The Ten Commandments (literally, "ten words") are given to Moses in Exodus 20:2-17. Following the universal ten, there are some 605 other commands that deal with specific situations the Israelites would face in the Promised Land. All of these together constitute the Law of God given to Moses. 

Fast forward forty years, when the Israelites are about to go into the Promised Land, Moses repeats the ten in Deuteronomy 5:6-21. The other 605 commands are not repeated but mentioned in Deuteronomy 5:31.

Then, in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 God provides the attitude and method God expects His people to follow in order to obey the commands He has given:

4 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. 7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

The Israelites had to make God the first, central and total focus of their affection. The Israelites had to make His Law their primary consideration, preoccupation, study, testimony and interest during their every waking hour. If they did this, perhaps they could come closer to obeying God's commands. 

Friends, when Israel heard this, they should have fallen on their faces and cried out, "Who can obey the Lord?!" In the New Testament, when the people heard Jesus preach His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, they too should have exclaimed, "Who can fulfill these commands?" In both cases, only God, only Jesus, could fulfill them! That was Jesus's mission: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Matthew 5:17 NIV). In fact, only Jesus could fuflill them. And so our salvation is in Jesus's providing that perfect obedience for us. When He died on the cross, there was a great exchange. He took our sins and gave us His righteousness (2 Corinthans 5:21).

That said, we must not discount the principle of the attitude and method God gave His people with respect to their affection for Him and their devotion to His Word. God desires us to have a total love for Him and an all-consuming devotion to His Word. 

Therefore, as we enter into this second month of the New Year, I encourage you to persevere in your daily reading of God's Word. And when you feel that this practice comes as easily for you as eating and drinking, then I encourage you to give daily time to praise and prayer.

If you want to follow my example, my mornings I give to reading God's Word, but my early mornings (right after grooming) and my late evenings (right after washing) I give to praise and prayer. I would encourage you to start with minutes and then allow the Spirit to extend that time. I think you will discover that as God brings more opportunities for you, He will also move you to spend more time in His Word and in prayer. And as you follow His leading, you will discover that you can do more and even more is accomplished because God will bless everything you do. That is my testimony.

If a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies at his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, he survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken; for he is his property (Exodus 21:21).

Looking through a modern lens, it may seem that the Mosaic Law condoned slavery; however, when seen through the backdrop of the times, the Mosaic Law was very liberal and generous toward slaves, who became so usually as a result of war or economic hardship. If we learn about the times, we can gain a clearer perspective and appreciate the radical departure that the Mosaic Law was from the prevailing culture. Here's a snippet from the Pulpit Commentary, which provides a small window into those times:

Exodus 21:20

And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished.

Verses 20, 21. - Homicide of slaves. In most ancient states the slave was the absolute property of his master, and might be ill-used to any extent, even killed, without the law in any way interfering. It is said that the state of things was different in Egypt (Kalisch); but we have scarcely sufficient evidence on the point to be certain that the slave enjoyed there any real and efficient protection. At Athens, beyond a doubt, the law protected the life of the slave; and a very moderate amount of ill-treatment entitled a slave to bring an action. At Rome, on the contrary, "the master could treat the slave as he pleased, could sell him, punish him, and put him to death" (Dict. of Greek & Roman Antiq. p. 1036). And this was the ordinary state of the law, particularly in Oriental countries. The Mosaic legislation must be regarded as having greatly ameliorated the condition of the native slave population. Hebrew bondmen it placed nearly upon a par with hired servants (Leviticus 25:40); foreign slaves, whether prisoners taken in war, or persons bought in the market, it protected to a very great extent. By the law given in verses 26, 27, it largely controlled the brutality of masters, who had to emancipate their slaves if they did them any serious injury. By the law laid down in verse 20, it gave their lives the same protection, or nearly the same, as the lives of freemen. "Smiting "was allowed as a discipline, without which slavery cannot exist; but such smiting as resulted in death was, as a general rule, punishable like any other homicide. The only exception was, if the slave did not die for some days (ver. 21). In that case the master was considered not to have intended the slave' s death, and to be sufficiently punished by the loss of his property. Verse 20. - If a man smite his servant, or his maid. "Maids" would commonly be chastised by their mistress, or by an upper servant acting under the mistress' s authority. "A man" here means "any one." With a rod. The rods wherewith Egyptian slaves were chastised appear upon the monuments. They were long canes, like those used by our schoolmasters. Under his hand. Criminals in the East are said often to die under the bastinado; and even in our own country there have been cases of soldiers dying under the lash. A special delicacy of the nervous system will make a punishment of the kind fatal to some, which would have been easily borne by others.

