Ellet J. Waggoner
The Signs of the Times : January 14, 1886
In Nehemiah 9:13 we find the following words in the Levites’ confession to God: “You came down also on Mount Sinai; and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments.” Here we have reference made to true laws and good statutes. A good and true law would in every case condemn sin; therefore the law here referred to is of the same character as that which, being transgressed makes it necessary for the gospel to be preached. This law was given upon Mount Sinai; so we examine the law there given to see if it meets the requirements.
In the 19th of Exodus we have a description of the preparation of the people to hear the law from Sinai. We read:—
“And the Lord said to Moses, Go to the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes, and let them be ready for the third day.For the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.” Exodus 19:10, 11
“And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud; so that all the people whowere in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. And Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.” Exodus 19:16-18
This was the condition of Mount Sinai when from it God spoke “true laws, good statutes and commandments.” Chapter 20, verses 3 to 17, contains the words which God spoke at that time. We quote them in full:—
- “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
- “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
- “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”
- “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”