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

Mary Baker Eddy: A Centennial Appreciation

April book: Mary Baker Eddy: A Centennial Appreciation 

A series of articles reprinted from The Christian Science Journal, January to December 1966

“My appreciation of Mrs. Eddy has grown with the years, but since I read the book Mary Baker Eddy: A Centennial Appreciation, it is greater than ever.”  - Mary Holmstrom Christian Science Journal Feb 1970

Copies of this book should hopefully be in your Christian Science Reading Room, otherwise, readers with a subscription to www://jsh-online.com can click on the links below I hope.

Contents:

1. Mary Baker Eddy: Her fulfilment of prophecy
by Julia M Johnston

2. Mary Baker Eddy: Discoverer
by Robert Peel

3. Mary Baker Eddy: Founder
by Floyd C. Shank

4. Mary Baker Eddy: Leader
by Ralph B. Scholfield

5. Mary Baker Eddy: Lecturer and preacher
by Paul Stark Seeley

6. Mary Baker Eddy: Author
by Peter J. Henniker-Heaton

7. Mary Baker Eddy: Practitioner
by Elizabeth Glass Barlow

8. Mary Baker Eddy: Teacher and educator
by DeWitt John

9. Mary Baker Eddy: Her influence upon science
by F. Karl Willenbrock

10. Mary Baker Eddy: Her influence upon theology
by Allison W. Phinney, Jr.

11. Mary Baker Eddy: Her influence upon medicine
by John M. Tutt

12. Mary Baker Eddy: Her prophecies
by L. Ivimy Gwalter

Milestones for Moses

Moses' age and other numerical details at different stages of the Exodus story:

40 years old when he first visited his fellow Israelites in Egypt. So, forty years living in Pharaoh's environment.

40 years in Midian.

80 years when confronted with the burning bush and reluctantly accepted the duty of bringing the enslaved Israelites out of Egypt.

120 when the Promised Land was conquered. He was not allowed to visit the Promised Land, though he saw it. He had been disobedient in that he struck the rock so that the water would flow from it. The book of Numbers has the story (20:1-12): Moses was told by God to speak to the rock rather than strike it. He didn't give God the credit. What an example for Christians. This mighty servant of the Lord was disobedient in this one thing and punished for it.

120 when he passed from this earth. “His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated,” we read in Deuteronomy. And tradition has it that he did not die. “No man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day,” being the basis of the tradition.

When he was in Midian, he never forgot his people, the Israelites, so he was ready and listening when God got his attention with the burning bush. How about this command: “Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt”? What a commission! He put all his objections to divine Mind and that Mind (God) gave him the assurance that it was up to him, and that he could do it.

In our time, Mary Baker Eddy was given a similar challenge - that of telling mankind that they need not be in error's thrall; they can claim their son-ship and daughter-ship of Spirit, God. They can put off their enslavement to the belief in matter as all.

So, I am trying to get back to my emphasis on Midian in the Moses story. He travelled back to Egypt, taking his wife and his sons – on an ass; one each we hope. It is gratifying that Aaron was listening to Mind enough to come out into the wilderness to meet Moses.

One wonders how long it took to get the people away from Pharaoh's influence. Years?

The narrative of Exodus in chapter 14 is swift moving, making for an excited feeling, but the time taken must have made for a slow journey.

Joyce Voysey

Mount Sinai and Midian

I learn that Exodus was written in Hebrew and that the Greek translator of the Old Testament gave it its Latin form. Exodus means “exit” or “departure.”

It had never quite struck me that the Hebrew people were liberated from the oppression in Egypt many years after Joseph had had such a big influence there, but also it was a liberating of their thought which came with Moses' teaching of the Ten Commandments and the whole of the Law.

Dummelow's One Volume Commentary on the Holy Bible (Dummelow) says the book falls into three parts: 

1.     Israel in Egypt: their Oppression and Deliverance

2.     The March from the Red Sea to Mount Sinai

3.     Israel at Sinai

It is always helpful to check the geography in Bible study. Perhaps the reference to Egypt and the Red Sea is easier to comprehend than Sinai. The Sinai Peninsular is that V-shaped piece of country

between Egypt and what are now Israel and Palestine. My map tells me the area is about 140 miles by 120 miles at its widest point.

At this stage I looked up Sinai using Google. I see that it is part of Egypt now, and in Moses time was under the influence of Egypt.

Then my attention was drawn to a YouTube video titled The Real Mount Sinai Found in Saudi Arabia. Wow! It has totally changed my view of the location of the mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments. The people in the video feel they have proved the site is in Midian, on the north western part of the Arabian Peninsular.

I am now reading Exodus with this important Midian angle in mind. It is my hope readers of this blog will investigate that internet site for themselves, and journey with me as I see what the Bible really says.

The original man Midian was a son of Abraham and the concubine Keturah; he was expelled as being a rival to Abraham and Sarah's son, Isaac. We hear the name Midianites in Joseph's story – he as sold by his brothers to the Midianite merchantmen in their jealousy of Joseph.

“Midian” makes an entry early in Exodus. It was to Midian that Moses fled after he killed a man - he felt he was defending his people, the Israelites. It was in Midian that Moses married one of the seven daughters of the priest of Midian (Reuel in Ex. 2:18 and Jethro in Ex. 3:1), Zipporah. They had a son Gershom.

So, we find that Moses was very familiar with Midian. It was here also that God told him it was his task to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt (chapter 3 and 4).

