SERIES D --- YHVH’S TABERNACLE --- LESSON 10

DEVOTED TO YHVH ONLY

THE TERMS OF YHVH’S COVENANT

From Exodus 34

[Cut two stone tablets like the ones you broke and I will write on them the same Commandments which I wrote on the others,] Adonai told Moses. [In the morning come up into Mount Sinai and present yourself to Me in the mountaintop. No one else may come with you to any part of the mountain. Even the flocks and herds must stay away from the mountain and not graze nearby.] Early the next morning Moses climbed into the mountain with two tablets of stone like the first ones, as Adonai had told him to do. When Moses reached the top of Mount Sinai, Adonai descended in a pillar of cloud and proclaimed His Name to Moses. Then Adonai passed before Moses and said, [I am Adonai, Merciful and Gracious, Slow to Anger, Abundant with Truth and Loving-Kindness. I reveal My love to thousands by forgiving their sins. But I also punish the guilty, sometimes carrying that punishment as far as the third and fourth generations.] Moses quickly fell to the ground to worship. [If I have found favour in Your sight O Adonai, go with us on our journey, even though the people are stubborn. Forgive our sins and receive us as Your own.] [I will make a Covenant and will perform miracles before the people which have never been performed in all the earth before any nation of people,] Adonai said. [All of your people will see My awesome and fearful Power which I will show to you. If you obey My Commandments, I will drive out from the land where you are going the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. You must never make a covenant with these people who already live in the Promised Land, for it will become a trap for you, drawing you into their evil ways. Instead, tear down their altars, break their idols and destroy their shrines. For My Name is jealous, because I am a jealous YHVH and I want you to be devoted only to Me. Make no peace treaties with the people of the land, for when they go running after their heathen gods and invite you to eat with them, you may go and even worship the heathen gods yourselves. Before long, you will have let your sons marry their daughters, who worship these idols and then your sons will turn against Me and worship their wives’ gods. No, you must have nothing to do with these heathen idols. Remember to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, as I Commanded you, in the month of Abib, which is toward the latter part of March, for that is the month when you left Egypt. Every firstborn male belongs to Me, whether it is from cattle, sheep or goats. The firstborn of a donkey may be redeemed by giving a lamb in exchange for it. If you do not want to redeem it, then you must break its neck. Every firstborn son must be redeemed and not one of you shall appear before Me empty-handed, without a gift. You must work only six days of each week, resting on the seventh day. This must be observed even during the times of ploughing and harvest. [Three times each year every man and boy must celebrate a great festival {Yamim Tovim} and appear before Adonai. These three festivals are the Pesach {Feast of Unleavened Bread – Passover}, Shavuot {the Feast of Weeks, and Sukkoth {Booths or Tabernacles} at the time of harvest. You don’t have to worry about an attack from your enemies when you go to these feasts or festivals, for I will drive out your enemies and enlarge your borders. When you sacrifice to Me, do not use leavened bread. Let none of the meat from Pesach remain until morning. Each year bring the first and best of your harvest to the tabernacle. When you cook a young goat, never boil it in its own mother’s milk.] Adonai also said to Moses, [Write the Words of these Commandments, for they state My Covenant with you and the people of Israel.] Moses remained there on Mount Sinai with Adonai for forty days and forty nights. During all that time he did not eat or drink. Adonai again wrote the Ten Commandments on the tablets of stone which Moses brought. But when Moses descended from the mountain with the tablets of stone, he did not realize that the skin on his face gave off a radiant light, for he had been in Adonai’s Presence. When Aaron and the people of Israel saw Moses’ face, they were afraid to come near him. When Moses called for them to come near, Aaron and the leaders of the people came to talk with him. Later the other people came and Moses presented to them Adonai’s Commandments that He had given on the mountain. Moses put a veil over his face when he finished speaking to the people of Israel. Whenever he went into Adonai’s Presence to speak to Him, Moses removed the veil. And whenever he came out to speak to the people of Israel, he put the veil on again, for the people would see the radiance of his face if he did not wear it.

COMMENTARY

IMAGES AND IDOLS OF THE PAST

During their years in Egypt, the Israelites became very familiar with the images and idols of the many gods worshiped by the Egyptians. But in the wilderness of the Sinai, things were very different. Gone were Osiris, judge of the dead and his wife Isis. The elaborate preparation of bodies for burial was no more. Instead, those who died on the journey were wrapped in their cloaks and buried in a shallow pit in the ground. Instead of the jackal-headed god Anubis, god of the dead, real jackals circled the edge of the Israelites’ camp. The goddess Nekhebet did not appear as a harmless image. Living vultures flew over the people of Israel, waiting to feast on those who died on the way. Live cobras lurked hidden in the desert sands. They did not appear as Udjar, the cobra-goddess represented on the pharaoh’s headdress. Bes, god of all pleasures, was gone. And gone were most of the pleasures of Egypt as the Israelites struggled toward their goal. The life-giving rays of the sun bestowed by Amon-Ra, the sun god, had become heat without mercy in the desert. In place of all the Egyptian idols that could be seen and touched, the Israelites had YHVH Elohiym who was invisible. He had forbidden them to make any images representing Him, not even a stone or a staff.