AFTER THE HEBREWS LEFT EGYPT, they traveled in the wilderness. It was a very hard trip, and they were hungry and discouraged by the time they camped, three months later, at the foot of Mount Sinai. Mountains were considered holy places then. So Moses went up on Mount Sinai to talk to God. God told Moses that the children of Israel would become a holy nation. When Moses reported to the people what God said, they replied, "Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do,"

The next time Moses went up on the mountain, God told him to have the people devote themselves to goodness for two days. On the third day Moses was to come back on the mountain and God would appear.

On the third day there were thunder and lightning and a thick cloud on the mountain, God had come down to the mountaintop in fire and smoke, and the mountain shook violently. God called Moses to come to the top of the mountain, saying, "Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and the commandments, which I have written for their instruction." Moses set out with his assistant, Joshua, while the people waited at the foot of the mountain. Moses was on the cloud-covered mountain for six days before he heard from God. Moses remained with God for another forty days and forty nights. When God finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, God gave him the two tablets of commandments, two tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

While Moses was away, the people complained that they didn’t know what had happened to him. They wanted Aaron,Moses’ brother, to make a god they could worship. Aaron took all the gold in the camp and made a statue of a golden calf. When Moses returned, after forty-seven days, with the two stone tablets, he found the people dancing and worshiping the golden calf. Moses was so angry he threw the stone tablets from his hand and broke them at the foot of the mountain. This broke the covenant between the people and God. Then Moses took the calf they had made, burnt it with fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the people drink it.

Some time later, after the people had shown that they repented, God forgave them. God said to Moses, "Cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you broke." God was willing to renew the covenant because the people were now willing to follow God’s commandments. This is what the ten commandments said:

I. I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me.
2 You shall not make for yourself an idol to worship.
3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of God.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and mother.
6. You shall not kill.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet anything that is your neighbor’s.