The Ten Commandments

Continuing a chronological Bible study:

(Exodus 20:1) And 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 bondage."

In chapter 19, God told Moses to clean and sanctify the people and bring them to the mountain and He would speak to Moses in the hearing of the people.  He spoke these words in an audible voice out of a thick fiery smoke on top of the mountain.  He began by telling the people that He was their God, the One who had brought them out of bondage in Egypt, perhaps showing them that He alone had the sovereign right to enact the laws He was about to give them, as their part of the covenant with God that they unanimously agreed to obey and keep.

(3) “You shall have no other gods before Me."

God began with the first of what we call the "ten commandments".  His people were to worship Him only.  They had come from Egypt where they had been exposed to many gods.  It was Albert Barnes in his Notes on the Bible, who pointed out that the meaning was more than having no other gods "in front of" or "above" and in that respect "before" God, but rather literally have no other gods "before My face", or in God's presence.  No other god was to be worshiped, period.  I've always learned this to mean that we shouldn't put any idols of worship above God, or more important than God, but God doesn't want us to have any idols at all, but we are to worship only Him.

(4) “You shall not make for yourself any carved 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; (5) You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, (6) And showing mercy to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments."

This has always been a difficult one for me.  Are we not to have any pictures of Christ or symbols of God in our churches?  I don't want to flippantly disregard a commandment with "just as long as we don't worship it" to fit what I want the commandment to be.  I really want to understand the commandments as they were intended by God.  I do believe it must be a case of not making statues or images of God Himself who has no body, for the sake of bowing down and worshiping this image of God.  God is more awesome and unimaginably wonderful than anything our human minds could conjure up; to make Him into this carved image of our imagination is to greatly diminish Him.  The commandment surely couldn't mean that there could be no images at all of things that are in heaven, etc., because cherubim were instructed to be used in the tabernacle furnishings and for the ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:18).  Therefore I believe that we may have symbols of our worship, spiritual symbols, but the key is that we don't bow down to a symbol we have made as if we were bowing to our one true God.

Indeed, God commanded that the people not bow down or serve false idols because He was a jealous God!  "Jealous" has a negative connotation these days--envious and resentful, creating bitterness and fear.  There are two other dictionary definitions of "jealous"--"solicitous or vigilant in maintaining or guarding something" and "intolerant of unfaithfulness or rivalry".  I believe these are the more accurate descriptions of God's jealousy for His people.  God loved His people as the most loving husband would love his spouse, actually much more, and He is jealous for their fidelity, solicitous and vigilant in guarding it, because He is always about what is best for His people.

"Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children..." is a little harder to get my head around, but after reviewing other references, it becomes clear that God does not punish children for their father's sins, but they will indeed suffer because of their father's sins.  Deuteronomy 24:16 says, "Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for his own sin."  However, there are references to the fact that children suffer because of their father's sins, such as written in Lamentations 5:7, "Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their iniquities."  Likewise, those descendants who come from parents and grandparents who walk in the ways of the Lord and obey His commandments will reap benefits and blessings.  There are definite consequences for actions that will pass down to subsequent generations.  That is not to say that sovereign God never personally blesses or punishes.  Romans 9:18 says, "Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens."  God constantly refines His people, and uses His rod and staff to keep them on the correct path.  I find that His chastisements are usually always about getting His people back to Him and back on the right path, reminding them of where they should put their trust and faith.

(7) “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."

We have tended to make this commandment about using God's name in profanity, but it is about much more.  The original word "shav" translated as "vain" more completely means "empty, vain, false, worthless".  Actually, Leviticus 19:12, speaks of two distinct abuses of the Lord's name:  "And you shall not swear by My name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD."  God's name is to be used with deep reverence and respect and should never be flippantly used in exclamations, swearing, or appealed to as a witness of the truth.  The LORD "will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain."  We have a tendency to believe that words don't actually harm, so we don't usually give them the same level of importance as we give actions.  Although there may not seem to be any real consequences for abusing the Lord's name, and the abuser himself may say he didn't mean anything by it, the Lord finds it of utmost importance and says He will account him guilty.

(8)  “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."

The Israelites had already been observing a Sabbath day.  In Exodus 16, they were instructed to gather twice as much manna on the sixth day because the seventh day was the rest of the holy sabbath to the LORD (Exodus 16:23).  God had actually blessed and sanctified the sabbath day in the beginning (Genesis 2:3).  Whether it was something the Israelites had been observing for a long time or something the Lord had begun to institute with the manna, He now told the people that they were to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy.  The original word that was translated as "holy" here is "qadash", and it meant something causatively set aside, pronounced or observed, as morally or ceremonially clean.  The day was to be a day set aside and observed as a holy day of God.

