Great Commandments
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Great Commandments
Great Commandments
In the next several weeks, you will find the parts of Deuteronomy we have already looked at and those to come interweaving with each other, with a continuous theme throughout. The theme is that through Moses, God is reminding the Israelites that He is their God, and has already shown himself faithful and powerful and gracious and merciful towards them, and because of this, He expects them to be loyal to him, to worship Him only, to learn His ways, and follow His commands. Today we will begin looking at the Ten Commandments, and in our context here this morning, this is the second time the Ten Commandments are recorded. The first is in Exodus, where Moses received these directly from God on the Mountain, and here he is repeating them for the generation that is going to enter the promised land.
Before we begin looking at the commandments themselves, I want to give an overview of what these commandments represent. Why were they given, and why were they to be obeyed? And if they were obeyed, then what did that mean? What good would it do?
It would be enough for God, the all powerful creator of us all and creator of all the world, to simply say to us, follow these commands because I said so. When we are teaching someone, such as our children, something, we often explain the reasoning behind our procedures or rules. But sometimes, the child may question a little too much. They insist on an explanation, so the parent finally answers, “Do it because I said so.”
And sometimes if it gets really extreme, a mother may say something like “I brought you into this world, and I can take you out of it, just obey me”. But that is not our usual attitude. We usually want our children to understand some logic and reasoning behind our commands. And God has not left his people Israel without a reasoning or motivation to obey his commands. He repeatedly reminds the people of his goodness towards them, the things He has accomplished on their behalf, not the least of which comes right before the first commandment:
“ ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) The Westminster Shorter Catechism
43. What is the preface to the Ten Commandments?
The preface to the Ten Commandments is in these words, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
44. What doth the preface to the Ten Commandments teach us?
The preface to the Ten Commandments teacheth us that because God is the Lord, and our God, and redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all His commandments.
This comes in both recordings of the ten commandments. This is the answer to one of our big “Why” questions. Why should the people of Israel obey God? Because He is their Lord and God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and out of slavery.
Now, I like to say from time to time that context is king. Another concept we must use when we try to understand any part of scripture is that we use scripture to interpret scripture. Especially if we have some evidence that another biblical writer has connected two or more passages, we can begin to have a more complete understanding of the Word of God. In this case, our current section of Deuteronomy is quoted directly or alluded to dozens of times in scripture, both in the Old Testament and in the New.
But one very important thing we can learn about the commandments is what Jesus thought about them. In the gospels, we can know what Jesus considered the greatest command because the question was asked and answered:
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
The greatest commandment, according to Jesus is found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
This is so important that immediately following this commandment is another; that is, to teach these things to your children:
And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
I talked last week about how this is the basis for the Sunday School curriculum we will begin using in September, called D6. Based on Deuteronomy 6. We are going to focus as a church on being obedient to these commands. To love God, and to teach His commands to our families. And since many families are unsure how to begin doing this, we are using a curriculum that takes it beyond Sunday morning and we will be teaching parents that may not know how to engage with their children about the things of God and we are going to offer you an opportunity to be trained and equipped to obey this command.
Now, when Jesus answered that important question, what is the greatest commandment, he answered directly, and added to it the second greatest commandment, which is you shall love your neighbor as yourself and he added: On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.
So this has often been applied to the ten commandments: It has been said, and generally this is a right way to look at it, that the first four commands have to do with obeying the greatest commandment, to love God, and that commandments 5-10 are about the second greatest commandment, to love your neighbor. Or to put it another way, we may say that the first 4 commandments are about our relationship with God and the next six are about our relationship with people. I would agree with that assessment generally. However, it can also be said that our obedience of all the commands is about us keeping the greatest commandment, that is Deut6.5
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Now, I am going to get to Deuteronomy 6 soon, and will be coming back to this to go more into depth about this saying that the Jews refer to as the Shema. But today we are not focusing on Deuteronomy 6, we are in chapter 5, so let us stay focused on the ten commandments. Let us remember as well that the ten commandments is by no means the limit to the requirements that God places on His people Israel; But the ten commandments are also commands for all people. Everyone is expected by God to adhere to these commands. so they are by no means limited to the Israelites, or even just to us Christians here and now.
These are a moral code for all people. And the moral code begins with a recognition of who God is, and a reverence for Him. And so we will look this morning at the first three commandments, which speak to us of the idea that God is to be completely and utterly without competition in our lives for worship: Deut5.7-11
“ ‘You shall have no other gods before me.
“ ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on 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 fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
“ ‘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.
I think it is important for us to group these commands together. Many of us at some point had to memorize the commandments, and so they are in our heads, 1-10. But really these first three are tied together, so that even though it is ok to list the ten commandments, we really need to understand something about these three that says something about the very character of God.
God is holy. Of all the attributes of God, which there are many of, and they are a worthwhile study. Many people have benefitted from studying the attributes of God. Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent. Gracious, merciful, glorious, loving, just, righteous, and many more. But there is one attribute of God that is held in scripture above the others, that is Holy. IN fact, he is thrice holy. In Jewish vocabulary, if something is repeated, it holds a much higher precedent. So when Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, the repetition of the word truly meant we are to take notice that this is a statement that is strongly claiming to be true.
