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God Gives His Law on Mount Sinai
189
echoed among the surrounding heights. “Now Mount Sinai was
completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire ...
and the whole mountain quaked greatly.” All of Israel shook with
fear and fell on their faces before the Lord. Even Moses exclaimed,
[147]
“I am exceedingly afraid and trembling” (
Hebrews 12:21
).
Now the thunder stopped, the trumpet was no longer heard, and
the earth was still. There was a period of solemn silence; then the
voice of God was heard. Speaking out of the thick darkness as He
stood on the mountain, surrounded by angels, the Lord made known
His law.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” The One who had brought
them out of Egypt, making a way for them through the sea, and
overthrowing Pharaoh and his army—He was the One who now
spoke His law.
God honored the Hebrews by making them the guardians and
keepers of His law, but they were to hold it as a sacred trust for
the whole world. The laws of the Ten Commandments are adapted
to people everywhere, and they were given for the instruction and
government of all. Ten commandments, brief, comprehensive, and
authoritative, cover our duty to God and to other people, and all
are based on the great fundamental principle of love. “You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with
all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as
yourself” (
Luke 10:27
). In the Ten Commandments these principles
are applied to our lives.
(1) “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Whatever we
cherish that tends to lessen our love for God or to interfere with the
service that is rightfully His—of that we make a god.
(2) “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any like-
ness 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 bow
down to them nor serve them.”
Concepts of God Affect Human Behavior
Many heathen nations claimed that their images were only sym-
bols by which the Deity was worshiped, but God has declared such