35. B.C. 1491

B.C. 1491

Chapter II

1. With a view to the condition and character of the people, and their unfitness for immediate action, it was not the Divine intention that the emancipated Israelites should go directly and by the nearest way to the land of Canaan, entering it on the south-west, where the Philistines and other warlike tribes were stationed; but to go round by the desert and approach on the south-east, from which quarter they might get into the very heart of the country before any serious opposition could be encountered. But first they were to be led into the peninsula of Sinai, among the mountains where Moses had seen the burning bush, that they might there be properly organized, and receive the laws and institutions necessary to keep them as a peculiar people among the nations. In their march the Israelites could not be mistaken in their course; for a miraculous pillar, of cloud by day and of fire by night, went always before them to direct their. way. They rested whenever it stood still, and whenever it moved they followed.

2. From Egypt the hosts of Israel marched towards the western arm[*] of the Red Sea, round the head of which lay the usual road to the peninsula of Sinai. On arriving at the sea, they encamped on its hither shore in such a manner that they had the sea before them and the mountains behind, and could only retreat by returning to Egypt by the way they came or by going round by the head of the gulf into the peninsula.

[*] Now the Gulf of Suez.

3. In the three days which had passed since the Israelites left Egypt, the alarm of the Egyptian king subsided into resentment for the calamities which Egypt had suffered for their sake; the loss of the services of so large a body of well-trained serfs, was also a matter of no small moment: and, therefore, when he received information that they had encamped in so disadvantageous a position as that which has been described, he determined to follow them with his troops, and, by cutting off their retreat round the head of the gulf, either drive them back into Egypt by the way they came, or destroy them where they lay. Dreadful was the consternation of the Hebrews when the appearance of Pharaoh and his host made known to them their danger. Only a miracle could save them; and that miracle was wrought. At the command of God, Moses uplifted his rod over the waters, when immediately a strong wind arose, by which a broad track was opened through the sea for the passage of the chosen race, dryshod, to the other side, where, by the break of morning, they all arrived in safety. With marvellous temerity, Pharaoh, with his chariots and horsemen, entered in pursuit; when Moses, from the further shore, again stretched forth his rod, and the waters suddenly returned and overwhelmed them all. This great event, which was celebrated by the daughters of Israel in triumphant hymns, had a most salutary effect upon the neighboring nations, impressing them with a great dread of the mighty God by whom the Israelites were protected.

Egyptian War Chariot

4. The now secure multitude tarried a short time at this place, and then marched southward for three days through the wilderness of Shur, where they began to be in want of water. This caused them to murmur greatly, especially when, on coming to Marah, they found water which was too bitter to be of any use. To pacify it Moses was instructed to cast a branch of a certain tree into it, and it then became sweet and drinkable. Their nest resting-place was at Elim, where twelve wells, shaded by seventy palm trees, gave abundant Water to the people and their flocks.

5. Journeying from Elim, the people having exhausted the provisions they had brought from Egypt, began to suffer hunger. On this they gave way to their usual unmanly wailings, and to the most ungenerous reflections upon their great leader. They forgot the miracles of God, and remembered only the “flesh pots” of Egypt. God rebuked them; but he promised that they should have meat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full. This be made good by causing a vast flight of quails to rest that evening upon the camp; and of these large quantities were taken and dressed for food. And in the morning, when the dew was gone, the ground was found to be covered, as by hoar-frost, with small, round, white particles, like coriander seed for size and shape, and the taste of which was like fine bread sweetened with honey. The wondering inquiry Man-hu? (what is this?) which the Israelites addressed to one another on beholding it, caused this food to be called Manna. This proved to be the commencement of a supply of “bread from heaven,” which was furnished daily, except on the Sabbaths, for forty years. Still advancing southward towards the upper region of Sinai, the Israelites passed over an arid tract of country and encamped at Rephidim. As no water was found at this place, the people broke forth into their usual murmurs; and on this occasion, so wild and fierce did their passions rise under the agonies of thirst, that Moses and Aaron were in danger of being stoned for having brought them to that wilderness, unless some immediate relief were given. Moses was instructed by God to take some of the elders as witnesses, and strike with his rod a rock in Horeb. He did so; and from that rock an abundant stream immediately broke forth and flowed to the Hebrew camp. Moses signalized this transaction by calling the place Massa (temptation), and Meribah (strife).

