The Ten Commandments
Introduction to this series: The group of sermons I will be preaching the next few weeks is another look at the Ten Commandments. As I take you through the Commandments, I will be using the Revised Standard Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted. First, some background. The traditional English translation of the Hebrew “aseret ha-d’ varim” found in Exodus 34:28 and Deuteronomy 4:13 and 10:4 is “The Ten Commandments.” However, this Hebrew is more accurately translated “The Ten Words/Statements/Pronouncements.” Perhaps the most descriptive of these is “The Ten Pronouncements” for they were ten formal decrees from God Almighty Himself; God gave the commandments to the people “face to face;” they were “written by the finger of God.” That is why I will add the concluding scriptures found in Exodus 20:18-26 and Deuteronomy 5:22-33 to this sermon series. These concluding verses give us an idea of the power and majesty of our Creator at Mount Sinai on that most amazing day, a day in 1450 BCE that continues to affect the entire world in a positive way.
There is sometime confusion caused as one reads different commentaries on the commandments for Protestants, Roman Catholics and Jews do not number the Ten the same; indeed, I found seven different traditions for numbering the commandments. Each of these traditions has some justification on the bases of the text of the commandments. For example, what Roman Catholics and Protestants consider Exodus 20:2 and Deuteronomy 5:6 the prologues of the commandments, the Jews consider these verses their first commandment. In Jewish thought, while these verses are not in the form of a commandment, they do establish the foundation for the commandments. Further, the Jews combine into their second commandment what Protestants and Roman Catholic name commandments one and two. Roman Catholics invert the last two commandments on the Protestants list. The Samaritan tradition has as its tenth commandment, Deuteronomy 27:2-3, “You shall set up these stones, which I command you today ….” Do not let the numbers confuse you for if you read Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21 you have covered them no matter how they are the numbered.
The commandments were truly unique. Other ancient societies had laws against murder, theft and adultery, but they were conditional: “if … then.” “If” someone murders another, “then” this is the punishment. God went much further. He said that these commandments are absolutes: “You shall not.” These laws are about more than what actions are illegal, punishable; they are about what disrupts society. These laws tell humankind how we treat one another is a major concern of our Father.
All of the commandments, either explicitly or implicitly, have both negative and positive meanings. They tell us what we are not to do and what we are to do. If something displeases God, the opposite pleases him. For examples, “You shall not murder.” God forbids us to hurt or harm a neighbor unjustly because He wills that the neighbor’s life be dear and precious to us. “Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbor.” We are not to use our tongue to harm our neighbor rather we should use our tongue to speak only the best about all people. Martin Luther, arguably the first Protestant, wrote, “This much is certain: those who know the Ten Commandments perfectly … in all affairs and circumstances are able to counsel, help, comfort, judge, and make decisions in both spiritual and temporal matters.” The Ten Commandments function as eternal universal laws that provide instructions for the life and faith of all believers.
God gave us the Ten Commandments that we might live by them and thus maintain the freedom He gave us. While only the Ten Commandments earned a place in the Ark, there are 603 laws beyond the Ten Commandments. Most of these add detail to the Ten. Other of these laws defines Temple worship, sacrifice, offerings, ritual purity and impurity. Of all of the laws Jesus said, Matthew 5:17-20, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (KJV)
Jesus is saying that if the world lived but by the Law, freedom would rule the world for Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and of freedom. In Luke 4:18, Jesus quoted Isaiah 61:1-2 and 58:6, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed.”
Exodus 5-15 brings us the story of the freeing slaves, of bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. God says this process has a purpose: “that you may know that I am the Lord.” Further, God says, Exodus 6:7, “I will take you as my people, and I will be your God.” The Israelites had spent hundreds of years in Egypt surrounded by pagan deities, deities worshiped out of contemptible intellectual and moral ignorance. They were slaves who had hard lives from which there was no escape until God Almighty intervened. Even as they left Egypt, circumstances caused their faith to faint. During the Exodus, the Israelites complained about the threat of Egyptian soldiers at the Red Sea. They complained about the bitter water at Marah. They complained about the lack of bread, of meat and of water at Rephidim. In each instance, Yahweh responded by giving them what they needed: deliverance at the Red Sea, sweet water at Marah, manna, quail and water at Rephidim. God was making a Nation out of these former slaves. A nation must have structure, a new structure differing from the slave culture of Egypt. God began giving that structure with Ten Commandments.
