Exodus 19-22:15
Today God declares The Ten Commandments to the people of Israel. We often think of these Ten Commandments as the essential core of the Law, even as the bedrock of our own current legal code. They shape what we think of as right and wrong. They are, in fact, good for us, showing us how life really works.
Yet we can’t manage to keep them. Indeed, our culture has thoroughly cast off the first four commandments (no other gods, no graven images, not using the LORD’s name in vain, keeping the Sabbath), pays very little heed to the fifth commandment (honoring parents), murders babies, and is engaged in all sorts of sexual immorality. The entire advertising industry is founded upon covetousness, and I would not be at all surprised to find that every one of us has stolen something and then lied about it somewhere along the line.
That doesn’t mean the Commandments are not worthwhile. We should indeed honor the Ten Commandments and strive to keep them. They are good for us. But that is not where our hope lies. We simply can’t live up to the standard.
Before declaring the Ten Commandments, the LORD reveals His intentions for the people of Israel:
You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Exodus 19:4b-6a
The people of Israel, however, cannot manage to keep the commandments any better than we can. We all need a Savior, a Source of righteousness outside ourselves. That Savior is Jesus Christ. This is what Saint Peter says to those who believe in Jesus:
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
I Peter 2:9-10
That is to say that, in Jesus, we inherit the roles originally given to Israel to proclaim the excellencies of God. Part of that proclamation is to uphold the Ten Commandments as best we can, not as some kind of legalistic attempt to establish our own righteousness all over again, but to enjoy the good life of righteousness that God gives us in Christ — to let the world know what it’s missing out on. In other words, in Christ, the Ten Commandments should not be seen as rules, but as promises.
That’s a lovely way to look at the commandments, John!
I am blessed by the way God sets up beautiful boundaries for society in his laws. For instance, I used to think the “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, …” regulations were terribly harsh. Then I learned that it was really a way of limiting vengeance and keeping a bad situation from becoming worse. One only has to look at the story of Simeon and Levi taking revenge on an entire city when their sister was raped…
When I look at the Ten Commandments, I mostly see regulations of our actions. But we all know Jesus got to the heart of it—“…anyone who insults his brother…, …anyone who looks at a woman…” Loving God is, of course, the point. Seeing His character in the laws about how we treat each other shows us a God so worthy of that love.
Too often I’m slow to see the blessing of a life focused on God and not me. Shifting to that perspective in a society running at warp speed in the opposite direction toward self-gratification needs deliberate, day-to-day discipline. But the result is true joy. It’s worth it!