God's Promises to His Covenant People
Two months after the children of Israel left Egypt, they camped in front of Mount Sinai. God told Moses to say to the Israelites, “You saw for yourselves how I delivered you from Egypt. If you obey Me fully and keep My covenant, then, out of all the nations, you will be My treasured possession. You will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
And when Moses told the people, they responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said.”
Purification and Power
Then God said, “Tell the people to purify themselves for two days before I come on the third day. Don’t let anyone or any animal touch the mountain. If they do, they’ll die because this is holy ground.” The people obeyed God, and on the third day a thick cloud covered the mountain. There was thunder and lightning and a deafening noise, like a blast from a trumpet. Smoke boiled up from the mountain like it was coming out of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook. All the Israelites trembled in fear.
Ten Commandments
Then Moses went up the mountain, and God gave him the Ten Commandments. He said:
God also gave them many other laws that were specifically made to help Israel function as a nation under God.
The People's Response
After all of this, the people were shaking with fear. Moses said to them, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning as He leads you into the Promised Land. When you come there, you must not make a covenant with the Canaanites or their gods or live with them because they will cause you to sin against me.”
The next morning Moses built an altar at the foot of the mountain and offered sacrifices to God so that the blood poured out. Then Moses and his assistant, Joshua, went back up the mountain, and God gave Moses two copies of the covenant between Himself and Israel written in stone. The cloud covered the mountain and whenever the people looked up, they saw the glory of God shining like a fire above them.