Moses Descends With Commandments of the Lord
Moses has before saved Israel from destruction, but this time an angry Lord God could have justly killed these covenant-breaking Hebrews, who heard the Commandments of the LORD God!
Do you recall how when Israel had first heard the voice of the Lord speaking the Commandments to them how they feared the Lord?
Previously, in Exodus 19:
9 The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear when I speak with you and will always believe you.”
14 Then Moses came down from the mountain to the people and consecrated them…
16 On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning, a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people in the camp shuddered. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
18 Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke because the Lord came down on it in fire. Its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently. 19 As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder.
Just imagine what it must have been like for those consecrated and gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai before the LORD.
Exodus 20:
Then God spoke all these words:
This is superscript preceding the Ten Commandments. THE LORD SPEAKS!
Yet It ought to be enough that the Commands, whatever they may be, come directly from the Voice of the Lord, Who begins:
2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.
The Ten Commands are specific, spoken directly to this Hebrew audience with the LORD GOD. And these Commandments of which many of us know only a few also become foundation for Law.
Would you claim any law as inviolable? And does a foundational principle given by our Creator not perfectly define justice for all mankind, even to this day?
Consider the Commandments here as translated from their Hebrew root words (linked to Strong’s Concordance in the Blue Letter Bible).
TEN WORDS עִבְרִית
20:3 לֹֽא יִהְיֶֽה־לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל־פָּנָֽיַ
20:4 לֹֽא תַֽעֲשֶׂה־לְךָ פֶסֶל וְכָל־תְּמוּנָה אֲשֶׁר בַּשָּׁמַיִם מִמַּעַל וַֽאֲשֶׁר בָּאָרֶץ מִתַָּחַת וַאֲשֶׁר בַּמַּיִם מִתַּחַת לָאָֽרֶץ
20:5 לֹֽא־תִשְׁתַּחְוֶה לָהֶם וְלֹא תָעָבְדֵם כִּי אָֽנֹכִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֵל קַנָּא פֹּקֵד עֲוֹן אָבֹת עַל־בָּנִים עַל־שִׁלֵּשִׁים וְעַל־רִבֵּעִים לְשֹׂנְאָֽי׃
20:7 לֹא תִשָּׂא אֶת־שֵֽׁם־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לַשָּׁוְא כִּי לֹא יְנַקֶּה יְהוָה אֵת אֲשֶׁר־יִשָּׂא אֶת־שְׁמֹו לַשָּֽׁוְא׃ פ
20:8 זָכֹור אֶת־יֹום הַשַּׁבָּת לְקַדְּשֹֽׁו
20:9 שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּֽעֲבֹד וְעָשִׂיתָ כָּל־מְלַאכְתֶּֽךָ
20:10 וְיֹום הַשְּׁבִיעִי שַׁבָּת לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לֹֽא־תַעֲשֶׂה כָל־מְלָאכָה אַתָּה וּבִנְךָֽ־וּבִתֶּךָ עַבְדְּךָ וַאֲמָֽתְךָ וּבְהֶמְתֶּךָ וְגֵרְךָ אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׁעָרֶֽיךָ
20:11 כִּי שֵֽׁשֶׁת־יָמִים עָשָׂה יְהוָה אֶת־הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת־הָאָרֶץ אֶת־הַיָּם וְאֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר־בָּם וַיָּנַח בַּיֹּום הַשְּׁבִיעִי עַל־כֵּן בֵּרַךְ יְהוָה אֶת־יֹום הַשַּׁבָּת וַֽיְקַדְּשֵֽׁהוּ׃ ס
20:12 כַּבֵּד אֶת־אָבִיךָ וְאֶת־אִמֶּךָ לְמַעַן יַאֲרִכוּן יָמֶיךָ עַל הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָֽךְ׃ ס
20:13 לֹא תִּרְצָֽח׃ ס
20:14 לֹא תִּנְאָֽף׃ ס
20:15 לֹא תִּגְנֹֽב׃ ס
20:16 לֹֽא־תַעֲנֶה בְרֵעֲךָ עֵד שָֽׁקֶר׃ ס
20:17 לֹא תַחְמֹד בֵּית רֵעֶךָ לֹֽא־תַחְמֹד אֵשֶׁת רֵעֶךָ וְעַבְדֹּו וַאֲמָתֹו וְשֹׁורֹו וַחֲמֹרֹו וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר לְרֵעֶֽךָ׃ פ
I invite you to study the translation below and where you question a 21st c. English wording of the Commandments to study the linked Hebrew.
