Ten Words on a Mountain

Read it: Exodus 19–20

In the third month after leaving Egypt, Israel arrives at the foot of Mount Sinai. This is the very mountain where God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, and where He promised: “When you have brought the people out of Egypt, all of you will worship God on this mountain” (Exodus 3:12). God keeps His word.

They’ll stay here for nearly a year. It is one of the biggest moments in the whole Old Testament, because here a rescued crowd of former slaves becomes a nation with a covenant: a binding relationship with God, a bit like a marriage.

Carried on eagles’ wings

God calls Moses up the mountain and gives him a message for the people. Listen to how it starts:

“You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself” (Exodus 19:4).

Not “brought you to a new land” but “brought you to Myself”. The point of the rescue was a relationship. Then God says what Israel will be: “you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine. And unto Me you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5–6).

A priest stands between God and people. Israel as a whole nation is meant to show the rest of the world what God is like. That’s the promise to Abraham again: blessing for all nations, through this one people.

The people reply: “We will do everything that the LORD has spoken” (Exodus 19:8). They mean it. They have no idea how hard it will be.

Fire and thunder

God tells the people to get ready for three days, washing their clothes and keeping back from the mountain. A boundary is set around it: no one is to touch it. God is about to come near, and He is holy.

“On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning. A thick cloud was upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the ram’s horn went out, so that all the people in the camp trembled” (Exodus 19:16). “Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the LORD had descended on it in fire” (Exodus 19:18).

Then God speaks.

What God said

“And God spoke all these words” (Exodus 20:1): “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2).

Don’t skip that opening line. Before a single command is given, God reminds them who He is and what He has already done. The commandments are not a way to earn rescue. They had already been rescued. The law is how a rescued people lives with the God who saved them. Grace first, then commands.

The Bible later calls these “the Ten Commandments” (Exodus 34:28). In Hebrew it’s literally “the ten words”. The first four are about loving God:

• Have no other gods before Him.
• Don’t make idols to worship.
• Don’t misuse His name.
• Keep the Sabbath day holy, a day of rest every seventh day, as God rested after creation.

The next six are about loving other people:

• Honour your father and mother.
• Do not murder.
• Do not commit adultery.
• Do not steal.
• Do not lie about your neighbour.
• Do not covet, that is, don’t set your heart on what belongs to someone else.

Look at that last one. You can’t see coveting. It happens inside. God’s law isn’t only about actions. It reaches right down to the heart.

Christians differ on exactly how the Sabbath command applies now that Jesus has come. Some keep Sunday as a Christian Sabbath; others see the command fulfilled in the rest Jesus gives. All agree that God made us for regular rest and worship, and that the other nine commandments still describe what love for God and neighbour looks like.

Too close

When the people hear God’s voice with the thunder and the horn and the smoke, they tremble and stand far back. They beg Moses: “Speak to us yourself and we will listen ... But do not let God speak to us, or we will die” (Exodus 20:19). Moses replies, “Do not be afraid,” and explains: “For God has come to test you, so that the fear of Him may be before you, to keep you from sinning” (Exodus 20:20).

“And the people stood at a distance as Moses approached the thick darkness where God was” (Exodus 20:21). God has come down to live among His people, but they can’t come near Him. There’s still a barrier. Within weeks, while Moses is still up the mountain, they’ll make a golden calf and worship it, breaking the very first commands. The law shows them, and us, what a good life looks like. It can’t give anyone the power to live it.

Where Jesus is in this

Jesus said, “I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17), speaking of the Law and the Prophets. He summed up all ten commandments in two great commands: love God with everything, and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). And He kept them perfectly, the only person who ever has. Paul says the law could show sin but couldn’t fix it, so God sent His Son “as an offering for sin ... so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3–4).

The book of Hebrews looks back at Sinai’s fire and darkness and says to Christians: “you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire” (Hebrews 12:18). Instead “you have come to Mount Zion” and “to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant” (Hebrews 12:22–24). At Sinai the people stood at a distance. Through Jesus, we are brought near.

Think about it: God gave the commandments to people He had already rescued. How does that change the way you think about obeying God?

Go deeper: The Ten Commandments by Thomas Watson — this chapter works through the opening words of Exodus 20, showing why God spoke the law “in his own person”, and why He begins by reminding Israel that He is their God who brought them out of Egypt and the house of bondage. Start with chapter 3, “The Preface to the Commandments”.