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The people having re-asserted their agreement, Moses next put the words of the Lord
into writing (Exod. 24: 4). He then built an altar on twelve pillars, one for each tribe,
and caused sacrifices to be made. Half of the blood shed Moses reserved in basons. He
then took the book of the covenant, and read it over in the audience of the people: and
thy replied, "All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient" (Exod. 24: 7).
Moses then took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying:
"Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all
these words" (Exod. 24: 8).
A covenant instituted with such solemnity, framed with words of such weight and
far reaching effect, demands a respectful study. We cannot hope to do more than point
the way in articles such as these, but we earnestly trust the reader will be stirred up to see
something of the heights and depths of this revelation of the righteousness of God.
The Ten Words
(Exod. 3: 28 margin).
The ten commandments are pre-eminently the basis of the covenant:
"And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these
words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel . . . . . And he wrote upon the
tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments" (Exod. 34: 27, 28).
"He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even
ten commandments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone" (Deut. 4: 13).
Let us summarize these ten commandments. There are quite a variety of ways in
which commandments have been divided and numbered, for it must be remembered that
there is no numeration in the original. Some think that numbers 1-4 belong to the first
table and relate to God, and numbers 5-10 belong to the second table and relate to man.
This would place number 5 as `the first commandment with promise' at the head of the
list, and removes the difficulty created by the apparent promise found in Exod. 20: 6.
On the other hand `that thy days may be long upon the land' (verse 12) is the first definite
promise in the covenant.
The Companion Bible draws attention to the fact that the first five commandments
contain the title "The Lord thy God", but that no title or name of God appears in the
second set. This seems to fall under the natural division of two sets of five, the one
dealing with the love to God, the other with love to neighbour. If this be accepted, the
honouring of parents is placed upon the table devoted to the honouring of God, and
demands serious thought.
The Covenant and the Commandments.
Each of the commandments are vital parts of the covenant, and in many cases
passages may be found where this connection is definitely stated. In others it is clearly
implied. We will not occupy space in printing the commandments, but the reader with
Exod. 20: opens before him may find some help in noting the following facts and
particulars.