LESSON IX-AUGUST 31 ISRAEL AT MOUNT SINAI Golden Text Let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well- HOME DAILY BIBLE READINGS—M. Ex. 19.1-6, 16-21. Israel at Mt. Sinai. T. Ex. 18.1-12. Jethro Converted to Jehovah. W. Ex. 18.13-27. Moses Appoints Judges for Israel. T. Ex. 19.7-14. Moses Sanctifies the People. F. Heb. 12.18-29. Approaching the New Covenant. S. Ps. 111. Jehovah to be Revered. S. Heb. 10.18-25. Cleansed for Approach to God. STUDY Ex. 19; Heb. 12.18-24 READ Ex. 18 and 19 COMMIT Ex. 19.5,6 I In the third month after the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. 2 And when they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the wilderness of Sinai, they encamped in the wilderness; and there Israel encamped before the mount. 3 And Moses went up unto God, and Jehovah called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: 4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. 5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be mine own possession from among all peoples: for all the earth is mine: 6 and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. 16 And it came to pass on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud; and all the people that were in the camp trembled. 17 And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. 18 And mount Sinai, the whole of it, smoked, because Jehovah descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. 19 And when the voice of the trumpet waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. 20 And Jehovah came down upon mount Sinai, to the top of the mount; and Jehovah called Moses to the top of the mount; and Moses went up. 21 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto Jehovah to gaze, and many of them perish. WORDS AND PHRASES EXPLAINED Lesson Outline. I. The Arrival at Sinai, 1-2. II. Jehovah's Purpose and the People's Pledge, 3-8. III. Preparations for the Approach to God, 9-15. IV. At the Foot of the Mountain, 16-19. V. The Warning, 20-21. 1-3. The same day. The 15th day of the month, Ex. 16.1. See the Historical Background. Came they into the wilderness of Sinai. Ex. 19.1 to Num. 10.10 is a record of the sojourn there.-To the house of Jacob. A synonym for Israel. 4. I bare you on eagles' wings. A beautiful figure: just as eagles hover under the eaglets who are learning to fly, to support them when exhausted on their broad wings, so God is ever near, caring for his children with loving solicitude. See Dt. 32.11 and p. 327. Brought you unto myself. To this mountain, where they were to receive a special revelation from God." Verses 3-6 is the classical Quarter August 31 passage of the Old Testament on the nature and aim of the theocratic covenant" (Dillmann). 5. Now, therefore, “A great deliverance is a great claim on the life that is saved" (Thring)-My covenant. Ex. 24.7-8.-Mine own possession. A peculiar treasure, Authorized Version, is thus explained by Driver: The rendering "peculiar" we owe to Jerome, who states that Symmachus had used peculiaris in one place; it means "specially one's own," being used in the old etymological sense, derived from the Latin peculium, the private property of a child or slave.From among. Or, above, RVm.-For all the earth is mine. "And so I can' choose which I will of the nations upon it" (Driver). 6. A kingdom of priests...a holy nation. Where every one is consecrated to the service of God. "The designation expresses also the high calling of Israel. They are to be the medium of communicating the knowledge of the divine nature and will to the world." (Dummelow). Holy does not primarily denote moral excellence, but separation, exclusiveness (22.31). The thought of moral excellence, however, which ideally attached to a people set apart for God, gradually came to the front" (McNeile). With verses 5 and 6 compare Dt. 12.25-27. 16. There were thunders and lightnings. This suggests the thought that nature itself was agitated by the prospect of the giving of the law which was to transform the face of the world. 16-17. The voice of a trumpet exceeding loud. "Every thunderbolt, as it burst with a roar like that of a cannon, woke a series of echoes that were reflected in peals from peak after peak, rushing like a whirlwind along the mountain summits and through the vast valleys, bursting with fresh roars through some yawning cleft, and making the very earth tremble with the concussion, as at the presence of Jehovah. This series of deafening peals was what is meant by the sound of the voice of the trumpet. Heaven's artillery was firing its grand salute!" (A. T. Pierson).—A trumpet. "It is foretold that the heavenly trumpet will announce the second Advent, Mt. 24.31, I Thess. 4.16; 1 Cor. 15.52" (McNeile).-Nether. Lower. 19. Moses spake. "This and the following verb are, in the Hebrew, frequentative, implying a colloquy between Moses and God, which reached the ears of the people only as an inarticulate sound" (McNeile).-God answered him by a voice. "The repeated thunderings were interpreted as God's part in a dialogue with Moses" (Driver). 