The Advent Truth
The mistake is simple: people are confusing the Sinai covenant with the existence of God’s moral law.

Deuteronomy 5:2-3 says God made “this covenant” with Israel at Horeb. Correct. Nobody is denying that. But the text does not say God had no commandments before Sinai. It does not say murder was acceptable before Sinai. It does not say adultery was not sin before Sinai. It does not say the Sabbath was created at Sinai.

That is being read into the verse.

Genesis 26:5 says Abraham “obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

So the question is simple: How did Abraham keep God’s commandments if no commandments existed?

Joseph said adultery was a “sin against God” before Sinai. Cain was guilty of murder before Sinai. Sodom was judged for wickedness before Sinai. And the Sabbath was blessed and sanctified in Genesis 2 before Israel, before Moses, before Horeb, and before a Jew ever existed.

Even Exodus 16 proves the Sabbath existed before Exodus 20. Israel was tested on the Sabbath before the Ten Commandments were spoken from the mountain.

So what does Deuteronomy 5 mean?

It means the national covenant arrangement at Horeb was not made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the way it was made with Israel as a nation. It does not mean God’s moral law was invented that day.

The law was codified at Sinai, not created at Sinai.

Sinai did not give God His first moral thought. Sinai thundered what humanity had already been violating since Eden.

If there was no law before Sinai, then there was no sin before Sinai. And if there was no sin before Sinai, Genesis becomes a book full of judgment without transgression.

That is not Bible truth. That is covenant confusion.

Read the whole story: Genesis 2, Genesis 4, Genesis 26, Genesis 39, Exodus 16, Romans 5, and 1 John 3:4.

Don’t use Deuteronomy 5 to erase Genesis.