The Ten Commandments
          The Laws of God

Exodus 19-35
   God led the Israelites out of Egypt with Moses as their leader................


The Israelites camped near Mt. Sinai
     Three months after the Israelites left Egypt they came to the Desert of Sinai.  The Israelites camped in front of the mountain at Sinai.


God spoke to Moses
     
     The LORD called Moses  from the mountain and he went up to God.  God told Moses what to say to the house of Jacob and the people of Israel. 
      God told him to remind them of what God had done for them in Egypt.    He  went on to tell them
 if they obeyed Him fully and kept His covenant, then out of all nations they would be His treasured possession even though the whole earth was His.  They would be a  kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
      God told Moses to go and talk to the elders of the people and tell them what the LORD had commanded him to say.   When Moses returned to the people, they all responded together saying that they would do everything the LORD had told them.  Then Moses returned to the LORD and told Him what the people had said.



The people saw fire and smoke
coming from Mt. Sinai
   
     The LORD told  Moses that He was going to come in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear Him speaking to him.  So that they would always trust in Moses.  Then Moses told the LORD that the people would do as He said.  Then the LORD told Moses to go to the people and consecrate them and have them wash their clothes because He would come to them the next day.  They were to be ready by the third day because on that day the LORD would come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
    The LORD told Moses to put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them they had to be careful that they do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it.  Anyone who touched the mountain would  be put to death.  They would be stoned or shot with arrows but no one was to lay a hand on them.  It didn't matter if they were a man or an animal.  They would not be permitted to live.  They could only go up to the mountain if they heard a ram's horn sound a long blast. 



The people heard God
speak in the thunder
   
     After Moses came down the mountain, he consecrated the people, and they washed their clothes.
He told the people to prepare themselves for the third day. 
    On the third day, in the morning, there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain.  They heard a very loud trumpet blast.  Everyone trembled who was in the camp.  Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God.  They came to the foot of Mount Sinai.  It was covered with smoke.   The LORD had descended on it in fire and the smoke rose up from it like smoke from a furnace.  The whole mountain violently shook, and the sound of the trumpet became louder and louder.  When Moses spoke the voice of God answered.




Moses went up into the mountain
   
     The LORD had come down  to the top of Mount Sinai.  The LORD called Moses up to the top of the mountain.   When Moses arrived at the top of the mountain, the LORD told him to go down and warn the people not to force their way up to see the LORD because if they did, they would die.  Moses was to also tell the priests not to come up unless they had consecrated themselves.  Moses reminded the LORD that the peole couldnot come up Mount Sinai because He had already warned them to put limits around the mountain.  The LORD answered him and told him to go down and bring only Aaron back up with him.  Nobody else was to come up.  So Moses went down the mountain and told the people.




God spoke to Moses and gave His Laws to him.
   
     This is what God spoke to Moses and Aaron when they came up to the mountain: These were Ten Commanments that He gave to them.


"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."
 
You shall have no other gods before Me.  
You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and  forth generation  of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments."


"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."

"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.   For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.  Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."


"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you."


"You shall not murder."

"You shall not commit adultery."
 
"You shall not steal."

"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor."
 
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."


Moses spoke to God's people
and told them God's Laws.
    
     When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and they told Moses to speak for them and they would listen.  They were afraid that they would die if God spoke to them. 
    Moses told the people not to be afraid.  God had come to test them so that the fear of God would  to keep them from sinning.
      While the people stayed at a distance, Moses came closer to the thick darkness where God was.
The LORD told Moses to tell the Israelites that they had seen  that the LORD had spoken to them from heaven.   They were not to make any gods to be alongside Him or make gods of silver or gold.  But they were to make an altar of earth for the LORD and sacrifice on it their burnt offerings, sheep, goats and cattle.  If they made  an altar of stones, they were not to build it with dressed stones (Stones they used a tool on) or they would defile it.   They were also not to go up to His altar on steps, because they might show their nakedness. 

(Exodus Chapter 21- Chapter 32 contains more laws)



Moses went back to the
mountain to speak with God.
    Moses was up on the mountain for a long time and the people gathered around Aaron and asked him to make for them gods who will go before them because they didn't know what had happened to Moses. 


