I'm getting a pretty strong sense that you believe you'll be rewarded with an afterlife for doing menial things such as declining to eat bacon.
Actually, even assuming I believe in an Afterlife, and I don't say that I do, whether I eat bacon or not is not going to determine the eternal future of a person.
We are Jews. We saw God on Mt. Sinai. Its not that Moses claimed to be inspired. Its that we know that 2 million people, our ancestors, saw God, and heard him speak.
20:16 And they said unto Moses: 'Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.'
How does 2 million people hear God yet also claim that if they hear God, they'll die?
Read the text completely. They did indeed hear the voice of God.
"19:8 And all the people answered together, and said: 'All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.' And Moses reported the words of the people unto the Lord. 9 And the Lord said unto Moses: 'Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and may also believe thee for ever.' And Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord.
19:10 And the Lord said unto Moses: 'Go unto the people, and sanctify them to-day and to-morrow, and let them wash their garments,
19:11 and be ready against the third day; for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.
19:12 And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying: Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it; whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death;
19:13 no hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live; when the ram's horn soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.'
19:14 And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their garments.
19:15 And he said unto the people: 'Be ready against the third day; come not near a woman.' 16 And it came to pass on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of a horn exceeding loud; and all the people that were in the camp trembled.
19:17 And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.
19:18 Now mount Sinai was altogether on smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
19:19 And when the voice of the horn waxed louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice."
Later, you are correct that the people were afraid that if God spoke to them, they would die. One can imagine that they were terrified at hearing the voice of God. I think most reasonable people would be.