teach them the statutes and instructions and make known to them the way they are to go and the things they are to do.
You should also look for able men among all the people, men who fear God, are trustworthy, and hate dishonest gain; set such men over them as officers over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.
Let them sit as judges for the people at all times; let them bring every important case to you, but decide every minor case themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you.
If you do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people will go to their home in peace.”
24 So Moses listened to his father-in-law and did all that he had said.
Moses chose able men from all Israel and appointed them as heads over the people, as officers over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.
And they judged the people at all times; hard cases they brought to Moses, but any minor case they decided themselves.
Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went off to his own country.
19 On the third new moon after the Israelites had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai.
They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain.
Then Moses went up to God; the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites:
You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine,
but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.”
MEETING WITH GOD
This talk of “meeting” is, no doubt, anthropomorphic; as if God and I could be face to face, like two fellow-creatures, when in reality He is above me and within me and below me and all about me. That is why it must be balanced by all manner of metaphysical and theological abstractions. But never, here or anywhere else, let us think that while anthropomorphic images are a concession to our weakness, the abstractions are the literal truth. Both are equally concessions; each singly misleading, and the two together mutually corrective. Unless you sit to it very tightly, continually murmuring “Not thus, not thus, neither is this Thou,” the abstraction is fatal. It will make the life of lives inanimate and the love of loves impersonal. The naïf image is mischievous chiefly in so far as it holds unbelievers back from conversion. It does believers, even at its crudest, no harm.
—from Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
For reflection
Exodus 19:7–25
7 So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him.
The people all answered as one: “Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do.” Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after.”
When Moses had told the words of the people to the LORD,
the LORD said to Moses: “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes
and prepare for the third day, because on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
You shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Be careful not to go up the mountain or to touch the edge of it. Any who touch the mountain shall be put to death.
No hand shall touch them, but they shall be stoned or shot with arrows;[41 (#ulink_d9951d09-5541-521f-8061-a58541f5504c)] whether animal or human being, they shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they may go up on the mountain.”
So Moses went down from the mountain to the people. He consecrated the people, and they washed their clothes.
And he said to the people, “Prepare for the third day; do not go near a woman.”
16 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled.
Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain.
Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the LORD had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently.
As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder.
When the LORD descended upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, the LORD summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people not to break through to the LORD to look; otherwise many of them will perish.
Even the priests who approach the LORD must consecrate themselves or the LORD will break out against them.”
Moses said to the LORD, “The people are not permitted to come up to Mount Sinai; for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and keep it holy.’”
The LORD said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you; but do not let either the priests or the people break through to come up to the LORD; otherwise he will break out against them.”
So Moses went down to the people and told them.
20 Then God spoke all these words:
2 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;
you shall have no other gods before[42 (#ulink_8244b043-181f-52b5-b545-6e2881ba344d)] me.
4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me,
but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation[43 (#ulink_3cc9c2a8-5521-5bfe-93d4-6df1da02479a)] of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