Joyce Voysey

Characters in Exodus

Even though Moses is definitely the star, Exodus is full of other people, perhaps giving us some indication of what a vibrant and varied group the 'children of Israel' (Ex 11: 10) were at this stage. At a quick glance, here's who appears in the account:

women
- Hebrew midwives (Ex 1:15-22)
- a daughter of Levi (Ex 2:1) - Moses' mother
- Moses' sister (Ex 2:4)
- the daughter of Pharaoh and her maidens
- 7 daughters of the priest of Midian (Ex 2:16)
- Zipporah (one of the daughters) (Ex 2:21) - Moses' wife
- every woman and daughters (Ex 3:22)
- a Canaanitish woman (Ex 6:15)
- Jochebed (Ex 6:20) - Amram's wife (Moses and Aaron's mother)
- Elisheba (Ex 6:23) - Aaron's wife
- one of the daughters of Putiel (Ex 6:25) - Aaron's son Eleazar's wife
- our daughters (Ex 10:9)
- Miriam the prophetess (Ex 16:20) - Moses' sister
- wives (Ex 19:16)
- mothers (Ex 20:12)
- neighbour's wife...and maidservant (Ex 20:17)
- wives and daughters (Ex 21)
- widow (Ex 2: 21)
- everyone whose heart stirred him up...both men and women (Ex 35:21-22)
- women that were wise-hearted (Ex 35:25)
- every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work (Ex 35:29)

men
- Jacob's descendants, including Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Joseph - (Ex 1:1-6)
- a new king over Egypt ([Pharaoh], which knew not Joseph (Ex 1:8-22)
- a man of the house of Levi (Ex 2:1)
- baby Moses (Ex 2:2-10); - the man Moses (Ex 2:11 onward)
- an Egyptian fighting a Hebrew (Ex 2:11-12)
- two Hebrew men fighting (Ex 2:13-14)
- the priest of Midian* (Ex 2:15) - named Reuel here (Ex 2:18)
- shepherds (Ex 2:17)
- Moses' son, Gershom (Ex 2:22); sons (Ex 4:20); sons Gershom & Eliezer (Ex 18:3-6)
- Jethro* - [Moses'] father in law (Ex 3:1; Ex 4:18; Ex 18:1-24)
- mention of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Ex 3:6)
- a new Pharaoh (Ex 2: 23 and Ex 3:10)
- Aaron (Ex 4:27-30; Ex 5:1 etc)
- the officers of the children of Israel (Ex 5:15, 19)
- the descendants of Jacob's sons (Ex 6:14-25) - became a great army (Ex 6:26)
- Pharaoh's servants (Ex 7:10)
- Pharaoh's wise men and sorcerers and magicians (Ex 7:11, 22; Ex 8:7 etc)
- 600,000 men on foot (Ex 12:37)
- servants (Ex 12:44)
- Amalek (Ex 17:8-14)
- Joshua and Hur (Ex 17:10-13; Ex 24:13-14)
- father (Ex 20:12)
- manservant (Ex 20:17)
- judges (Ex 21:6)
- Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar - Aaron's sons (Ex 28: 1 onward; also Ex 38:21)
- Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur (Ex 31:2)
- Joshua the son of Nun (Ex 33:11)
- wise-hearted men eg. Bezaleel and Aholiab (Ex 36:1,2; Ex 38: 23)
- Ahisamach the engraver and a cunning workman, and an embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and fine linen (Ex 38:23)

What lessons can we learn from this book? Mary Baker Eddy wrote: "Of old the children of Israel were saved by patient waiting" (Retrospection and Introspection 79:25). Perhaps that's an area of investigation worth undertaking as we delve more deeply into Exodus.

Julie Swannell

Moses' break with an ancient civilization

Moses (possibly born between 1592-1571 BCE) is the obvious protagonist in the book of Exodus. What are we to make of him? His early years differed from those of his fellow Hebrews. (In fact, I wonder how many other Hebrew boys survived, in the light of Pharaoh's decree that all the male babies should be killed - see Ex. 1:16.) So, the baby Moses was sheltered in Pharaoh's own home, by none other than Pharaoh's sister. No doubt, he was given a fine Egyptian education.

Writing in 1887, Professor Anson Morse of Amherst College, suggests that by the time Moses was designated leader of the Hebrew people, the world had reached a crisis. Morse indicates the differences between the two cultures: Egyptian civilization was unsurpassed, but it was already ancient and past its prime. Egyptian religion included symbolism and idolatry and was inextricably tied to their land. Egyptian politics was despotic. In contrast, the Hebrew nation was new and energetic, having 'physical vigour and moral energy'. Their religion was monotheistic and progressive, inherited from Abraham and his line. And finally, Morse indicates that Hebrew politics represented a 'freer pastoral organization', so different from the rigidity of the urban Egyptian polity. The two cultures did not mesh. The Hebrews had to leave. [See Morse, Anson D. “The Task and Education of Moses.” The Old Testament Student, vol. 7, no. 1, 1887, pp. 16–20. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3156271.]

It is wonderfully helpful to ponder the definition of Moses given by Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (page 592), in part: 'moral courage; a type of moral law and the demonstration thereof'. The eighty-year-old Moses certainly demonstrated moral courage as he led his people out of Egypt. and gave them (and the whole world) what we now refer to as the Ten Commandments. Succeeding generations can look back to this period in history for inspiration and courage.

Julie Swannell

'love across our boundaries' (Ruth Duck)

Here's a link to a most interesting interview at the Mary Baker Eddy library. The interviewee is Ruth Duck, who has written the words of several hymns in our 2017 hymn book:

439 As a fire is meant for burning
509 In Christ there is no East or West
590 To God compose a song of joy
593 We gather together

One of the interesting aspects of her work includes making the language of hymns (and worship in general) less male-gendered. She also speaks about healing.

Jonathan Eder and Ryan Vigil spoke to Ruth.

JS