 

Exodus 21:21

Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.

 

Verse 21. - If he continue a day or two - i.e., "If the slave does not die till a day or two afterwards." Compare the provision in ver. 19, with respect to persons who were not slaves. No special callousness to the sufferings of slaves is implied. He is his money. The slave had been purchased for a stun of money, or was at any rate money' s worth; and the master would suffer a pecuniary loss by his death.

You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it; whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death (Exodus 19:12). 

Stop for a moment and think about what's going on here. God commanded Moses to put to death anyone that even dared to touch the mountain. If for a moment you took off the special Christian glasses with which we you look at all Scripture in faith, do you find something a little extreme, ruthless and arbitrary here? It's not for murder or rape or molestation. It's for simply touching a particular mountain that a person would be put to death.

Now, if this seems a bit absurd to you, remember what God commanded Adam in the Garden. He was not to eat from a particular tree, such that if he ate from it, he would surely die, and along with him, every person born after him. Again, this does not rise to the level of the terrible sins that we believe warrants the death penalty.

But God commanded it to be so.

Friends, I share this to help us to understand that the weightiness of a command from God is not in the command itself but in the One who issued it. This is what God wants us to understand. The Law is not holy in itself. It is holy by virtue of its relationship to God. God, who alone is holy by nature, made the Law holy, such that the violation of it warranted such strong condemnation.

Remember, when the people were at Kadesh-Barnea, God commanded them to fight and take the land of Canaan, the Promised Land. They grumbled against Him, and God punished them by refusing to give them the land and pronouncing upon them a death march of forty years in the desert. But then they repented and said they would obey, but by then God had already given them a new command, namely, to wander in the desert for forty years. Presumptuously, they tried to go and take the land of Canaan, and they were beaten down by the people of the land.

But didn't God command them to take the land in the first place? How could He punish them for doing the very thing He wanted them to do from the moment they came out of Egypt? But God had given them a new command when they hesitated to obey Him. And when they went ahead and tried to take the land anyway, they were not seen to be obeying the first command but simply disobeying God. 

Therefore, friends, it is not the command itself that is important but God, who issued the command. The God, who declared some foods unclean, would later declare all foods clean. The God, who gave the Mosaic Law as a part of the Old Covenant, would later replace it with the Law of Christ in the New Covenant. The Bible never says that God's Law never changes. It teaches that God never changes. He remains holy, sovereign and good, unchanging in all His perfections. He does as He pleases.

Let us be careful that we do not project our own sense of morality on God. To us, touching a mountain may not be a capital offense. To us, eating a certain fruit may not be a capital offense. To us, grasping the ark so that it does not fall off a cart may not be a capital offense. Yet, God has declared all of these things to be capital offenses. It is God we must honor and obey. 

Why do I emphasize so much that every believer must be an expert in the Word of God? If you do not understand what God has said, how can you know for sure whether you are truly pleasing Him? Many pastors and teachers are no better than some, who naively talk about the "heart of God" in such a way that God is portrayed as a benevolent Being, who would never send anyone to hell forever. Rather than taking God at His Word, they twist the Scriptures to fit their own conception of Him. They pick and choose what they want to believe and apply. This is both dangerous and wrong.

Friends, take this warning to heart, for once you've misunderstood, you will not be able to go before God at the end of your life and say, "Oops, I guess he was wrong about that. Can I try again?" The answer will certainly be, "No!" You must be sure for yourself and "be convinced in your own mind" while you live this life. And you do yourself a great disservice if you do not deeply search out the matter for yourself.

I liken the 10 commandments to the Bill of Rights. The Ten commandments sums up the Laws that God gives to Moses, and then the following chapters elaborate on what God wants you to do in certain situations. Can you imagine having to memorize all these laws? All these things you can do and cannot do and if your cow gores my cow I have to pay such and such amount as restitution???

