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     Last week we took a look at Moses and the Exodus out of Egypt. We learned about God’s faithfulness in His promises. The promises He had made with Abraham He fulfilled when He brought His people out of Egypt, with the exception of one thing. The Israelites are not quite to the Promised Land. As the Israelites were being led through the desert, by a pillar of cloud and fire (13), they were also being fed bread from Heaven (16) and water from the rock (17). God led His people to Mt. Sinai and would give them the Ten Commandments.

“In the third month after the Israelites left Egypt—on the very day—they came to the Desert of Sinai.   After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the Desert of Sinai, and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain. Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites." So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the LORD had commanded him to speak. The people all responded together, "We will do everything the LORD has said." So Moses brought their answer back to the LORD. The LORD said to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you." Then Moses told the LORD what the people had said.   And the LORD said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, 'Be careful that you do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. He shall surely be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on him. Whether man or animal, he shall not be permitted to live.' Only when the ram's horn sounds a long blast may they go up to the mountain.“ After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes. Then he said to the people, "Prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain from sexual relations." On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him. The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up and the LORD said to him, "Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the LORD and many of them perish. Even the priests, who approach the LORD, must consecrate themselves, or the LORD will break out against them." Moses said to the LORD, "The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, because you yourself warned us, 'Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy.' " The LORD replied, "Go down and bring Aaron up with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the LORD, or he will break out against them." So Moses went down to the people and told them.” - Exodus 19 NLT-

There are some very interesting things that are happening here that I would like for us to look at. God reminded them of the great things that He had done. He reminded Israelites of the many great miracles that they had been witnesses to. He said, “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself” God reminded the Israelites that they were the benefactors of God’s great kindness. God reminded them that they were once slaves and that He had miraculously taken them out of bondage and He reminded the Israelites that He was the only reason that they were at Mt. Sinai that day. It was a reminder that God had brought plagues upon Egypt. It was a reminder that God had split the red sea so that they could walk through it as if they were on dry ground. It was a reminder that they would have starved had God not provided bread from Heaven. It was a reminder that they would have died of thirst had God not brought water out of the rock. And here God is saying You have seen all of these things which I have done for you so that you can be here today. “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites." God had provided everything and He promised the Israelites if they would obey His command that they would be His “treasured possession”. “So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the LORD had commanded him to speak. The people all responded together, "We will do everything the LORD has said." So Moses brought their answer back to the LORD” Moses went back to the people and said all He had been told to say. “The people all responded together, “We will do everything the Lord has said.” At that moment the people of Israel promised God they would follow His commands. They had a strong desire to be the people of God. They had seen all that He had done and they wanted to be His people, and they wanted to be God’s treasured possession. They pledged that they would do so, and they pledged to do so rather resoundingly. So, they were ordered to clean themselves up and get ready for what God was going to do next.

“On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.” The time had come; God was going to do something huge today. There was thunder, lightning, smoke, and a loud trumpet blast. God told Moses and Aaron to come up Mt. Sinai, He had something to tell them. God delivered to them the Ten Commandments.

     Yet again, God was reminding the people of Israel of what He had done for them. "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” God saying again, it is I that did everything to bring you out of the land of Egypt. It is I that brought you out of bondage and into freedom. Then He gave the Ten Commandments that they had already pledged to obey.

The Ten Commandments

"You shall have no other gods before me.”
"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”
"You shall not murder.
"You shall not commit adultery."
"You shall not steal.”
"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
"You shall not covet”

     Even though the people of Israel had promised God that they would follow His commands, did God know that they would fail at this task that they had promised to do? Yes, He knew. It is funny that the following chapters are full of “what to do when you break the commandments”. The entire book of Leviticus is devoted to the sacrificial system. The point is God knew that the people of Israel would fail and so He also put in place the sacrificial system. Animal sacrifices were made for the sins of the people.   It was a foreshadowing of things to come. One day “the Lamb of God” would be sacrificed for the sins of the world, ushering in the New Covenant. So, what was the purpose of the Ten Commandments? It showed the people their need for the Savior. “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”-Galatians 3:24-25 its purpose was to show us how evil we were and how desperately we needed to come to faith in God. It is what theologians have called coming to God with the “empty hand of faith”. That is coming to God holding on to nothing, believing that nothing but Jesus’ finished work on the cross will save us and trusting in that.

     I want to look at how quickly Israel had failed and why they failed to follow their commitment to the Lord. When the people heard the thunder and the loud blast of the ram’s horn, and when they saw the flashes of lightning and the smoke billowing from the mountain, they stood at a distance, trembling with fear.

“When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him." Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me." So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD." So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.' "I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation." But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. "O LORD," he said, "why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.' " Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, "There is the sound of war in the camp." Moses replied: "It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear." When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it. He said to Aaron, "What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?" "Do not be angry, my lord," Aaron answered. "You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.' So I told them, 'Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.' Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!" – Exodus 32

   This is so similar to people today. We worship other things and wonder why God doesn’t speak to us. We lie about it like Aaron did casting the blame onto someone else. We deliberately go against the commands of God in so many ways, yet don’t understand why God isn’t doing something miraculous with us. We watch things we shouldn’t watch on television, breaking the 7th commandment. Jesus said, “But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” – Matthew 5:28 We listen to things that we shouldn’t listen to, also causing us to break the 7th commandment. The past couple of generations has no problem with using the name of the Lord in vain, which is the 3rd commandment. We are more interested in being popular, liked, or getting attention from the opposite sex, setting up idols in our lives breaking the 1st and 2nd commandments. We must examine our lives to see if these things exist in us repent of them and follow God and His commands.

     As we are moving through the redemptive history it is important to understand where we are going. We are looking to Christ. Christ is the Lamb that was slain. He came to earth lived a perfect life died on the cross as the substitution for our sin and was raised from the dead three days later. He is now in Heaven and is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is reigning and ruling over earth and we must come to Him for redemption, because we have broken these commandments and we will one day be judged by Him based on these commandments. If we trust in Jesus we will be forgiven for the sins we have committed and will one day be with Him in Heaven.

Dwain Minor