10 Words on the 10 Words
The 10 Words are Creative Words
Nowhere in scripture are these words called the 10 commandments. They are called the 10 words (Ex 34:28; Deut 4:13). In Genesis 1, the phrase “And God spoke” was repeated 10 times as God was making the world. As God was de-creating Egypt, He gave 10 plagues. Here, God is remaking, recreating the slaves of Egypt to be His people.
The 10 Words are Covenantal Words
The book of Genesis ends with Jacob’s family traveling to Egypt because there’s no more food in Canaan. The book of Exodus begins with Jacob’s descendants, the Israelites, in slavery to the Egyptians. God calls Moses to deliver His people from Pharoah. God puts Egypt under the 10 plagues, which results in Israel leaving Egypt.
By the time Israel gets to Mt. Sinai, they have traveled for 3 months (Ex 19:1). During that time, God has graciously given them manna and water (Ex 16:1-7; 17:1-7) and Israel has responded with complaining and rebellion (Ex 16:20; 17:3). On the third day of the month, God descends to meet Israel with trumpets shouting (Ex 19:16). God didn’t save Israel and leave them alone in the wilderness. Likewise in our lives, God didn’t just save us and leave us alone. If He saved you, then He has a special relationship with you. We call that special relationship a covenant. This is why the 10 words deal with protecting the covenant relationship in our worship (1-4) and in our families (5,7).
The 10 Words are Priestly Words
God has called Israel to be His kingdom of priests (Ex 19:6). The first king-priest God commanded was Adam in Eden. But He lost His authority as king and access as priest when he sinned. In the story of Exodus, God is appointing the nation of Israel to act as His new kingdom of priests.
We know that the 10 can be summarized into 2 commands: Love God and Love people (Matt 22:27-39). Now, most people divide the commands for God as 1-4 and the commands for people as 5-10. I will explain more when we get to the fifth commandment, but I think we should divide it at 1-5 and 6-10. Here are some reasons (The remaining of the paragraph was gleaned from Peter J. Leithart, The Ten Commandments). The first 5 commandments have explanations while the last 5 do not. God’s name “Yahweh” shows up 8 times in the first 5 commands and not at all in the last 5. These 10 words were to be placed in the ark of the covenant in the Most Holy Place (Ex 25:16). But 2 sets of 5 also shows up elsewhere in the temple. In the Holy Place, the 10 lampstands were arranged in 2 rows of 5 as well as the 10 tables of showbread (1 Kings 7:49; 2 Chron 4:8). The 10 water stands in the courtyard were also arranged in 2 rows of 5 (1 Kings 7:27-37).
The first 5 deal with the blessings and curses of right worship to God. The second 5 deal with the restraints on one’s heart and actions. The first 5 tell a priest what to do while the last 5 tell a king what not to do.
The 10 Words are Just (Balancing) Words
In God’s wisdom, He knows that when men attain power, they usually abuse that power. In Israel, God commanded that the king write down God’s law in his own handwriting (Deut 17:18). A man can pay lip service to God in the first 5 commands but prove His true colors in the last 5 commands (James 3:9). David’s sin with Bathsheba started with coveting Bathsheba (10), then committing adultery with her (7), then lying to Uriah (9), then murdering Uriah (6), then taking Bathsheba as his wife (8). This shows us that all people, whether children or kings, are under God’s law.
The 10 Words are Authoritative Words
God wasn’t just talking out loud on Mt. Sinai all those years ago. He was giving His expectations to His people as He was revealing aspects of His character to them. I think we should still call them commandments today simply because our generation hates the word.
The 10 Words are Liberating Words
God’s Law is a law of liberty (James 1:25; 2:12). God brough Israel from slavery and made them a free people by giving them 10 words to live by. Because the 10 words are made for free people, God gave us the principle. Slaves want more laws to know what exactly to do and not to do. Free people want the principles so they can live. Essentially, this means that where a duty is required, the contrary sin is forbidden (Is 58:13); and where a sin is forbidden, the contrary duty is required (Eph 4:28). For example, not bearing false witness means actively caring for the reputations of your neighbors.
The 10 Words are Christian Words
Christ obeyed all of God’s laws in the Old Testament. He understood their meaning and their intent. He spent time in His ministry explaining the intent for God’s laws, but he never erased them (Matt 5:17). Christ was born under the law so that we would be adopted as sons (Gal 4:1-7).
After Christ ascended into heaven, He poured out His spirit on the third month, Pentecost. On that day, the Spirit wrote His law, not on tablets of stone but on the heart (2 Cor 3:3). The father speaks to His children. We should hear His 10 words. Today, some Christians called antinomians believe God’s law is bad. This is heresy and should be avoided like the plague.
All of God’s words are good words (Rom 7:12). Some Christians also want to chip away at the 10. In scholarship its around commandment 4 (honoring the Sabbath) and in pop-culture its around commandments 7 (adultery), and 10 (coveting). Christ wants us to be distinct. He gives us 10 ways to do it in a wicked world.
The 10 Words are Clarifying Words
It’s obvious that we in the New Covenant can’t obey every command in the OT. For example, we can’t obey the passages that talk about land because we don’t live in the land of Canaan. But that doesn’t mean these laws are all erased. When you tell your 5-year-old not to cross the road, that command still applies when he’s on vacation in Florida. It just looks different.
Many of these laws concerning land and territory show us God’s faithfulness to His promises as well as how we should honor families. Many of the sacrificial laws have been changed because Christ is our one, true sacrifice for sins. But the Laws concerning putting a guard rail around your roof is a way of applying the sixth commandment not to murder.
In your bible reading, when you get to the law passages, I recommend trying to label each odd command under the category of one of the ten. It doesn’t cover all of the 613 commands, but it covers most of them.
The 10 Words are Gracious Words
Even in the New covenant, when we sin, we sin against the law (1 John 3:4; see also Romans 4:15). Remember Jesus upheld the law and called Israel back to the Law (Matthew 5:20-48; 11:29-30). The rabbis were traditions that burdened the people (Matthew 15:1-20; 23:4; Mark 7:1-23; Acts 15:10). The heavy yoke Jesus referred to was not the Old Covenant Law but the traditions of the Pharisees, scribes, and Sadducees.
Before Christ, our sin condemned us. Now that we’re covered by grace, we aren’t off the hook from doing good works. Instead, we do those works by the same grace and through the same faith in our salvation (Ephesians 2:8-10; Titus 2:14).
Merely working the OT law cannot justify you before God (Romans 3:20; 8:3-4; Galatians 2:16). The law was like the speed limit. It accurately tells you how fast you should be going. It is powerless to make you go that fast. Sometimes we think that the OT taught if you obey the Law you’ll go to heaven. That’s not true. God’s promises for salvation are always received by faith.
Was the Mosaic Law hard to keep? Although the sacrifices involved a lot of detail, keep in mind the level of detail in mechanic manuals, medical databases, and tax law that we live with every day. Although the laws of cleanliness were inconvenient, they weren’t a burden. Becoming unclean only meant you were forbidden from entering the tabernacle. If it wasn’t a holiday time, then you need not worry about it. Most uncleanness lasted a day to a week. If you made someone else unclean by touching them, they were unclean until sundown. Keep in mind, we would clean our dishes if a mouse or lizard scurried on kitchen table, like they did,
The 10 Words are Loving Words
We know that the 10 can be summarized into 2 commands: Love God and Love people (Matt 22:27-39).