God gave the people a law
Moses passes the law. Monastery of Dionysiates, Athos
The Lord commanded Moses to go to the people and sanctify them in the next two days. People must wash their clothes and abstain from marital intercourse in order to be ready for the third day, when the Lord will descend in the presence of all the people on Mount Sinai. Preparation through ablution indicated the emergency of the upcoming event. On the third day, as morning came, there was thunder and lightning. A thick cloud appeared above the mountain. Then a strong trumpet sound was heard. All the people were in awe. Mount Sinai smoked and shook violently. The Lord descended on her in fire . The sound of the trumpet became stronger and stronger. Moses spoke, and God answered him. The Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and he ascended.
One of the most majestic epiphanies in the entire Old Testament history took place on Mount Sinai. The Lord appeared to give the chosen people the law . The Hebrew word Torah (teaching, instruction) has a broader meaning than the Greek Nomos (law) used in the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Bible). The last word expresses rather a legal aspect. The word Torah, which has become one of the most significant in the life of any Israeli, covers all aspects of life in the Israeli theocratic society .
The spiritual and moral focus of the law was the Ten Commandments (see: Ex 20:2-17; Deut 5:6-21). After the Lord announced them to the people standing near the mountain, He gave Moses two stone tablets (tablets) , on which the words of the law were inscribed by the finger of God. They contained the revelation of God . These commandments are unique. We do not find anything similar among any people of antiquity. This proves their unearthly origin. The first four are devoted to man's relationship to God. The other six concern relationships between people (see the text of the commandments and their explanation on pp. 438–450).
View from the top of Mount Moses
The second part of the Sinai legislation contained ritual and civil law. It covered all aspects of life in Israeli society. The ritual law included the regulations given by God about the tabernacle (camp temple), sacrifices, priesthood, purification, etc.
The civil law in all its parts was, as it were, an explanation of the Decalogue and gave detailed instructions for their implementation. The first and second commandments included laws on the extermination of idolatry, on sorcerers, witchcraft, and false prophets. Since we were talking about the violation of the most important commandment (I am the Lord your God... you shall have no other gods before Me. - Exodus 20:2), the laws provided for severe penalties: You shall not leave a sorcerer alive (Exodus 22:18 ); He who sacrifices to gods except the Lord alone must be destroyed (Exodus 22:20).
There were many legislative decrees related to the sixth commandment (Thou shalt not kill - Exodus 20:13). Civil law provided for the death penalty . The laws distinguished between intentional and accidental killings. Anyone who unintentionally killed a person was not subject to death sentence. However, to prevent blood feud from being carried out on him by his relatives, he was given the opportunity to hide in special cities of refuge . There were six of them.
The law gave a person the right to self-defense . If a person, having caught a robber or a thief digging in at night, killed him, then the blood was not imputed to the killer (see: Exodus 22:2). But if the sun had already risen, then blood was charged to him, because he exceeded the measure of necessary self-defense. Any murder made a person temporarily unclean (even participation in battles with the enemies of the chosen people): stay outside the camp for seven days; Whoever kills a person and touches the murdered person shall be cleansed on the third day and on the seventh day (Numbers 31:19).
Most of all there were decrees related to the commandment not to steal (see: Exodus 20:15). In addition to direct laws against theft, there were regulations against damage to other people's property, poisoning, hanging, etc. These laws were quite mild. Thus, a thief who steals an ox, donkey or sheep must pay double (see: Ex 22:4).
, two or three witnesses were sufficient for a judicial verdict , even if the convicted person was sentenced to death. Therefore, the ninth commandment strictly forbade false witness . If it was proven that the witness gave false testimony, he suffered the punishment that had previously threatened the person he had named. The testimony had to be exactly the same. In case of discrepancy, they were not accepted. The Prophet Daniel, comparing the testimony of two elders who slandered the innocent maiden Susanna, saved her from a shameful death (see: Dan 13, 51–62).
The Sinai legislation was the most important event in the plans for the economy of the salvation of mankind: the law was for us a teacher to Christ, so that we might be justified by faith (Gal 3:24). At Sinai, not only the people of Israel, but the entire human race received revelation . It was light for other peoples who were in the darkness of paganism.
During Moses' forty-day stay on Mount Sinai, Aaron, at the request of the people, who had ceased to believe that their leader would return, made a calf out of gold (see: Exodus 32:1-5). It was an idol. According to both ancient authors (Philo of Alexandria, Blessed Jerome and others) and later interpreters, the making of the calf was an imitation of the Egyptians. This is confirmed by the words of the holy Apostle and First Martyr Stephen: our fathers did not want to be obedient, but rejected him [Moses] and turned their hearts to Egypt (Acts 7:39). Making the calf was a gross violation of the first commandment . Serving the calf was apostasy from God and meant spiritual depravity. After Moses destroyed the calf, he ascended Mount Sinai a second time to beg the people's forgiveness . The leader of the people reveals the greatness of his soul by sacrificingly turning to God: forgive them their sin, and if not, then blot me out of Your book, in which You wrote (Exodus 32:32). The Lord forgave the people .
Moses hands over the Tablets of the Covenant to the people. Monastery of Dionysiates, Athos
God restored the Covenant with the chosen people. He commanded Moses to make new tablets and ascend the mountain. God descended in a cloud and passed before Moses . The Lord God confirmed the promises given earlier and reminded the commandments that He gave to the people. Moses stayed on the mountain for forty days and accomplished a great feat of prayer that surpassed natural human capabilities. Thirty-nine years later he recalled: And having prostrated myself before the Lord, I prayed as before for forty days and forty nights, I did not eat bread or drink water, for all your sins that you have committed, having done evil in the sight of the Lord and provoked Him; for I was afraid of the anger and rage with which the Lord was angry with you and wanted to destroy you. And the Lord listened to me this time too (Deuteronomy 9:18-19). Moses returned from the mountain with the tablets. His face shone so brightly that he covered it with a veil . When he entered before the face of the Lord, he removed the veil.
Read online “Secular Scandals”
Karen Hawkins
Suzanne Enoch
Social scandals
Karen Hawkins
Two hearts
I dedicate this to my cat Scat, who kindly allows me to sit in her chair while working on the computer.
Chapter 1
“If the unusually cold weather had not provided the public with a reliable topic of conversation (indeed, with our inescapable love of discussing the fickle elements, the present severe winter is a gift to those who are not strong in social eloquence), one could always relieve oneself at the expense of Miss Elizabeth Pritchard . The young lady suddenly concentrated her favorable attention on the personality of Lord Durham.
The author does not at all deny the possibility of this union: after all, Miss Pritchard is reputed to be a very wealthy bride, and no one would call her uninteresting and unattractive (despite her obvious eccentricity). However, it should be noted that she is noticeably older than ordinary debutantes and, most importantly, older than Lord Durham himself.
So, will Miss Pritchard turn into Lady Durham? Perhaps when the Thames freezes... oh, wait a minute: The Thames is already frozen.
This means that anything is possible these days.”
Lady Margaret Shelburne walked decisively towards the marble fireplace that adorned one of the walls of the dining room.
- Here! - she exclaimed majestically and with a beautiful gesture threw the newspaper into the fire. “That’s what I think about Lady Whistledown herself and her scandalous articles!”
The husband, Lord James Shelburne, sat calmly at the head of the table, read the latest issue of the Morning Post newspaper and did not even deign to raise his head. Over ten years of a happy marriage, he had long been accustomed to the theatrical antics of his emotional wife, and therefore did not consider it necessary to feign interest. Thus the need to respond fell on the shoulders of Meg's brother, Sir Royce Pemberley.
The gentleman raised his lorgnette to his eyes and looked carefully at the ashes, which had recently embodied Lady Whistledown’s next attempt to entertain society.
- Wow! And it always seemed to me that you adore our author. In any case, you constantly strive to read the latest issue as quickly as possible. Today, too, I grabbed the piece of paper from the tray before Burton could announce its arrival. And on the way, in her haste, she almost knocked me over along with the chair.
- Nothing like this. I just bent down in front of you to... - Lady Shelburne noticed a smile on her brother’s face and angrily stamped her miniature foot. - Oh, so you're teasing! This is your main flaw: you never speak seriously!
“Never,” agreed Sir Royce. “So why did honorable Lady Whistledown anger you?”
- This is not about me. She wrote about Lisa.
Lisa, better known to the general public as Miss Elizabeth Pritchard, from childhood always remained the best and closest friend of Lady Margaret Shelburne. They practically never parted, although it would take a long time to find more dissimilar ladies. Fragile, fair-haired, impeccably dressed and exquisitely combed, Meg was distinguished by a lively but inconsistent mind - the one that is usually called feminine. Elizabeth was a unique tall person, with light brown hair, cunning cat-like green eyes and a terrifying manner of dressing. At the same time, she remained one of the smartest and most logical people that Royce had the opportunity to meet on his life’s path.
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“So what did Lady Whistledown write about Lisa that was so terrible?”
“She claims, no more, no less, that Miss Pritchard is showing sympathy for one of the gentlemen, although how could she know?” That's why I asked you to come this morning, Royce. Margaret paused dramatically. - I'm afraid Lisa has decided to get married.
The words hung in the air like smoke from a newly lit candle. Lord Pemberley knew that he should feel nothing but irritation at his sister's melodramatic behavior. Still, the news came as a shock.
- Lisa? Married? Can't be! You're wrong!
No one who understood Miss Pritchard and penetrated the depths of her purely pragmatic nature could believe such nonsense. Lisa's parents died when their daughter was only three years old, and the aunt who raised her - her mother's sister - died in the year of her niece's social debut. So the girl very early found herself left to her own devices, except for the mossy old lawyer, her guardian.
A weaker person might have been at a loss, but Miss Pritchard pulled herself together and began to actively build an independent life: she bought a house, invited her poor elderly cousin to her place, and diligently learned from a lawyer the complex art of intelligently managing the considerable fortune she had inherited. At the age of twenty-five, when secular society finally registered Elizabeth as an old maid, she allocated a decent pension to her companion, moved her away and took full and sole control over all movable and immovable property into her own hands.
- I'm not mistaken at all. “The mistrust clearly offended Lady Shelburne. — The chosen one’s last name is Durham.
- Hear it for the first time.
- Nothing surprising. The gentleman is in town recently. If my memory serves me correctly, he is a distant relative of Lady Sefton.
About once every two years, evil winds brought another flock of fortune hunters into the social drawing rooms of London, and one of the unceremonious gentlemen would certainly choose Elizabeth as a victim. Fortunately, with the help of Margaret, Royce was able to safely eliminate the potential danger.
Lisa herself, however, did not notice anything. She was rarely skeptical about both her own feminine attractiveness and the attractiveness of a very respectable annual income, which, moreover, was constantly and steadily growing thanks to smart, caring management. She seemed quite content with her own lot and never showed any inclination towards marriage - just like Sir Royce himself. At least, that's what he always thought...
