In His
mercy God bore with their murmurs, fed them with manna from Heaven, and
water out of the flinty rock; and gave them the victory over the Edomite
tribe of robber Amalekites at Rephidim, where Joshua fought, and Moses,
upheld by Aaron and Hur, stretched forth his hands the whole day. Then,
fifty days after their coming out of Egypt, He called them round the
peak of Sinai to hear His own Voice proclaim the terms of the new
Covenant.
The Covenant with Abraham had circumcision for the token, faith as the
condition, and the blessing to all nations as the promise. This Covenant
remained in full force, but in the course of the last four hundred
years, sin had grown so much that the old standard, handed down from the
patriarchs, had been forgotten, and men would not have known what was
right, nor how far they fell from it, without a written Law. This Law,
in ten rules, all meeting together in teaching Love to God and man,
commanded in fact perfection, without which no man could be fit to stand
in the sight of God. He spoke it with His own Mouth, from amid cloud,
flame, thunder, and sounding trumpets, on Mount Sinai, while the
Israelites watched around in awe and terror, unable to endure the dread
of that Presence.
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