Now we look directly at these Ten Commandments: The Christian prologue and Jewish first commandment is, “‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Here the LORD calls attention to all that He has done that none of the gods of Egypt could possibly do by announcing “‘I am the LORD your God….” (Exodus 20:2 and Deuteronomy 5:6) The word LORD is the Devine name, YHWH. YHWH was the eternal power that had guided them. This is proof that God guides the destines of individuals, of nations and of humankind. He is universal ruler of history. “I am that I am” is God. God said, “I am” the only real true God. “Your God” means, “Israel’s” God. “Your” refers both to Israel the Nation and each individual Israeli. As God addressed the Nation of Israel at Mount Sinai, tens of thousands Israelites stood at the foot of Mount Sinai and felt that God was talking to each personally. The Midrash says, ”Even as thousands may look at a great portrait and each one feel that it looks at him, so every Israelite at Horeb [Mount Sinai] felt that the Divine voice was addressing him.”
God, “who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery,” has broken the bonds of slavery. The Israelites were not a free people but a freed people. They did not inherit their freedom: it was a gift. God planned the meeting that was to occur at the foot of Mount Sinai. God was building His nation. The Nation and its people are to remember their slavery and the God that gave them their freedom. God is a God of freedom, of freedom that illuminates the whole of human history. This gift shapes everything that follows. Therefore, history is one continuous Divine revelation of the gradual growth of freedom and justice on earth.
The God that issued the Ten Commandments is not an impersonal force. He is the source not only of power and life, but also of consciousness, personality, moral purpose and ethical action. He is the God not merely of past generations, but of every individual soul in each generation. He is the One and Only True God. “He is my God, my Ruler and my Guide in all that I do.” The redemptive work that God began in Egypt reached a climax at the empty tomb, but God, through Christ, continues to work in the world.
Next on our list is the Christian first commandment, the beginning verse of the Jewish second commandment: Exodus 20:3 and Deuteronomy 5:7, “You shall have no other gods before me.” This commandment is connects “I am the LORD your God ….” to “You shall not make for yourself an idol ….” Further, the language used joins the prologue and the two commandments for God spoke in the first person; in the rest of the Decalogue, God speaks in third person. These first verses seem to flow seamlessly.
“You shall have no other gods before me” because there are no other gods beside God. “Before me” means that nothing is to receive the worship due him. Neither angels nor saintly men or women are to receive adoration as Divine beings and we are not to pray to them. This commandment forbids belief in evil spirits, witchcraft and similar evil superstition. Furthermore, he who believes in God will not put trust in chance or luck but only in God.
Having no other gods means, you have God. It means that you trust God totally, completely. Remember Adam and Eve, they had divided loyalties. That is not what God wants. God wants you to hold fast and be completely devoted to Him and Him alone. Deuteronomy 13:4, “The LORD your God you shall follow, him alone you shall fear, his commandments you shall keep, his voice you shall obey, him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.” Mark 12:28-29, “One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The first is, Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord alone; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” “With all your heart,” no other God can take his place. You are to love God with an undivided loyalty. “With all your soul” suggests fearless loyalty even unto death and martyrdom. “With all your mind” means that you are constantly studying God’s Word and sharing it. Deuteronomy 6:7-9, “Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.” “With all your strength” means you use everything you have for God’s purposes: health, wealth, possessions, power.
When I preach that all belongs to God, I hear people say, “How will I survive? What’s in it for me?” Do not fear; putting God first is to prosper. Trust God to provide. Isaiah 48:17-18, “Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the LORD your God, who teaches you how to succeed, who leads you in the way you should go. O that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your prosperity would have been like a river and your success like the waves of the sea.” “You shall have no other gods before me” takes faith, faith that God will provide if you put him first in your life.
