Chapter 66: The Ten Commandments of Moses
readx;? In order to escape Pharaoh's pursuit, Moses led the Israelites to Mount Sinai at the southeastern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, hoping to hide in the mountains and not even enter any of the cities on the way, where there were Egyptian garrisons, so they had to sleep in the wilderness. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
The Israelites began by moving forward confidently, inspired by miracles.
In the seventh week of the Exodus, the Israelites entered the vast Sinai Desert, where there was no water, no food, no greenery, not even roads, the scorching sun above their heads, the scorching sand under their feet, the fierce sandstorms in front of them, and the harassment and attacks of the Amalekites behind them. From time to time they paused their heavy steps and asked the heavens: "O God, where is the holy place you have promised?"
The arduous desert trek made Moses' ranks waver and suspicious. Plagued by constant water and hunger, and with no future in sight, some of the people in the group began to lose faith and kept shouting at Moses, "You brought us out, free, to hell with it!" They would rather go back to the place where they had so much trouble escaping and become slaves again than endure the endless toil of carriage and horses.
It is so strange that as soon as they were freed, some people began to feel nostalgic for the life of slavery, and they felt that the new life was more terrible than the whip of the slave owner. Moses looked at the lost people and was worried. He knew that after being under the rule of a tyrant for a long time, the Israelites had lost their sense of faith and independent self-esteem, and had not yet regained their courage and confidence. Therefore, he kept encouraging his people to move forward and not let them go back to being slaves. It can be said that if it were not for Moses' unyielding perseverance, perhaps these slaves who escaped from Egypt would have turned back in less than a year.
Their journey to Mount Sinai was a grumbling one, and God was angry with the Israelites' complaints and punished them for living in the wilderness of Mount Sinai for forty years.
But God loved them, made way for them, and gave them victory over their enemies.
A lot of things happened along the way:
I walked in the desert for three days without a drop of fresh water, until I reached Damara, found a kind of tree, put the tree into a certain amount of seawater, and the seawater turned into fresh water, and solved the problem of fresh water.
Starving in the wilderness of Xun, quails were found, and the food problem was solved.
There was a shortage of water in Rephidim (Massa and Merebah), but Moses had no choice but to strike the stone in anger and endure it in silence.
The Amalekites provoked the Israelites at Rephidim, and eventually the Israelites, supported by God's faith, were victorious by the theocratic system.
The local sage Jethro visited Moses and offered him a way to rule over the people, and Moses appointed him to rule over the people.
Three months after crossing the Gulf of Suez, more than a million Israel's men, women, and children arrived at the foothills of the Sinai Mountains, and most of the rest died or were separated from the arduous march.
What this community, which is about to fall apart in internal and external difficulties, needs most of all is a spiritual leader with high prestige, who will stand up and inspire and inspire people with great spiritual power, and unite them under an unshakable ideological banner. Moses understood that God's revelation and protection could bring comfort and courage to those who had lost faith in their fate.
Moses prepared to make a covenant with God and worship God on behalf of the people of Israel, and this was the peak of redemption. The Israelites were to come to know the true God, Jehovah, and then turn to God and live a holy life as his people.
On Mount Sinai, a distraught Moses left the crowd behind and climbed to the top of the mountain alone, praying to Jehovah to show his people the right way, but Jehovah never showed up. Moses meditated on the mountain for 40 days and nights. In those days, heavy clouds and mist shrouded Mount Sinai.
At the same time, the leaderless people at the foot of the mountain had mutinied, some shouting curses for Moses and bringing them to a desperate situation, others were snatching food and water from each other, and others made a golden bull to worship, marking the beginning of the polytheistic worship in Egypt, and the people were like ants on a hot pot. In the Egyptian mythological system, the belief in the Taurus is the most common.
The Jewish nation is at stake. At the critical moment, Moses came down the mountain. He was furious when he saw his people in such disarray. His eyes were like lightning, and he raised his arms and shouted: "Cast away your idols, you unbelievers! He destroyed the Golden Bull and ruthlessly suppressed the rebellion, killing a total of 3,000 men and reuniting the ranks. This purged the influence of primitive polytheistic worship in Egypt among the Israelites.
This event shocked Moses, who knew that people needed not only spiritual leaders but also written laws, or the Israelites would inevitably fall into chaos and become a unified people.
In times of crisis, he received God's help. At a time when slavery is over and freedom is just beginning, God needs to be present to personally declare the covenant norms. Moses led all the tribes out of the camp to meet God, and the people stood at the foot of the mountain in unison, looking up at Mount Sinai, where God would appear.
According to the book of Exodus, the first (and only) appearance of God before the Israelites was the first (and only) time when "the Lord descended on the mountain in fire" and "the earth shook over the mountains." On the majestic Mount Sinai, God spoke to Moses amid thunder, lightning, and dense clouds.
Moses made a covenant with God on behalf of the Israelites to make them "a kingdom of priests and a holy people," and the people were willing to accept them. That is, there was a contractual relationship between the people of Israel and God. Since then, the Sinai covenant has become an indelible historical mark for the Israelites, who have become covenant children with God.
The commandments that God promulgated to Moses, ten short verses, are engraved on two tablets of stone.
The text of the Ten Commandments:
1. Do not believe in any other god except me;
2. Do not carve or worship any idols;
3. Thou shalt not blaspheme the name of Jehovah God.
4. Keep the Sabbath day holy;
5. Honor your parents;
6. Thou shalt not murder anyone;
7. Do not ****;
8. Do not steal;
9. Do not give false testimony to frame others;
10. Don't be greedy for what others have.
This is known as the "Ten Commandments of Moses."
The content of the Ten Commandments can be broadly divided into two broad categories: the first to the fourth commandments emphasize the relationship between man and God, such as the worship of the only true God, the prohibition of the worship of any idols, the prohibition of taking God's name in vain, and the Sabbath.