The people begged Aaron
to make them a golden calf to worship.
   
     Aaron listened to them and told them to  take gold earrings off their wives, sons and daughters that they were wearing and bring them to him.   Then all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.  Aaron took what they given him and made a golden idol in the shape of a calf using a tool.   Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."
    Then Aaron built an altar in front of the calf and told them that the next day there would be a festival to the LORD.  The next day the people got up early.  After they had sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowsip offerings, they sat down to eat and drink and got up and had a wild party.
    Then the LORD told Moses to go down to the people because they had become corrupt.  They had made an idol in the shape of a calf.    They had bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said that these were their  gods.
    The LORD swas very angry with them and He told Moses that He wanted to be left alone because He was angry and wanted to destroy them.  He then told Moses he wold make him into a great nation. 
     Moses asked the LORD his God why let His anger burn against His people and why should the Egyptians to say evil against Him.  Moses then reminded the LORD His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Israel.  The the LORD changed His mind and did not bring any disaster or threat against His people.



When Moses came down from
the mountain, he was angry when
he saw what they were doing and broke
the tablets of stone.
   
     Then Moses went down the mountain with the two tablets of Testimony in his hands.   The tablets were the work of God. 
    When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he told Moses it sounded like a war going on in the camp.   Moses told him that it was the sound on singing that he heard.   When they came near the camp they saw the calf and the dancing.  Moses was very angry and threw the tablets down out of his hands and broke them near the foot of the mountain.
 


Moses also broke the golden calf
burned it, ground it, and made the
Israelites drink it.
    
     Moses took the calf and burned it in the fire.   After wards he ground it to powder, and scattered it in the water.  Moses made the Israelites drink the water with they ground powder of gold.
     Moses asked Aaron what he had done to the people that caused them to sin.  Aaron asked Moses not to be angry with him because the people were  prone (likely) to do evil. 
Aaron told Moses that they wanted him to make gods who would go before them because they didn't know what had happened to Moses.  Aaron went on to explain how he asked them for their gold and he threw it in the fire and a calf came out.
    Moses saw that the people were out of control and running wild, so Moses stood at the entrance of the camp and told them that whoever was for the LORD to come to him. Then all the Levites came to him.
    The following day Moses told the people that they had sinned and he had to go back to the LORD and make atonement for their sin.



Moses goes back
to talk to God.
   
     Moses went back to the LORD and told Him what a great sin they had committed by making themselves a god out of gold.
Moses asked the LORD to forgive them of their sin. If the LORD would not forgive them, then he asked God to blot him out of the book He had written.  The LORD told Moses that whoever had sinned against Him He would blot out of His book. Then he told Moses to lead the people to a place He would lead them to. He would punish them for their sin when it was time. 
    Then the LORD struck the people with a plague because they had made an idol out of gold.





Moses went back to Mt. Sinai
and received two tablets of stone
with the ten commandments.
   
     The LORD told Moses to chisel out two more stone tablets.  Moses had broken the first tablets so God would  write on them again, the words that were on the first tablets.
    The LORD told Moses to be ready in the morning to come up on top of Mount Sinai.  He was to bring no one with him, nor any animals.
    So Moses did as God told him to do and early in the morning he carried the two tablets of stone with him.  Then the LORD came down in the cloud.   He proclaimed his name, the LORD.
     The LORD passed in front of Moses saying that He was The LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.  
    Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped God. "
      Then the LORD said He would make a covenant with him.  He would do wonders before all the people that had never  been done befor and the people who they lived among would see how awesome the work of the LORD was.  The LORD told Moses to obey  what He had commanded of him and that He would drive out the enemy.



When Moses came down from
Mt. Sinai, his face was bright.
    
     Then the LORD told Moses to write down His words that He had made a covenant with him and Israel. 
    Moses spent  forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water.  And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant--the Ten Commandments.  When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of Testimony, he was not realize that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD.
    The Israelites were afraid to come close to Moses when they saw how radiant his face was.  Moses called to Aaron and all the leaders to  come back.   Moses then spoke to them. Moses gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on the mountain.  Moses put a veil over his face when he finished speaking to them.  Moses would only take his veil off when he was with the LORD.

   


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