But is repeating something once was enough to grab your attention as to the importance of that writing or saying, how much higher importance is placed when something is repeated three times. Isaiah recorded his encounter with the Lord and the seraphim, which were a type of angel, stood around the Lord and there is a word that is repeated 3 times:
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
And in the revelation, around the throne of God, are four living creatures: Rev4.8
And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”
What does this word holy mean? well, it means pure, divine, sacred, perfect, set apart, dedicated, morally pure, upright, most sacred, commanding respect, awesome. God is Holy. In respect to these first three commands, it is God’s holiness that commands our attention and obedience to them. You shall have no other gods before me. Are there other gods to begin with? Well, not really, but certainly in the world there are many people who worship false gods, and gods that are idols. This command is not implying that there are other gods, it is simply saying that you are not to worship any other god. The people of Israel had come from Egypt, where other gods were worshipped. They were entering a land where other pagans worshiped various satanic beings.
God was saying to them clearly that because he was holy, so his people needed to be holy was well. Lev11.44-45
For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”
“Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.
You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.
but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
God is holy, and his people are to be holy, and this means they cannot, must not, are forbidden, to have any gods before God. He does not allow it. He is a jealous God, and not jealous like we sometimes think of it, but jealous like a good husband who sees anything coming at his wife that may harm her reputation or come between his relationship with her, he will rise up and defend his relationship with her. He loves he so much that he is not willing to have anything come about that would in any way damage her or their relationship, and so it is that God defends his relationship with his people, calling himself a jealous God. He wants the relationship to be pure, holy.
Deuteronomy Second Commandment: The Jealous God (5:8–10)
2. Saying that the Lord is a jealous God makes a covenantal claim about God and expresses a positive word about the proper and inherent exclusiveness that belongs to the nature of the relationship between God and God’s people, or to the nature of covenant. As a covenantal claim, the jealousy of God has a double force: jealousy for Israel’s full and exclusive worship of the Lord (Exod. 20:5; Deut. 32:16, 21; Ps. 78:50) and jealousy or zeal for God’s powerful commitment to and love for his people, as one sees, for example, in such contexts as Isaiah 9:7; 26:11 (“Let them see thy zeal for thy people”); 37:31–32; 59:17 (where the armor of God is righteousness, salvation, vindication, and zeal or jealousy—all to do battle for justice). The jealousy of God, therefore, is that dimension within the divine encounter with the Lord’s people that brooks no other final loyalty and ensures no other recipient of such unbounding love and grace. It is God’s way of saying, I will have nothing less than your full devotion, and you will have nothing less than all my love. It is the kind of attribute that belongs to a marriage relationship, where there is a proper covenantal jealousy.
The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) The Westminster Shorter Catechism
45. Which is the first commandment?
The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
46. What is required in the first commandment?
The first commandment requireth us to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God, and our God, and to worship and glorify Him accordingly.
47. What is forbidden in the first commandment?
The first commandment forbiddeth the denying, or not worshipping and glorifying, the true God as God, and our God; and the giving of that worship and glory to any other, which is due to Him alone.
48. What are we specially taught by these words, before me, in the first commandment?
These words, before me, in the first commandment teach us that God, who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other God.
To back up the first command comes the second: Deut5.8-10
“ ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on 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 fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Since we covered this topic in Deut 4, with regards to idolatry, I will not spend a lot of time on this. I think we covered it pretty well already, and you can go to the church website to listen to the sermons on chapter 4 if you missed any of that or want to have your memory refreshed.
Now, remember that context is king. Some people have taken this very literally, saying it means that really we can’t have art. any likeness of anything in heaven above (birds or clouds or sun or stars) on the earth beneath (mountains, animals, etc) or that is in the water (fish, etc). But this is a hyper literal and incorrect view. in fact, according to scripture, Solomon built the temple in accordance with God’s commands, and it included: 1Kin6.35
On them he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the carved work.
So clearly God is not prohibiting all art. The context is what we look at here. This is why I said these three commandments must be looked at together. The context is you shall have no other gods before me; you shall not make for yourself a carved image. and you shall not bow down to them or serve them.
The addendum to this is interesting. He is a jealous God, and he considers idol worship to be hatred towards him. And some have taken this statement, about visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, and taken it to mean that if one person defies God in this way, he has cursed his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. And so some have felt that they are kept back from some of God’s blessing because of something their parent did, or a grandparent.
However, I want you to note with me the whole saying here. He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. So what if you came from a family that hated God? Are you cursed because of them? No, this curse is on those who hate god. There is not a generational curse that cannot be broken if any descendent of that line should learn to love God. The curse is on those who hate God.
