Moses climbed back down to where he'd left the people and told them what God had said and all the people answered together, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do." The people of Israel, recently delivered from abject slavery and severe bondage heard the words, "above all the other people of the earth," and it sounded pretty good to them as did, "a kingdom of priests." They well knew that the priests of Egypt were the wealthiest, highest class of people. They were the last to suffer in famine or any other difficulty.

Again Moses went up to bring Israel's acceptance message to God. Of course God already knew, but He also knew that the people would reject direct communication with Him. So He was continuing to use Moses as a go-between. God told Moses, "I will come to you in a thick cloud when I speak to you so the people can see that I'm speaking to you and they can hear My voice so they will always believe you."

He gave Moses instructions concerning what was to be done during the next three days leading up to the giving of the Ten Commandments, "Sanctify the people today and tomorrow and have them wash their clothes for on the third day I will come down on the mountain in the sight of all the people."

Though most people would not have cared to come near the mountain, there always seem to be a few who like to get as close as the can to any great occurrence, so God told Moses, "Make a boundary around the mountain and tell the people not to pass it; not to touch the mountain or its base. Anyone who does so will be put to death. When the trumpet sounds on the third day, everyone is to come near, but not past the boundary."

On the morning of the third day there were lightenings and thunders and a thick cloud descended on the mountain. There was the sound of a trumpet; so loud that the people trembled. But Moses led all of the people out of the camp to the foot of the mountain. The whole mountain was now engulfed in the cloud and smoke. As the LORD descended to its top the whole mountain quaked. And the voice of GOD came down to the people from the top of the mountain:

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.


"You shall not make yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of your fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me. But I show mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.


"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.


"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 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 manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.


"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.


"You shall not murder.


"You shall not commit adultery.


"You shall not steal.


"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.


"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."

The people were terrified of the lightening and thunder, the trumpet, the smoke and the quaking and the great voice. They moved far off from the mountain, and said to Moses, "You talk to us and we will hear, but don't let God speak to us any more or we may die."

But Moses told them, "Don't be afraid, God is testing you so that you will indeed fear Him and not sin by breaking His laws.

God gave the people of Israel many other laws through Moses for their good that you can read about in Exodus 20:22 though 23:19 and other places in the Bible. But the Ten Commandments were spoken in God's own voice and later written on two tablets of stone with God's own finger - that's how important they are. All the other laws are details of these Ten Commandments.