I understand now why the Laws were given to the Hebrews. The Laws were to set the Israeli people apart from their pagan neighbors. Until then, the laws the Hebrews had to follow were man made. They were given by a man with a man's perspective on what constituted right and wrong. The Judiac law was given by GOD to Moses with God's eternal perspective. In other words, bluntly, with a very good idea of what the far reaching consequences of man's sin against himself, his fellow man, and what his actions meant in view of eternity.

I have come across an excellent study of the command, "You must not misuse the name of the LORD your God. The LORD will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name" (Exodus 20:7). Daniel Block argues that the true meaning of this command is better conveyed when understood as a command not to "bear" God's Name in vain. The violations of this command is, therefore, much broader than what is ordinarily conceived. It includes not only using God's Name to curse others but also invoking God's Name for any manner of unbiblical causes. Read the article in Resources > Online Articles section of this website (or just click here).

Another excellent article compares the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament with the New Testament restatement and expansion of certain moral principles from the Ten Commandments. This article helps Christians understand that while they are no longer under the Old Covenant, which includes the Ten Commandments, they are under the Law of Christ, which restates many of the moral principles found in the Old Covenant. The article can be found in the Resources > Online Articles section of this website (or just click here). 

Finally, Exodus 21 may trouble some of you with respect to the question of whether or not the Bible condones slavery since there are many regulations concerning the buying, selling, owning and treatment of slaves. A good article that I have come across online is included in the Resources > Online Articles section of this website (or just click here).

Friends,

In Exodus 19:5-6 we read that God tells Moses to say to Israel, "Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." God reveals Himself here not merely as the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but the God of the whole earth. Through the covenant He made with Abraham and Israel, however, He was commissioning the nation of Israel to be a mediator between God and the world. They would be set apart to God as His "special treasure...above all people," and they would serve Him as "a kingdom of priests" and set an example to the world as "a holy nation." 

In Revelation 1:5-6 we learn that through His blood Jesus has made Christians "a kingdom and priests." As Israel was in the OT, so Christians are to be in the NT. Believers are called to be salt and light to the world, to counter the moral apathy and spiritual ignorance of the world, so that by our lives and the word of our testimonies we would reveal both the righteousness and mercy of God. Let no one say, "I don't know what to do with my life." If nothing else is clear, at least this is clear. God has called us to be witnesses for Him to the world through faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to His Word (i.e. the NT equivalent of "if you will indeed obey My voice and keep my covenant").

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In Exodus 20 we find the Ten Commandments, and following this the Books of the Law, whereby these commandments are explained in various and sundry situations. It is clear from Genesis that aspects of the Law of Moses existed prior to Moses; however, it is here that they are codified and established with clear blessings and consequences. Much of the Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament epistles, perhaps with the exception of the Sabbath regulation; however, we should not take this to mean that all or even most of the Law of Moses should be applied to Christians. In fact, while there is an overlap of principles in the Old and New Covenants, the Law of Moses and the Law of Christ, none of the Law of Moses should be applied to Christians today. As Paul wrote in Romans 7:6, "But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code." Paul gives personal testimony to this change in 1 Corinthians 9:20-21,

To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.

Christians are no longer under the Law of Moses but are under the Law of Christ. So the writer of Hebrews explains it this way: "By calling this covenant 'new,' he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear" (Hebrews 8:13). Now, understand that it is not that Christ came to to abolish the Law of Moses. He came to fulfill it  (cf. Matthew 5:17). And through faith in Christ, the requirements of the Law are fully fulfilled in us (cf. Romans 8:1-4), so that by His death, He could inaugurate the "new way of the Spirit."

It pains me that Christians, even Christian leaders, are still trying to argue that we are under the Mosaic Law, even the Ten Commandments, as if this Law was forever codified and applicable to all peoples for all times (cf. even Moses said that the Law he was giving them was something their fathers did not have but was unique to them in Deuteronomy 5:3). This misunderstanding of God's grace in Christ even persisted in the early church until it was settled in the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. There, Peter himself came to understand that it was wrong to apply the Mosaic Law to Christians, especially Gentile Christians: "Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?" In that day, they reduced all the Law to just a few regulations, and this most likely to maintain peace between the Jews and Gentiles in the church, a matter that Paul would also address in passages like Romans 14. Yet today, some are still trying to put this yoke on believers' necks. Yet, Paul is very clear,

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

Paul writes here that these prescribed practices from the Law of Moses were just "a shadow of the things that were to come." We have the "reality...in Christ." The whole epistle to the Galatians was written to counter the mistaken notion that the Law of Moses was still in effect. There Paul writes even more disparagingly of those that try to practice the Law:

But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you (Galatians 4:9-11).

