And God spoke all these words, saying: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
Exodus 20:1-2
With the preparation to hear from God finished, note first in chapter 20 that God spoke. The commandments are God’s commandments. The Ten Commandments are not merely Old Testament commandments, that we in the New Covenant are free to dismiss.*
Neither are the Ten Commandments Moses’ commandments. I know the “Law of Moses” is an accepted designation for the Old Testament law, but the commandments are God’s commandments, not Moses’ commandments.
Nor are the Ten Commandments exclusively for Israel or for the Jewish people. Yes, they were first addressed to Israel upon being delivered by God from Egypt. But God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt is a prophetic foreshadow, or a “type” of God’s deliverance of all His people (Jew and Gentile alike) from the spiritual bondage of sin, not by Moses but by one greater than Moses: Jesus.
My point is simple: Not only must God’s people (then and now) prepare to enter the presence of God, but once in His presence, what we hear is God’s voice. God’s law. And God’s grace. Let us receive it as such.
*Footnote: When people say we can dismiss Old Testament commandments that Jesus did not specifically address or were reiterated in the New Testament, I ask then, are incest and beastiality also lawful under the New Covenant?