TEN WORDS – ENGLISH EQUIVALENT
- You shall have no other gods before GOD
- You shall not create man-made dead art (idols) of the LIVING GOD. Do not bow in worship to idols, and do not serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the fathers’ guilt of immorality, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate the LORD GOD, and showing mercy to thousands of them who love me and who keep my Commandments.
- Do not say, ‘Lord God,’ lightly without meaning or with deceptive intention; for THE EXISTING ONE will not hold guiltless any who take his name in vain.
- Recall the sabbath to keep it holy. Labor and do all your work in six days, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord your God. You shall not do any work; you, your family, servants, working animals or guests within your gates.
- Give weight to consideration of the significance of your father and your mother, that your days may grow long on the earth your Lord God gives you.
- Do not murder.
- Do not be unfaithful to your husband, your wife or the Lord God.
- Do not steal.
- You shall not answer testifying with lies, deception or inaccuracy against friend, companion, fellow citizen or other.
- Do not desire the house, wife, servant, work animals or anything belonging to your friend, companion, fellow-citizen or another.
Reaction and Response to Receiving God’s Commandments
Israel, therefore, responded differently to the LORD each time the Commandments were given.
First, the Lord spoke the Commandments within hearing of all the Hebrew people. And what was their response?
Exodus 20:
18 All the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain surrounded by smoke. When the people saw it they trembled and stood at a distance. 19 “You speak to us, and we will listen,” they said to Moses,
“but don’t let God speak to us, or we will die.”
20 Moses responded to the people, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, so that you will fear him and will not[c] sin.”
21 And the people remained standing at a distance as Moses approached the total darkness where God was.
What next?
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.”
And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. – Exodus 24:3-4
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.”
16 The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day he called to Moses from the cloud. 17 The appearance of the Lord’s glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop.
18 Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
After the Stone Tablets
We now return to where we left off previously in The Ten Commandments to Moses’ second return in Exodus 34.
Moses’s Radiant Face
29 As Moses descended from Mount Sinai—with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands as he descended the mountain—he did not realize that the skin of his face shone as a result of his speaking with the Lord.
30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone!
They were afraid to come near him.
31 But Moses called out to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. 32 Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he commanded them to do everything the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai.
33 When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever Moses went before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out.
After he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35 and the Israelites see Moses’s face, that the skin of his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went to speak with the Lord.
Response to Moses’ giving of the Law
Everyone whose heart was moved and whose spirit prompted him came and brought an offering to the Lord… Exodus 35:21a
After their earlier rebellion by worship of the golden calf, Israel finally yields to the Lord. (Yet their obedience will remain situationally spurious.) Their exodus continues from Sinai to the Jordan. Yet first the Lord commands the making of a traveling place of worship, a Tabernacle and place of meeting.
Leviticus further outlines worship and duties of priests exclusively assigned to the descendants of Levi. Moses’ five books move on to Numbers, the Hebrew title is Bemidbar or “In the Wilderness” (rbdmb) (of Sinai?). Because we cannot dwell on additional important moral direction given by the Lord in these books, I only mention them here. However any look at the Commandments would be incomplete without consideration of Moses’ final book of Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy
We would do well to remember that Moses’ life may be simply summarized in three parts of dual generations. Moses was born as a Hebrew slave, but raised in the palace of Pharaoh with great favor until age forty.
He then was forced to flee to Midian, where he raised a family until age eighty. Finally, and most amazingly, most everything we read in the Books of Moses takes place between the ages of eighty and one hundred and twenty.
Some of the record of Deuteronomy was no doubt recorded in writing by Moses’ assistant and successor, Joshua.
Deuteronomy also reconfirms the Commandments and makes reference to them more than forty times.
Call to Obedience
4 “Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live, enter, and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
We will defer a look at statutes and ordinances to a later post in this series. Before we once again point to the Ten Commandments, just one brief glance:
8 And what great nation has righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?
The Lord chose Israel as example of His righteous leading to the nations whose redemption will come later in Christ Jesus.
Deuteronomy 5:
Moses summoned all Israel and said to them… 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb…
6 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery…
7 Do not have other gods besides me…
(and nine more)
Have you considered God’s Commandments and how you must apply them to your life and relationships? For the Lord our God is a personal and loving Creator of all things and Judge of all men.
32 “Be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you are not to turn aside to the right or the left.
To be continued…
