p. 17 | The Bible Year

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 27, 1916

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 5.

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The Bible Year

Assignment for January 30 to February 5

JANUARY 30: Exodus 16 to 18.

JANUARY 31: Exodus 19 to 22.

FEBRUARY 1: Exodus 23 to 26.

FEBRUARY 2: Exodus 27 to 29.

FEBRUARY 3: Exodus 30 to 32.

FEBRUARY 4: Exodus 33 to 35.

FEBRUARY 5: Exodus 36 to 38.

To Think About as You Read

JANUARY 30: The Lord will provide.

JANUARY 31: Am I keeping the spirit as well as the letter of the ten commandments?

FEBRUARY 1: Does my life conform to the requirements of justice and humanity required by the moral law?

FEBRUARY 2: What is my attitude of heart toward God’s sanctuary?

FEBRUARY 3: What idols do I worship?

FEBRUARY 4: Do I come into real heart communion with God? What about being a willing giver for his sanctuary?

FEBRUARY 5: How is my soul temple adorned for his indwelling?

Sinai

The peninsula of Sinai is a triangle whose western side extends along the Gulf of Suez for about one hundred and ninety miles, and whose eastern border is washed by the waters of the Gulf of Akabah. The peninsula contains about 11,500 square miles, being somewhat larger than the State of Vermont. “A rugged mass of granite mountains occupies the body of the peninsula, the eastern and western ranges meeting in an angle at the south.”

“The Scripture use of the two names Sinai and Horeb [“dry”] is such as to make it probable that Horeb was the general name for the mountain group, and Sinai the name of the special summit on which Jehovah descended in fire and ‘talked with’ Israel.”

There has been considerable discussion as to which of the numerous peaks of the Sinai peninsula is the one from which the law was given. The general opinion, however, points to the northern peak of an isolated ridge, two miles long from northwest to southeast, and about a mile broad. This northern peak rises “high above all other mountains near it and in sight, and is so isolated from them by the plain and by deep and steep ravines, that bounds might have been set around it. At its very base lies the Wady-er-Rahah [“rest”], a plain two miles long from southeast to northwest, and a half mile wide, containing two million square yards available standing room, a space doubled by the valleys which open into it on the east.”

The Law Given

The giving of the law at Sinai was one of the most momentous events of earth’s history. “All eyes,” says one writer, “may well be turned to Exodus 20 and the sublime event therein recorded.”

“The law was not spoken at this time exclusively for the benefit of the Hebrews. God honored them by making them the guardians and keepers of his law, but it was to be held as a sacred trust for the whole world. The precepts of the decalogue are adapted to all mankind, and they were given for the instruction and government of all. Ten precepts, brief, comprehensive, and authoritative, cover the duty of man to God and to his fellow man; and all based upon the great fundamental principle of love. ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.’” —“Patriarchs and Prophets,” page 305.

Comfort of the Bible

“Weary human nature lays its head on the bosom of the divine Word, or it has nowhere to lay its head. Tremblers on the verge of the dark and terrible valley which parts the land of the living from the untried hereafter, take this hand of human tenderness yet godlike strength, or they totter into the gloom without prop or stay. They who look their last upon the beloved dead, listen to this voice of soothing and peace, or else death is no uplifting of everlasting doors, and no enfolding in everlasting arms, but an ending as appalling to the reason as to the senses, the usher to a charnel house whose highest faculties and noblest feelings lie crushed with the animal wreck, an infinite tragedy, maddening and sickening, a blackness of darkness forever.”—C. E. Stowe, “Origin and History of the Books of the Bible,” page 35.

The Bible First

“It is related of Alexander Duff, the great missionary to India, who spent his last years in teaching theology in New College, Edinburgh, that he loved to tell his students this story of his outward voyage to India. He was a great lover of the classics, and took special delight in the library of carefully selected volumes which friends had furnished as a part of his missionary outfit. In rounding the Cape of Good Hope the vessel was wrecked and nearly everything on board lost. As the passengers gathered about a fire on the beach a sailor brought to Dr. Duff a book which had been washed ashore and asked him if it was his. It proved to be his Bible, wrinkled and discolored by sea water, but still legible. He took it as an omen from heaven, and from that hour, though always a leader in education, he made the Bible central in his thought and study and teaching.”—“Why Read and Study the Bible?” page 13.