Deuteronomy 5--The Ten Commandments

Deuteronomy 5
English Standard Version

The Ten Commandments
5 And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. 2 The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 Not with our fathers did the LORD make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. 4 The LORD spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, 5 while I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the LORD. For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain. He said:

6 “‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

7 “‘You shall have no other gods before me.

8 “‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

11 “‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

12 “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

16 “‘Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

17 “‘You shall not murder.

18 “‘And you shall not commit adultery.

19 “‘And you shall not steal.

20 “‘And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

21 “‘And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.’

22 “These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. 23 And as soon as you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes, and your elders. 24 And you said, ‘Behold, the LORD our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man, and man still live. 25 Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, we shall die. 26 For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of fire as we have, and has still lived? 27 Go near and hear all that the LORD our God will say, and speak to us all that the LORD our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.’

​28 “And the LORD heard your words, when you spoke to me. And the LORD said to me, ‘I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. 29 Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever! 30 Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” 31 But you, stand here by me, and I will tell you the whole commandment and the statutes and the rules that you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess.’ 32 You shall be careful therefore to do as the LORD your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 You shall walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.

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We probably all feel that we know that Ten Commandments pretty well, and most people if quizzed can name at least half of them--there are a few that they forget though because they are not emphasized by our culture anymore.  Moses takes time to not only give the commands, but to remind the people that they must be careful to do all of them if they would like to receive the blessings of the covenant, and that this was not a covenant that the LORD even made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that it was a covenant that needed a mediator--someone to stand between the people and God, and that mediator of this "Old Covenant" as we call it today was Moses.

We like to skip over the "indicative" statements and go straight to the "imperative" statements, but the Jewish people understand verse 6 tp be part of the first commandment along with verse 7.  It is only because of how God redeemed the people and made them into something new that these imperative statements come.  We can summarize the Law as "Be the people that I have made you to be."  The New Covenant is not really that different other than the gospel has been more fully revealed, and this idea of regeneration has been made more clear to us, but we should know that we have no chance to obey even these Ten Commandments on our own, let alone the hundreds of additional commandments that we find in the books of Genesis-Deuteronomy.

Which is the hardest for you and do you imagine as a "little" sin?  Do you not recall that all of these sins were guilty of the death penalty?  This is the list of high crimes and misdemeanors for which there was usually no sacrifice that could be offered because these are all willful, rebellious choices that we make to worship false gods, to make idols, to blaspheme the name of the LORD, to break the Sabbath (the days that the LORD has made holy), to be dishonoring and disobedient to parents (rebellious to the authority we have been put under), to take another man's life (outside of war, capital punishment, or certain types of self defense...even involuntary manslaughter is going to have a price associated with it in the Law, and even unjust war that sheds innocent blood would be judged by God), committing adultery or any other kind of sexual sin that corrupts God's covenant of marriage and distorts the gospel that is supposed to be displayed through that covenant, stealing anything that doesn't belong to you (including getting paid for time that you did not work or not giving it your full effort), giving any false testimony (while we normally think of this as any kind of lying and should, the specific focus here was any testimony that would be used in court to convict someone else and deprive them of life, making you a murderer, or property, making you a thief--you're just using the court to do your dirty work for you.  This is a prohibition against an unjust legal system), and finally do not covet (oh, how much of an issue we have with covetousness today, and this is probably the one commandment out of the list that people "forget" most of the time because our culture here in the United States is a culture of greed and self-centeredness that teaches everyone from a young age to covet that which the LORD has not given to them--someone else's talent or gifting, "I wish I could sing like that" is not so much a compliment to the singer as it is a slight against the LORD for saying, "I am not happy with the way that you made me."  "I would be happy if I had (fill in the blank)."  That's a lie..  Look at 1 Timothy 6 for some teaching from Paul on this.  His teaching can be summarized by 1 Timothy 6:6, "But godliness with contentment is great gain."

Moses makes sure the people remember that these are not his own words or just some arbitrary rules that their parents made up.  These are the the very words of God that He spoke like He had never spoken before.  They are to listen to the words the LORD has spoken which makes me think of how the Father said of the Son (who is also called the Word), "This is my Son in whom I am well pleased, listen to Him." (at the Mount of Transfiguration).

The people were afraid of the way in which the LORD revealed Himself, but this holy fear was not bad.  It would lead to right knowledge of who God was and what He commanded, and they should be careful to listen to all He had to say and to obey it.  The "fear of the LORD" is connected to obedience and to the LORD's holiness, but it is not correct to tell the unsaved that they should not fear God, for even "His people" here learned to have a holy fear of Him and to not approach Him any way they wanted to and to draw near with the purpose of hearing from Him, but not to draw so close that they forgot their place and His place.  We should still have reverence when we approach the LORD, but we have an even better relationship where the LORD has told us that we can now "boldly approach the throne of grace" because of what Jesus has done and that we can cry out "Abba, Father" ("Daddy") and He will hear us.  We still do not come to Him any way we want--we only come through the blood of Jesus--but we can now approach Him in a way that we never could before, because we no longer have to come to Him by the blood of bulls and goats covering temporary atonement for our sin, but we come through the blood of Jesus who has made permanent atonement for our sin, guilt, and shame, paid the debt in full, and has made us into His own image so that when the Father looks on us, He sees His Son, and how could the Father refuse the Son?

These Commandments were never meant to save anyone.  They instead were there to teach us who God is and about His nature and character and for Him to establish His Law and Order among His people.  If we are truly the people God wants to make us to be, then we will do the things that God wants us to do (we see this connection in nearly all of the New Testament starting with The Sermon on the Mount and going through the book of Revelation

Jesus did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it, and to fulfill it on our behalf so that we might receive all the blessings of the Law and He might take on all the curses of the Law.  The Law is not bad--it is a reflection of God's holiness and righteousness, but what is bad is our legalism that thinks that somehow the Law gives us a pat to make our own way to God outside of Jesus.  Even the Law is all about Jesus when Jesus went through all the Law and the Prophets with the disciples on The Road to Emmaus, so then there is still much that we can learn about Jesus from the Law (and the entire Old Testament).  We too should be careful to know these commandments and do all that is in them because we too should be God's covenant people marked by His name and led by  His presence, and one of the ways that we show the world who God is and that the redemption and salvation that He has provided is real is that we have changed hearts, not because we try to change our actions of our own will, but because He has changed our heart, our nature and our identity.  He will write this Law on our hearts and He will cause us to love His Law and the rest of His Word.  If we do not keep His commandments, then we do not love Him, and we do not belong to Him.  (See John 14:15 and John 3:36).  Obedience is tied to true faith by Jesus and His apostles.