The Lord continued His instructions in matters of justice and mercy. Examples:
"You shall not utter a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man, to be a malicious witness. You shall not follow a multitude to do evil; nor shall you bear witness in a suit, turning aside after a multitude, so as to pervert justice; nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his suit." (Exodus 23:1-3 RSV) "You shall not oppress a stranger; you know the heart of a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." (Exodus 23:9 RSV)The Lord's Sabbath also applied to working animals, even the land itself.
"For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield; but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild beasts may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard. Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your ass may have rest, and the son of your bondmaid, and the alien, may be refreshed." (Exodus 23:10-12 RSV)The Lord's Holy Days were grouped according to their season and timely fulfillment as it will come.
"Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to Me. You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; as I commanded you, you shall eat Unleavened Bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib [see Bible Calendar and Bible Months], for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed. [see Christ's Passover and Christ's Feast of Unleavened Bread]Exodus Chapter 24
You shall keep the Feast of Harvest [later also called Pentecost], of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. [see Christ's Pentecost]
You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering [also called The Feast of Tabernacles] at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. [see Christ's Feast of Trumpets, Christ's Day Of Atonement, Christ's Feast of Tabernacles and Christ's Eighth Day]
Three times in the year shall all your males appear before The Lord God." (Exodus 23:14-17 RSV)
Centuries later, Jesus Christ plainly stated that, of all men, He was the only one to ever have seen the Father i.e. "Not that any one has seen the Father except Him who is from God" (John 6:46 RSV). However, people did see The Lord God, The One who would be born as Christ, The One Who delivered the Israelites out of Egypt i.e. "I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized [see also Old Testament Baptisms and The Origin of Baptism] into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same supernatural food and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ." (1 Corinthians 10:1-4 RSV). It was Jesus Christ who gave The Ten Commandments to the Israelites - and to all of humanity. "They saw the God of Israel":
"Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, "All that The Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient." And Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people, and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant which The Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words."Moses then spent 40 days and 40 nights on the mountain with The Lord (see the Fact Finder question below).
Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank." (Exodus 24:7-11 RSV)
"Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of The Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of The Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. And Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights." (Exodus 24:15-18 RSV)Exodus Chapter 25
The Lord then gave Moses instructions for the construction of the The Ark Of The Covenant (see also Raiders Of The Lost Ark), The Tabernacle and the furnishings within.
"And this is the offering which you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen, goats' hair, tanned rams' skins, goatskins, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. According to all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it." (Exodus 25:3-9 RSV) "They shall make an ark of acacia wood; two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. And you shall overlay it with pure gold, within and without shall you overlay it, and you shall make upon it a molding of gold round about. And you shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. You shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold [see The Gold-Covered Staves]. And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark by them. The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. And you shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you." (Exodus 25:10-16 RSV)
And you shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The base and the shaft of The Lampstand shall be made of hammered work; its cups, its capitals, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it; and there shall be six branches going out of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it; three cups made like almonds, each with capital and flower, on one branch, and three cups made like almonds, each with capital and flower, on the other branch - so for the six branches going out of the lampstand; and on the lampstand itself four cups made like almonds, with their capitals and flowers, and a capital of one piece with it under each pair of the six branches going out from the lampstand." (Exodus 25:31-35 RSV)
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