instructions respecting the moral and ceremonial laws of the Theocracy. At the close of this period, with the two fresh Tables, inscribed with the Ten Words, he again returned to the people. On this occasion, he retained more permanent marks of the awful converse he had been permitted to hold. Aaron and the elders of the people were afraid to approach him, for the skin of his face shone with a celestial radiance, and the reflection of Jehovah’s glory gilded his brow. The lawgiver himself, not aware of the change that had come over his features, called unto them, and at length emboldened to approach, they heard at his mouth all the commands of God. But the unearthly splendour was not permanent. Lest, therefore, the people should behold the fading away of this visible credential of his interview with the Supreme, Moses was in the habit of placing a veil upon his face whenever he departed from them (<abbr title="Compare">Comp.</abbr> <abbr title="Second Corinthians">2 Cor.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 3">iii.</abbr> 13)73, but removed it as often as he was permitted to behold the presence of the Lord, and receive fresh renewals of the celestial radiance. <hr class="chap_50" /> <h2 class="vm_30 h2head"> BOOK <abbr>IV.</abbr> THE MOSAIC WORSHIP AND POLITY.</h2> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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