The Book of Exodus

Explanation

Before God commands anything, He identifies Himself by grace: "I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt." The law is given to a people already redeemed; obedience is the response to salvation, not the price of it. The first commandment is total: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." The LORD alone is God, and He will share His people's worship with no rival. The second forbids making "any graven image ... to bow down thyself to them," for the invisible God is not to be reduced to anything made by human hands. God adds that He is "a jealous God," visiting iniquity on those who hate Him but "shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me." The judgment reaches three or four generations; the mercy reaches thousands. God is far more ready to bless than to judge.

Gospel Focus

The first commandment is the foundation of all true faith: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," for "The LORD our God is one LORD" (Deuteronomy 6:4). There is one God, not many, and He alone is to be worshiped. The second commandment guards the first: no image may be made of God, for "God is a Spirit" (John 4:24), and every attempt to picture Him drags the infinite down to something we can see and control. The one God cannot be carved, painted, or divided into parts; He is to be known as He has revealed Himself and worshiped in spirit and truth. And though idols today are seldom of wood or stone, the commandment still cuts deep, for anything we love, trust, or serve above God becomes a god before Him, whether money, pleasure, reputation, or self. The jealous God still claims the whole heart. To keep this first command is to give the one true God the throne of our lives, with no rival beside Him.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The third commandment guards God's name: "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain." To take His name "in vain" is to use it emptily, falsely, or carelessly, in a lying oath, an empty curse, or thoughtless speech, treating as common what is holy. God will "not hold him guiltless" who does so. The fourth commandment sets apart the sabbath: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." Six days for labor, but the seventh for rest, extended even to children, servants, strangers, and cattle. And God grounds it in creation itself: "for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth ... and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." The rhythm of work and rest is woven into the world by the Creator's own example.

Gospel Focus

To reverence God's name is to reverence God, for His name stands for His character and His very self. This command forbids all empty and profane use of that holy name, and it calls us positively to hold it in honor. For the believer, the name of the Lord is the most precious thing we know, the name of Jesus, "the name which is above every name," in which we are saved, baptized, and answered. How careful we should be never to wear it lightly. And the sabbath teaches the goodness of rest, set in creation and given for our blessing. Yet the New Testament shows that the sabbath was "a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ" (Colossians 2:17). The rest it pointed to is found fully in Him, who gives rest to the weary soul, and the people of God now gather to worship and to rest in the finished work of Christ. The command still teaches us to honor God's name and to keep a rhythm of worship and rest, but its deepest fulfillment is to cease from our own works and rest in the Lord.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The second table of the law governs how we treat one another, and it begins at home: "Honour thy father and thy mother," the first commandment given with a promise, "that thy days may be long." From honoring parents flow the rest: "Thou shalt not kill," guarding life; "Thou shalt not commit adultery," guarding marriage; "Thou shalt not steal," guarding property; "Thou shalt not bear false witness," guarding truth; and "Thou shalt not covet," guarding even the desires of the heart. The first nine forbid wrong deeds and words; the tenth reaches inward to forbid the wrong desire behind them. Coveting is the root from which stealing, adultery, and murder grow. So the law, which began by claiming our worship, ends by claiming our very wants, showing that God's holiness reaches all the way into the heart.

Gospel Focus

Jesus gathered the whole law into two commands: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," and "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," and said, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40). The first table is love for God, the second is love for neighbor, and love fulfills them both. But notice how the tenth commandment, "Thou shalt not covet," exposes us all. Paul said, "I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet" (Romans 7:7), for a man may keep his hands from stealing yet covet in his heart. Here is the law's great work: it reaches past our actions to our desires and shows every one of us to be a sinner, for who has never coveted? Jesus deepened this in the Sermon on the Mount, teaching that anger is murder of the heart and lust is adultery of the heart. The law was never meant to make us proud of our goodness but to convince us of our sin, "our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ" (Galatians 3:24), that we might be justified by faith. The commandments show us the holiness we need and the Saviour we cannot do without.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The people cannot bear the terror of God's presence. Seeing "the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking," they "removed, and stood afar off," and begged Moses, "Speak thou with us ... but let not God speak with us, lest we die." They wanted a mediator between themselves and the holy God. Moses answers, "Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not," and then he "drew near unto the thick darkness where God was." God then adds a first instruction about worship: make no gods of silver or gold, but build "an altar of earth," simple and unadorned, for "in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee." No hewn stone shaped by human tools, no steps that expose the flesh, worship was to be on God's terms, not decorated by human pride.

Gospel Focus

The people's cry, "Speak thou with us ... but let not God speak with us, lest we die," reveals the deepest need the law uncovers: a mediator. Sinful people cannot stand in the naked presence of a holy God; they need one to come between. Moses filled that role for a moment, drawing near the thick darkness while the people stood afar, but he only pointed to the true and final Mediator. "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). What Israel dreaded at Sinai, God's own voice, we now hear in grace through the Son, who brings us near where the law could only hold us back. And notice the altar of earth: God is worshiped not by human artistry or pride but on His own simple terms, "where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee." God meets His people where He puts His name and where they come to Him humbly. The law shows us our terror before a holy God and our need of a mediator; the gospel gives us the Mediator, Jesus, and through Him invites us to draw near.