Now, remember that the Law of Moses was in effect until Christ died. This has caused some to be confused with respect to the practice of the Law of Moses during the time Christ lived on earth. Why did Christ obey the Law if the Law was no longer in effect? The answer is that it was only done away when Christ died on the cross. As Paul argued in both Romans and Galatians, covenants can only be broken by death. Therefore, it was through the death of Christ that the Old Covenant Mosaic Law was done away and the New Covenant in Christ was established. It was by the blood of Christ that "the law of the commands in ordinances" were "done way" (cf. Ephesians 2:13-15) and "the handwriting in the ordinances" was nailed to the cross" (cf. Colossians 2:14).

Now, some try to argue that only the consequences of the Law was taken away but not the requirement to obey the Law. While this wreaks havoc to the many Scriptures that address the futility of "observing" the ordinances of the Law, there is also no biblical justification for making this kind of arbitrary separation of the ordinances from the judgments. This kind of arbitrariness is why many wrongly interpret Old Covenant blessings as if they applied to Christians today. There are many promises of health, prosperity, restoration of land, power over enemies, etc. in the Old Testament. These are invariably associated with obedience to the Mosaic Law. Prosperity Theologians, and unfortunately some Evangelical leaders as well, lead the people of God astray when they preach or claim such promises for Christians today.

Consequently, there are many curses associated with violating the Mosaic Law, including loss of land, poverty, sickness, plague, death by enemy sword, and exile. But I rarely hear these preached from the same pulpits. Therefore, let us understand that no part of the Mosaic Law, neither its provision of blessings nor its provision of curses, are applicable to Christians today. We are under the Law of Christ, which is predominantly expounded in the New Testament epistles, which might be seen as the NT parallel to the Books of the Law in the OT.

Friends, let us be biblically wise and discerning. As you humbly and carefully read the Scriptures, I believe you will gain the insight to see these things for yourselves. I write a little more extensively (Three Parts) on this issue in my blog here.

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Friends, if you have read this far, God bless you. May the Lord use you to encourage others to have such a desire for truth. I wanted to make one last comment on Exodus 21:12-14, where we read,

He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. However, if he did not lie in wait, but God delivered him into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee. But if a man acts with premeditation against his neighbor, to kill him by treachery, you shall take him from My altar, that he may die.

Notice that a distinction is made between premeditated murder and "act of God" killing. Later, the distinction will be between what is "presumptuous" and what is "unintentional" (cf. Numbers 15:22-31). This current text is signficant because rather than speaking of "accidental" or "unintentional" manslaughter, it is called an act of God. In the realm of God's sovereignty, there are no "accidents" per se (cf. Isaiah 45:7), for not even a sparrow dies apart from God's will (Matthew 10:29). Now, this does not mean that God directly initiates everything. He may simply permit things to happen. Now, while both premediated murder and unintentional murder may fall within God's permissive will, for the one there is accountability according to God's Law, while for the other there is none.

That said, notice what is not written. Such a turn of events is not called a "judgment of God for sin." Some preachers have presumputously classified disasters like Katrina and Haiti as judgments of God for sin. While we can speak of them as acts of God because they were not done by human premeditation, we do not have biblical warrant for calling them judgments of God for sin.

Finally, I will expand on this later, but the distinction between intentional and unintentional sins is important with respect to the institution of the Mosaic sacrificial system. As we will see, there is no sacrifice for intentional sins. For example, there is no burnt offering to cover the sin of premeditated murder. The Mosaic Law prescribes death for such. That is why when David's premeditated act of murdering Uriah did not meet with his death, it was significant. God forgave David's sin apart from the Law. David received grace, presumably because he humbled himself before God (cf. 2 Samuel 12:13; Psalm 51:16-17).