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THE LAW OF GOD

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International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 15, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 15.

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THE LAW OF GOD.

The Ten Commandments Delivered to the People.

(Lesson 2.—Sabbath, May 1.)
1. WHAT preparations were required to be made before the Lord came down on Mount Sinai? Read Ex. 19:10-25.
2. Describe the appearance of the mount when the Lord descended upon it. "And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly." Ex. 19:18.
3. By whom was the Lord accompanied? "And he said, The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from Mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of his saints; from his right hand went a fiery law for them." Deut. 33:2.
4. For what purpose did he come? As stated in the verse last quoted, he came for the purpose of giving a law to the people. The preparations which the people were required to make, and the awful majesty attending the giving of the law, were designed to impress the people with a sense of its importance.
5. How did the Lord make known this law to the people? "And God spake all these words." Ex. 20:1. "And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire; ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice." Deut. 4:12.
6. When the people begged that they might not hear the voice of God any more, how did they afterward receive instruction?
7. Soon afterward what did the Lord say to Moses? "And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there; and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them." Ex. 24:12.
8. How long was Moses in the mount? "And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount; and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights." Ex. 24:18.
9. When the Lord had finished the instructions which he gave to the people through Moses, what did he give to Moses? "And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God." Ex. 31:18.
10. Whose workmanship were the tables? "And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand; the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables." Ex. 32:15, 16.
11. How and by whom was the law written on these tables?
12. When Moses saw the people dancing around a golden calf, what did he do with the tables of stone? "And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing; and Moses's anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount." Ex. 32:19.
13. After the people had been punished for their wickedness, what command did the Lord give Moses? "At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood." Deut. 10:1.
14. What did the Lord say he would write on these two new tables? "And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark." Deut. 10:2.
15. Did Moses do as he was commanded? "And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand." Deut. 10:3.
16. What did the Lord then do? "And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, in the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them unto me." Deut. 10:4.
17. What does Moses call that which the Lord wrote on these tables?
18. Then what was it the Lord spoke out of the midst of the fire on the mount?
19. After Moses had rehearsed the ten commandments to the people (Deut. 5:7-21), what did he say to them? "These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me." Deut. 5:22.
20. If the Lord "added no more," then could anything else than what was on the tables be any part of the ten commandments? When Moses was in the mount, God gave him two tables of stone made by himself, on which he had graven the "testimony" (Ex. 31:18; 32:15, 16); after these tables had been broken, Moses, at the command of God, went up into the mount, having in his hand two tables like the first (Deut. 10:1-3); on these two tables the Lord wrote the same matter that was on the first two tables, and that was the "ten commandments" (Deut. 10:4). These words, says Moses, "the Lord spake" "in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly;" therefore that which was spoken from Mount Sinai and written on the tables of stone was the ten commandments. Further: Moses, after rehearsing in substance (Deut. 5:7-21) that which is given in full in Ex. 20:1-17, said: "These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice, and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me." Deut. 5:22. Therefore we must conclude that nothing that was not written on the tables of stone can form any part of the ten commandments. In other words, the law of God, or ten commandments, is limited to that which God spoke with his own voice, and wrote with his own finger, and which is found, as so spoken and written, in Ex. 20:3-17.
21. Repeat the ten commandments. Repeat the fifth, the second, the eighth, the third, the sixth, the ninth, the fourth.