Commandments Keepers:
Proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ

The Ten Commandments are Gods special set of moral and perfect laws that the Lord wrote with His own finger on two stone tablets that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai. In the Holy Scriptures these laws are called the "ten words" or "ten utterances". (See Strong's Numbers Lexicon for Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 4:13 and Deuteronomy 10:4.) Many Christian denominations call the writings of the Ten Commandments the Decalogue (from the Greek words "deca" [10] and "logoi" [words]). The Ten Commandments are our Lords laws and not mans laws. (Proverbs 7:1-3) "My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart."

How We Received The Ten Commandments

After the exodus from Egypt, the Israelites journeyed and encamped near Mount Sinai, the place where Moses was commissioned. Moses then ascended the mountain and the Lord commanded him to tell the leaders that if they would obey the Lord and keep His covenant, then they would be the Lord's "kingdom of priests and a holy nation". (Exodus 19:5-6) "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel." The people responded, (Exodus 19:8) "And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD."

Moses was then told by the Lord to command the people to sanctify themselves before the Lord descended upon the mountain in three days. The people were to abstain from worldly comforts and not to touch the boundaries of the mountain (the penalty being dealth). (Exodus 19:11) "And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai."

On the morning of the third day, (which was the 49th day after the exodus and the 50th day after the first passover, while in Egypt), the Israelites gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai. The Lord then descended with thunder, lightening, billowing smoke and fire. Moses then ascended, but the Lord told him to go back down and warn the people not to set foot on the mountain or they would be consumed by the wrath of God.

The Lord then spoke the Ten Commandments to the people, so that all the Israelites heard. The terrified Israelites began to ask Moses to be their mediator lest they die before the presence of God. The people then stood far off, while Moses alone drew near to where God was. (Exodus 20:18-21) "And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was."

As the mediator of the covenant, Moses told the Israelites all the words of the Lord, both the commandments and the judgments for breaking the commandments, and the people replied, (Exodus 24:3) "And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do."

Moses then wrote down the words of the covenant and built an altar at the foot of Mount Sinai. He build the altar with twelve pillars, one for each tribe of Israel. Knowing that no covenant is binding until a death occurs, he ordered sacrifices to the Lord to be made. He then took the sacrificial blood from the offerings and threw half upon the altar and read the covenant to the people. The people then ratified the covenant with these words, (Exodus 24:7) "And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient."

Moses, hearing their ratification, took the other half of the sacrificial blood and threw it on the people, sealing the covenant between God and the Israelites. (Exodus 24:8) "And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words."

Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and 70 of the elders of Israel ascended Mount Sinai to eat a covenant meal between Israel and the Lord. (Exodus 24:9-11) "Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink."

The Israelites Break The Covenant

After returning from the mountain with the elders, the Lord commanded Moses to go back up to receive the tablets of stone inscribed with the Ten Commandments. He remained on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights while the Israelites waited at the camp down below.

Before Moses reappeared from the mountain top, the people talked Aaron into making a molten calf to worship. (Exodus 32:1) "And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him."

After being told by the Lord what the Israelites where doing down below, Moses rushed down the mountain with tablets in hand. When he saw the people dancing before the idol, he smashed the tablets to the ground out of anger at the people. (Exodus 32:19) "And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount."

Moses then destroyed the molten calf and commanded the Levites, who where on the Lord's side, to slay the 3,000 instigators. (Exodus 32:26-28) "Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD'S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men."

Moses Asks The Lord To Forgive The Israelites

The next day Moses pleaded with the Lord to forgive the Israelites because of their sin. (Exodus 32:30-33) "And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book."

But since the people sinned against the Lord, His judgments for breaking a commandment must stand, and the Lord sent a plague on the people. (Exodus 32:34-35) "Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them. And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made."

But the Lord forgave their sin and accepted the Israelite as His inheritance. (Exodus 34:9-10) "And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee." Moses returned to the mountain again and the Lord wrote the Ten Commandments on two new tablets. (Exodus 34:1) "And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest."

The Lord then explains to Moses that, when those whom He loves, betray Him, He gets very angry and how importance it is to Him and to us, for us to not serve other gods. (Exodus 34:14) "For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:" Because this is the basis of obeying all the other commandments, the Lord made this the 1st Commandment.