21. Lest they break through. Break through the barriers which had been erected, verse 12. See p. 332. SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS FROM HELPFUL WRITERS 4. How I bare you on eagles' wings. The female eagle is proverbial for cherishing her young with extraordinary care and attachment. She stirs up her nest, planting a thorn in the side of it that if the fledgelings are tempted to laziness they may be pricked by it, prompted to bestir themselves, and learn to use their feet. She flutters over her young, not only when she has morsels of food to drop into their open beaks, but in her solicitude to train them to fly. And if other means fail, she crowds them out of the nest and over the edge of the cliff, leaving them to fall, that they may be compelled to learn to use their wings as well as feet. And this she does, one at a time-literally, "she taketh one. But she watches its downward plunge, and sweeping toward the earth, she expands her wings to the utmost, and rising upward from beneath catches the falling, trembling fledgeling on her own mother pinions, and soars with it to the eyrie. Thus, even the severest discipline of thorn and beak is all prompted by love, and what seems merciless and cruel is all necessary to the training for flight, the exercise of muscles and the expansion of wings. So Jehovah's wisdom and love led and educated his people. He was training them to stand firm on their feet, and use their wings; urging and encouraging, aiding and directing their feeble efforts, till they should dare longer and sublimer flights. The plagues visited on Egypt were exhibitions of his sheltering care over them, as he spread abroad his wings to cover them that the pestilence that walked in darkness should not touch them. At the Red Sea, he bore them over on his pinions; in the manna and quails he hovered over them to Quarter August 31 feed their hunger; even in the trials of the desert he was only teaching them how to look up and soar toward the heights of faith and dependence. And when they felt themselves falling to destruction and cried out in despair, he was spreading "everlasting arms" beneath them and lifting them out of danger and want. Dr. Arthur T. Pierson, in Bible Notes. 6. Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests. What is Israel's share in our Republic? There was no Jew among the Puritans that came to this country in the Mayflower, and planted the seed that was to bear good fruit for the future republic. None of our fellow-believers participated in the struggles of the colonies with the Parliament of the mother-country. The name of an Israelite is not found among the signers of the Declaration of Independence nor among the framers of the Constitution. Our share in the great work of the Republic is our Torah (Law). The cornerstone of our national constitutionthe equality of all men-was quarried at Mount Sinai. The Puritans, those men of irresistible strength and iron will, were the builders of the Republic. In them Saxon strength and Biblical spirit were united. They thought in the spirit of the Old Testament; they spoke in the language of the Bible; they preached in the style of the prophets; they sang in the words of our psalmists. Israelites! This is our part in the structure of a new world-our Torah! There is but one God in Heaven and one mankind on earth. Rabbi Liebman Adler, in Sabbath Hours. 21. Lest they break through unto Jehovah to gaze. The consciousness of the highest humanity is that it is not equal to the gaze upon God. But, so far from feeling this, some draw near as if honoring him. The noblest cry, Unclean. Expository Times. LIGHT FROM ARCHEOLOGY OR FROM ORIENTAL LIFE 17. They stood at the nether part of the mount. "The eyes of all the waiting people were fixed upon the top of the sacred mount. Gods of Egypt Would Jehovah, their God, appear to them, they wondered, in any visible form? Would he stand before them as a winged figure, like the gods of the Assyrians, or like the gods of Egypt?" THE HISTORICAL Review Questions. To whom came the first call to come out and be separated? What was the promise made to Abraham? When before had Moses been in the wilderness of Sinai? How had he been taught there the lesson of reverence? What had he learned there as to God's purpose for the Israelites? That he who had supplied them with food could also supply them with water does not seem to have occurred to the children of Israel. At Rephidim they murmured because water was lacking: water gushed from a rock when Moses struck it with his rod. Then came the battle with the Amalekites. The latter dwelt in the southern part of Canaan and probably also in the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula; they migrated in the dry months, as do the wandering Bedouins today, to the higher southern section of the Peninsula, and thus they came in contact with the Israelites. As long as Moses held aloft his hand with the rod of God in it, the record says, the Israelites prevailed in battle. When August 31 he became weary Aaron and Hur supported his hands, and Joshua meanwhile conquered the Amalekites. The coming of Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, bringing with him Moses' wife and his two sons, is now recorded. Jethro saw how Moses settled questions from morning till night, and advised him to spare his strength by appointing elders to attend to the matters of lesser importance. This advice Moses followed. In the third month of their pilgrimage we find the Israelites encamped before Mount Sinai, where occurred the events recorded in the remainder of Exodus and in the Book of Leviticus. THE GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND lt took the Israelites two months to cover the distance of one hundred and fifty miles between Egypt and Sinai, for they proceeded slowly, and made long halts on the way. Re phidim is the only place mentioned in Exodus between our last lesson and this. If it has been correctly identified in the Wady Feiran, they must have passed through ElBuweib, the grand granite gateway of our photograph, p. 330. Harold J. Shepstone thus describes this region