This ties in precisely with the next commandment, Exodus 20:4-6, “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
“You shall not make for yourself an idol.” This verse forbids the worship of any idol, any graven image, “whether in the form of anything.” The making of any idol is an attempt to make a visual image of God. The prohibition of images of any sort is a strong barrier to the encroachment of objects of worship on the exclusive worship of the LORD. The second commandment is therefore a strong safeguard of the first commandment. That which humans make and idolize takes away from the true worship of the One who is God. God demands an exclusive and covenantal relationship with the “people of his very own possession.” We may worship only God.
Exodus 19:18, “Now all of Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the LORD had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently.” Deuteronomy 4:12, “Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire; they only heard a voice out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.” The fire provided light but no one saw a form. The fire made Him untouchable – you could not see nor touch any form. It is clear that the LORD does not appear in any visible form so no human has the ability to make anything that would remotely represent the LORD. God is a Spirit, and that makes it an unpardonable sin to worship Him under any form that human hands can fashion or anything the human mind can conceive “in heavens above.” “On the earth beneath,” for example, like the animals the Egyptians worshipped. No matter how impressive or appealing as objects of worship or representatives of the LORD, they violate our relationship with God.
The Apostle Paul stated it this way, Romans 1:20, 23, 25, “Ever since the creation of the world God’s eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been seen and understood through the things God has made. … Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles. … They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who blessed forever! Amen.”
In our times, idols are often material things. Jesus warned us about worshipping material things, of making them idols. Matthew 6:24/Luke 16:13, “You cannot serve God and mammon [wealth].” You must recognize temptations and the allure of “idols” particularly wealth and its power over others. They may compromise your sole devotion to the LORD.
God is available and known through the Word. This establishes a clear line to John 1 and Christ. “You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was a voice.” Yet, those who study the Word, theologians and clergy, are susceptible to idolatry as they develop images and systems thinking that they can see God theologically through concepts. It is difficult to work without mental and verbal images. Some of them are fruitful and others cross the line into idolatry. Scripture is full of images, but we must be careful how we present the Word.
He is “a jealous God.” Even as a mother is jealous of all evil influences that may rule her children, so is our Heavenly Father jealous. He loathes the effects of impurity and vice on His children. God desires to be their all in all, and claims an exclusive right to their love, loyalty and obedience.
“Punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me.” With the Ten Commandments, God was laying the foundation of a Nation. The family is most important stone in that foundation. That foundation is built as parents lead, train and guide children to become godly adults. Therefore, God’s law forbids parents from misleading children. In this commandment, God points to parental duties. “Punishing children for the iniquity of parents,” this is about the moral interdependence of parents and children. Parents whose lives are bad examples, who lead sinful lives, often corrupt their children. God distinguishes between the moral responsibility that falls exclusively upon the corrupt parents, and the natural consequences of the parents’ bad example taught the children “to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me.” This does not relieve the children of the responsibility to obey the commandments, but the sins of the parents will be on the parents alone. “To the third and fourth generation” includes those still alive during the lifetime of the sinful parents. “Of those who reject me” means that cross-generational retribution applies only to descendants that act as their parents who committed the sin did. As for the effects of sin on the children, whether they continue in the sin of their parents or not, only God is the judge. I thank God that He is “compassionate and gracious.”
God is a God of mercy and blessings. “But showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments,” this contrasts the narrow limits of three and four generations with the mercy and forgiveness God has for those who keep his commandments. Sinful behavior has bad consequences and loving behavior has wonderful consequences. Our love and obedience of God commandments yields happiness beyond what we can possibly imagine.
These first verses of the Ten Commandments introduce you to God Almighty and His love for you. While I certainly hope you have enjoyed this introduction, my wish is that this afternoon or evening, that you sit-down and read Exodus 5-15. Get into the background of how God freed Israel for this sermon is of no use if you do not use it as the start of your reintroduction to the Commandments written by the finger of God. Next week, we move on to commandments three and four.
