Then all the people responded together, “We will do all that the Lord has spoken.” So Moses brought the people’s words back to the Lord. – Exodus 19:8 CSB
Everyone knows The Ten Commandments –
As we noted previously, commandment implies both authority and relationship. Jesus’ answer to a lawyers’ question, “Master, which is the greatest commandment?” did not mention even one of the Ten Commandments, but rather pointed toward our relationship to God.
When someone asks you about the Ten Commandments, what is your immediate response?
Do you know them? (It likely depends on your religious upbringing.)
I was raised in a family which worshiped the Lord where children and youth were weekly schooled in a primer of faith. Therefore, from my Sunday-school training I instantly regurgitated, ‘Exodus 20,’ as response of quick recall about the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20 is actually just one place the Commandments are mentioned, but let’s start there.
How many of the Ten Commandments can you name?
How did you do? According to a source quoting a USA Today poll, if you could name five Commandments you did better than six out of ten Americans. If you correctly named all Ten Commandments, you are one of only fourteen in one hundred Americans [14%] who could do so. Sadly, this knowledge of Scripture is even lower in many countries on other continents.
Background and Context of the Ten Commandments
Did you realize that the Ten Commandments appear multiple times in the Bible? Though not listed every time, the record of the Ten Words gives context to their application and emphasis to their authenticity.
Exodus 20
Exodus 24:3 Moses came and told the people all the commands of the Lord and all the ordinances. Then all the people responded with a single voice, “We will do everything that the Lord has commanded.”
- 4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD… 7 He then took the covenant scroll and read it aloud to the people.
- 12 The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay there so that I may give you the stone tablets with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”
From the Hebrew:
24:12 וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה עֲלֵה אֵלַי הָהָרָה וֶהְיֵה־שָׁם וְאֶתְּנָה לְךָ אֶת־לֻחֹת הָאֶבֶן וְהַתֹּורָה וְהַמִּצְוָה כָּתַבְתִּי לְהֹורֹתָֽם׃
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Exodus 31:18 Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
The Two Stone Tablets
18 When he finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God.
“…and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.”
The word of the LORD, of His chosen nation.
Violation of the LORD’S spoken Word!
Exodus 32:
7 The Lord spoke to Moses: “Go down at once! For your people you brought up from the land of Egypt have acted corruptly. 8 They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them…
9 The Lord also said to Moses: “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone, so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
11 But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God: “Lord, why does your anger burn against your people you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a strong hand? … Turn from your fierce anger and relent concerning this disaster planned for your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel…
15 Then Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides—inscribed front and back.
16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was God’s writing, engraved on the tablets.
19 … Moses became enraged and threw the tablets out of his hands, smashing them at the base of the mountain.
We will not here today dwell on Moses’ role as the hand of the Lord’s vengeful wrath. You may recall a sanitized image of the idolatry of the golden calf, but consider from scripture what took place.
25 Moses saw that the people were out of control… 26 And Moses stood at the camp’s entrance and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.”
… “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Every man fasten his sword to his side; go back and forth through the camp from entrance to entrance, and each of you kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’”
28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and about three thousand men fell dead that day among the people.
Did you remember this terrible refining of the camp of the Hebrews and slaughter of three thousand men?
I didn’t, for I had not read this scripture recently.
31 So Moses returned to the Lord…
33 The Lord replied to Moses: “Whoever has sinned against me I will erase from my book. 34 Now go, lead the people to the place I told you about; see, my angel will go before you.
But on the day I settle accounts, I will hold them accountable for their sin.”
Would you have been among those slaughtered for your idolatry? Or would you be among those enduring earthly plague, never entering the promised land?
Is it not a fearful for us to be held accountable for our sin?
The Lord Again Writes Down The Ten Commandments
Exodus 34:
The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
4 Moses cut two stone tablets like the first ones. He got up early in the morning, and taking the two stone tablets in his hand, he climbed Mount Sinai, just as the Lord had commanded him.
34:5 וַיֵּרֶד יְהוָה בֶּֽעָנָן וַיִּתְיַצֵּב עִמֹּו שָׁם וַיִּקְרָא בְשֵׁם יְהוָֽה׃
5 The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed his name, “the Lord.” 6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:
The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, 7 maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin.
But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.
8 Moses immediately knelt low on the ground and worshiped.
Ten Words and More Commands
10 And the Lord responded: “Look, I am making a covenant… 11 Observe what I command you today…
27 The Lord also said to Moses, “Write down these words, for I have made a covenant with you and with Israel based on these words.”
28 Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat food or drink water. He wrote the Ten Commandments, the words of the covenant, on the tablets.
This hearing of the Law: To be continued…
8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.