IT IS SAID THAT THE TEN COMMANDMENTS are laws that are applied in every civilization, regardless of where this civilization is, or who initiated them.
When Moses received the Ten Commandments directly from God on Mount Sinai, the nation of Israel was isolated in the desert. No other nations were close by. Moses did not only receive the Ten Commandments from God, but also the Torah. He was on the mountain for forty days, and it doesn’t take that long to write ten lines.
Why were these Ten Commandments so important to God that He personally came down to earth to give them to Moses? If they were just ordinary laws that were already being implemented and followed by other civilizations at that stage, then why did they specially have to be given to Moses?
Between the time when Adam and Eve were formed and the Israelites were in the desert, around 2000 years had passed. During that time God had made a covenant with Abraham, and he had appointed Jacob as the founding father of the nation that God had chosen for Himself.
To understand this idea of God’s Nation, one must return to the time when the first two people were created.
In Gen. 1:26 we read for the first time that a being was created in the image of God. No others were created in His image. Thus it is understandable that God would select this special being for a special purpose or task.