What happened at Mount Sinai before and after the receiving of the Ten Commandments?

It is interesting to know what these events were.

Moses went up the mountain for the first time to find out what God was promising the Israelites.

Exo 19:3  And Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:

Moses was given some very important information to pass on to the Israelites. The Israelites were well aware of what happened in Egypt.

Exo 19:4  ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.

God wanted obedience to the covenant, and then they would be a peculiar treasure to Him.

Exo 19:5  Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.

If they obeyed God, the Israelites would be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Exo 19:6  And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”

Moses descended from Mt. Sinai and told the elders the words of God.

Exo 19:7  So Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these words which the LORD commanded him.

All the people agreed to obey God.

Moses returned to the mountain the second time.

Exo 19:8  Then all the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” So Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD.

When Moses went back to the mountain, God the Father explained that He would speak to Moses in a cloud,……notice why, so the people could hear the Father and believe Moses. This is one of the ways that the Father appears to man….in a thick cloud. Then Moses descended Mt. Sinai.

Exo 19:9  And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever.” So Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.

For two days the people had to be sanctified. Moses went up Mt. Sinai for the third time.

Exo 19:10  Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes.

The third day was the Feast of Trumpets, and God was going to appear in a cloud on Mount Sinai.

Exo 19:11  And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

No one was allowed to go near the mountain, no animal or man, or touch it.

Exo 19:12  You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.

Moses was told that when the Israelites heard a long trumpet blast they should come to the mountain. The trumpets heralded in the giving of the Ten Commandments.

Exo 19:13  Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain.”

Moses passed on the instructions to the Israelites and they obeyed. Moses descended Mt. Sinai.

Exo 19:14  So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes.

Exo 19:15  And he said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; do not come near your wives.”

The following verses show clearly the morning of the Feast of Trumpets.

Exo 19:16  Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

Try and imagine a mountain that you know of that you may live close to, imagine it all quaking, the deafening sound of thunder and lightening, the whole top of the mountain covered in smoke, and then the loud long blasts of the trumpet. How terrifying this must have been for the Israelites.

Exo 19:17  And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.

Exo 19:18  Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.

Exo 19:19  And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.

Moses went up to the mountain for the fourth time.

Exo 19:20  Then the LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

The Father instructed Moses to again ensure that the people did not break through the boundaries. The Father must have known that without this second warning, many would have perished.

Exo 19:21  And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to gaze at the LORD, and many of them perish.

Exo 19:22  Also let the priests who come near the LORD consecrate themselves, lest the LORD break out against them.”

Exo 19:23  But Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai; for You warned us, saying, ‘Set bounds around the mountain and consecrate it.’ ”

Exo 19:24  Then the LORD said to him, “Away! Get down and then come up, you and Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest He break out against them.”

Moses obeyed. Moses descended Mt. Sinai.

Exo 19:25  So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.

Then God the Father gave the Ten Commandments.

Exo 20:1  And God spoke all these words, saying:

Exo 20:2  “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Exo 20:3  “You shall have no other gods before Me.

Exo 20:4  “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—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;

Exo 20:5  you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

Exo 20:6  but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Exo 20:7  “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

Exo 20:8  “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Exo 20:9  Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

Exo 20:10  but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

Exo 20:11  For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

Exo 20:12  “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

Exo 20:13  “You shall not murder.

Exo 20:14  “You shall not commit adultery.

Exo 20:15  “You shall not steal.

Exo 20:16  “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Exo 20:17  “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

The thunder and lightning was frightening to the Israelites.

Exo 20:18  Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off.

The Israelites were scared to let God talk with them, they wanted Moses to talk to them.

Exo 20:19  Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”

There was a reason for the Israelites to fear God…….so they would not sin.

Exo 20:20  And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.”

Moses went up Mt. Sinai the fifth time.

Exo 20:21  So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.

God told Moses what to say to the Israelites.

Exo 20:22  Then the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.

God gave Moses the judgments.

Exo 21:1  “Now these are the judgments which you shall set before them:

These judgments continue until Ex 23 v 19.

The Father says that He will send an angel {Jesus Christ} before them.

