Why and how God gave the Ten Commandments?

Answer 1

Let's start off by saying "God is Holy". God hates sin and disobedience. God created mankind and wants mankind to be holy.

Mankind since the fall in the Garden of Eden have been sinners. But God from the beginning has given mankind evidence that there is a God and has placed His moral law in each heart (ie, Man, since the fall has always know what is good and what is evil, Romans 1:18-23).

After God choose His holy nation and released them from slavery, He wanted to give them His laws, some rules to follow. The Ten Commandments were those rules. The Ten Commandments are actually the headings of 643 laws. The Ten Commandments are found in the Book of Exodus and what follows in Exodus, and Leviticus are the Ten Commandments broken down into individual laws. In the Books of Numbers and Deuteronomy the laws are repeated and some expanded on. These laws, the Ten Commandments and the laws they are broken down into were given to Moses on Mount Sinai. God wrote the "Ten Commandments" on two tablets of stone for Moses to show the people. This is why and how the Ten Commandments were given.

But the Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments, could never be kept completely. A person could keep maybe 9 commandments if they were very good and fail on one of the other ten. When a person failed in one law they were said to have failed the Ten Commandments and were considered a sinner. They could not stand up to God's Laws.

This is where animal sacrifices came in. When a person sinned, and they all did, they had to offer a sacrifice. Depending on the sin committed they had to offer the acceptable animal sacrifice. The Law of Moses was given to teach the people what God wanted from them and to teach them what sin was, but the Law could never save a person or make that person righteous. And this is where Jesus Christ comes in.

Jesus Christ came to earth to die in the place of mankind for their sins. He accomplished this on the cross of Calvary. Then He was buried and arose from that grave on the third day. Jesus was the sacrifice that covered all sins and did away with them forever and this sacrifice only had to happen once in contrast to the animal sacrifices that were only a covering for sin and had to be repeated day after day. In order to take advantage of this sacrifice that God has provided for us, we have to come to Jesus Christ, when He calls us, and accept Him as Lord, Master, and Savior. When we do that our sin is removed from us. Psalm 103:12, "A far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us". If you travel east you will never over take the west. Our sin is gone. Ask God to show you the way to His Son who has the power to give life.