Themes: God speaks to us directly; God makes a covenant with us directly; God has a mediator between Himself and His people; God speaks to teach His people His commands and statutes that life will go well for His people and their children; Man does not want to hear God speak to him.
Verses 1-5: Moses reminds Israel of God speaking to them directly from the fire to make a covenant directly with them and that Moses was standing between God and them since they were afraid and would not go to the mountain.
Verses 6-21: The Ten Commandments are written out. They begin with God saying He is the One who brought them out of Egypt, the house of slavery, so there worship Him and Him alone. All of the Commandments flow from this truth: God saved them and therefore their allegiance is exclusively to Him.
In the Second Commandment you see truths that still apply and should provide an understanding of why things happen in life: “..I am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.
Hence in our life today if you have parents who hate God the consequences of their hatred will be passed down to the third and fourth generation. That explains the state of affairs in the world today – if you see children who hate God you know their parents did too.
Verses 22-27: The people tell Moses to listen to God’s word and then tell them instead of God speaking directly to them. They were afraid of God and were willing to let Moses stand in their stead and report back to them.
Verses 28-33: God tells Moses this is a good plan, He wishes they would fear and obey Him always, and then He says He will instruct Moses to tell the people His commandments, statutes and judgements so they His people will prosper and live long in the Promised Land.
Views from an Evangelist 