And the people stood afar off, but Moses went into the dark cloud [1] and the Lord gave him further laws [2] which he wrote down and explained to the people. They answered with one voice: “We will do all the words of the Lord, which He hath spoken.” Moses raised an altar at the foot of the mountain, and offered a holocaust to the Lord. And taking the blood of the victim he sprinkled the people with it, saying: “This is the blood[3] of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you, concerning all these words.”
COMMENTARY.
The Holiness of God. God, who wills what is good, and abhors what is evil, revealed His will to the children of Israel by His holy Commandments, so that they might avoid what was evil, and do what was right. And because He is holy, He desired them to sanctify and prepare themselves by penance for His Revelation.
The fearful Majesty of God. The tremendous signs, under which God manifested Himself, were intended to convince the people of His greatness and majesty, and inspire them with a wholesome fear of breaking His Commandments. Therefore Moses said to them: “The Lord is come that you may fear Him and not sin.” These tokens of the presence of God are typical of His attributes. The cloud and the smoke signified that God is invisible, and cannot be gazed at by mortal eyes. The crashing of the thunder and the terrible blast of the trumpets revealed God’s might and majesty. The lightning and the flames pointed to God’s holiness and avenging justice. The quaking of the mountain signified the fearful and unapproachable majesty of God, before which the very angels tremble. No wonder that these tokens of the presence of God filled the Israelites with fear and awe. When the Lord God Himself spoke the Ten Commandments, they were filled with such consuming fear that they nearly fainted away, and said to Moses: “Speak thou to us &c.” They felt that they must die if God spoke to them in that way. How terrible is the majesty of God! The Israelites did not see Him; they only saw the signs of His presence, and heard His voice, and yet they nearly died of terror. Fear the just God, and keep His Commandments.
- ↑ The dark cloud. In which God was (Ex. 20, 21).
- ↑ Further laws. Laws, relating partly to the civil and partly to the moral life of the people, in further explanation of the Ten Commandments. Moses, in the name of God, formally and solemnly ratified His covenant with the people, after they had promised obedience to His laws and sealed it with the blood of a sacrifice.
- ↑ This is the blood, i. e. This blood is for the ratification and sealing of the covenant.
