You Will Never See the 10 Commandments the Same Way Again

This video will forever change the way you see the 10 Commandments!

I know that sounds like a bold claim. But the things I am about to share with you are things that have forever impacted both how I imagine this moment, and understand what these commands really mean.

For most people, the 10 commandments are an important list of dos and don’ts:
Do honor your father and mother; don’t murder anyone.
Do observe the Sabbath; don’t worship other gods.

We see this list posted in courthouses and on living room walls. These commands form an important moral code. They’re a good list for anyone to follow.

But, in many ways, viewing the 10 commandments this way misses the point. Because in order to truly understand the “what” - what these 10 commands mean - we first need to understand the “when” and the “where,” and perhaps most importantly, the “who.”

You see, Exodus begins with the story of how the Israelite people have been enslaved for 400 years. For 400 years, they have been at the mercy of the Egyptian people, controlled, oppressed, and abused for generation after generation.

For 400 years, they have cried out for God to save them. And after 400, God responds to their cries. God sends the prophet, Moses, to demand their release to pharaoh. God sends plague after plague to force Pharaoh’s hand. When the Hebrew people are being pursued by the Egyptians as they flee, God parts the Red Sea for them to cross. And eventually, God takes them to Mount Sinai to show them what freedom looks like.

THIS is the first thing that will surprise you about the 10 commandments.

In fact, this is when it’s important to remember that the word Torah doesn’t just mean law. Perhaps a better translation is “instruction.” Jewish people don’t see the Torah as restrictive laws that must be followed or else God will punish them. They cherish the Torah, celebrate it, at instructions for how to live as God’s people.

And one of the first things the Hebrew people must realize is that God’s people aren’t going to be slave people. God’s people are going to be FREE people...which was a much harder lesson for them than you might imagine.

You see, when you’ve been slaves for 400 years, that messes with your minds. No one you know, none of your family, has ever tasted freedom. When the Hebrew people were raising their children, they wouldn’t have been teaching them how to one day free people. They would have been teaching them how to be really, really good slaves!

They would have taught their children how not to get beaten. They would have taught their daughters how not be abused by their male overseers. They would have taught their children how to win the trust and appreciation of their masters.

But they wouldn’t have taught them freedom.

And what’s worse, as slaves, the culture around them would have been forced down their necks.

…the Egyptian gods

…the cult of pharaoh

…the abuses and practices of their masters

They would have witnessed and learned these things from birth! 

And here’s the thing: if this is all you know, then this is all you will ever be able to do. You don’t know how to do anything else. You don’t know how to BE anything else.

Which is why these 10 commands God gives to the Hebrew people through Moses aren’t general rules, they’re very specific instructions!

And with this in your minds, take a look at the 10 instructions God gives to the people…

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Ex. 20:2-3)

In other words, the Egyptians are no longer Lord over you. They are no longer your masters. Pharaoh isn’t your god; I am your God! And I am not a god who abused you IN Egypt, but a God who brought you out!

The next command is: “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.” (Ex. 20:4-5)

In other words, I know you’ve grown up around Egyptian gods, you’ve seen their carved figures in your masters houses, you’ve observed a language made up of nothing but pictures, hieroglyphics.

But that’s not your world anymore. Those gods aren’t your gods. I am your God, and I will show you a new land.

Then God says, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God” (Ex. 20:7)

In other words: You are my name now!

In hebrew, a name isn’t just what you call a person; it’s that person’s entire identity. God is saying: YOU will be my name now; you will represent me to the world. People will come to know me through you because of what I did for you in Egypt! Bear my name well! Show the world what FREE people who bear MY name look like!

Then God says, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.” (Ex. 20:8-10)

For 400 years you were slaves. Every day of your life you worked, you toiled. For 400 years, you were exhausted!

But not anymore!

Just as I rested on the seventh day, you should rest, too! You aren’t slaves who work day in and day out. You are free people who rest, just as your God rests.

God then says, “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” (Ex. 20:12)

In other words, your mother and father watched over you before I rescued you. They taught you how to survive as slaves.

Honor them, so that you might thrive as free persons!

Then, finally, God says, “You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

In other words: Do you remember how the Egyptians treated you? How they masters could murder you when they wanted? How they could take your husbands and wives as they pleased? How they could take your possession at will?

Do you remember what this did to you? How it made you treat one another? How you would fight for everything you could get? How this made you steal from one another, kill one another, abuse one another? How this was life as a slave?

Well you’re not slaves anymore!  You’re free! And you’re not Egyptians!  You’re MY people!

I know how hard it has been. I know it won’t be easy to change. But this is why I give you these commands: to help you forget what it was like to be slaves in Egypt and to instruct you on how to be free people led by me!

This is the purpose of the 10 Commandments! And to a greater extent, this is the purpose of all 613 commands in the Torah. These 613 commands will shape the lives of these people. They will help them to forget what it was like to be slaves and learn anew what it is to be free.

Perhaps you can understand now, too, why the Hebrew people traveled in the wilderness for 40 years before entering the Promised Land. An entire generation needed to pass. For many in the generation who grew up in Egypt, who were slaves in Egypt, change would be too hard, the slave life was too much a part of them.

But not for their kids, not for the next generation. They knew nothing of slavery. All they knew were these instructions. All they knew was the freedom God had given them. And they had parents who would make sure they never went back to the old ways!

Do you see now how this changes the way we read the 10 commandments. They’re so much more than commands! So much more than moral teachings!

In fact, for some of you, this is going to change the way you see the entire Old Testament law. You realize now that the Torah isn’t about legalism. It isn’t about earning your way into heaven.

The Torah is about being God’s FREE people!

This is why Jesus says he didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it! Fulfilling the law is an idiom that means to properly interpret it.

Jesus came to remind us of why God gave us the law in the first place! It was through the law, the Torah, God’s WORD that people learned who they were, how to be free. Through the Torah, through God’s WORD, they were able to experience salvation from an old life and begin a new life!

And God’s Word is still doing that!

Because Jesus, the WORD made flesh, is the one who shows us who we truly are. Jesus is the one who shows us what God’s instructions truly mean. He is the one who saves us from our old lives. And he is the one who frees us for new life!

And maybe for you, that’s a freedom you’ve desperately been wanting! For some of you, you’ve been longing to understand who you truly are. You’ve been praying for God to save you from the slavery in your life...

Slavery to your sins.
Slavery to sickness, physical, mental, emotional sickness.
Slavery in a relationship.
Slavery to your situation.

And you are longing for a savior who will set you free, who will give you a new life, who will teach you how to be a new person. No longer a slave!  But a FREE person who bears the name of your savior...just like the Hebrews.

You see, just because God did these things for the Hebrew people thousands of years ago, doesn’t mean God stopped. God’s still doing this work. God’s still setting people free. And God wants to set you free, to invite you to be part of God’s family, bear Jesus’ name - that name of your savior!