Saturday: Lend me an ear!!!

From Exodus 19-21:

1. It is interesting how God put some conditions on Him valuing Israel as his treasured possession. In Exodus 19:5, he gave them the requirement that they must obey Him fully and keep his covenant.

2. I wonder why God wanted the people and animals that touched the mountain to be stoned or shot with arrows, versus any type of "hand being laid upon him". I also wonder, since no animals were to touch the mountain, what about any wild animals on the mountain. Did they need to shoot the mountain goats off of the mountain, or was it already uninhabited?

3. Consecrating involved the washing of the clothes. Interesting... Does this give credibility to the saying, "Cleanliness is next to godliness"?

4. The people of Israel were afraid to listen to God directly, and were rather willing to have Moses listen and just inform them of everything. They had such a priviledge to hear God speak, and yet were unwilling to bear it. I wonder if that is because none of them were worthy (all had sin and were frightened by God seeing their own sin, perhaps).

5. Lend me an ear!!! It seems somewhat unfair that if the master that you work for provides you with a wife and she has children, they are not your own. The only way you can continue to be with your own children is for you to subject yourself to this master for life. And I don't even want to think about the ear-piercing bit of the deal. Ouch!!!!