And, he will show steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. And remember this, that the evidence of loving God is shown by the keeping of his commandments. How do we show our love for God? By keeping his commandments. How do we show love for neighbor? By keeping his commandments. Who will God show steadfast love to? Thousands of those who love him and keep his commandments.
So if you have ever been told that somehow you are missing part of God’s blessing because of your ancestors, whether that is your parents or grandparents or whatever, know this. The curse only continues insofar as the hatred of God continues. When anyone in that family line leaves off the hatred of God and follows his commands in a loving act of obedience, that curse is not there.
In fact, it was clear in God’s way of doing things that the penalties of the sins of a parent were not to be carried by their children. If we get to Deuteronomy chapter 24 we will study this: Deut24.16
“Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.
So we are not to receive the guilt of another’s sin. However, it is clear that we can be affected by the consequences of another person’s sin. We don’t send a child to prison for the crime of their parent, but the child still suffers consequences; for example, if they are put into an abusive foster care situation or something like that; or even just having to grow up with only one parent instead of two. The consequences of sin are felt by others, but the guilt of the sin falls on the sinner.
The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) The Westminster Shorter Catechism
49. Which is the second commandment?
The second commandment is, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven 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; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me: and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
50. What is required in the second commandment?
The second commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath appointed in His Word.
51. What is forbidden in the second commandment?
The second commandment forbiddeth the worshipping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in His Word.
52. What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment?
The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God’s sovereignty over us, His propriety in us, and the zeal He hath to His own worship.
So we are to have no other gods before God, have no images to bow down to, and Deut5.11
“ ‘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.
Now, the most popular take of this in the church, at least in my growing up in the church, is that this has to do with curse words. Yet this may be taking us off the point a little bit. What it means to take his name in vain is to take it to lightly, or to use it in an inappropriate way.
Patrick Miller says: Misuse of God’s name, however, is not confined to profanity or cursing. Any situation wherein the divine name is used without seriousness violates this command. As several biblical passages indicate, swearing by God’s name is not wrong (cf. Lev. 19:11–12; Deut. 6:13 and 10:20). Indeed, it is specifically commanded. Misuse of the name happens if one swears by God’s name and then lies. The commandment, therefore, has to do with telling the truth. To invoke the name of the Lord is a commitment to tell the truth.
Robert Bratcher says: Take the name … in vain: that is, to use the name in a manner not befitting God’s holiness. The phrase in vain means essentially “for a worthless purpose.” This could involve the use of magic, incantations, or curses. tev has “for evil purposes,” niv and njb “misuse the name,” nrsv “make wrongful use of,” reb “make wrong use of,” njpsv “swear falsely” (which is supported by Jer 7:9). Craigie defines it as “an attempt to manipulate God for personal ends.”
So it can also be using God’s name in a way that is unfortunately all too common in churches today. You see, I have know people who would never dream of using God’s name as a curse word, but would readily give you instructions to follow because that is what God would want you to do. In fact, it can be, in many cases, blatant spiritual manipulation. I have had someone (not at this church) say to me, “Pastor, the Lord has been telling me that we (of course, this is the royal we, by which they mean, you, pastor)… The Lord has been telling me that we should do (fill in the blank).” And it is amazing how often the thing they claim the Lord is telling us to do is the exact same thing that they themselves have been advocating for!
Beware of people who claim that God is speaking through them to you directly. This is a very powerful way to manipulate someone who is trying their best to live for Jesus, you tell them Jesus says you ought to do such and such. And if you are someone who tends to say to people, “The Lord is telling me that...” Beware. You may be blatantly violating the third commandment. You may be using the Lord’s name in vain.
If anyone claims they are speaking the words of God to another person, they are claiming the authority they do not have. If you want to encourage another believer, don’t tell them something and claim God said it to you, and you are just the middle man. Instead, if you want to comfort someone, or bring peace into their situation, then give them the true words of God that are found in scripture. If you want to be an encourager, make a list of encouraging passages of scripture, and write them down somewhere and share those. Or take time to pray with someone. But be very careful not to speak with authority you don’t have.
Why? Because the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Taking his name could be swearing by his name and then lying. Using His name in a flippant manner, or curse. Telling someone you are speaking in that name, but speaking words that are your own, not God’s.
From the Westminster shorter Catechism, we see these questions and answers about the third commandment:
The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) The Westminster Shorter Catechism
53. Which is the third commandment?
The third commandment is, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
54. What is required in the third commandment?
The third commandment requireth the holy and reverent use of God’s names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word, and works.
55. What is forbidden in the third commandment?
The third commandment forbiddeth all profaning or abusing of anything whereby God maketh Himself known.
56. What is the reason annexed to the third commandment?
The reason annexed to the third commandment is that however the breakers of this commandment may escape punishment from men, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape His righteous judgment.
So in summary, the first three commandments are related in that they reveal our need to reverence our thrice holy God. Next week we will take a look at commandment 4.
During the coming week, let us reflect on how we may be in violation of these first three commands, and ask God to reveal to us where we may be guilty, for when we know our guilt, we can more readily repent of it.