Bible History Old Testament Vol 2 by Alfred Edersheim

Author:Alfred Edersheim
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion & Spirituality
Published: 2012-12-07T16:00:00+00:00

11. EXODUS 20:18-24:12

Civil & Social Ordinances of Israel as the People of God Their Religious Ordinances in their National Aspect The “Covenant made by Sacrifice” and the Sacrificial Meal of Acceptance

THE impression produced upon the people by the phenomena accompanying God’s revelation of His law was so deep, that they entreated that any further Divine communication might be made through the mediatorship of Moses. As Peter, when the Divine power of the Lord Jesus suddenly burst upon him, (Luke 5:8) felt that he, a sinful man, could not stand in the presence of his Lord, so were the children of Israel afraid of death, if they continued before God. But such feelings of fear have nothing spiritual in themselves. While Moses acceded to their request, he was careful to explain that the object of all they had witnessed had not been the excitement of fear (Exodus 20:20), but such searching of heart as might issue, not in slavish apprehension of outward consequences, but in that true fear of God, which would lead to the avoidance of sin.

And now Moses stood once more alone in the “thick darkness, where God was.” The ordinances then given him must be regarded as the final preparation for that covenant which was so soon to be ratified. (Exodus 24) For, as the people of God, Israel must not be like the other nations. Alike in substance and in form, the conditions of their national life, the fundamental principles of their state, and the so-called civil rights and ordinances which were to form the groundwork of society, must be Divine. To use a figure: Israel was God’s own possession. Before hallowing and formally setting it apart, God marked it out, and drew the boundary lines around His property. Such was the object and the meaning of the ordinances, (Exodus 20:22; 23) which preceded the formal conclusion of the covenant, recorded in Exodus 24: Accordingly the principles and “judgments” (21:1), or rather the “rights” and juridical arrangements, on which national life and civil society in Israel were based, were not only infinitely superior to anything known or thought of at the time, but such as to embody the solid and abiding principles of national life for all times. And in truth they underlie all modern legislation, so that the Mosaic ordinances are, and will remain, the grand model on which civil society is constructed. fk1

Without entering into details, we note the general arrangement of these ordinances. They were preceded by a general indication of the manner in which Israel was to worship God. (Exodus 20:22-26) As God had spoken to Israel “from heaven,” so they were not to make any earthly representation of what was heavenly. On the other hand, as God would “come unto” them — from heaven to earth, and there hold intercourse with them, the altar which was to rise from earth towards heaven was to be simply “an altar of earth” (ver. 24), or if of stones, of such as were in the condition in which they had been found in the earth.

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