02-CHAPTER TWO - ISRAEL AT MOUNT SINAI
CHAPTER TWO -
ISRAEL AT MOUNT SINAI
When the Children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sinai, they constituted an unorganized and undisciplined company of not less than 600,000 men. Other thousands had joined them as they left Egypt, doubtless, because they had seen the Divine manifestations in Israel’s behalf, or through fear, or a desire for personal and material advantage: "And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle" (Exodus 12:38). This mixed multitude became a source of discord, trouble and weakness, and later had to be eliminated. In fact, none of them, nor their children, ever passed over to have an inheritance in the Land of Promise.
In the nature of the case, it required considerable time for the organization of this vast company, and for their amalgamation into a well ordered nation, possessing one of the finest armies of the ancient world. We must remember that Moses, as the adopted son of one of the greatest queens Egypt ever had, was admirably educated, having had access to one of the finest libraries of the world at that time. He was trained in all the arts of warfare. He was also a master engineer, and had experience in government, jurisprudence and diplomacy at the outstanding court of the world.
GOD began the training of Israel, using the greatest man available. It is the consensus of opinion, among those competent to judge, that Moses was one of the few really great men of all history. GOD used one of the wisest and ablest men to unfold the wonderful treasures of His revelation of Himself, and to formulate and record Divine truth and laws, and to instruct His people, and to pass on to us a priceless heritage, obtainable in no other way.
GOD AND MOSES ON MOUNT SINAI
As soon as the camp of Israel was completed on the plain at the foot of Mount Sinai, GOD summoned Moses to come up into the Mount, that he might receive instructions and commandments necessary for the organization of the Children of Israel and a code of laws to govern them in all their relationships with their fellow men, and for their instruction in the will and ways of GOD, and how to approach Him and worship and serve Him.
So Moses turned the direction of the host of Israel over to Aaron and Hur and went up into the Mount. While the manifest glory of GOD encompassed Mount Sinai, in the sight of all the people, Moses remained in His presence for forty days and forty nights. Nor was this all.
The alert reader of the Word will discover that Moses was called upon to ascend into GOD’s presence seven times before he was fully instructed and commanded concerning al that GOD desired and required for the glory of His name and for the welfare and good of His people. Seven is the number of wholeness and completeness.
A great day is yet to come when the truths and commandments recorded in these Scriptures will form the warp and woof of this world’s governmental pattern. The present and coming confusion and chaos are due to the fact that so many nations and peoples hate the GOD, who thus revealed Himself to Moses, and the rest, who give lip-service to His commandments, but have manifested no serious intention or purpose to take Him and His Word seriously, until now, at the end of this age, conditions are repeated like those which brought judgment and disaster upon those earth-dwellers who perished in the flood: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5).
The words of JESUS still stand, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Matthew 5:18) A fateful day draws near when GOD’s avenging angel will come down from Heaven to execute His judgments upon peoples and nations. In his hand He will hold a "little book." (Revelation 10:2-10) Its contents are found in these chapters which record for our instruction what GOD commanded Moses on the Mount.
However, we shall confine our present studies to those portions of these instructions in which GOD unfolds the holiness of His character, and in the light of His absolute righteousness, He revealed how utterly undone and helpless sinful men are, and how He has redeemed them by the shed blood of the Lamb of GOD, and how He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no sinful man can come unto the Father, but by Him, as He and His ministry and that of His blessed HOLY SPIRIT are revealed, typified, symbolized, and exemplified in The Tabernacle in The Wilderness.
MAKE ME A SANCTUARY
After giving to Moses His commandments and statutes for the organization and government of Israel, GOD spoke to Moses saying: "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take My offering. And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass, And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood, Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense, Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate. AND LET THEM MAKE ME A SANCTUARY; THAT I MAY DWELL AMONG THEM. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it" (Exodus 25:1-9).
"And they spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the Lord commanded to make. And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing. For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much" (Exodus 36:5-7).
A REVELATION FROM GOD
It is of the utmost importance to realize that immediately following GOD’s command, given to Moses to make Him a sanctuary, or holy place, set apart where He might abide in the midst of His people, and where He might manifest Himself to and through the Priesthood, and thus commune with them and they with Him; GOD began His instructions by presenting the directions and specifications for the fashioning of the "Ark of the Testimony," saying "And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel" (Exodus 25:22).
This makes it unmistakably clear that these are not recordings of "Hebrew folklore," as many foolish and presumptuous "modernists" would have us believe. Were the discoveries of GOD made by sinful men, seeking "if haply they might feel after him," (Acts 17:27) these revelations would have been recorded in the order of the progressive unfolding of man’s "discoveries", but such is not the case. GOD speaks out of the Holy of Holies, where He manifests Himself from the midst of the Glory above the mercy seat, and thus, step by step, out to the gate of the court where the suppliant-seeker takes the first step in the Divinely revealed approach toward GOD.
GOD ORDAINED SALVATION
Because the author desires to make plain to all who would come to know GOD, and to find life eternal, and to dwell in His presence and commune with Him, he asks his readers to take the place of a humble and contrite soul, outside the fold of GOD, seeking salvation, and, step by step, proceed in THE WAY ordained of GOD, until redeemed, cleansed, and sanctified, we come into His presence in glory, to abide with Him forevermore.
In a certain tabernacle in Minneapolis, the meeting place of a large congregation, known as the "Christian Fellowship", every candidate for membership is required to take these steps, in a reproduction, or representation, of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness. This instruction requires a period of six months. No person, thus instructed, ever after could have any possible question as to what JESUS meant, when He told His disciples, "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. . . He that hath seen me hath seen the Father... from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him" (John 14:6; John 14:9; John 14:7).
~ end of chapter 2 ~