Moses and all those laws

Further digging on the Internet brings out the fact that many people understand that Mount Sinai is in Midian in Arabia (Saudi Arabia).

I am convinced that the mountain where Moses gained the Ten Commandments is Jabal Maqla (there are other versions of the name) in Saudi Arabia. It is recorded that the locals call it the Mountain of Moses. The Bible record is supported by the physical evidence that is there to be seen by the unprejudiced eye.

And why wouldn't Moses come back to the place he knew so well from having lived there for forty years?

Having satisfied myself about all that, I can now get on with more of Exodus.

I find it hard to believe that Moses, having received the succinct laws of the Ten Commandments, went on to give three chapters of minor laws of behaviour amongst men (chapters 21, 22, 23). And he wrote them all down (Ex. 24:4)! It was good (for me) to find a balm, amongst all the minutiae, in verse 23:25, “And I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.”

I wonder what the Jews of to-day make of all those laws.

After the wanderers had shoved out the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites (e.g. Ex. 23:23 for one place we find these) – “They shall not dwell in thy land.”

The Israelis of to-day, it seems, have done and are doing the same to the Palestinians.

I gather that there had to be a covenant, and agreement between the two parties (God and the people), about all these laws. No good giving laws if the people didn't agree to keep them. So Moses read the book of the covenant to the people and they said, “All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient” (24:7).

I have now finished reading Exodus and am staggered at Moses' attention to detail.  And that the people had with them the wherewithal to produce everything  he asked for, from what they "had in the house" so to speak, in order to build the tabernacle. The numbers of the Israelites on that journey is hard to comprehend.  

Stop Press: I just found an article, Sunday School Work Progressive, by Annie M Knott, in the June 3rd, 1916 Christian Science Sentinel:

In the earlier years of Christian Science work a great effort was needed to rise above the material sense of the Scriptures, which denied the present availability of divine Truth, and which dealt in a vague way with prophecy; as if its meaning could be gathered from dates, past or present, when its real value depends upon its daily fulfilment in individual experience.

Thinking back on my delving into the book of Exodus, it seems I have a need to do a better job of "ris(ing) above the material sense of the Scriptures," as demanded by this article.

I promise to consult our Shepherd more closely in the future, in my musing for the blog.

Joyce Voysey