(9) "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, (10) But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. (11) For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it."

The Israelites were allowed six days to labor and do their work, but they were to do no work on the seventh day.  I believe by including all other household members, cattle, and strangers, the implication is that they also shouldn't hire out or use their animals to have any work done on the sabbath day.  Exodus 23:12 added, "that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed."  The day was to be observed as holy by the Israelites, but was also to be considered a day for rest for all people and animals.  Why did the Lord command this?  Verse 11 further explained what had been told us in Genesis 2:3, that the Lord Himself rested on the seventh day and had blessed and hallowed the sabbath day.  It's not as if the Lord was wearied from creating and had to rest, but his created beings do need rest, and He chose to rest and symbolically set aside a day for His people to likewise rest.  It's a day for them to rest in Him; they physically rest, but they also spend time in prayer and communion with the Lord which spiritually feeds them for the tasks of the week ahead.  The Sabbath day is a holy day to the Lord, but it was created for the benefit of the Lord's people.  We must not become legalistic and forget the spirit of the law.  Luke 13:14 spoke of a ruler of a synagogue who was indignant with Jesus because He healed a woman on the Sabbath; he specifically quoted the scripture in verse 9, that there were six days on which men ought to work and therefore could come and be healed on them, but not on the Sabbath day.  Jesus Himself said in Mark 2:27 that the "Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath."  He added that He, Jesus Christ, was Lord of the Sabbath.  I believe the rest on the Sabbath was symbolic of the rest we have in the Lord of the Sabbath, as described in Hebrews 4.  So does there still remain a commandment to observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy?  I have personally struggled with this and wondered if I am justifying myself by saying that Jesus Christ IS the Sabbath and by resting in Him, I obey this commandment.  I will continue to study this as it is written about in scripture, but I thought this quote by Adam Clarke in his Commentary on the Bible, was beautiful food for thought:  "...but the thing signified by the Sabbath is that rest in glory which remains for the people of God, therefore the moral obligation of the Sabbath must continue till time be swallowed up in eternity."

(12) “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God gives you."

The ten commandments have always been considered to be able to be divided into two groups, possibly grouped as such, one on each stone tablet that the Lord wrote (Deut. 4:13).  Jesus summed up the commandments into two:  "Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself." (Matt. 22:37-39)  The first few commandments, and possibly the first tablet, deal with how we honor and love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, and minds, and the last few deal with how we are to love our neighbors.  "Honor your father and mother" has been most of the time considered part of how we deal with others, and would mean the ten commandments were divided into two groups as the first four, and then the last six.  However, I like what Albert Barnes wrote, in his Notes on the Bible:  "According to our usage, the fifth commandment is placed as the first in the second table; and this is necessarily involved in the common division of the commandments into our duty toward God and our duty toward men. But the more ancient, and probably the better, division allots five commandments to each table, proceeding on the distinction that the first table relates to the duties which arise from our filial relations, the second to those which arise from our fraternal relations. The connection between the first four commandments and the fifth exists in the truth that all faith in God centers in the filial feeling. Our parents stand between us and God in a way in which no other beings can."  Mr. Barnes also referenced the Apostle Paul in Romans 13:9, where he summarized just five commandments for how we ought to love our brother, and he did not include honoring our parents.

The Apostle Paul also pointed out that this commandment was the first with a promise (Eph. 6:2), which may tell us how important this commandment is to God.  It is expanded upon a little more in Deuteronomy 5:16, "Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you."  A long life in that good land was promised particularly to obedient children.  Those who do their duty to their parents are most likely to have the comfort of that which their parents gather for them and leave to them.  Besides physical property that parents might leave, there are usually continual prayers for their children.  In this day, there may be some who believe their parents do not deserve such love and respect, but God used those parents as instruments to bring those children into the world, whomever they may be, and for that they are deserving of some degree of honor.  If indeed this commandment is one that teaches us filial respect, then it helps us to learn respect for all authority--parents, government, and ultimately God (Heb. 13:17, 1 Pet. 2:13).  Isn't that usually the way with our sweet Lord?  His laws are generally always about our ultimate good, rather than a commandment just for commandment's sake.

(13) "You shall not kill."