Exo 23:20  “Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.

Exo 23:21  Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.

Exo 23:22  But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

Exo 23:23  For My Angel will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites;

The angel was Christ notice the following scripture.

1Co 10:4  and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

Notice the blessings that were promised if only Israel would have obeyed.

Exo 23:25  “So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.

Exo 23:26  No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.

Exo 23:27  “I will send My fear before you, I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

The Israelites are given promises of victory over enemies.

Exo 23:28  And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you.

Exo 23:29  I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.

Exo 23:30  Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land.

Exo 23:31  And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert to the River. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.

Exo 23:32  You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.

Exo 23:33  They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

Moses goes up to the mountain the sixth time.

Exo 24:1  Now He said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar.

Moses descended the mountain and built an altar and twelve pillars.

Exo 24:4  And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

Exo 24:7  Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient.”

Exo 24:8  And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.”

Moses goes up the mountain the 7th time. Here they saw the Word who later became Jesus.

Exo 24:9  Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel,

Exo 24:10  and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity.

Exo 24:11  But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank.

Moses was told to come further up the mountain.

Exo 24:12  Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.”

Moses and Joshua went further up the mountain.

Exo 24:13  So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God.

Exo 24:14  And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Indeed, Aaron and Hur are with you. If any man has a difficulty, let him go to them.”

Joshua had to wait also, and Moses went on alone. The next few verses are when Moses spoke to God the Father. The Father spoke to him from the cloud.

Exo 24:15  Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain.

Exo 24:16  Now the glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

Exo 24:17  The sight of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.

Exo 24:18  So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

When Moses went up to The Father, He gave Moses much information. This included the Ten Commandments, the instructions on how to build the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, and the altar, specifications for the priestly garments, etc. Meanwhile, the Israelites had Aaron build the golden calf and were committing idolatry. When Moses and Joshua return from the mountain, Moses saw what had happened in his absence and in anger, Moses broke the stone tablets. He then destroyed the golden calf and made the Israelites drink the gold crushed into the water.

When Moses went up to Mt. Sinai the 6th time, he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.

Deu 9:9  When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.

The seventh time Moses went up to Mt. Sinai.

Exo 32:31  Then Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold!

Here we see the type of man that Moses was. He was willing to ask God to blot his name out of the book of life to save the sinning Israelites.

God must have truly loved the attitude that Moses had.

Exo 32:32  Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.”

Exo 32:33  And the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.

Exo 32:34  Now therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, My Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin.”

Exo 32:35  So the LORD plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made.

When Moses went up to Mt. Sinai the 7th time, he fasted 40 days and 40 nights. This fasting may well have been only one day for the first time he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.

Deu 9:17  Then I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes.

Deu 9:18  And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger.

Deu 9:19  For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was angry with you, to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me at that time also.

The eighth time Moses went up to Mt. Sinai.

Exo 34:1  And the LORD said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke.

Exo 34:2  So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there on the top of the mountain.

Exo 34:3  And no man shall come up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain; let neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain.”

Exo 34:4  So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him; and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone.

Exo 34:5  Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.

Exo 34:6  And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,

Exo 34:7  keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

When Moses received the Ten Commandments for the second time, he stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights, during which he did not eat or drink. The was the third time he fasted for forty days and forty nights.

He also made an Ark of acacia wood to house the tablets of stone.

Exo 34:27  Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”

Exo 34:28  So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

Deu 10:1  “At that time the LORD said to me, ‘Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain and make yourself an ark of wood.

Deu 10:2  And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you shall put them in the ark.’

Deu 10:3  “So I made an ark of acacia wood, hewed two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand.

Deu 10:4  And He wrote on the tablets according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments, which the LORD had spoken to you in the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the LORD gave them to me.

Deu 10:5  Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they are, just as the LORD commanded me.”

What a wonderful story of Moses and what he did. No wonder God loved him. He fasted on three occasions for 40 days and 40 nights, went up to Mt. Sinai eight times, offered to have himself removed from the Book of Life, so that the Israelites would not be destroyed. Moses was truly a wonderful man of God. In whom God is most pleased.