Ex 20:1+2, Then 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 slavery. We are at the beginning of the giving of the Law to the Chosen nation of Israel. There is very much that we could spend copious amounts of time discussing in this chapter. The rest of our lifetimes could be exhausted in the various aspects of how, why, and for what purpose God so instructed His people in preparation for the coming of His dispensation of grace. Comparisons and delineations and commentary exposition abound within the confines of this chapter. Yet, there is something that is often over-looked that has caught my attention in this reading. It is upon the truth that God spoke all these words… that we will consider as the core of our time in this text.   
	The very beginning of this chapter is often glossed over because of the wealth of detail described within the rest of this passage. The vast and manifest key is that God, Himself, spoke these things directly giving His law to His people. It was not an interpretation neither theological discernment nor a spiritually incited revelation. It was the express interaction on God’s part by which He directly voiced that which followed. There could be no doubt that what was given was in any form or fashion other than the very precise words from the mouth of the Almighty Lord God Himself. 
	This was highlighted later for the people by Moses in Deut 4:29-39, if you would please turn to it. Deut 4:29-39, But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them. "Indeed, ask now concerning the former days which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and inquire from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? "Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and survived? "Or has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? "To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord, He is God; there is no other besides Him. Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice to discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them. And He personally brought you from Egypt by His great power, driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. 
..."To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord, He is God; there is no other besides Him. Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice to discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. This was the direct communication between God and His people. The sad aspect to this, however, despite the willingness of God to so make Himself truly known to His people, was that they did not want to hear directly from Him. They were afraid and trembled at the sound of His voice and asked Moses to be their intermediary. 
They were the ones who cut off the avenue of God’s voice unto them because of their self-indulgent fear that what He spoke to them, they could not disregard. Verses 18-20 of this morning’s reading. Ex 20:18-20, And all the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, lest we die." And Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin." 
While Moses encouraged them to listen directly to God, they quaked in their fearful attitudes at the holiness of God and the sinfulness that was evident in their own hearts causing them to dismay that they would be struck down in their iniquity. Moses was a man with whom God spoke directly, and yet their fear caused them to set aside that fact and place Moses on some higher level of godliness than themselves. 
Rather than wanting to enjoy communion with God, they forsook that intimacy and chose to delegate it to another on their behalf. What that would ultimately allow was that they could state that Moses was misinterpreting and too vague and investing too much of his own ideas in what he shared as the word of God. This was their excuse to not obey the every command of God. It was their fail safe in order to allow them to follow the lusts and desires of their own selfishness. If they heard directly from the mouth of God, they could never excuse their disobedience. But, by using Moses and the other prophets as intermediaries, they could set aside anything that they did not want to hear or obey.
	Moses would remind them of the fact that God spoke His law directly to them as we read in Deut 5:3-6. Deut 5:3-6, The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all those of us alive here today. The Lord spoke to you face to face at the mountain from the midst of the fire, while I was standing between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain. He said, 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Moses reminded the people of Who God was and what He had done over and over again because the people were quick to turn their backs and their hearts from God.
	He recounted to them their immediate responses to the revealed glory of God and how they were continually brought back to the remembrance of the awesomeness and the glory that God displayed in all His dealings with and for the sake of this, His redeemed nation. Deut 5:22-24. Deut 5:22-24, "These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire, of the cloud and of the thick gloom, with a great voice, and He added no more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. And it came about, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders. And you said, 'Behold, the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire; we have seen today that God speaks with man, yet he lives. 
	Again Moses detailed the fact that the people were so blessed to directly hear the voice of God and to receive His commandments for their own sake and safety and welfare. Deut 9:9+10. Deut 9:9+10, When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord had made with you, then I remained on the mountain forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. And the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. 
	And yet, it was during those 40 days that the Israelites, who had heard the very voice of God were so insistent that Aaron mold a golden calf as their idol to worship. They had heard the voice of God speak directly to them, covered their ears and trembled in fear at the revelation of God to them through His own voice in the fire. Despite all of this, they desired to have some manmade object that they could declare to be their god. 
