Today's Scripture Reading (November 21, 2024): Exodus 21
One question I have received from people is, "What exactly did God give to Moses? Did he just receive the Ten Commandments, or are there more regulations that God gave to Moses on the mountain?" It is a good question. Popular culture has Moses walking off the mountain with just two tablets on which God had written the "Big Ten." If you see a movie version of Moses, you might notice that the Ten Commandments are itemized on those tablets. But that part of the story is false. God did not itemize the Big Ten, and we disagree a little on what the Big Ten actually are.
What Moses received from God is a question that scholars continue to debate. Some argue that the entire codex of laws was given to Moses by God on the Holy Mountain. Others contend that not only were there no more regulations given to Moses, but that Moses was not the great prophet who had received the Law in the first place. The various laws of the nation were the work of an unnamed group of priests more than eight hundred years after the time of Moses. This story and the man we celebrate are nothing but figments of our imaginations.
It shouldn't be a surprise. We are a skeptical people, especially about things that we don't quite understand. It is something that even I experience. A friend recently posted on social media about a man in the 1980s who prophesied that Donald Trump would bring America back to God. My first reaction was that this was another piece of propaganda, a rewriting of history to serve a political end. The fact that the video had been removed from YouTube seemed to support my feelings. But for my friend, it was an act of censorship.
A few years ago, I had a visit from a modern prophet who handed me the same verdict on Donald Trump. Again, I still don't believe in the truth of the prophecy, but maybe I need to be less skeptical; only time will tell how Donald Trump will be seen by history. Trump has done nothing to make me believe he will lead a nation back to God, but I have been wrong before. Some scholars don't think that William Shakespeare was an actual person, but I do. So, maybe I need to give this contemporary prophet some breathing room.
I also believe that there was an actual Moses. And Moses received all of the Law from God intended for Israel, just as the biblical record states. This verse would seem to agree. There were more than just the Big Ten that God gave to Moses. God handed Moses a list of regulations on how to live life.
For us, the mystery is simply how this man would have taken so much information and delivered it to the people of Israel. It would seem to be an impossible task for us. But in a preliterate society, the task of quickly memorizing material was essential for survival. There is no reason to believe that Moses, who might have been the only literate person among the people of Israel, couldn't have learned the laws on Mount Sinai and then transmitted that material to the people.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Exodus 22
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