And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. – Exodus 31:18. The Ten Commandments are a distinctive set of spiritual laws that the Lord Himself wrote on two stone tablets that Moses brought from Mount Sinai. Shortly after God guided Moses who led the Israelites out of Egypt, they crossed the desert to Mount Sinai. This journey lasted 44 days until it was the third moon after the first Passover. Mount Sinai is important because it is the place where Moses was initially commissioned. The Israelites camped opposite Mount Sinai while Moses went up the mountain. The Lord commanded Moses to tell the leaders that if they obeyed the Lord and kept His covenant, then they would become the “kingdom of the priests” and the “holy nation” of the Lord (Ex. 19:5-6). Once the message was delivered, the people responded, “Whatever the Lord has said, we will do.” With that, Moses returned to the mountain. He was told to command the people to sanctify themselves before the Lord descended on Mount Sinai in three days. This meant that the Israelites were to abstain from the comforts of the world and not touch the borders or the mountain. “Be ready for the third day; for on the third day the LORD will come down from Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. When the third day came, the Israelites gathered at the foot of the mountain, where the Lord descended amidst thunder, lightning, wisps of smoke, fire, and the loud blast of the shofar. Moses then went up only to be told to come back down to warn the people not to set foot on the mountain so as not to be consumed by the wrath of God. Then the LORD began...... middle of paper ......ar falsely in the name of the LORD your God; for the LORD will not clear him who swears falsely by his name. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall work and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; you shall not do any work… For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth and 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 mother and your father, that you may endure long in the land which the LORD your God assigns to you. You will not kill. 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 male or female slave, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor..