Part 7 (1/2)
Verse 15. The children of Israel did not call the bread from heaven manna, but they said when they saw it, [------] (Man eua), i.e., What is this?
Verses 20 to 24. By these verses it appears that while the manna invariably putrified if kept till the second day on six days of the week, yet, if the second day happened to be the seventh, then no putrefaction took place. This corresponds with what I have heard as to some Scotch cities, in which the Sabbath is so strictly observed, that if salts or jalap happened to be taken as medicine on Sat.u.r.day night, they refused to work during the whole of Sunday.
Verse 35 has been noticed on page 6.
Verse 36 must have been written when the omer had become obsolete as a measure amongst the Jews, or the verse would be unnecessary.
*Chapter xvii., w. 5 and 6. This striking the rock for water is a miracle; a devout man may believe in it; I confess I do not understand the process, although I admit it would be very useful in the desert, if practicable.
Verses 9 to 13. Can any man believe that if Napoleon had stood on an eminence near the scene at Waterloo, and had held up his hand, this would have influenced the success of either party? Why should a man believe that in relation to Moses to which he would refuse credence in the present day? and if G.o.d was really on the side of the Israelites, why did he allow his aid to depend upon whether Moses could hold up his hand?
Verses 14 and 16. Why was Amalek to be so punished? G.o.d the Creator must have created both Amalekites and Israelites, yet he favours the latter and declares war against the former from generation to generation. What a strange idea to convey in relation to an Omnipotent Deity--strife between the Infinite G.o.d and his weak and puny creature. By the expression 'the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation,' true believers may learn that G.o.d predetermined to make war upon unborn generations of Amalekites, whom he created for the purpose of exterminating.
*Chapter xviii., vv. 1 to 6. Some part of the previous history must {56} be lost, as we have no account of Moses sending his wife back; on the contrary, in chap, iv., v. 20, we are told that he took both her and his two sons into Egypt.
Jethro gave his son-in-law very sensible advice, and the only matter of surprise is that Moses listened to it. Usually, priests of different religions snarl at one another like angry, half-fed curs, growling over a solitary bone, and if a priest of one sect (out of the ordinary course) offered good advice to another sect, it would probably be treated with neglect and contempt.
*Chapter xix., w. 9, 11, 12, 13, 16, 18, and 19. In these verses we have an account of the meeting of Moses and G.o.d. If this had been in the book of Mormon or in the Koran, some Christian critic would have at once exclaimed, 'Why, this is all imposture! for these reasons--the man who led the people, and who wished to pretend that he was to have an interview with G.o.d, took very great pains to keep the people at a sufficient distance to prevent detection of his schemes; the trumpet sounding, the darkness, the thunder and lightning, are so many scenic appliances to give effect to the delusion. Perhaps the mount was a volcanic one, in which case the addition of the trumpet soundings completed the scene; and the secrecy observed as to all the transactions on the mount protected the man from exposure. How careful are the directions given to prevent any inquisitive straggler from getting sufficiently near to make a fatal discovery! But no man in his senses will believe that G.o.d blew a trumpet, or caused a trumpet to be blown, to announce his coming, and that he descended upon Sinai surrounded by fire and smoke. In all fabulous relations we find such things, but it is absurd to suppose that this refers to an Almighty and Infinite Deity. We are told in verse 20, 'The Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mount, and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount, and Moses went up.' Can you require stronger evidence of the mythological character of your book? Your Omnipresent and Infinite Deity is pictured as standing on the top of a mountain, and calling to Moses, who was down below, to come up to him.
Verse 15. This is one of the verses which no amount of commentary can make intelligible: 'Come not at your wives.' Why not?
*Chapter xx. The second verse of this chapter begins in the first person, 'I am the Lord,' and continues in the first person to verse 6, where it merges into the third person. Verse 5 is contradicted by Ezekiel, chap, xviii., v. 20, 2 Kings, chap, xiv., v. 6, and Deuteronomy, chap, xxiv., v. 16. This is as positive and distinct a specimen of contradiction as can be found anywhere. In the third commandment we are told that G.o.d is a jealous G.o.d, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations. In the other three texts, we are told that the child shall not be put to death for the father, but every man for his own sin. By the following contrast of the Fourth Commandment, as given in the second and fifth books of the Pentateuch, biblical students may judge how far they may rely on the reasons for closing the museums, mechanics' {57} inst.i.tutes and crystal palaces, and opening churches, chapels, and gin palaces on the seventh day, Chap. xx., vv. 8, 9, 10, 11.
8.--Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.
9.--Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10.--But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy G.o.d: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates:
11. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it.
DEUT. Chap, v., w. 12, 13, 14, 15.
12.--Keep the Sabbath-day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy G.o.d hath commanded thee.
13.--Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work:
14.--But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy G.o.d: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thine ox, nor thine a.s.s, nor any of thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou.
15.--And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy G.o.d brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy G.o.d commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day.
Which is the correct reason for sanctifying the Sabbath-day?
Was it because the Lord rested, or because the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt on that day? The true believer will devoutly answer, 'The Lord only knows.'
*Chapter xxi., vv. 2 to 6. Leviticus, chap, xxv., vv. 44 to 46. In these verses we find slavery acknowledged, and its continuance provided for by the law of G.o.d. The offering a slave his liberty on condition that he abandoned his wife whom he loved, and his children who are of his flesh and blood, is a piece of refined cruelty. Perhaps G.o.d did not know that a slave was capable of love, perhaps G.o.d was not aware that the slave in his hovel may have as true and as warm an affection for his wife and children as the king in his palace, or the n.o.ble in his fine mansion. Is a slave a man with a man's pa.s.sions and feelings, or is he an inferior animal? If the Bible is to be examined before replying to the question, and if we are to govern our mode of answering by the words we find there, it ceases to be a matter for wonder that there are slave States in Christian countries.
It is a beautiful theory this, and worthy of a place in a revelation from an all-wise and all-good G.o.d--i. e., that a man may be a religious man and yet keep his brother and sister as male and female slaves, breeding and begetting other slaves. How did this slavery originate?
before the flood slaves are not mentioned. If G.o.d made all men originally free, how did any become slaves? {58} Verse 6 is contradicted in Leviticus, chap, xxv., w. 39 to 42.