Exodus: The Lord and His PilgrimsSample

Responding to grace

The Ten Commandments are not a ladder of merit by which we seek to climb into God’s ‘good books’, winning our way into his favour by our works. Exodus 20:2 firmly puts God’s action in salvation first. He speaks his commands to us not in order that we may be saved but because he has already saved us, and now the same grace which saved us teaches us how to respond in grateful obedience. This relationship between grace and law, between salvation and responsive obedience, remains the same right through the Bible. The Ten Commandments themselves present a rounded and balanced pattern for life, as the following simple outline shows: 

A. Spiritual (commandments 1–4) 

1. Thoughts (commandments 1–2) 
2. Words (commandment 3) 
3. Deeds (commandment 4) 

B. Domestic (commandment 5) 

C. Social (commandments 6–10) 

1. Deeds (commandments 6–8) 
2. Words (commandment 9)
3. Thoughts (commandment 10)

It is mistaken to think that the Decalogue deals only with externalities, awaiting Jesus to make them apply also to the heart (Mt. 5:12, 28). See how it opens and closes with our thoughts, spiritual and social. Has the Lord our sole and total loyalty and commitment? 

The above outline takes note of the different way the fifth commandment is expressed compared to the first four commands – with a positive instruction rather than a prohibition (‘Honour …’, v. 12) and that it is emphasised by having a promise of ‘long’ life attached to it (cf. Eph. 6:1–4). After our ‘duty to God’, our domestic life and relationships are our first concern and responsibility (cf. Mark 7:9–13; 1 Tim. 3:4–5). 

The essential point of the commandments – indeed the whole law of God – is spelled out in Leviticus 19. That chapter is a veritable jumble of topics – rather like life itself! But each regulation is enforced by the reminder ‘I am the Lord’. Given that ‘Lord’ stands for the divine name (Ex. 3:13–15), ‘I am the Lord’ is equivalent to ‘I AM WHO I AM'. Each commandment – and the whole Decalogue – comes to us not arbitrarily but because Yahweh is what he is. It reflects and expresses him. Keeping his commandments makes us like him. 

Reflection

Contemplate further the glorious and enriching truths of God’s Law by reading Psalm 19:7–11.