"Voltaire, for example, glossing a famous passage in Exodus, where Moses commands that 24,000 of his countrymen be executed as a result of one Jew’s dallying with a Midian woman, writes: “We must acknowledge, humanly speaking, that these horrid deeds revolt against reason and nature. But if we consider Moses as the minister of God’s designs and vengeance, the aspect is entirely changed. He is not a man who acts as a man; he is the instrument of the divinity, whom we should not call to account. We should offer up silent adoration.”"