Exodus 20-The Ten Commandments and Laws About Altars
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday February 5, 2012
Journey Through The Bible Series: Exodus 20-The Ten Commandments And Laws About Altars
Lesson # 21
Please turn in your Bibles to Exodus 20:1.
This morning we will study Exodus chapter 20 which records the Lord giving Israel the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.
Exodus 20:1 Then God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (NASB95)
Verse 2 serves as a preamble and a prologue to “the Ten Words” or “Ten Commandments” and present the motivation for the Israelites to obey the Ten Commandments, which was that God delivered them out of the house of slavery in Egypt.
This verse also expresses the uniqueness of what Yahweh had done for the Israelites in the sense that no other god had rescued such a large group of people from such a powerful nation as Egypt.
Notice that for the first time in the narrative, God is speaking directly to the Israelites and not through the intermediation of Moses, thus for the first time they were all hearing the voice of God speak to them directly.
The Lord’s voice is accompanied by both audio and visual displays (cf. Exodus 19:16-19; 20:18-21), which would convince the Israelites that they were indeed in the presence of God.
Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.” (NASB95)
In the Hebrew text, this first commandment means “You must never have other gods over or against Me.”
The term ʾelōhı̂m, “gods” which refers to either angels or men since it can refer to either human rulers (cf. Psalm 82; John 10:34-36) or angelic beings.
This commandment prohibits the Israelites from practicing idolatry and worshipping angels or men rather than God who is their Creator and Redeemer and denotes the uniqueness of God in that He is the only being in creation who is to be worshipped by the Israelites.
Exodus 20:4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.” (NASB95)
In the Hebrew, this commandment means “You must never make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water beneath the earth.”
This prohibition denotes that nothing in creation must ever be copied and used as an object of worship by the Israelites and thus prohibited the Israelites from making images or likenesses of Yahweh.
Exodus 20:5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (NASB95)
These verses serve to explain the second commandment and prohibited the Israelites from worshipping other gods because Yahweh was a jealous God who tolerates no rivals, which is justified since He is the Creator and Redeemer and not a political ruler or angel.
God’s jealousy is not the same as the jealousy of men, which is a sin but rather it refers to God having the Israelites best interests in mind always and denotes His intense desire to protect the Israelites as well as His honor.
The statement “visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me” does not mean that God punishes an innocent generation for the sins of the previous generation since Deuteronomy 24:16 rejects this.
Rather this statement teaches God’s determination to punish successive generations for committing the same sins they learned from their parents.
Verse 6 stands in direct contrast to the promise in verse 5 to punish successive generations for practicing the sins of a predecessor generation and presents God’s desire to bless the Israelites.
Exodus 20:7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.” (NASB95)
“The name” of the Lord has a four-fold sense: (1) It signifies the “personality” of God distinguishing Him from the heathen gods. (2) It signifies the “character” of God representing who He is. (3) It signifies God’s “work” in creation and for the salvation of men. (4) It signifies the “reputation” of God before men.
To take the Lord’s name in vain meant that the Israelites were not to use His name for any idle, frivolous or insincere purpose such as speaking His name when taking an oath with no intention of keeping it (see Leviticus 19:12).
It speaks of not using the Lord’s name for selfish or evil purposes (see Psalm 139:20), which would as a result undermine His authority.
Exodus 20:8 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the 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.” (NASB95)
Exodus 20:8-11 makes clear that the observance of the Sabbath is connected to the fact that God Himself rested on the seventh day after six days of work (Genesis 2:2-3).
The Sabbath is thus an invitation to rejoice in God’s creation and to acknowledge that He is sovereign.
“To keep it holy” denotes that the Israelites must keep Saturday as a day set aside exclusively for God, i.e. worshipping Him.
Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.” (NASB95)
Honoring your father and mother involves not only financial support if necessary but also care and concern and personal involvement with them and involves providing for parents when they can no longer provide for themselves.
The phrase “that your days may be prolonged in the land” means that God enriches the life of the obedient child no matter how long he may live on the earth.
Exodus 20:13 “You shall not murder.” (NASB95)
The Word of God prohibits murder according to Exodus 20:13 and is one of the sins that God hates according to Proverbs 6:16-19 and according to Genesis 9:6 is to be punished through capital punishment.
