The Ten Commandments, Part 1: Context
In this series I want to look at the Ten Commandments – or at least, certain aspects of them. I expect many of us who are Christians will be very familiar with the ten commandments – perhaps even knowing them off by heart (when I was younger, I learnt them in the form of a song…)
However, I believe that it is due to this familiarity that we don’t often look at the ten commandments in very much detail, at what they are actually saying in context. So, what I would like to do here is examine the relevant scripture passages to try and determine the context of the ten commandments, and what they would mean in that context.
Before reading on, you may wish to refresh your memory: read through Exodus 20 and / or Deuteronomy 5.
Well, with your memories suitably refreshed (I hope!), let’s continue.
The very first verse of the ten commandments is this:
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Exodus 20:2, ESV
Strangely enough, this verse gets mentioned very little when people talk about the ten commandments – probably because it’s not part of the ten commandments as such. However, I believe this verse provides some fundamental context for the rest of the commandments.
In order to explain how that happens, let’s have a very brief review of the history of Israel up until the point that the commandments were given. In the beginning, God promised Abraham that he would make him into “a great nation” (Genesis 12:1-3). Abraham had children, which eventually led (via Isaac and Jacob) to the well-known story of Joseph (with his amazing technicolour dreamcoat). To cut a long story short, Joseph and his brothers ended up living in Egypt, which is where the trouble began. After Joseph died, him and his brothers’ descendants started becoming so numerous that the Egyptians became scared of them, and made them all slaves.
God then raised up Moses to speak for him against the Egyptians, and with mighty acts of power (more commonly known as the ten plagues) brought them out of Egypt, out of slavery and eventually into the promised land. The ten commandments in Exodus 20 are given just after God has brought the Israelites out of Egypt; the ten commandments in Deuteronomy 5 are given after the Israelites have wandered through the wilderness for forty years, just before the Israelites are about to enter the promised land.
Why is all this important? I think a very common misconception of the ten commandments is: if we don’t obey them God will not save us – God’s mercy is conditional upon us obeying him. In other words, people think that the reason for God giving the commandments was in order to make people obey him. This is absolutely not the case!
It it is very, very important that the commandments start with God reminding the Israelites of Egypt: his mercy had already been shown to them! This means that obedience to the commandments was always designed to be a response to God’s mercy, not a prerequisite for it.
I believe the Israelites slavery in Egypt is alluded to when the New Testament writers talk about “Slavery to Sin”. For example, in John’s gospel Jesus says:
“I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
John 8:34-36, NIV
And the New Testament regularly talks about people being ’slaves to sin’ – for example, Galatians 4 says, “…when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” (Galatians 4:3-5, NIV) Slavery is contrasted with being a child of God. When we become Christians, we cease to be slaves and become ‘free’.
In Romans, Paul sets out the case that we are not saved by works, but by faith: the saving work has already been completed, but now that we are no longer “slaves of sin” but “slaves of righteousness”, we are to sin no longer. In other words, our obedience to the law is a response to God’s grace, not a prerequisite for it.
This is very similar to what happened in the Old Testament: God’s grace was shown to the Israelites through saving them from slavery to the Egyptians. Their obedience to the law (in this case, the ten commandments) was to be a response to that grace.
Of course, this isn’t to say that the law became unimportant in the relationship. God persistently rebukes the Israelites for not following his laws. In Deuteronomy, after the giving of the commandments, Moses warns the Israelites what will happen if they do not obey and keep the covenant with God:
But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.
Deuteronomy 28:15, ESV
Obedience was and is a necessary part of maintaining God’s covenant. There is a big difference between obedience as a response to grace and obedience as a prerequisite for grace. When obedience is a response to grace, forgiveness is possible for the times you go wrong: it seems to me that the biggest problem with the Israelites was not that they disobeyed God, but that they did it unrepentantly. It usually takes God getting angry with them to realise the error of their ways and to repent!
In summary, that small verse at the start of the ten commandments places them in context: God’s grace has already been extended to the Israelites, and the commandments are given so the Israelites can respond to that grace. In the same way, Christians have been saved from slavery to sin by the atoning work of Christ and are now free to live in obedience to God. We don’t need to earn God’s favour – we just need to respond to it rightly. But forgiveness is at hand for the times that we don’t!
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