Text: Exodus 20:1-17
Today we are going to look at the Ten Commandments. I think most people simply think of them as a list of “shalt nots” – the biggies in terms of our behavior before God and one another. And they do carry a moral imperative that Jesus not only upholds but magnifies. But I want to look at them from another perspective; it is not counter to the commandments as a moral code, but in addition to it. That additional perspective is that God gave us the commandments to bless us, to improve our lives, to foster lives of peace, joy, and healthy community.
Covenant Document
I realize that most often we look at the Ten Commandments as a list and consider each one as a self-contained unit. But the Commandments function as a whole, as a legal and moral whole. The Ten Commandments are a formal part of the ancient ritual called a covenant.
They are not a list of behaviors by which one does or does not go to heaven.
Rather, they are part of the blessings and curses of the covenant. They are part of God’s promise to be Abraham’s God and for Abraham’s descendants to be God’s people. They are the list of how to enjoy that relationship (or not).
There are several covenants recorded in the Bible, but at heart each is God graciously reaching out toward humanity and offering to intervene and help in the human condition. So God promises Noah never to send another flood – God makes a covenant. God promises Abraham that he will give him land, children, and blessing – God’s initiative and God’s name on the line. God promises David that he will establish his throne forever. Those are covenants. Human beings are a part, but God is the initiator and the faithful covenant-keeper. After the slavery of Abraham’s descendants in Egypt, and God’s rescuing of them through Moses, God re-establishes the Abrahamic covenant with Israel and gives them the Law, including the Ten Commandments.
If you look at the Ten Commandments as a whole, you can see the way they describe an order to life – a pattern of living in obedience to and relationship with God.
And it is that ordered life, understood in Scripture as a blessed life, which is in view for all who would trust God.
A God-Ordered Life
The first three commandments describe a God-ordered life with God alone as priority, vision, and worthy of worship, love, and service. They speak of God alone in the highest place, the place of worship, love, service, and obedience. Nothing is to take God’s place or even compete. It is the supreme and sole priority of God in our lives that orders all the rest of life. So these commandments speak to idolatry and worship, to obedience and disobedience, to service and to selfishness.
The fourth commandment (Sabbath) describes a God-ordered life in terms of work, rest, and time. Often you will hear the commandments sub-divided into the first four about God and the last six about human relationship. But the Sabbath commandment bridges between. Most importantly, it speaks not just of one day in seven, but of all seven days. It marks out our time as all belonging to God, subject to the commandments already given. And part of ordering our life under God is to not to over- or under-prioritize work, rest, or the balance between the two. Issues of work, recreation, family time, personal time, exercise, health, rest, and worship are all addressed in this commandment. It is a prime example of how the Commandments bring order and structure to our view of time and life.
The fifth commandment (parents) describes a God-ordered life in terms of home and family. So submitting our lives to God’s leadership and worship not only affect our use of time, but also our relationships. The commandment to honor parents is more than respecting mom and dad. It requires something of children, but also of parents. It gets at all of family life, from respect to obedience to communication to how parents and children should relate throughout life.
The sixth through ninth commandments describe a God
