The Sinai Event: God Gives the Law to Moses

1Why this topic matters

Your school has rules, and Rwanda has laws. But where do people's ideas of right and wrong come from? For Christians, Muslims and Jews, one of the most important moments in the story of God's law took place at a mountain in the desert: Mount Sinai. There, their scriptures say, God gave his commandments to the prophet Moses, whom Muslims call Musa.

In this lesson you will study, side by side, what the Bible and the Qur'an say about this event, known as the Sinai event.

2Key terms

• Commandment: an order given with authority. In religion, it is an instruction that believers understand as coming from God.
• Covenant: a solemn agreement that creates a lasting relationship, with promises and duties on both sides.
• Israelites: the descendants of Jacob (also called Israel). The Bible and the Qur'an both call them the Children of Israel.
• Tablets: flat pieces of stone on which words were written.

3Background: from slavery to the desert

The book of Exodus tells how the Israelites were slaves in Egypt until God sent Moses to lead them out. They then travelled through the desert towards the land God had promised them. The Bible says: "In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai." (Exodus 19:1)

4The Sinai event in the Bible

1. God offers a covenant. Moses went up the mountain and received a message for the people: "Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from amongst all peoples" (Exodus 19:5).
2. The people prepare. For two days they made themselves holy and washed their clothes, ready for "the third day" (Exodus 19:10–11).
3. God comes down on the mountain. "On the third day, when it was morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet; and all the people who were in the camp trembled." (Exodus 19:16) "All of Mount Sinai smoked, because the LORD descended on it in fire" (Exodus 19:18).
4. God speaks the Ten Commandments to the whole people (Exodus 20:1–17). Afraid, the people begged Moses: "Speak with us yourself, and we will listen" (Exodus 20:19). So Moses became the mediator, the go-between for God and the people.
5. The stone tablets. Moses "was on the mountain forty days and forty nights" (Exodus 24:18). God "gave Moses the two tablets of the covenant, stone tablets, written with God’s finger" (Exodus 31:18).
6. The golden calf and the new tablets. While Moses was away, the people made a calf of gold and worshipped it. When Moses saw it, "he threw the tablets out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mountain" (Exodus 32:19). Later the covenant was renewed, and new tablets carried "the words of the covenant, the ten commandments" (Exodus 34:28).

The Bible gives the Ten Commandments twice: in Exodus 20:1–17 and in Deuteronomy 5:6–21, where Moses repeats them before the people enter the promised land.

5The Sinai event in the Qur'an

Muslims honour Musa as one of the greatest prophets; he is named in the Qur'an more often than any other person. Muslims call him Kalim Allah, "the one who spoke with God", because the Qur'an says: "and Allah spake directly unto Moses" (Qur'an 4:164). Spake is old English for "spoke".

• Forty nights with God. "And when We did appoint for Moses thirty nights (of solitude), and added to them ten, and he completed the whole time appointed by his Lord of forty nights" (Qur'an 7:142). Solitude means being alone.
• The tablets. "And We wrote for him, upon the tablets, the lesson to be drawn from all things and the explanation of all things, then (bade him): Hold it fast; and command thy people (saying): Take the better (course made clear) therein." (Qur'an 7:145) Bade him means "told him".
• The calf. While Musa was away, the people "chose the calf" (Qur'an 2:51). Afterwards, "when the anger of Moses abated, he took up the tablets, and in their inscription there was guidance and mercy for all those who fear their Lord." (Qur'an 7:154) Abated means "calmed down"; the inscription is what was written.
• The covenant at the mountain. "And (remember, O Children of Israel) when We made a covenant with you and caused the Mount to tower above you, (saying): Hold fast that which We have given you, and remember that which is therein, that ye may ward off (evil)." (Qur'an 2:63)

The Qur'an even swears an oath by the mountain: "By the fig and the olive, By Mount Sinai" (Qur'an 95:1–2). Muslims believe the scripture given to Musa was the Tawrat (Torah): "Lo! We did reveal the Torah, wherein is guidance and a light" (Qur'an 5:44).

6Comparing the two accounts

One difference: the Bible lists the Ten Commandments word for word, while these Qur'an passages describe the tablets without listing ten commands. You will meet the Qur'an's own list of similar commands in the next lesson.

Worked example

Question: Describe the Sinai event as told in the book of Exodus. (5 marks)

Model answer: (1) In the third month after leaving Egypt, the Israelites camped at Mount Sinai. (2) God offered them a covenant through Moses: if they obeyed, they would be his own people. (3) After two days of preparation, God came down on the mountain with thunder, lightning, cloud, fire and a loud trumpet. (4) God spoke the Ten Commandments, and the frightened people asked Moses to speak to God for them. (5) Moses stayed on the mountain forty days and nights and received two stone tablets written by God; he broke them when he found the people worshipping a golden calf, and new tablets were made later.

Five clear, separate facts in the right order earn the five marks.

Practice