MOSES AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
CHRISTIANITY OASIS HAS PROVIDED YOU WITH THIS MOSES AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS BIBLE STUDY. MANY HAVE HEARD OF MOSES AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN THE BIBLE BUT MOST ARE NOT AWARE OF WHAT MOSES AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FROM THE BIBLE HAS TO DO WITH US TODAY. LET US SEEK AND FIND THE TRUTH OF THE STORY OF MOSES AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FROM THE BIBLE TOGETHER, SHALL WE?

BOOK OF EXODUS

CHAPTER 20

            Daily Bread is pleased to have you join us at Mount Sinai, where the children of Israel have been sanctifying themselves for the last two days, getting ready to hear God speak to Moses.  He told Moses that He would be in a thick cloud on the mountain and the people would hear when He spoke to Moses and believe him for ever.

            There must have been an awful lot of emotion in the camp at that time.  Picture to yourself standing at the foot of a mountain that is quaking and covered in a thick dark cloud of smoke, and you're waiting to hear the voice of God in your ears.  You feel scared, guilty, amazed, humbled, ashamed, hopeful, apprehensive, whew!  The one thing you do know is that what you don't want to do is step over the boundaries that Moses set up around the mount or you know that God will destroy you.

            God spoke all these words to the people. 

            I am the Lord your God, who have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of slavery.

You will have no other gods but me.

You will not make any carved image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven, on earth or in the water.

You will not worship them or serve them, because I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing the sin of the fathers on their children up to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and showing mercy to thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

You will not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold people guiltless that use His name carelessly.

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you will work, but the seventh day is the rest of the Lord your God and on that day you will not do any work.  Not you or your children  or your servants or your cattle or any stranger in your home.  In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day, so the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

Honor your father and your mother so you will live a long life on the land that the Lord your God gave you.

You shall not kill.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not lie.

You shall not desire anything that belongs to your neighbor.

            Do you know anyone who hasn't broken any of these commandments?  You could probably talk yourself into a pretty good guilt trip if you were to sit and ponder on these but it's important to look at things from different points of view, as we've found out many times already in our stories so far.    Here are a few things to keep in mind.  Our lives are a test to see what we will choose.  God gives us free will to choose whatever we please.  Take Adam and Eve.  They were pure.  They didn't know of worldly things.  They had no worries about money, food, shelter, crime, weather, children, etc.  Everything was perfect, and Satan didn't have any problem deceiving them with less than 50 words.  We learned about how the fallen angels failed their test and God doesn't want any of His other angels or potential angels to follow in their footsteps.  God saw that even after he wiped out humanity except for Noah and his family with the Great Flood, there was still evil lurking on the earth.  The Tower of Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah, etc., etc., etc.  It was time for laws to live by and the Ten Commandments are God's laws to help us live righteously so we don't fall like so many did before us.

            Does it make you sit up straight in your chair with admiration because God said, I the Lord your God am a jealous God?  Does it make you proud and respectful of His boldness, strength, insistence, honesty, and integrity?  His character is so genuine and filled with truth.  It must have been overwhelming to the people because with the thunder and lightning, the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, they backed up and stood far off.  God's presence frightened them.  They said to Moses in fear, If you talk to us we'll listen, but don't let God speak to us for fear that we'll die.

            Moses answered, Don't be afraid.  God has come to test you so that His fear will be in front of your eyes and you won't sin.  They stayed far away and Moses went into the thick darkness where God was.  The Lord said to him, Say this to the children of Israel.  You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.  You will not make from me gods of silver, or for you, gods of gold.  You will make for me an altar of earth and will sacrifice burnt offerings of your sheep and oxen on it.  In all the places where I write my name, I will come to you and bless you.  And if you will make me an altar of stone, don't build it of cut stone, because if you lift up a tool on it, you have made it unclean.  Neither will you go up by steps to my altar.

            So the people heard God speak the Ten Commandments to them, and their fear compelled them to beg Moses to ask God to talk with him instead of directly to them. 

            We're already halfway through the book of Exodus with many more interesting things to learn ahead of us. Many people think that the Ten Commandments are the only laws of God, but we'll learn about many others as we press on with our study of Exodus.   Join us next time and we'll talk about more of them in your Daily Bread.

CONTINUE TO THE NEXT STUDY