And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and got him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.
All Commentaries on Exodus 24:18 Go To Exodus 24
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Do you now recognize the harm caused by intemperance? Look in turn at the instances of good behavior due to fasting. The great Moses, after keeping his fast for forty days, was able to get the tables of the law. When he came down from the mountain and saw the people’s sin, the tablets which he had been successful in obtaining through such intercession he threw down and smashed, thinking it was preposterous that an indulgent and sinful people should receive laws of the Lord’s own making.
