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Exodus Part Three: the Sinai Covenant 9 9 EXODUS PART THREE: THE SINAI COVENANT Chapters 19-40 CHAPTER 19: Israel prepares to meet God the people through Moses: “If you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you Israel shall be my “In the third month after their departure from the special possession, dearer to me than to all other land of Egypt, on its first day, the Israelites came to people on earth” (v.5). God is offering to enter into a the desert of Sinai. After the journey from Rephidim very special intimate relationship with Israel. Using to the desert of Sinai, they pitched camp. marital imagery, which the prophets often did, God is “While Israel was encamped here in front of the asking for Israel’s hand in marriage. mountain, Moses went up the mountain to God. Then the Lord called to him and said, ‘Thus shall you say When Moses comes down from the mountain and to the house of Jacob: tell the Israelites: you have tells the elders and people of God’s marriage seen for yourselves how I treated the Egyptians and proposal or covenant offer, they jump at it: how I bore you up on eagle wings and brought you “Everything the Lord has said, we will do” (v.8). here to myself. Therefore, if you hearken to my voice This may surprise us given the fact that a little while and keep my covenant, you shall be my special ago, they were asking Moses to take them back to the possession, dearer to me than all other people, fleshpots of Egypt. As we will learn, the Israelites though all the earth is mine. You shall be to me a like most of us, are fickle and moody when it comes kingdom of priests, a holy nation. That is what you to their relationship with God. must tell the Israelites.’ So Moses went and summoned the elders of the people. When he set Like most couples on their wedding day, the before them all that the Lord had ordered him to tell Israelites have little or no idea of what they are them, the people all answered together, ‘Everything getting themselves into. As a people, they will be the Lord has said, we will do.’ Then Moses brought required to be holy as their God is holy (v.6). The back to the Lord the response of the people.” (vv 1-8) requirements of their relationship with God will be spelled out in detail in chapters 20-23. “Moses led the people out of the camps to meet God….” (v.17) Verses 9-15―Preparation for the theophany. In these verses, God through his representative Moses, Chapters 19-24 of Exodus describe the high point of instructs the people on how they are to prepare the Pentateuch. The events described can be divided themselves for the great theophany (manifestation of into four stages. God on the third day). They must do three things: wash their garments, refrain from sexual intercourse, • Israel prepares to meet God (Chapter 19) and observe the boundaries set by Moses around the • God gives Israel general laws: The Ten holy mountain. The narrator tells us that one reason Commandments (Chapter 20:1-17) for the upcoming theophany is to bolster Moses’ God gives Israel specific laws (Chapters 19:18– • credibility in the eyes of the people. In 19:9, God 23:33) says to Moses: “I am coming to you in a dense cloud, • Sealing of the covenant between God and Israel so that when the people hear me speaking with you, (Chapter 24) they may always have faith in you also.” Scripture Three months after the Israelites leave Egypt, they scholar John McDermott states: “The Pentateuch arrive at Mount Sinai where they set up camp and strikes a balance between showing Moses as unique where they will spend almost two years. In fact, and separate from everyone else, and showing him as Mount Sinai is the location for the events described a fallible human being just like anyone else. Here the in the rest of Exodus, the entire book of Leviticus, emphasis is on his unique closeness to God.” and Numbers chapters 1-10. Verses 16-19―The theophany. The theophany is a Verses 1-8―God’s amazing proposal and Israel’s volcanic eruption. The description shows God clearly response. After the people arrive at Sinai and set up as lord of nature. His power and majesty are very camp, their leader Moses goes up the mountain to evident in the fire, smoke, and shaking of the meet God who makes an astounding offer to the mountain. ragtag, disgruntled bunch of ex-slaves. God says to 1 God’s presence is announced by the trumpet blast of knew, images of figures of men and animals were a shofar (ram’s horn which is still used on some normally made to represent a false god, with the Jewish festivals). This is like our “Hail to the Chief” result that the image was ultimately adored as the announcing the arrival of the President on formal image of the god in visible form. So, in such an occasions. Verses 20-25 are a second description atmosphere, the temptation to idolatry was always from a different source or tradition. Most likely, the present and a pressing one, as Israel’s later history Israelites who were exposed to many gods in Egypt shows. Thus verse 5 says: ‘you shall not bow down to never experienced a God with such overwhelming them or serve them.’ This indicates that it was not the power. What a contrast to the God who revealed image as such that was forbidden, but the worship of himself in Jesus as a vulnerable child, as washer of it. They did have images, even in the Ark of the feet and as a server of humanity. Covenant, and later on Moses made a serpent of bronze (Num. 21)” (Set My Exiles Free, pp 58-59). Pause: Israel’s ‘shock and awe’ experience of God was one they would remember for a long time. Have you had an Second Commandment: Respect for the name of experience of God that has deeply impacted your life? God. This commandment forbids misuse of God’s name in speech, e.g., for purposes of magic, profanity. Just as the first commandment is intended CHAPTER 20: God give Israel the Ten Command- to protect the uniqueness of God, the second ments commandment is intended to protect the sanctity of God. “I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not Third Commandment: Remember to keep holy the have other gods besides me.” (vv 1-3) Sabbath day. Notice that this commandment does not begin with “You shall not.” The reason is that The Bible has two versions of the Ten Command- this commandment did not institute the Sabbath. It ments or Decalogue (“The Ten Words”) as they are was already in existence as a day of rest, and was sometimes called. The second version can be found thus to be a day dedicated to God. in Deuteronomy 5:6-21. Both forms are longer than what we learned in the catechism. Most likely, the Whereas the first three commandments focus on original form was more like the short catechism Israel’s relationship towards God, commandments 4- version. Why do we say that? The Ten Command- 10 center on their relationship within the community. ments were written on two slabs of stone, which the They are a sort of Bill of Human Rights. Israelites carried with them in the Ark of the Covenant and retained until the assault on Jerusalem The Fourth Commandment calls for respect for by the Babylonians. Even though all of us are parents. The Fifth Commandment seeks to protect familiar with the Lord’s “Big Ten,” the following human life. Killing in battle or by capital punishment remarks may be helpful. is not an issue here. Deut 20:1-14 approves of both. The Sixth Commandment seeks to preserve the First Commandment: No other god but the God of sanctity of marriage. The Seventh Commandment Israel. Concerning the first commandment, Fr. John calls for respect of people’s property. The Eighth Power writes: “You shall have no other gods in my Commandment forbids false or perjured testimony presence. This is an extraordinary command in the that could ruin a person’s reputation or cause a man orient of the thirteenth century B.C., when exuberant to lose his property. The Ninth and Tenth Command- polytheism blossomed all around. In the history of ments prohibit illicit desires that may lead to actions religion this command appears as something unique, already forbidden by the sixth and seventh a precept unknown in other moral codes. This commandments. commandment excludes any god, or any object of worship, outside God. Therefore the following Moral theologian Fr. Timothy O’Connell writes that sentence is really a part of that same command: ‘You “the genius of the Ten Commandments…is the tight, shall not make yourself a graven image.’ That is why clear way they sketch hard-won wisdom of life. We we include both in our first commandment. The are not forced to spend a lifetime finding this reason for the specific mention of sculptured images wisdom; it is given to us on a platter. Woven is that at that time, and in the civilizations that Israel together, the Ten Commandments are a great, 2 inspired poem, drawing lines around a way of living healthy relationship with God and neighbor.
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