The Ten Commandments 

EXODUS 19-32, DEUTERONOMY 34

            The Israelites had wandered in the desert for about three months when they came to Mount Sinai.  Moses climbed to the top of the mountain and the Lord came to him and gave him the laws by which his people were to live.

            Moses stayed up on the mountain for forty days and forty nights, listening to God.  The people in the valley below got restless.

            They cried out to Aaron, Moses’ brother, “Moses is never coming back.  He has left us here to die on the plain.  Make us a god of gold that we can see and worship.  We are tired and bored.”

            So Aaron took their gold plates and jewelry and made a calf of gold for them to worship.  They sacrificed animals to the idol they had made.  They were foolish and disobedient.

            At last, Moses came down from the mountain.  He saw what the people were doing and he was angry with them.  How could they abandon the God who had plagued Egypt and parted the Red Sea?  Moses was so angry that he threw down the stone tablets that the Lord had given him and smashed them into bits.  Then he destroyed the golden calf.

            The Lord punished the people because they did not believe that the Lord could lead them into their promised land of Canaan.  None of that generation, except Joshua and Caleb, two men who trusted God, were allowed to go into that land.  The people wandered in the desert for forty years, and Moses himself died on the top of Mount Nebo.  As he died he could see the land to which he had led his people.

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(From Classic Bible Stories, A Family Treasury retold by Lise Caldwell (c) 1998 Standard Publishing.  Used by permission.  This book may be purchased at your local Christian Bookstore or from Standard Publishing (800-543-1301).