The Ten Commandments: A Brief Exposition

As a fellowship, we begun a study through the Ten commandments and the articles that follow are notes from the study. Today, we will begin with what I call the prologue or preface to the Ten commandments. These are captured in the first two verses of Exodus 20.

And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage (Exodus 20:1-2).

The decalogue, or moral law or what is popularly called the Ten (10) commandments is God’s moral law given to Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai. Though first given to the Israelites, it is God’s moral law applicable to all humanity. They are a supreme expression of God’s will¹. Indeed the Ten commandments serve the purpose of guide for all humanity. For in it we see an expression of how we are to relate with God and one another. Even for the atheist who holds no belief in God, the commands find expression in their human interactions. In many countries of the world, the rights of citizens granted by its laws can be traced to the Ten commandments. In Ghana’s 1992 constitution, for example, there is a right to life and owing property which are all exposed by the ten commandments.

It is of great importance to note that, the Ten commandments is expressed in a vertical and horizontal relationship. Vertical in our relationship with God. Horizontal in our relationship with our neighbour. The first four commands addresses our relationship with God. And the next six our relationship with our fellow humans. Jesus sums it all as love for God and love for our fellow humans (Matthew 22:37-40). The  Commandments are recorded in Exodus 20:3-17  and Deuteronomy 5:7-21.

But for this study, we will dwell on the commandments as recorded in Exodus 20:3-17 (KJV).  Before considering the individual commandments, it will be helpful to give attention to the opening words of the commandments, i.e. Exodus 20:1-2 quoted earlier. These two verses teach some truths we will briefly consider.

God Speaks

The opening words point us to a living God; a God who speaks: “And God spake all these words…” What this teaches is a God who communicates with his people. The Christian God is not silent. The Scriptures explicitly distinguish between the living God and the gods of the heathen, which are simply idols. Hebrews 1:1-2 tells of a living God who speaks with his people.

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds

In contrast, Psalms 115:4-7 and 135:15-18 describes lifeless gods who have no power of speech

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.

The Ten Commandments Are God’s Words

If God spoke the ten commandments, then it follows directly they are God’s Words. Various arguments attacking the credibility of the ten commandments have been put forward in opposition to it being God’s very words. Moses for example is charged with copying the Ten commandments from other sources. Notable among these is the “Hammurabi code”

Code of Hammurabi, the most complete and perfect extant collection of Babylonian laws, developed during the reign of Hammurabi (1792–1750 BCE) of the 1st dynasty of Babylon. It consists of his legal decisions that were collected toward the end of his reign and inscribed on a diorite stela set up in Babylon’s temple of Marduk, the national god of Babylonia. These 282 case laws include economic provisions (prices, tariffs, trade, and commerce), family law (marriage and divorce), as well as criminal law (assault, theft) and civil law (slavery, debt). Penalties varied according to the status of the offenders and the circumstances of the offenses.¹

This code is noted to be one of the best-preserved and comprehensive of ancient writings. Many similarities have been noted between the code of Hammurabi and the ten commandments. And because the Ten commandments were written 300years after Hammurabi’s code, Moses is charged with plagiarism. In the article Did Moses Copy the Law From The Code of Hammurabi, the charge of plagiarism against Moses is well answered here.

God Is A Law Giver

Whenever God calls a people, he enacts a covenant with them, prescribing the terms thereof with promises for obedience and threats for disobedience. According to John Calvin God has annexed promises and threatening to his [commandments].³

God gave a command or established a covenant with Adam, the first human and progenitor of the human race with promises and threats (Genesis 2:16-17). Adam disobeyed and God’s judgement was pronounced (Genesis 3:14-19;23). Indeed throughout the Scriptures, we see God giving laws through covenants and demanding obedience.

The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto Him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of Him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God’s part, which He hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.
The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works, wherein life was promised to Adam, and in him to his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience.
Man, by his fall, having made himself incapable of life by that covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a second,  commonly called the Covenant of Grace, whereby He freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in Him, that they may be saved; and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life His Holy Spirit, to make them willing, and able to believe.⁴
God Is A Deliverer
In the prologue to the Ten Commandments, God identified himself to the Israelites as a Deliverer: “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage…” The understanding is simply that, if I delivered you, you must obey me. John Calvin in Institutes of The Christian Religion noted that
Let  it be understood, then, that mention is made of deliverance, in order to make the Jews submit with greater readiness to that God who justly claims them as his own. We again, instead of supposing that the matter has no reference to us [Christians], should reflect that the bondage of Israel in Egypt was a type of that spiritual bondage, in the fetters of which we are all bound, until the heavenly avenger delivers us by the power of his own arm, transports us into his free kingdom.⁵
If God has delivered us, then we must, out of gratitude heed to his commands and obey them. Obedience, therefore, becomes a litmus test for our love of God: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15).
Next week Lord willing, we will consider the first commandment:
Thou shalt have no other gods before me (v.3).
Notes
2 Code of Hammurabi, Babylonian Laws, Britannica.com, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Code-of-Hammurabi
3. John Calvin, Institutes Of The Christian Religion. trans  Henry Beveridge ( Peabody: Massachusetts, Hendrickson Publishers, 2008), 229
4. The Westminster Confession of faith (7:1-3)
5. Calvin,  Institutes Of The Christian Religion, 241-242

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