The word translated as "kill" is "ratsach".  It is generally understood to mean "murder".  Strong's says it this way:  "A primitive root; properly to dash in pieces, that is, kill (a human being), especially to murder: - put to death, kill, (man-) slay (-er), murder (-er)."  Discussions can and have been made far and wide over what this actually means.  Does it include war, capital punishment, abortion, suicide, and killing animals?  These will be debated until Jesus returns.  And speaking of Jesus, He said this:  “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not kill, and whoever shall kill will be in danger of the judgment.' But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council, but whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire." (Matt 5:21-22)  I am not going to try to decipher every word of that passage in Mark just yet, but I believe the gist is that one word might be judged by the council, but another is still judged by Jesus; He said in so many words that it was possible to have murder in our hearts, and that is what is judged by God.  Personally, I believe that we must follow the examples put forth in the Bible regarding what actions constitute murder.  Once again, we can debate whether war is ever justified, but I don't believe it is considered murder and breaks this commandment, as we have many examples of war in the Bible.  Once again, we can debate capital punishment, but it would not be considered murder to lawfully execute someone who had committed a particularly heinous crime; again we have examples in the Bible.  Abortion?  In that case, I believe we have examples to the contrary, that God never condoned the taking of an innocent baby's life.  Suicide?  As we should not take the life of any other living human being, I believe we don't have the right to take our own lives.  The killing of animals for food and clothing is certainly permitted in the Bible, but certainly no torturing of animals for sport would be.

(14) “You shall not commit adultery."

In its strictest sense, committing adultery is having relations outside the marriage relationship, whether it is one married person with a single person, or two people married to others.  However, once again our Lord had stricter guidelines:  “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matthew 5:27-28)  Once again, it is about what's in a man's heart, and notice that Jesus didn't say "whoever looks at a married woman"; he just said "woman".  Consider also the fact that Jesus included fornication when He spoke of the wickedness that comes from the heart: "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." (Matthew 15:18-19)  I believe it is no stretch to conclude that the seventh commandment refers to all sexual activity outside the marriage bed.  Sex apart from marriage would be an adulterous act against God's design for marriage and sexual relations in the marriage bed.

(15) “You shall not steal."

The eighth commandment is pretty straight forward.  We are not to take another's property.  This means physically taking by force or taking stealthily or by fraud or deception.  Unjust contracts, withholding a worker's pay, making a slave of a person against his will, not repaying agreed upon debts, not restoring what is borrowed, etc., would all be examples of stealing.

(16) “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."

I had occasion to study this commandment back when I studied the first chapter of Exodus when the Hebrew midwives lied to Pharaoh and would not kill the baby boys as commanded.  God blessed the midwives, and I had to wonder if God could bless liars.  It was suggested to me that perhaps God blessed them in spite of their lying, but after studying the words of this commandment, I do not believe it is a blanket commandment against all lying.  I honestly believe "white" lies to protect people and their feelings would not be sins against this commandment.  This commandment is about injuring your neighbor by bearing a false witness against him, either a public false charge or private gossip and slander whereby he may suffer in his character, reputation, or in his business.  Rather than a long list of what we must not do, the 1599 Geneva Bible Translation Notes explained this commandment succinctly, "But further his good name, and speak truth."  Further your neighbor's good name and do not speak falsely in a way that will diminish him.  If the commandment is truly about building up your neighbor and not tearing him down, then I honestly don't believe that a "white" lie meant to protect or build up a person could be considered a breach of this commandment.  In the New Testament, Paul went as far to say in Philippians 2:3 that we should esteem others better than we esteem ourselves.

(17) “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his maid servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Jesus seemingly took the commandments against killing and adultery to another level by adding that if you even think about those things, you have committed a breach of the commandment.  However, this last commandment in itself does seem to suggest that we not injure our neighbor in thought.  The sixth, seventh, and eighth commandments forbid us to injure our neighbor in deed, the ninth forbid us to injure him in word, and the tenth in thought.  Once again, I point to Matthew 22:37-40, when Jesus summed up all the commandments into two--loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind; and loving your neighbor as yourself.  The last five commandments all pertain to how we are to treat one another.  This final one commands us not to covet or to desire or long after those things belonging to or accomplished by our neighbor.  James in the New Testament explained why this was so important:  "But every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it brings forth sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death." (James 1:14-15)  Sinful actions start with our own covetous desires.  I like what Adam Clarke wrote in his Commentary on the Bible.  His words were a little too flowery for my taste, but I will give him credit for his idea that this commandment "is a most excellent moral precept", and that observing it alone would prevent "all public crimes".  I am giving him credit for part of his words, but actually that idea is obviously why Jesus was able to sum up half the commandments with just loving your neighbor as yourself.  Certainly, if we treated everyone the way we wanted to be treated, I can't imagine there would be any crimes against people.

