God also gave a great deal of other instructions, rules, and elaboration on the commandments. He also gave very detailed instruction on the construction of an ark to contain the tablets of the commandments, and a Tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting to become a place of worship and sacrifice during the travels to Canaan. While Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the tablets of the LORD, the Israelites grew impatient and talked Aaron into making a golden calf image to worship. God was furious and intended to kill them all. Moses appeased him by organizing an army that killed three thousand men; God was further placated by sending a plague upon the people.
The third book of the Torah, Leviticus, documents the detailed instructions God gave concerning the offerings to be made at the Tabernacle, the structure of the priesthood, rules of cleanness and uncleanness and more general rules in ordering the lives of these chosen people.
Offerings at the Tabernacle were to fall into various categories: burnt offerings, meal offerings, sin offerings, guilt offerings, offerings of ordination, and the sacrifice of well-being. The following is an example of one of the instructions:
If his offering to the LORD is a burnt offering of birds, he shall choose offerings from turtledoves or pigeons. The priest shall bring it to the altar, pinch off its head, and turn it into smoke on the altar; and its blood shall be drained out against the side of the altar. He shall remove its crop with its contents and cast it into the place of the ashes, at the east side of the altar. The priest shall tear it open by its wings, without severing it, and turn it into smoke on the altar, upon wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt offering, an offering by fire, of pleasing odor to the LORD. (Leviticus 1:14-17)
The Cult of the Temple formed the center of the Israelite religious experience. It was a system where God and the people met with the priests serving as intermediaries.
In regard to cleanness and uncleanness, God gave Moses detailed instructions on what foods were considered clean, and therefore edible, and what was considered unclean. He also conveyed to Moses what conditions of people were clean and what one could do rectify uncleanness, such as the following:
12:1-5 The LORD spoke to Moses saying: “Speak to the Israelite people thus: When a woman at childbirth bears a male, she shall be unclean seven days; she shall be unclean as at the time of her menstrual infirmity. - On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. - She shall remain in a state of blood purification for thirty-three days: she shall not touch any consecrated thing, nor enter the sanctuary until her period of purification is completed. If she bears a female, she shall be unclean for two weeks as during her menstruation, and she shall remain in a state of blood purification for sixty-six days.”
The book concludes with God restating and elaborating on His promises of success to His people if they follow His rules, promising to crush them if they disobey.
Numbers, the fourth book of the Torah, provides an account of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. Again the Israelites began complaining about food and wanted meat instead of manna. This infuriated God, who sent them huge quantities of quail, which many people gorged themselves on. God then sent a plague that killed all those who ate the quail.
Scouts reported back to the Israelites that the land of Canaan was occupied by fortified cities and a strong people. The Israelites were afraid and complained to Moses and Aaron that they were being led to their death. Again God was furious with them and swore that no one over twenty years old would set foot in the promised land because of their lack of faith. The wanderings continued with periodic uprisings and complaints, which were punished by God. The Israelites began battle with tribes in the region and became great warriors, killing all males and taking females and animals as booty. When they were ready to cross the Jordan river into Canaan, God ordered all its inhabitants killed so as to not contaminate the Israelites.
The fifth and final book of the Torah is Deuteronomy. In this book Moses gives a long sermon on the history of the Israelites and a restatement of the covenant between the chosen people and God. Moses warns his people of the waywardness they have demonstrated over and over again:
“Know then, that it is not for any virtue that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess; for you are a stiff-necked people. Remember and never forget, how you provoked the LORD your God to anger in the wilderness: from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place, you have continued defiant toward the LORD.” (Deuteronomy 9:6-7)
Moses reaffirmed the great promises made to the Israelites:
“There shall be no needy among you - since the LORD your God will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as a hereditary portion - if only you heed the LORD your God and take care to keep all this instruction that I enjoin upon you this day. For the LORD your God will bless you as He has promised you: you will extend loans to many nations, but require none yourself; you will dominate many nations, but they will not dominate you. (Deuteronomy 15:4-6)
He gave them laws of great wisdom and compassion:
“You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow countryman or a stranger in one of the communities of your land. You must pay him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets, for he is needy and urgently depends on it …” (Deuteronomy 24:14-15)
And Moses gave some laws that seem quite ludicrous by contemporary eyes:
25:11 “If two men get into a fight with each other, and the wife of one comes up to save her husband from his antagonist and puts out her hand and seizes him by his genitals, you shall cut off her hand, show no pity.” (Deuteronomy 25:11)
At the end of the book, God took Moses to a high mountain overlooking the promised land and let him look upon it before his death, as Moses was not to enter. He was counted among those punished for their disobedience and doubt in the wilderness. So Moses died having never set foot in Canaan, and before his death he blessed Joshua to lead the Israelites to their land of milk and honey. Thus ends the Five Books of Moses.
The next section of the Tanakh is called the Nevi’m, the Prophets, consisting of the nine books of major prophets and twelve books of minor prophets. It begins with a continuation of the story of the Torah with Joshua entering the promised land and following the instructions of Moses and God. He and his armies exterminate every tribe in Canaan with the exception of the Hivites who trick the Israelites into letting them live as servants. In the Nevi’m the story is told of the establishment of the first king of Israel, Saul, and his many wars, especially those against the Philistines. In these wars an unlikely hero arose in the form of a shepherd boy named David. David became Saul’s primary commander and won many battles, but Saul became jealous and fearful of David and plotted to have him killed. David fled to the Philistines, who eventually killed Saul and his sons.
At the age of thirty David became king and began a forty year rule. He was the greatest of the Israelite warrior kings and was an equally famous poet. In his great palace in Jerusalem he had numerous wives and concubines, but even he was not without sin. The most famous example is the story of David’s infatuation with his neighbor’s wife, Bathsheba. David had her husband, Uriah, sent to battle and set up to be killed so he could have her. God sent his prophet of the time, Nathan, to David who told him a poetic story of a rich man who took a poor man’s only lamb to serve to a guest. David was infuriated and said the rich man should die, Nathan then told David he was that man for taking Uriah’s wife and sending him to his death. David admitted his guilt and the LORD spared him but proclaimed his next born would die.
David fell from God’s blessing. As he grew old he had Nathan anoint his son by Bathsheba, Solomon, as the next king of Israel. God came to Solomon and asked him what he could grant him. Solomon asked only for wisdom, which greatly pleased God and he also granted him glory and riches for all his life. Solomon’s rule grew to cover a great expanse by conquest and also by marrying daughters of adjoining