Ten Public, Corporate, Direct, & Fearful Words

The Movies Get it Wrong!

Have you ever seen?

Charlton Heston, Cecil B. DeMille. The Ten Commandments 1956.

Q: When do the people first hear the Commandments?

A: When Moses comes down with the tablets, AFTER THEY’VE MADE THE GOLDEN CALF!

Or how about?

Mel Brooks, History of the World Part 1, 1981.

3 Tablets. One broke!

THE PEOPLE HAVE TO TAKE MOSES’ WORD FOR IT!

“Whose Law, Moses? Yours? Did you carve those tablets to become a prince over us?”

In Contrast: God’s ten words were Public, Corporate, Direct, and Fearful

1. Public, not Private.

Remember that in Ex 19:9 God already said this was his purpose:

Exodus 19:9 (ESV)

And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”

So God intended for the people to hear him speak. And later in Ex 20:22 God says that that is actually what happened:

Exodus 20:22 (ESV)

And the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven.

So God publically spoke to them.

2. Corporate, not Cryptic

All the people heard them, not just a few. The Lord was not being cliquish or unclear. Ex 19:11

Exodus 19:11 (ESV)

and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

Exodus 19:16–17 (ESV)

On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain.

So God’s words were corporate. All the people heard them, not just a few.

And to demonstrate that they were clear and not cryptic, Moses will later describe this event in Deuteronomy 4 this way, Deut 4:12–13

Deuteronomy 4:12–13 (ESV)

{Then} the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice. And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone.

God was absolutely clear.

3. Direct, not Disputable

This was not a hearsay report. Moses coming down, or even an angel coming down from heaven to relay what God was saying to the people (Gal 1:8).

Deut 4:36

Deuteronomy 4:36 ESV

Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.

You can’t get more direct than that.

4. Fearful, not Friendly

It is true that the commandments begin with redemption and grace, Ex 20:2 ““I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

That’s redemption. That’s grace.

But the effect it had on the people was not warm and friendly. This experience did not strike them “good-news:” Ex 20:18–19

Exodus 20:18–19 ESV

Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”

Interestingly enough, in the very next verse we learn that the people’s fearful response was kinda the whole point! In fact, that’s God’s purpose for doing this! Ex 20:20

Exodus 20:20 ESV

Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.”

My paraphrase? “It’s okay people, you’re suppose to be afraid. God’s not here to destroy you, but to keep you from sinning. You think God’s scary right now? Sin is worse. Fear sin more than God.”

But the people would not get it; they could not understand. Sadly, they would soon break all ten of these commandments, one by one. Because they needed a better intermediary than Moses.

The Better Mediator Than Moses

We have such an intermediary. He has gone down the mountain for God and back up again for us. He speaks to God for us, and speaks to us for God.

He is a man like Moses, who was faithful in all God’s house, with one exception: even Moses did not enter the promised land, because he was a sinner, but our mediator never broke a single commandment.

He is also God, and like Yahweh appeared to Israel on the third day, this God man also appeared to his people on the morning of the third day.

But not in fire.

Not in smoke.

Not with booming voice and trumpet.

But with the words, “Peace be with you.”

The Israelites said, “Do not let us hear Yahweh’s words again, or we will die,” but Jesus the Son of God said, “Let me die for you, so that you can live, and come up the mountain with me.”

Conclusion: Come up the Mountain with Jesus

Jesus invites you to join him at the top of the mountain of God. But it’s not mount Sinai anymore. It’s mount Zion. And this mountain doesn’t shout “stand afar off!” It shouts “All who are thirsty, come.”

I cannot put it any better than the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, Heb 12:18–29

Hebrews 12:18–29 (ESV)

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.

… But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

… Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.