(18) And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. (19) And they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”

In the last chapter, before the Lord began speaking in the hearing of the people, there were thunderings, lightnings, smoke, and a loud trumpet.  This statement is either repeated, or these things continued or perhaps just occurred again at the end of the Lord's speaking.  Before God spoke, the people were breaking forth to gaze upon Him, or at least desired to do that which was what the Lord wanted to prevent, lest they die (Exodus 19:21).  After hearing Him, they were so moved with awe and fear, they moved themselves back and stood afar off.  Those same people who would have pushed themselves out front to approach God now realized their need for a mediator and welcomed Moses to speak to them on God's behalf.

(20) And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.”

Moses reassured the people not to fear that the Lord had come to destroy them.  He indeed could easily destroy them and it was important that they understood His power and respected it.  Thus they understood their need for a mediator, and they had a reverent awe and fear for the Lord that would make them careful (as opposed to being careless and flippant) to obey His laws.

(21) And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

At the end of the last chapter, the Lord had sent Moses back down the mountain to insure the people would keep their distance.  However, He had told him at that time that he, Moses, and Aaron, alone, were to come up the mountain.  Moses, having had that prior authorization, now left the people standing afar off and went back to where God was.

(22) And the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. (23) You shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.'"

The Lord told Moses to tell the people the words of the Lord, that He had indeed spoken to them from heaven.  I find it very interesting that the Lord took this opportunity to repeat and more fully describe His commandment that the people not make little gold or silver idols to be representative of Him.  John Wesley suggested this was because "they were more addicted to idolatry than to any other sin."  Perhaps it was just a preface to what was to come afterward, not to make idols for Him, but rather make a simple altar as instructed.  Most likely, the Lord knew that was exactly what the people would do as they did in Exodus 32 when they made a golden calf.  I suppose that indeed suggests the statement of John Wesley is true; the people were so addicted to idolatry and symbols of worship, that the Lord knew they needed this extra reiteration.

(24) "‘An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in all places where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you.'"

I believe the point here is that these are directions for constructing temporary altars before the tabernacle was built.  God would have very specific instructions for the tabernacle, but if His people wanted to construct a temporary altar for Him, then it was to be a simple one from the earth.  There they could sacrifice their offerings.  In all places, that is, wherever the Lord was worshiped at this makeshift altar, He would come to them and bless them.  That sentiment was repeated by Jesus Christ in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

(25) "‘And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have polluted it.'"

If the people chose instead to make a stone altar, perhaps because they were in a rocky place, then the altar was still to be a simple one with natural rocks.  They were forbidden to use hewn stones or to use any tools to carve out or make their altars.  Perhaps in carving, they would be tempted to carve idols.  Without God's specific instructions for a more elaborate altar, the people were to keep theirs simple and natural, for as was discussed with the second commandment, the people could in no way imagine and create anything equal to God, and anything they created would diminish Him and become a worthless idol of their worship.

(26) "'Neither shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be discovered on it.’"

And finally, regarding the building of a temporary altar, it should not be made with steps going up to it.  I feel like partly this was to again keep it simple, but Matthew Henry in his Commentary on the Whole Bible had a reasonable explanation for why this was added.  He wrote they were appointed to "make their altars very low, so that they might not go up by steps to them. That the higher the altar was, and the nearer heaven, the more acceptable the sacrifice was, was a foolish fancy of the heathen, who therefore chose high places; in opposition to this, and to show that it is the elevation of the heart, not of the sacrifice, that God looks at, they were here ordered to make their altars low."

I had a little difficulty understanding the second half of that verse regarding their nakedness, but the old commentaries took that literally.  It has already been discussed and established that it was foolish to make steps going up to a high altar anyway, so in doing so, the only thing accomplished is that you would expose yourself to those underneath.  Dr. John Gill put it this way in his Exposition of the Entire Bible, anyone doing this would "be in danger of discovering those parts which would make them the object of contempt and ridicule with the people", and "all immodesty and indecency, and whatever tends to create impure thoughts and stir up unclean lusts, should be carefully avoided in his worship."  In summation, the altar should be a simple one where God promised to come to them and bless them.  I will close this study with the words of Matthew Henry:

"Afterwards, God chose one particular place wherein to record his name: but that being taken away now under the gospel, when men are encouraged to pray every where, this promise revives in its full extent, that, wherever God's people meet in his name to worship him, he will be in the midst of them, he will honour them with his presence, and reward them with the gifts of his grace; there he will come unto them, and will bless them, and more than this we need not desire for the beautifying of our solemn assemblies."