in a recent number of the Quiver: As we approached the first of the many springs in this wady, the mountains on either side rose higher and higher, and the valley became narrower and wilder looking. Suddenly, as we proceeded there burst upon our vision gardens and palm groves in various rich green hues, and a rivulet, with clear silvery water trick ling through the verdure, by which camels and Bedouins were quenching their thirst, and, set against the precipitous, purplish blue slope of the mountains in the background, was indeed a masterpiece by Nature's own hand. This oasis of Wady Feiran is by far the largest in the whole peninsula, and well deserves its name, the "Pearl of Sinai." At the end of the valley there is a hill called Jebel Takuneh. This is the traditional place where Moses stood watching the battle with the Amalekites, with his hands upheld by Aaron and Hur. Jethro's home was in Midian, and Midian proper lay on the eastern side of the Gulf of Akabah, and this is one main reason why many scholars locate Sinai in that section. The western shore also, however, was probably called Midian. In the Wilderness of Sinai the Israelites remained about a year. This is believed to have been the Wady-er-Raha, a plain two miles long by half a mile wide, having precipitous mountains on either side. See the photograph facing page 336. To quote again from the Quiver: The plain slopes gently toward the Mount of God, is sifted over with gravel, which makes it as smooth as a floor, and is dotted with low bushes. It has been computed that this plain alone, without taking into account the spacious adjoining valleys, could contain two million Quarter people, allowing each individual one square yard of standing room. tainly afforded an ideal camping ground. August 31 This cer In front rose Ras es-Sufsafeh, the Mount of God, a natural altar seven thousand feet above the plain. See our frontispiece, and see the small map in the corner of our colored map. The Israelites had lived all their lives in the flat, almost rainless Delta of the Nile. Unaccustomed either to mountains or to storms, how overwhelmed must they have been by a sense of mystery and awe as they gazed on that wonderful peak, saw the black clouds resting on its summit, and witnessed the terrific storm, with its fierce glare of lightning and loud crash of thunder! SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS OF LITTLE FOLKS Two little girls were looking at Bible pictures, one of which was "The Good Shepherd." Pointing to it, one of them said, "Look, that's a picture of God." But the other replied: "No, that's not God, that's Jesus Christ. God never had his photograph taken." In these lessons teach your pupils that the Israelites had at last come to the mountain where they were to meet God, learn his laws, but not to see him, for God has "never had his photograph taken," that God is Spirit; that in Jesus Christ his Son, the Good Shepherd, we see God, and know far more about God than did those people at Sinai. Describe the great plain. Draw on the board the map in the corner of our colored map. Picture the mountains; see pages 329, 337. Describe the tents in which the people lived, and picture the great gathering before the majestic, awe-inspiring mountain, to whose summit Moses was going, to learn from God his laws, to receive the Ten Commandments. Before he went he spoke to the people, reminded them of God's care for them. Teach the beautiful figure in verse four by giving Dr. Pierson's words, p. 327 more simply. Tell about the pledge of obedience which the people made, verses 5-8. Then call for the Golden Text, and explain it as the lesson the Israelites were taught there at the foot of the mountain. As Carlyle says, there is one thing which no child brings into the world with him, and without which all other things are of no use-Reverence, the soul of all religion. Teach that lesson today, making use of the illustrations in Topic II. SUGGESTIONS FOR BEGINNING THE LESSON For Younger Pupils. The Historical and Geographical Background will furnish today the best means of holding the attention of your pupils from the start. Draw on your blackboard the map of Sinai and its surroundings in the corner of our large colored map. For Older Pupils. Speaking of his own early life, President Rufus M. Jones, in "A Boy's Religion," says: I am quite sure no Israelite in the days of Israel's prosperity ever had a more certain conviction that he belonged to a peculiar people whom the Lord had chosen as his own than I did. There was for me an absolute break between "us" and anybody else. This phariseeism was never taught me or encouraged directly by anybody, but I none the less had it. If I had anything in the world to glory over it was that I was a Quaker. Others about me had a good deal more that was tangible than I had. Their life was easier, and they did not have as hard a struggle to get things which they wanted as we did. But they were not "chosen" and we were! As far back as I can travel in my memory I find this sense of superiority-a sort of birthright into divine grace and favor. How exactly that Quaker boy's belief corresponds with that of the Chosen People of Israel! All through our year's course, from the Call of Abraham till now, we have read the record of the Hebrew's birthright into divine grace and favor. What did Moses tell them in verses 5 and 6? What was the condition they had to fulfill if they were to be God's own possession among all nations, unto him a kingdom of priests and a holy nation? Where were they at this time? What laws were about to be given them? |