The Law Given to Israel

When the Lord was about to deliver his people from Egyptian bondage, he selected Moses as their leader. Moses was learned in all the knowledge of the Egyptians, and was a skilled and mighty warrior. He had also been fitted for his duties by long years of quiet meditation and communion with God in the wilderness of Horeb. Through Moses the Lord wrought many signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. He brought his people out of the house of bondage «by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors,» even parting the waters of the Red Sea to make a way for them.

At length they came to the wilderness of Sinai, and camped before the mount; and there, in the most solemn manner, the Lord made a covenant with them. Moses was called up into the mountain, and given this message for the people: «Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; . . . and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.» Moses returned to the camp, and laid before the people all the words that the Lord had commanded him to utter; and they answered together, and said, «All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.»

The Lord then graciously condescended to come down upon Mount Sinai, not to give a new law, but to speak with an audible voice, in the hearing of all the people, the law which had been from the beginning the foundation of his government. He would not permit even angels to communicate these sacred precepts to men, nor did he trust them to the memory of a people who were prone to forget his requirements. He would remove all possibility of misunderstanding, of mingling any tradition with the ten commandments of the moral law, or of confusing the divine requirements with the practices of men; and to do this, he not only spoke the ten words of the moral law in the hearing of all Israel, but he wrote them with his own finger upon tables of stone.

The Lord made the occasion of speaking his law a scene of awful grandeur and sublimity, in accordance with its exalted character. The people were to be impressed that everything connected with the service of God must be regarded with the greatest reverence. They were required to sanctify themselves and wash their clothes, and «be ready against the third day,» when the Lord would «come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai.» Bounds were set about the mountain that was so soon to be honored with the divine presence; and it was commanded that if so much as a beast touched the mountain it should be stoned or thrust through with a dart.

The third day came; and there were «thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount.» «And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.» The glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mount in the sight of the assembled multitudes. So terrible were the tokens of Jehovah’s presence that the hosts of Israel shook with fear, and fell upon their faces before the Lord. Even Moses exclaimed, «I exceedingly fear and quake.»

Then above the warring elements was heard the voice of Jehovah, speaking the ten precepts of his law. The people of Israel were overwhelmed with terror. The awful power of God’s utterances seemed more than their trembling hearts could bear. They entreated Moses: «Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.» For as God’s great rule of right was presented before them, they realized, as never before, the offensive character of sin, and their own guilt in the sight of a pure and holy God.

Speaking out of the thick darkness that enshrouded him, as he stood upon the mount surrounded by a retinue of angels, the Lord made known his law. Moses, describing the scene, says: «The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from Mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints; from his right hand went a fiery law for them.» Thus were the sacred precepts of the decalogue spoken amid thunder and flame, and with a wonderful display of the power and majesty of the great Lawgiver. God accompanied the proclamation of his law with these exhibitions of his power and glory, that his people might never forget the scene, and that they might be impressed with profound veneration for the Author of the law, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. He would also show to all men the sacredness, the importance, and the permanence of his law.

The law of ten precepts was by no means given exclusively to the Hebrews, but God highly honored them by making them the depositaries of his law for future generations. Those who trample upon God’s authority, and show contempt for the law given in such grandeur at Sinai, virtually despise and set at naught the Lawgiver. For that law is Heaven’s great standard of right, with which we are to compare our lives and characters. Because the law points out our sins and declares our guilt, we are not to trample it under our feet, nor to turn away when our characters stand revealed in all their moral deformity. But we are called upon to exercise repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. We must be doers of the word, and not hearers only. The heart, the seat of the affections, must be transformed; the moral nature must be renewed by grace.

It is a precious truth that the only one who can give peace to the weary, sin-sick soul is the originator of the law the sinner has violated. Christ knows the enormity of man’s guilt; and for this reason he came to earth to open a way by which man may be released from the bondage of sin, and render acceptable obedience to the divine law. Thus may we become a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, to show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

But He who so freely pardons and receives the penitent sinner, will by no means justify those who remain willfully and persistently disobedient. The children of Israel, who had transgressed the first and second commandments, were charged not to be seen near the mount when God was about to descend to write the law a second time upon tables of stone, lest they should be consumed by the burning glory of his presence. And when Moses returned to the camp after spending forty days in the mount, communing with his Maker, they could not even look upon his face for the glory of his countenance. Even Aaron shrank from him in terror. How much less can transgressors look upon the Son of God when he shall appear in the clouds of heaven, in the glory of his Father, surrounded by all the angelic host, to execute judgment upon all who have disregarded the commandments of God, and have trodden under foot the blood of Christ. —