Exodus Pt 6

 

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Sinai and The Ten Commandments

So I am in the middle of rereading--for the umpteenth time--Chapter 20, because of course that is where you can find The Ten Commandments, when an alert pops up on my phone about the verdict coming in soon in the Trial of He Who I'll Not Give The Satisfaction of Mentioning By Name. I have to say that any serious studying came to a temporary halt as I, along with darned near everyone else, waited for the news, wondering if in fact the law would somehow apply to someone who has managed to avoid any meaningful consequences his entire life. By golly, do you think it is any sort of coincidence that these thirty-four guilty verdicts came down at the very same time I was preparing this installment, the one that focuses close attention on the Basic Rules as Handed Down by God His Own Darn Self?

    I think not.

    Or maybe so.

    But that's not what we're here for, now is it?

    We're here for Exodus, Chapters 19 and 20, so let's get to it.

    After Moses' father-in-law Jethro heads back home to Midion--I think that's his home base, but I can't find it in my notes--the Israelites do some more desert wandering, and as we catch up with them at the beginning of Chapter 19, they have been trekking and checking their Rand McNally atlas for exactly three months and are currently camped out in front of Mount Sinai, trying to invent GPS, or SatNav, depending on which branch they happened to be on the Babel tree.

    Moses hears God call him to the top of the mountain, so he heads on up to see if maybe they can get a bit of variety in their diet, the fine and flaky mannon not being a tremendous hit with the toddlers, or those with IBS. God reminds Moses that he is the one who calls the meeting and establishes the agendas and what is on the slate now is what he sees as a real need to establish some basic rules and regulations concerning human behavior, which, from what we've seen so far seems to be a pretty good idea. He tells Moses he will present the specifics in three days, and in the meantime he wants everyone to wash their clothes and make sure not to get too close to the mountain, because if they do he'll have to kill them. So Moses tells the people to do laundry and "do not go near a woman", which isn't exactly the same as don't touch the mountain, but maybe he misheard God's instructions.

    On the morning of the third day all heck breaks loose around Mount Sinai. Billowing smoke, trumpets blaring, thunder and lightning, you name it. Moses tries to say something to God and God answers him back in thunder. A really impressive show for the people, who are all thinking this was definitely worth the trouble of washing their clothes, but maybe not yet sure about the three kanoodle-free nights. Maybe there will be fireworks.

    Moses goes up the mountain and God tells him, again, that if anybody else follows they will die. He likes his privacy. Moses says the people understand and they've all got clean robes on, and as far as he knows there hasn't been any hanky-panky, and God reminds him that last one was Moses' idea, not his, but he admires the initiative. He then says, you know what, Aaron can come up. Aaron's an okay guy. But that's it, none of those other priests. Anybody else comes up and there'll be trouble.

    And then God clears his throat, grabs the podium firmly on both sides, and, as Chapter 20 gets underway, "spoke all these words."

    No, I'm not going to give you all of the words. That's why you're getting your Bible info with me, because you want the abridged version. The section that follows is where The Ten Commandments appear, and surprisingly, at least to me, they are not presented in a bullet point format.

1. ...you shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol. (There's more, with specifics about under water and such, but the part that caught my eye was this...) "for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments."
3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God...
4. Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. (He goes on a bit, but that's the core.)
5. Honor your father and mother.
6. You shall not commit murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (by which I'm hoping the Hebrew for neighbor means everyone, but I'm not the scholar here.) And finally, this next one is kinda long but I am going to give it to you in it's entirety.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

    That number Ten is a bit of an eye opener, don't you think? Or maybe not so much, since we've already been presented with abundant evidence that women don't count for much as actual human beings in the Old Testament so far.

    

    Moses then goes down to the people and tells them it's all okay and that God just wanted to make sure they are afraid of him so they'll behave themselves.

    God then gives Moses instructions about the sort of altar he likes and also tells him not to go up the steps of any altar because them people might be able to look up his robe.

    And this concludes our time with the Ten Commandments. If you're into Rules and Regulations, stay with us, because before too long we're going to have several gazillion coming your way.

Be nice to each other, okay?