We have been studying the Exodus in our Bible Study on the Women’s Campus. About three months into their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, God leads the Israelites to Mt. Sinai. Many scholars believe this is also the location where Moses was originally confronted by God in the burning bush to return to Egypt to rescue his people. At Mt. Sinai, God gives the Israelites the Law, a code of moral conduct that will, along with their shared experiences of deliverance, create a people and a culture that will identify these Israelites with God.

God has been revealing himself to these people all along:

• He revealed Himself through Creation, and He covenanted with Adam that the Garden of Eden was Adam’s forever on the condition that he obey God’s order to abstain from eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This is often called the Covenant of Works. Adam and Eve failed to uphold the covenant and were banished from the Garden (Genesis 2:16-17; 3:6-7, 23).
• He revealed Himself again to Adam after the Fall, with a promise of a Redeemer (Genesis 3:15). This covenant was not conditioned on Adam’s obedience, and it has been fulfilled in Christ. (Galatians 4:4)
• He revealed Himself to Noah and his family with a rainbow as a token to remind us of His promise that He will never again judge the world by flood. (Genesis 8:20-9:17)
• He revealed Himself to Abraham, covenanting with Himself to make Abraham the father of many nations, and that those who blessed and honored Abraham would be blessed, and those that did not would be cursed. (Genesis 12:1-4; 13:14-17; 17:1-8)
• He revealed Himself to Moses by giving the Law (Exodus 20:1-31:18), with the condition that we obey it perfectly. The LORD would bless those who were obedient, and he would discipline all others (Deuteronomy 28:1-2,15). This covenant has been broken by all except Jesus. Jesus was born under the law, and he fulfilled it (Matthew 5:17-19); yet Jesus has born the curse of the law for us (Galatians 3:13-14).

The Israelites have this shared history; and these shared experiences of being passed over by the Angel of Death, escape from Egypt, the miraculous parting of the Red Sea, and the provision of manna (daily bread), along with this new Covenant of the Law which God wrote on stone with His own finger all work to create and set apart a new nation and religion. These Ten Commandments have endured as a foundational and fundamental element of Jewish and Christian religion for more than three thousand years.

The first three of the Ten Commandments outline our vertical relationship with God and were summed up by Jesus (quoting from Deuteronomy 6:5) as the Greatest Commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38).

The other seven of the Ten Commandments outline our horizontal relationships with other people. Jesus summed these up (paraphrasing Leviticus 19:18) as the Second Great Commandment: “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39).

Jesus proclaimed this about the Law: “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. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore, anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-19). He continued on with his Sermon on the Mount, concluding this chapter with this admonition to us: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

Because of their importance, I will be writing about the Ten Commandments in the next few Chaplain’s Corners. However, the good news, and I mean GOOD NEWS! is that our salvation is not based on our obedience to The Law. We are no longer bound by a covenant of works as in the days of Adam, praise be to God!

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

In Christ,

Judy