MOSES 



3964 



MOSQUE 



o accounts again appear in the book of 

 Exodus about this period of the wanderings 

 how the people frequently grew impatient and, 

 forgetting the hardships of Egypt, reproached 

 Moses for having led them into a land where 

 it would be so difficult for them to find sub- 

 nee. 



Another Biblical story tells how the people 

 on reaching Mount Sinai received a revelation 

 of God himself amidst thunder and lightning, 

 and how God made agreement between himself 

 and his people whereby they were to worship 

 only the God through whose help they were 

 brought out of Egypt, and in return God would 

 look upon the Hebrews as his own people. 

 Moses was called by God to come to the top 

 of the mountain, there to receive tablets of 

 stone containing the laws which were to govern 

 the people. While he was absent on this mis- 

 sion, the people, fearing that he would not 

 come back, asked Aaron to make for them a 

 golden calf, which they worshiped and around 

 which they danced, looking upon the calf as 

 though it were an image of God. This was 

 against the teachings which Moses gave to his 

 people, for their God did not want them to 

 worship any image of anything in heaven, in 

 earth, or in the waters under the earth. Very 

 dramatically the scene is described how Moses 

 came down from the mountain and saw the 

 people around the golden calf, became angry 

 and dashed the tablets to pieces. It is interest- 

 ing to see that sometimes accounts show that 

 even Moses, the great leader, was not perfect. 

 Because, on one occasion, he did not carry out 

 an order of God in the way in which it was 

 intended, he was told that he himself would 

 never enter the promised land of Canaan. In 

 accord with this promise, we learn that Moses 

 as an old man ascended another mount, which 

 was known as Nebo, from the top of which he 

 could see the land of Canaan; there, gazing 

 upon the land in which his people were to 

 dwell and to pass through such strange and 

 varying fortunes, at the age of 120 years, he 

 died. The Bible adds that no one knows where 

 he is buried. 



The Great Work of Moses. If we would sum 

 up what we actually know about Moses, it may 

 be said that through his career he created the 

 Hebrew nation. That is to say, from him dates 

 the beginning of the history of the Hebrews as 

 a nation instead of a motley collection of clans 

 or tribes with no bond uniting them except 

 that of blood. Though centuries elapsed be- 

 fore the union between these tribes was so 



strong as to mold them into a single group, 

 yet the work was begun by Moses, and what 

 followed after his death was merely the further 

 unfolding of the ideas which he gave to his 

 people. It was through Moses that the people, 

 abandoning the worship of other gods, looked 

 upon Jehovah, or, as His name is probably to 

 be read, Yahwch, as the only God. 



Moses also began the organization of the 

 people, and for this purpose gave them a body 

 of laws which, enlarged as new conditions arose, 

 with all kinds of interpretations of the laws and 

 comments and illustrations to apply to certain 

 cases, gradually grew into a very large series 

 of laws traditionally known as the Laws of 

 Moses. These laws, divided into a certain 

 number of groups which to-day we call codes, 

 and dating from various periods, are scattered 

 throughout the books of Exodus, Leviticus and 

 Numbers, while in the book of Deuteronomy 

 we have still another code, gathering together 

 about the middle of the seventh century B.C. 

 all the laws of older and later days. So great 

 was the influence exerted by Moses and so deep 

 the impression made by him that for the He- 

 brews he became the lawgiver to whom, there- 

 fore, tradition ascribed all the laws by which 

 the Hebrews were governed. 



Moses thus stands before us as the great 

 deliverer of his people, the organizer of the 

 national life of the Hebrews, the religious 

 teacher, and finally, the one with whom begins 

 also the endeavor to regulate the relationships 

 of individuals to one another by means of laws. 

 The religious life of the Hebrews in the days 

 of Moses, and long thereafter, was very simple. 

 A sacred object which could be carried about 

 was looked upon as a symbol of Jehovah, or 

 Yahweh, and this sacred object was guarded 

 by special attendants who afterwards, when the 

 Hebrews in the land of Canaan began to build 

 their little shrines and temples in the various 

 places where they settled, became the priests. 

 The organization of the priesthood is thus also 

 traced back to the days of Moses, though we 

 must remember that the priesthood did not 

 become a large and important body until the 

 days of Solomon, about 950 B. c., when the great 

 Temple built at Jerusalem became the religious 

 and political center of the country. M.J. 



MOSQUE, mosk, a word which means to the 

 Mohammedan what church means to the Chris- 

 tian a place for prayer and worship. The 

 first mosques were built with an open, rectangu- 

 lar court surrounded by colonnades. In the 

 center of the court was a fountain for washing, 



