The Ten Commandments

Topic: Law
Passage: Deuteronomy 5:1–21

January 9, 2021

Commentary

Moses calls Israel together and exhorts them with four key words (vv. 1-2). The words are hear, learn, keep, and do. It is a restating of the Law, but the emphasis is still on love and obedience. What the Lord demanded of Israel is still required of His people today (v. 3). The only difference is that today we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. The Law is like a headlight on a car which shows the way into the darkness. 
As we read this portion of Scripture it is important for us to realize that the ten commandments were given to a people who were already redeemed (brought out of Egypt) (vv. 4-5). They were given for the purpose of helping God’s people to express their love for and have fellowship with Him. The law was never designed to give people salvation. Furthermore, God wants a genuine relationship with us and not a mere ritual. The Lord wants us to obey Him, not as slaves, but as grateful children. The first four commandments had to do with Israel’s relationship to God personally: acknowledging that there is but one Lord (vv. 6-7), abstaining from worshiping idols (vv. 8-10, honoring God’s name (v. 11), and observing the Sabbath (vv. 12-15). We are commanded to love our Lord but also our neighbors (v. 16), we need to honor human life and not commit murder (v. 17), the next commandment calls for sexual purity and the honoring of marriage (v. 18). We are not to steal (v. 19), or tell lies (v. 20), or covet what another person has.

Application

There is a difference between doing something because it is required and doing it because I want to (v. 29). God wants my head and my heart, but He also wants my feet.

Deuteronomy 5:1– 21 (NET)

1 Then Moses called all the people of Israel together and said to them: “Listen, Israel, to the statutes and ordinances that I am about to deliver to you today; learn them and be careful to keep them! 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 3 He did not make this covenant with our ancestors but with us, we who are here today, all of us living now. 4 The Lord spoke face to face with you at the mountain, from the middle of the fire. 5 (I was standing between the Lord and you at that time to reveal the Lord’s message to you, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain.) He said:

6 “I am the Lord your God—he who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the place of slavery.

7 “You must not have any other gods besides me.

8 “You must not make for yourself an image of anything in heaven above, on earth below, or in the waters beneath. 9 You must not worship or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. I punish the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons for the sin of the fathers who reject me, 10 but I show covenant faithfulness to the thousands who choose me and keep my commandments.

11 “You must not make use of the name of the Lord your God for worthless purposes, for the Lord will not exonerate anyone who abuses his name that way.

12 “Be careful to observe the Sabbath day just as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13 You are to work and do all your tasks in six days, 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. On that day you must not do any work, you, your son, your daughter, your male slave, your female slave, your ox, your donkey, any other animal, or the resident foreigner who lives with you, so that your male and female slaves, like yourself, may have rest. 15 Recall that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there by strength and power. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

16 “Honor your father and your mother just as the Lord your God has commanded you to do, so that your days may be extended and that it may go well with you in the land that he is about to give you.

17 “You must not murder.

18 “You must not commit adultery.

19 “You must not steal.

20 “You must not offer false testimony against another. 21 You must not desire another man’s wife, nor should you crave his house, his field, his male and female servants, his ox, his donkey, or anything else he owns.”

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