Are The 10 Commandments the Basis For Our Laws? Part VI

We've been covering Moses in Exodus and his instructions from God with a capital G in the previous parts. Now we're up to Exodus Chapters 21 -23 which include how to treat your slaves and more reasons to kill others for their sins.

In Exodus Chapter 24, God calls Moses up to the mountain again because he has more instructions on offerings, tabernacles and priestly robes. By Chapter 29, we have intense instructions on sacrificing animals. God says that if we will make such "burnt offerings," he will bless us for it. This God is very very particular and long winded.

In Chapter 28, God tells Moses this about Aaron:

1 "From among the Israelites have your brother Aaron, together with his sons Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, brought to you, that they may be my priests. 2 For the glorious adornment of your brother Aaron you shall have sacred vestments made.

In Chapters 29 and 30, God gives strict instruction on priestly vestments, rituals and altars for Moses, Aaron, et al. At the end of 31, Moses gets the actual 10 commandments:

"When the LORD had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the commandments, the stone tablets inscribed by God's own finger."

By Chapter 32 Moses' people are getting restless. Aaron, who was God's man a few chapters ago, told the people to melt their jewelry and make a golden calf and then dance naked around it. God tells Moses to get down there fast because God is furious with the people for what they are doing. Moses comes down from the mountain:

19 As he drew near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. With that, Moses' wrath flared up, so that he threw the tablets down and broke them on the base of the mountain. 20 Taking the calf they had made, he fused it in the fire and then ground it down to powder, which he scattered on the water and made the Israelites drink.

Aaron lies to Moses and says that when they melted their jewelry that the calf just popped out and that the people wanted to dance naked. Then Moses told the people to go and slay others. They slayed 3000 that day. It's all very confusing because Moses told them to go and slay their kinsmen so they'd be blesssed and then he tells them they are in trouble for it. The next day, Moses goes to see God who was still mad and God sends a plague just in case Moses' people missed some.

I just love Chapter 33. Is this an episode from Star Trek or what?

The LORD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites: You are a stiff-necked people. Were I to go up in your company even for a moment, I would exterminate you. Take off your ornaments, therefore; I will then see what I am to do with you." 6 So, from Mount Horeb onward, the Israelites laid aside their ornaments. 7 The tent, which was called the meeting tent, Moses used to pitch at some distance away, outside the camp. Anyone who wished to consult the LORD would go to this meeting tent outside the camp. 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, the people would all rise and stand at the entrance of their own tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. 9 As Moses entered the tent, the column of cloud would come down and stand at its entrance while the LORD spoke with Moses. 10 On seeing the column of cloud stand at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise and worship at the entrance of their own tents.

Exodus 34:1 And the LORD said unto Moses , Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.

AND HERE ARE THE SECOND GROUP OF THE 10 COMMANDMENTS
These replacement commandments are decidely different than the other ones. Did God change his mind?

Exodus 34
14 You shall not worship any other god, for the LORD is 'the Jealous One'; a jealous God is he. 15 Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of that land; else, when they render their wanton worship to their gods and sacrifice to them, one of them may invite you and you may partake of his sacrifice. 16 Neither shall you take their daughters as wives for your sons; otherwise, when their daughters render their wanton worship to their gods, they will make your sons do the same.
17 "You shall not make for yourselves molten gods.
18 "You shall keep the feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days at the prescribed time in the month of Abib you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you; for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.
19 "To me belongs every first-born male that opens the womb among all your livestock, whether in the herd or in the flock. 20 The firstling of an ass you shall redeem with one of the flock; if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. The first-born among your sons you shall redeem. "No one shall appear before me empty-handed.
21 "For six days you may work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; on that day you must rest even during the seasons of plowing and harvesting.
22 "You shall keep the feast of Weeks with the first of the wheat harvest; likewise, the feast at the fruit harvest at the close of the year.
23 Three times a year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the LORD God of Israel.
24 Since I will drive out the nations before you to give you a large territory, there will be no one to covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the LORD, your God.
25 "You shall not offer me the blood of sacrifice with leavened bread, nor shall the sacrifice of the Passover feast be kept overnight for the next day.
26 "The choicest first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of the LORD, your God. "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk."
27 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with them I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." 28 So Moses stayed there with the LORD for forty days and forty nights, without eating any food or drinking any water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.