God Gives His Law on Mount Sinai
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because the Lord descended upon it in fire: ... and the whole mount
quaked greatly.” The hosts of Israel shook with fear and fell upon their
faces before the Lord. Even Moses exclaimed, “I exceedingly fear and
quake.”
Hebrews 12:21
.
Now the thunders ceased; the trumpet was no longer heard; 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 upon
the mount, surrounded by angels, the Lord made known His law.
“I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” He who had brought them forth
from Egypt, making a way for them through the sea, and overthrowing
Pharaoh and his hosts—He it was who now spoke His law.
God honored the Hebrews by making them the guardians and
keepers of His law, but it was to be held as a sacred trust for the whole
world. The precepts of the Decalogue are adapted to all mankind, and
they were given for the instruction and government of all. Ten precepts,
brief, comprehensive, and authoritative, cover the duty of man to
God and to his fellowman, and all based upon the great fundamental
principle of love. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind;
and thy neighbor as thyself.”
Luke 10:27
. In the Ten Commandments
these principles are made applicable to man.
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(1) “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” Whatever we
cherish that tends to lessen our love for God or to interfere with the
service due Him, of that do we make a god.
(2) “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven 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: thou shalt not bow
down thyself to them, nor serve them.”
Conceptions of God Affect Human Behavior
Many heathen nations claimed that their images were mere symbols
by which the Deity was worshiped; but God has declared such worship
to be sin. The attempt to represent the Eternal One by material objects
would lower man’s conception of God. The mind would be attracted
to the creature rather than to the Creator. As his conceptions of God
were lowered, so would man become degraded.