DAY TWENTY-ONE: 

The Ten Commandments 

Exodus 19:1-20:21 

On Friday we saw how God delivered Israel by parting the Red Sea. The Children of Israel crossed on dry land while their Egyptian pursuers were drowned. As you can imagine, the people were joyous and they celebrated this amazing victory. Their joy, though, was cut short when the realities of the wilderness intruded. Where will they find water for two million people and all their livestock? They grumbled against Moses- somehow this is all his fault. The Lord showed Moses how to make some bitter water drinkable and then led them to the oasis at Elim. By the time they left Elim, they were running low on food. You guessed it, they grumbled against Moses again! "Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." Despite their bad attitude and lack of faith, the Lord provided for them. They went out of their tents and the ground was as white as snow! They said to each other "what's this?" The Hebrew is "man hu." So they called it manna. The Lord provided it for them each morning during their time in the wilderness. Then Israel grumbled again. They wanted more than just manna- they wanted some meat to go with it. So the Lord sent flocks of quail into the camp at evening. Did this end their grumbling? No. They definitely need an attitude adjustment and the Lord is ready to teach them.

Three months after leaving Egypt they came to Mt. Sinai, where the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush. The Lord told Moses to tell the people to prepare to meet Him. He told Moses to warn them not to come too close to the mountain, lest they die.

Three days later a thick cloud, accompanied by thunder and lightning, covered the top of Mt. Sinai. Then fire, smoke and the sound of trumpets came forth from the mountain. The people were terrified! Then the Lord spoke the words that we call the Ten Commandments:

"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me." You saw lots of gods in Egypt, and you'll see lots of gods when you reach Canaan. Just remember who I am and what I've done for you. I will not tolerate rivals!

"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in 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, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments." Some consider this a part of the first commandment and others as the second commandment. I agree with the latter. The distinction is that the first commandment forbids worshipping other gods while the second commandment tells us not to make representations of the one true God. The Egyptians made statues and pictures of their gods in the form of animals which illustrated each god's particular powers. The Lord is saying don't do that with Me! Nothing you can make will represent me properly and it will lead to idotaltry. Remember My name, I am who I am. The Lord says that He is jealous- He will not share His people, and will punish unfaithfulness severely.

"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain." The word translated as vain means empty, worthless. Do not treat My name as if it were nothing! Don't use Me to try to prove that your lies are true, and don't use My name as a swear word. Jesus told us not to swear at all, but to let our yes be yes and our no be no (Matthew 5:33-37). Does this mean that it's wrong to use God's name in a solemn oath, like courts administer to witnesses, with the right hand on a Bible, "Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?" And what about the president and other leaders who take their oath of office swearing "so help me God" with their right hands on the Bible? Some conscientious Christians say this is wrong, that our yes and no, always given in the presence of God, is all that is required. But I think that for very serious matters like these it is appropriate. What is not appropriate is saying things like "I swear to God" when we're trying to convince someone that we're speaking the truth. In my experience when someone says that, they're usually NOT telling the truth. As Jesus said, our character should be such that yes means yes and no means no when we speak.

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days theLord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." The Sabbath, a day of rest, is God's gift to us. Was God worn out after His great work of creation so that He had to take a day off? No. He is infinite and didn't need to rest. He was setting an example for us, for our benefit. Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for man,not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath." God doesn't need rest, but WE do. We need to step back from our busy lives to catch our breath and worship. God did not intend the Sabbath to be a burden, but by Jesus' time the Pharisees had come up with over 5,000 rules for observing the Sabbath. Modern Christians can be almost as pharisaical. I heard of a man who was an Old UP (United Presbyterian Church of North America- Faith Church's original denomination) who would not mail a letter on Friday or Saturday because it would likely be sorted on Sunday. Not only would he not buy a Sunday newspaper, he wouldn't buy one on Monday either because it was laid out on Sunday. Those kinds of excesses, though, are a distant memory, if even that. We live in a 24/7/365 world, and it's far easier to list what's not open than what is. We're ignoring God's good gift of the Sabbath, and we're the poorer for it. Now there are certain jobs which require working on Sunday- police, fire, health care and the like. These are what the Westminster Confession calls "works of mercy and necessity." Jesus healed on the Sabbath and we need to care for others on the Sabbath.

"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you." The word translated as honor is literally "regard as heavy." It means don't take your parents lightly. They spent years caring and providing for you. They deserve your respect. I heard a Rabbi preach on this commandment. He pointed out that God commands us to honor our parents, not to love them. Some parents aren't so lovable. Nevertheless we are to honor them. As the Apostle Paul points out, this is the first commandment with a promise (Ephesians 6:1-3). The promise is a long and prosperous life. The family is the bedrock of civilization. We see the effects of broken homes in our society and the terrible cost it entails. 

"You shall not murder." When we were looking at God's covenant with Noah in Genesis 9 I commented briefly on this commandment. The King James Version famously translates it as "Thou shalt not kill." The Hebrew words refers to an individual killing another individual, whether accidental or premeditated. The Law of Moses made provision for accidental killing, or manslaughter, to go to a city of refuge where his case would be heard, and where he could stay if it was an accident. For premeditated murder, though, the penalty was death by stoning. Different words are used for execution of criminals, warfare and the slaughter of animals for food or sacrifice. God made us in His image, and each human being is precious in His sight.

"You shall not commit adultery" This commandment protects the sanctity of marriage. The word adultery comes from the word adulterate. Adulterate means to dilute something by mixing in something else. Adulteration reduces quality. Gasoline with water in it will mess up your car's engine. Adultery dilutes marriage. We saw in Genesis 1 and 2 that God made us male and female. Together we reflect the full image of God. In marriage we become "one flesh," a relationship that illustrates Christ's relationship with His church (Ephesians 5:22-33). Two's company, three's a crowd. We must guard our hearts against temptation, and that's not easy in our world today. The best book I've seen on this subject is Hedges: Loving Your Marriage Enough to Protect It, by Jerry Jenkins. The best hedge of all is to keep working at your marriage, growing more deeply in love all the time.

"You shall not steal." Don't take what's not yours. The Bible establishes the right to have private property. This goes beyond things like shoplifting or embezzlement to everyday things like giving your employer a full eight hours of work for eight hours' pay. 

"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." This sounds like it comes from a formal courtroom setting, and it does. We discussed the taking of oaths to compel truthfulness earlier. Life and property depend on truthful testimony, which is why we call lying under oath perjury and punish perjurers. Beyond this, though, is a duty to protect our neighbor's good name. Rumors and gossip damage innocent people every day. We must not be a party to them! If a problem arises, discuss it with the person, not with everyone else. The tales we bear take on a life of their own and grow way out of proportion. So take Barney Fife's advice and "Nip it in the bud!"

The last commandment is "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's." Envy is a synonym for covet. We see what others have, think it's nicer that what we have, and we grumble and resent not just our seemingly better-off neighbor but God who hasn't blessed us as much as we think He should. God promises to provide for us and teaches us that contentment is true riches. Nothing robs us of the joy of life like envy, and nothing poisons our relationships as much as covetousness. James 4:1-3 says, "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." Covetousness is a strong acid that eats away at life.

Here's a video with a familiar face and a catchy way to remember the commandments. Be the first to identify the host: