After the Lord had thrown "the horse and his rider" into the sea, the children of Israel went on into the wilderness, and found no water for three days. At the end of that time they found some "bitter" water, but the Lord showed Moses a tree which made the water sweet. Genus and species not revealed to us. It is very odd that, when the Bible mentions anything that might be practically useful, it never gives such particulars as would enable us to repeat the experiment.
The next trial to our faith is the story of the manna. The people might well ask: "What is this?" It was so expansible and contractile that, when they measured it, having "gathered some more, some less," if a man gathered much he had "nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack" (Ex. xvi., 17, 18). This curious result of measuring it "with an omer" is, however, susceptible of explanation, for we read, in Ex. xvi., 36, that "an omer is the tenth part of an ephah," whereas, in Ezech. xiv., the ephah contains "the tenth part of an homer." Perhaps in measuring some of the Jews dropped their h's. The variable expansion of the manna is not its only peculiarity. Manna gathered on Thursday "bred worms and stank" if kept till Friday; manna gathered on Friday "did not stink, neither was there any worm therein" on Saturday (xvi., 20 and 24).
The bread difficulty disposed of, the water difficulty again came to the front, but Moses smote a rock, and water came out of it (Ex. xvii., 6). Later, under very similar circumstances, Moses smote another rock with the like result (Numb, xx., 11.), and the Lord was very angry with him, and refused to let him enter "the promised land." It is curious that in both these cases the place was called Meribah, because of the complaints of the Israelites; but it would be blasphemy to say that two traditions of one incident have been inserted in the text.
Soon after this a wonderful battle took place, in which Israel fought against Amalek, and "it came to pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand Amalek prevailed" (Ex. xvii., 11). The relation of cause and effect is not clear, but it is satisfactory to know that Moses' hands were held up by main force until evening stopped the slaughter.
It is blasphemy to say that there are more gods than one (Statute of Will. III.), yet it is blasphemy to deny that "the Lord is greater than all gods" (Ex. xviii., 11). It is hard to understand how the Lord can be greater than gods which do not exist; nevertheless "he that believeth not shall be damned."
Chapters xix. and xx. of Exodus can only be believed by those who have not risen above the most anthropomorphic conception of their god. God is everywhere, yet Moses went backwards and forwards between the people and god (xix., 3-9). God is everywhere, yet Moses "brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God" (v., 17), and "the Lord descended upon" a particular mountain (v. 18), and "came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mount" (v. 20). God is invisible, one "whom no man hath seen nor can see" (1 Tim. vi., 16), whom "no man hath seen at any time" (John L, 18); yet he was afraid lest the people should "break through unto the Lord to gaze" (Ex. xix., 21), and up the mount went "Moses, and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and they saw the God of Israel" (Ex. xxiv., 9, 10). God dwells "in the light which no man can approach unto" (1 Tim. vi., 16), and "God is light and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John i., 5); yet "Moses drew near onto the thick darkness where God was" (Ex. xx., 21). It is blasphemy to deny that all these contradictions are true.
It is blasphemy to deny that god, on Mount Sinai, gave commands among which we find the following revolting and immoral ones: If the owner of a Hebrew slave give the slave a wife, and the slave goes out at the end of seven years, "the wife and her children shall be her master's; he shall go out by himself" (Ex. xxi., 4). The wife is like any other female animal; she and her young belong to her master, and she may be used to increase his stock. If the husband and father clings to his family, god mercifully allows him to buy the right to live with them with the price of his freedom. A man may sell his daughter to be a concubine, and if her purchaser starve her, or let her go naked, or does not perform his marital duty, she may leave him (vv. 7-11). A man may beat his man or woman slave to death, provided that he or she lives "a day or two" after the flogging, for "he is his money" (vv. 20, 21), and the loss of his valuable chattel is punishment sufficient. If an ox gore a man, the ox is to be stoned (v. 28), a form of vivisection which Lord Coleridge can scarcely approve; but, as Paul says: "Doth god take care for oxen?" (1 Cor. ix., 9). If the ox gore a slave, the owner of the slave is to be paid for the value of his property (v. 32). If a thief be unable to restore the double or fourfold value, as the case may be, of that which he has stolen, "then he shall be sold for his theft" (xxii., 3). A witch is to be murdered (v. 20). An idolater is to be murdered (v. 20). "The first-born of thy sons shalt thou give unto me. Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen and with thy sheep" (vv. 29, 30). Is it credible that by the law of England it should be blasphemy to deny that these horrible commands are "of divine authority"?
And as though to show that this book is of purely human origin, with the mingled good and evil inseparable from all early efforts at legislation, we read, after the foregoing horrors the following noble and generous teaching:
"Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment. Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause.
If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him. Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in in his cause. Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked. And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous. Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." (xxiii., 1-9.)