The Covenant and Commands
Let’s Set The Stage...
At Mount Sinai, God cemented his covenant relationship with this nascent nation that he had elected from all the nations of the earth to be his firstborn son (Ex. 4:22)
Even more reminiscent of Deuteronomy is the thought of the conditional nature of God’s covenant—conditional, that is to say, as regards enjoyment, for the bestowal is unconditional. Obedience alone will bring blessing, and assure status and privilege (verses 5, 6; cf. Deut. 13:4, 18). All
It was at Mount Sinai that God shared with his children how they were to serve him. He taught them how to live and how to worship him. There he gave Moses and the people a definitive and distilled declaration of his moral law in the Ten Commandments; he also provided instructions regarding how he should be worshipped by giving Moses the plans for the tabernacle
The deepest lesson of all is that God must change man’s very nature, else he cannot serve God (Ps. 51:10).
The deepest lesson of all is that God must change man’s very nature, else he cannot serve God
THE TEN WORDS
As we come to briefly examine the substance of the Ten Commandments, it is vital that we keep in mind the context in which these imperatives were given to Israel. They were given to a delivered and redeemed people. This means that the Ten Commandments were not given as a means of earning redemption, but rather as a means of expressing gratitude for that redemption. God makes this clear in the prologue to the Commandments: “And God spoke all these words: ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery’ ” (Ex. 20:1–2). God reminds Israel that he established his relationship with them by liberating them from the bondage they experienced in Egypt. As Mark Strom notes, “The Lord did not give the law to establish his relationship with the Israelites. He gave it because he already had a relationship with his people and he wanted them now to learn how to express this relationship faithfully.” The law was given to Israel because God loved his children and he wanted to instruct them regarding how to please him and how to live wisely and well in the land he was giving them.
The First Commandment called Israel to covenantal fidelity with God. Much like in the human marriage relationship, God expected his people to forsake all other “gods” and to serve and love him exclusively. This expectation continues for believers in the new covenant. The moral law of God was not abolished through the coming of Jesus, but rather it was fulfilled; it was given its full meaning through his person and work (Matt. 5:17–18). Like Israel, we too are called into a covenantal relationship of exclusivity through the work of Jesus Christ. While most of us are not tempted to worship the pagan gods of old, we are constantly challenged by the false gods of our age—sex, money, power, luxury, pride, and self-worship.
Israel would struggle with this commandment throughout their long history. As we will see in the next chapter, they broke this commandment while they were still encamped at Sinai by making the golden calf (Ex. 32)
Therefore, it should not surprise us that God demanded that Israel respect, regard, and revere his holy name. What does it mean to misuse God’s name? Obviously, any profane use of God’s name is a violation of this commandment. But the aim of the commandment is not just in forbidding profanity; it is also aimed at forbidding vanity. God also forbade the vain use of his name by attaching it to a false prophecy (Deut. 18:22), a false oath (Lev. 19:12), or using it as a magical incantation (Deut. 18:10–12). God’s name should not be trifled with, invoked carelessly, or profaned in any manner.
In this commandment God declared to Israel that he is the Lord of time. God pronounced dominion not just over one day, the seventh, but the other six as well. He told Israel to work for six days and then to set aside the seventh day for rest and worship. This pattern of six days of labor and one day of rest was set forth by God in his work of creation and he makes that connection explicit when he pronounces this commandment (Ex. 20:11). God declared his sovereignty over the entire life of Israel.