Introduction
Moses has brought the Israelites out of servitude in Egypt into the hard wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula. God has given them manna to eat and water from dry stone, but their hearts fail them when Moses goes up into the quaking, cloud-capped, lightning-crowned Mount Sinai, and does not return for over a month.
THERE upon Sinai’s peak, enveloped in thick cloud, God gave to Moses a law for the people of Israel, beginning with Ten Commandments.* They were to live by this law in the happy land to which he would bring them, bounded by the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, and the River Jordan, and utterly reject all the laws and gods of other peoples. He also showed Moses the sanctuary of heaven itself, and bade him draw up plans for an earthly temple made in its likeness.* These laws God inscribed upon two tablets of stone.
Moses was gone forty days and nights, and down below the Israelites were growing restive. Convinced Moses was dead, they persuaded Aaron to melt down the jewellery given them by the Egyptians, and cast from it a golden calf. Then they offered sacrifices to their calf-god, and sang songs to it, crediting it with delivering them from slavery in Egypt, and pleading with it to save them once more.
See The Ten Commandments in Church English in our Bible (Authorised Version) section. The list of commandments is given twice in the Bible, once in Exodus 20:3-17, and once in Deuteronomy 5:7-21.
See Exodus-24:9-11. Moses and his companions saw heaven’s own sanctuary, and “saw God, and did eat and drink”. Thereafter, it is repeatedly stated that the instructions for building an earthly temple must be carried out “according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount”. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews makes a great deal of this, saying that Christ has entered that heavenly sanctuary to plead for us before God. See Hebrews 8-9.
Archive
Word Games
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Grow. Itself. Much.
2 All. Temple. There.
3 Cast. Credit. Ten.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Opposites Find in Think and Speak
Suggest words or phrases that seem opposite in meaning to each of the words below. We have suggested some possible answers; see if you can find any others.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
Variations: 1.instead of opposites, suggest words of similar meaning (synonyms). 2.use a word and its opposite in the same sentence. 3.suggest any 5 opposites formed by adding un-.
Confusables Find in Think and Speak
In each group below, you will find words that are similar to one another, but not exactly the same. Compose your own sentences to bring out the similarities and differences between them, whether in meaning, grammar or use.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
High Tiles Find in Think and Speak
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
Your Words ()
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