6. By this time the movements of the Israelites had attracted the attention of the inhabitants of the peninsula of Sinai; and that warlike tribe, the Amalekites, whose quarters the Hebrew host now approached, determined to assault them, stimulated, perhaps, by the hope of acquiring the Egyptian wealth with which they were laden. On this Moses directed a valiant young man named Joshua, who always attended him, to draw out a body of choice troops, and give the Amalekites battle on the morrow. The next morning when Joshua marched forth against the Amalekites, Moses, accompanied by his brother Aaron, and by Hur, ascended to the top of a mountain and prayed to God in view of the warriors and the people. It was soon discovered that while the hands of Moses were uplifted in prayer, Israel prevailed over Amalek; but that when his hands hung down in weariness, Amalek was the stronger; and, therefore, Aaron and Hur placed themselves beside the prophet and sustained his interceding bands until the evening, by which time the Amalekites were put to utter rout. This signal success in their first military enterprise greatly encouraged the Israelites; and by Divine authority and command, the race of Amalek was, for this first and most unprovoked act of hostility against the chosen people, devoted to utter extermination.

7. After this the Hebrews advanced to Mount Sinai, called also Mount Horeb, where the Lord had appeared to Moses in the burning bush. While the host remained encamped in the valleys below, Moses was frequently called up by the Lord into the mountain; and sometimes, by command, he took up Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, Joshua, and other principal persons, a part of the way with him; and they were permitted to behold that resplendence which is named “the glory of God.” Never was the intercourse between God and a man made so obvious to the senses as it was at this time, with regard to Moses, upon this mountain; and the reason evidently was, that a weak-minded and suspicious people might be the more strongly convinced of his Divine mission, and the more readily obey him as their leader. An infant nation, circumstanced like the Israelites in leaving Egypt, required, more than an advanced people can well apprehend, that kind of evidence which may be seen and handled; and this consideration will be found to explain many circumstances in the history of the measures which God at this time took with the Israelites.

8. The first important act was to obtain from the assembled nation a distinct acknowledgment of the supreme authority of Jehovah, and the promise of implicit obedience to him. This was becomingly and cheerfully given by the people; and by that act they became a nation with the Lord himself for their King in a sense in which he never was the king of any otherpeople. This it is important to remember, as the clearness of the history very much depends upon the recollection of the fact, that the Lord was not only the God of the Israelites, and of the whole world; and not only the King of the Israelites, in the same sense in which he was and is King and Governor of the universe; but that he was, in a peculiar sense, and for a peculiar purpose, their real political and national King and Head, and as such entitled to direct the affairs of the state, and to require political and civil obedience from his people. His sovereign power being recognized, the Lord appointed the third day after as that in which he would appear with glory upon the mountain, to deliver the laws to which he required obedience. Meanwhile the people were to purify themselves against that day; and fences were placed around the mountain, that none plight trespass too near the sacred presence.

9. On that day, being the fiftieth after the departure from Egypt, the Lord descended upon the top of Mount Sinai, which then trembled greatly, while the lightning flashed, and the thunders rolled, and the summit was enveloped in a vast body of flame, from which a great smoke arose. The awe-struck multitude remained at the foot of the mountain; but Moses and Aaron ascended, although only the former dared to enter the cloud which veiled the presence of God. No form was seen by the people or by Moses; but a voice was heard giving utterance to the words of the Decalogue. So awful was that voice, and so appalling were the circumstances, that the people were struck with fear, and entreated that God would henceforth make known to them his will through Moses, and that they might thenceforth hear the voice and the “mighty thunderings” no more. Accordingly, in successive visits to the mountain, Moses received the great body of civil, ceremonial, and political laws and institutions, which, on his return, he wrote down as we now find them in the Pentateuch, and read to the people. The greater number of these institutions were delivered to him on one occasion when he was absent not less than forty days on the mountain, at the end of which he received, written upon tables of stone, the ten fundamental laws of the Decalogue, which had before been orally delivered.