Shavuot (Pentecost) commemorates the testimony of God coming and the Spirit of God coming to give it power. Yeshua haMoshiakh (Jesus the Christ) is the “word made flesh” (John 1:14) and “exact representation of (God’s) nature” (Hebrews 1:3). We explore the Ten Commandments and the Pentecost after Yeshua’s resurrection to see why the Bible makes so many connections between them.

Today we conclude our 50-day journey along side our ancestors in faith from Egypt to Mt. Sinai, from Pesakh (Passover) to Shavuot (Pentecost). It is something that we all experience: delivery from our own house of bondage and into the house of freedom. We need a yearly reminder of where we started and where we are going.

There’s one of those things that we should remember: God doesn’t call on us to clean up our act — to deliver ourselves — before delivering us.

The message we have from the Word is to trust in God’s delivery then follow like Israel did, even when it looks impossible, even when it looks like you will be overcome by your past, like Israel backed up against the sea, or die from thirst and hunger along the way. Even when it looks lie God is leading you from one dead end to another over and again.

The continual message is faith, faith and more faith. Paul tells us we go from faith to faith (Rom. 1:17), like stepping stones on a path from Egypt to the Mountain.

Their deliverance was unique in the history of the world. And one of the lessons that’s been emphasized again, and again, quite forcefully is respect. Respect the One who delivered you from Egypt and give respect to the one who’s bringing you to freedom, again preceding the recitation of the 10 words.

The culmination is recorded in Exodus 19–20. Every one of the Ten Commandments teaches a lesson about respect. Respecting God, respecting ourselves and respecting other people.

The book of Ruth shows us that there were people of the nations who, despite the fact they were descended from people who did not choose to follow the God of Abraham, they can make a different choice than their ancestor’s made.

We can all say, like Ruth said, in so many words (Ruth 1:16), “My ancestors, the people who I came from, they went down a bad path, but I’m not going to go that way anymore.” They decided to go a different route. And that route, to paraphrase Robert Frost, “I took a different road and it made all the difference.” Each of us can choose to go a different way.

Ruth, by taking the “path less traveled” changed the course of her life and the lives of her descendants by joining the people of faith rather than to continue to live with a people without faith.

Commandments 1–3: Respect the One Who brought you out

God took Israel out of the house of bondage. When they started to ask to return back to Egypt, they were taking God’s reputation and saying that it had no effect on them. They were lowering God’s reputation, rather than holding it high. They were to carry the story of God’s deliverance with them and remember that they had been delivered by the hand of the LORD.

Commandment 4: Respect the Creator

So they were supposed to not only remember God as the one who took them out of the house of bondage, but He is also the one who created everything. He was not just some random spirit being who happened upon them. This is the Creator of everything doing this.

This is not a thread of something jumping down in the midst of history to do one thing. This is the Creator of the heavens and Earth Who got everything started everywhere. He is doing something spectacular on the Earth and those living here need to pay attention.

Commandment 5: Respect your creators

They were repeatedly told to remember who created them and where they came from, not just from HaShem,