After many strange experiences, the great company of emigrants made
the passage of the Red Sea in safety, and Moses showed his poetic
gifts in a song of triumph. Many years of slavery had taken the spirit
out of the Hebrews, and they needed a wise head and a firm hand to
govern them. Moses had both, and he was, besides, a man of God.
Going apart from them for a season of divine communion on the
mountain, he spent forty days in preparation for a system of
government. On his return he brought with him two tables of stone,
inscribed with the ten great commandments, which are at the foundation
of right character. He had also detailed directions for their daily
conduct, and for their religious ceremonial.

The people for whose good all these plans were made were in the mean
time discouraged by the long absence of their leader. They had no idea
how much he was doing for them, and in their folly they forgot his
teachings, and began to practise the idolatrous customs they had seen
in Egypt. On descending the mountain, Moses found them worshipping the
golden image of a calf. It is not to be wondered at that, as the
historian says,[11] "Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out
of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount."

[Footnote 11: Exodus, chapter xxxii. verse 19.]

Again Moses went up into the mount for communion with God, and again
two tables of stone were inscribed with the ten commandments, to
replace those which had been destroyed. Again, also, he was gone forty
days, and this time he was given a mysterious revelation of the
goodness of God.