Exodus 20:14 “You shall not commit adultery.” (NASB95)
Marriage was established by God in the Garden of Eden when He brought the Woman to Adam to be his helpmate (See Genesis 2:18-25).
Therefore, committing adultery would be sin against God because it would violate the divine institution of marriage.
Exodus 20:15 “You shall not steal.” (NASB95)
This prohibition demands that the Israelites respect each other’s property, which ignored creates instability in society.
Exodus 20:16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (NASB95)
This prohibition is reinforced in Leviticus 5:1 and Deuteronomy 19:18 and its immediate concern is justice and honesty toward those with whom the Israelites may appear in court or legal investigation of any kind.
It of course involves maintaining integrity before the Lord, who because He is omniscience knows the truth about everything.
The Lord will ultimately hold accountable those who have resorted to lies to protect themselves from harm or in order to maliciously injure the other person in the court action.
Exodus 20:17 “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 belongs to your neighbor.” (NASB95)
To covet is to desire inordinately or without due regard for the rights of others.
Failure to observe this prohibition is a failure to love one’s neighbor as oneself and produces an unstable society.
Exodus 20:18 All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. 19 Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.” 21 So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was. (NASB95)
This passage reveals that the Israelites were terrified by hearing God speak audibly and directly to them and they thus demanded that in the future Moses would speak to them rather than God.
These verses teach that God’s presence is extremely threatening to those who are not as holy as God.
He must limit manifesting Himself so as to not overwhelm human beings.
God’s presence also manifests God’s holiness and for a person who is sinner by nature and practice, it would be a terrifying experience since God’s holiness demands that sin and sinners be judged.
Thus, the need for the Savior Jesus Christ, who has made it possible for sinners to come into the presence of God without fear.
Moses tells the people to not be afraid because God was testing them to see if they really would be afraid of disobeying Him by sinning.
Thus, Moses was telling them it was good that they had this response to God’s voice and commandments since it indicated that they would be afraid of offending Him by committing sin.
Consequently, their fear of God would serve as a deterrent to sinning.
To be afraid of the consequences of disobeying God is very important attitude for a believer to possess since it promotes experiential sanctification and experiencing the holiness of God in one’s life.
Exodus 20:22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven. 23 You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves. 24 You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. 25 If you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it. 26 And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that your nakedness will not be exposed on it.’” (NASB95)
These verses present to Israel regulations with regards to the worship of the Lord.
Verse 22 is a reminder to the Israelites of what they have seen and heard for themselves and tells them that God Himself has spoken to them from heaven in a localized place, namely Mount Sinai.
This verse teaches that on the basis of God’s revelation on the mountain, the Israelites were obligated to obey Him as instructed in verses 24-26.
Verse 23 summarizes the first two commandments, which prohibit the practice of idolatry.
In verses 24-26, the Lord gives the Israelites a brief overview of the construction of altars, which are to be used to worship Him.
The point of this section is that those who worship a holy God must maintain holiness by the manner in which they worship.
The Israelites are to worship in the manner prescribed by God.
In Exodus 27:1-8, we will see the Israelites receiving detailed instructions with regards to the construction of altars.
The initial altar here in Exodus 20:24-26 is simple made of dirt or stone that was not cut by men and the reason for this simplicity is to reflect God’s holiness and His abhorrence of idolatry.
It emphasizes that God only accepts that which He has created and provided, thus, the altar could not be something in which human beings could take pride in it or ownership of it.
This altar could not have steps since in the ancient world, most people did not wear underwear and so there was always the risk of the worshipper’s genitals being exposed as he walked up steps, which would insult God.
“Burnt offering” is the noun ʿō∙lā(h) (עֹלָה) (o-law), which portrays or typifies that aspect of Jesus Christ’s spiritual and physical deaths on the Cross, which would propitiate the Father (1 John 2:2; 4:10).
“Peace offerings” is the noun šě∙lěm (שֶׁלֶם) (sheh´-lem), which called for the shedding of blood and taught the doctrine of reconciliation (Lev. 3) and sets forth God as propitiated and the sinner reconciled.