When Moses was sent down to the people with the original tablets outlining all that God had directly spoken to the people, Moses in his utter disgust at what the nation was doing, broke them asunder. His righteous wrath at the despicable and nauseating activities of those people who had deliberately turned their backs on the Only True and Living God Who had made Himself so manifestly known to them, caused Moses to be sick and utterly disheartened with this stubborn and perverse people. God had redeemed them and had led them in the wilderness and made every provision for their sustenance. He had spoken to them directly, and only 40 days or so after that revelation, these people were forsaking life and choosing death. They were venerating the product of man’s hands to worship and adore, just like the Egyptians and their false gods from whom they had been delivered.  
	Lest we think upon them with too much condemnation, let us search our own hearts as to how we respond when the Lord reveals Himself to us in our times of dealing with His Word and the Holy Spirit in prayer and worship and study. How often are we enthralled with the teaching of the Lord as He shows us His truths and His miraculous working might and power and ruling and overruling, only to slip back into old habits and seeking after self satisfaction? We quickly forget, as did this people of God, Who God is and all that He has shown us of His glory and His Grace and His Love and His Mercy and His Provision. We tend to put forth the mantra of this age, “What has He done for me lately?” 
This is the very key to the disobedience of humanity’s consideration of God. Everything is centered in what we get out of our relationship with God and with others. It is all focused on the idea that we deserve to be able to discern what is our best interest and what we want and how we want to achieve those things we lust after and think that we deserve. 
	We must remember that what God does is for the testimony of the living relationship that He establishes with His people. It is always the very best because it will reflect all that is His heart and will in His Omnipotence and His Omniscience and His Omnipresence. Everything revolves around Him and His plan and His purpose and not around us. The universe is His. He created it. And he created us for those purposes which will bring further eternal glory and honor and adoration to the awesome love with which He has so manifested Himself through His Only Begotten Son. 
	The prophet Nehemiah details this for us so wonderfully in Neh 9:6-15, if you would please turn to it and follow along as we bring this morning’s consideration to a close. The prophet reviews just how wonderfully God manifested His Sovereignty and His Majesty in the deliverance of this, His Chosen People, and how He chose to open Himself fully unto them in speaking directly to them at the giving of His Law. Neh 9:6-15, "Thou alone art the Lord. Thou hast made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. Thou dost give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before Thee. "Thou art the Lord God, Who chose Abram And brought him out from Ur of the Chaldees, And gave him the name Abraham. "And Thou didst find his heart faithful before Thee, And didst make a covenant with him To give him the land of the Canaanite, Of the Hittite and the Amorite, Of the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite- To give it to his descendants. And Thou hast fulfilled Thy promise, For Thou art righteous. "Thou didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, And didst hear their cry by the Red Sea. "Then Thou didst perform signs and wonders against Pharaoh, Against all his servants and all the people of his land; For Thou didst know that they acted arrogantly toward them, And didst make a name for Thyself as it is this day. "And Thou didst divide the sea before them, So they passed through the midst of the sea on dry ground; And their pursuers Thou didst hurl into the depths, Like a stone into raging waters. "And with a pillar of cloud Thou didst lead them by day, And with a pillar of fire by night To light for them the way In which they were to go. "Then Thou didst come down on Mount Sinai, And didst speak with them from heaven; Thou didst give to them just ordinances and true laws, Good statutes and commandments. "So Thou didst make known to them Thy holy sabbath, And didst lay down for them commandments, statutes, and law, Through Thy servant Moses. "Thou didst provide bread from heaven for them for their hunger, Thou didst bring forth water from a rock for them for their thirst, And Thou didst tell them to enter in order to possess The land which Thou didst swear to give them. 
	We must always take to the heart the fact that when God speaks, we need to listen. He has spoken directly to people, as detailed in this morning’s passage. He also speaks through His Word. He speaks through His chosen servants, including even angels whom He sent to deliver His Word. And He speaks through the still inner voice of the Holy Spirit within each of those who call upon the name of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We will consider some of this in greater depth in our next time together, Lord willing. So be it!
Then 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 slavery. Amen. 

This morning’s benediction is 1 Chron 29:11-13. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Thine is the dominion, O Lord, and Thou dost exalt Thyself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from Thee, and Thou dost rule over all, and in Thy hand is power and might; and it lies in Thy hand to make great, and to strengthen everyone. Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious name. Amen.