Last week, I called your attention to Cecil B. DeMille’s classic movie, The Ten Commandments, a movie that I enjoy very much.  I asked you to consider the following:  “When God’s people - having been delivered from the Egyptian bondage - came to Mt. Sinai, Moses was called by God to go up into the mountain.  There, God spoke to Moses and gave him the Ten Commandments - written on the tablets of stone by God Himself.  Meanwhile, while Moses was upon the mountain, a golden calf was fashioned for the people...and the story continues.  Yet, there is something wrong with the scene I just referenced.  What is it?”  Even though there may be a few things that you could point out, I want to focus on one primary discrepancy.

     In the scene described above, the Ten Commandments were spoken only to Moses.  That simply wasn’t the case.  First of all, let’s notice some pertinent statements from Deuteronomy 5:  “These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.  And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, (for the mountain did burn with fire,) that ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; And ye said, Behold, the LORD our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth.  Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, then we shall die.  For who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?  Go thou near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the LORD our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it” (vs 22-27, emp. add.).  Secondly, let’s see how Hebrews 12 harmonizes with Deuteronomy 5: “For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more” (vs 18-19, emp. add.).

     In reality, the Ten Commandments were spoken to the whole assembly of the Israelites - not just to Moses.  Due to their fear, the people then asked Moses to personally receive the rest of God’s instructions.  Moses obliged and personally received the rest of God’s Law which he then relayed to all of the people.