Exodus 20:1-17 Bible Teaching

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The chapter we are about to read is the chapter where Bible Readers the world over have turned to find the first recital of what they call, “the ten commandments.”

We are going to use today to talk about all ten of them. But first, let’s read what the text says.

Exodus 20.1-17
January 21st 2024
Exodus 20:1 And God spake all these words, saying,
2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12 Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.

While Christians will often cite the two great commandments as the commandments for believers today (you know, “to Love God and to Love Neighbor” as self) most of the world (including most fundamental Christian biblicist’s) cite the ten commandments too as the law for human kind.

I do not think that this should ever be the case except when explaining the story of what God gave that Nation in that day and why.

In other words, to preach, display and to “follow” the ten commandments, is so far afield from all that was taught by Paul, I fear that the teaching, preach and posting of them gives too many people the wrong impression of what Grace means.

So, while they are great in reminding the unread that God had expectations for His elect Nation in that day, and that these stated commands are a simple starting point for Bible readers to see that the Creator had expectations for that Nation, they should always be seen and taught from their historical context and then as NOTHING more.

Unfortunately, the ten are often used as a checklist “for goodness” by people and that is “way out” from what they were initially given to the Nation to do and be and faaaaar afield from what the Living God seeks from those who are His by faith.

Let’s talk about these ten commandments and flesh some things out about them so we can see them in context of the Living God’s intention.

Let’s first discuss some of the difficulties with the commands themselves. The first is how they are to be divided.

We are told in Scripture that there are ten of them (Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 4:13, 10:4), but we are not told exactly how the text of the ten should be divided.

This is a problem because there are actually than ten imperative statements in the two relevant texts that present them (Exodus 20:1-17, Deuteronomy 5:6-21)

Here is a count of them based on Exodus 20:

1 You shall have no other gods before me.
2 You shall not make for yourself a graven image…
3 You shall not bow down to them or serve them…
4 You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain…
5 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
6 Six days you shall labor…
7 In it [the seventh day] you shall not do any work…
8 Honor your father and your mother…
9 You shall not kill.
10 You shall not commit adultery.
11 You shall not steal.
12 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
13 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house
14 You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife…

Obviously, in order to get these to total “ten commandments,” some of the imperative statements need to be grouped or mashed together.

Fortunately, most of the groupings are obvious, but there are still two groupings which are disputed which are:

The first two commands about the Lord God and the last two about coveting.

There are several traditions out there on how to solve this problem but in order to decide which is most correct (if any) we have to admit something I mentioned several weeks ago,

The passages which refer to the Ten Commandments, do indeed specify that there are of them, but they don’t actually say that they are What they actually say is that there are Ten

Ever hear the Greek word, “decalogue? That is the Greek word used for the Ten Commandments but it is used wrongly as the (Deca) ten and (logous) means words.

This is the true name of what YAHAVAH gave to Moses, the Ten Words. Listen to,

Exodus 34:28—”And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Words (Hebrew, ).”

Deuteronomy 4:13—”And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Words (Hebrew, ); and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.”

Deuteronomy 10:4—”And he wrote on the tables, as at the first writing, the Ten Words (Hebrew, ) which the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the LORD gave them to me.”

Because what the Hebrew actually says is that there are ten words rather than ten commandments, they are often (and more properly) referred to in the Greek as the Decalogue.

And this opens up the possibility that not all of the “words” are imperative statements (commands) as they are generally read and described.

If we look at the actual (text) of what God said from the Mount (Exodus 20:2-17), we find that God begins with a personal description which is not an imperative statement, saying:

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

In the face of trying to understand the term, “the Ten Words,” men have decided to assign 1 word to the first collection of words, a second word to the second collection, and on down until there are ten collections total.

And here is where there has been some historic division.

All told, there have been three historic ways of grouping the material in the Decalogue so that it comes out to a total of Ten Words.

The first of these is a view that is common in Jewish circles, the second, which was popularized by Augustine, and is common in Catholic and Lutheran circles, and the third is common in Eastern Orthodox and Reformed circles.

Without trying nor desiring to be original, we present a different view from all three. But first here is a quick review of each of the three historical views understand them:

Jewish Reckoning (as far as I can tell. There may be numerous views from this perspective)

1st Word “I am the LORD your God.” “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image” “You shall have no other gods before me.”

2nd Word “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image.” “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.” “You shall not make for yourself a graven image.”

3rd Word “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.” “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.”

4th Word “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” “Honor your father and your mother.” “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

5th Word “Honor your father and your mother.” “You shall not kill.” “Honor your father and your mother.”

6th Word “You shall not kill.” “You shall not commit adultery.” “You shall not kill.”

7th Word “You shall not commit adultery.” “You shall not steal.” “You shall not commit adultery.”

8th Word “You shall not steal.” “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” “You shall not steal.”

9th Word “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.” “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

10th Word “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire anything that is your neighbor’s.” “You shall not desire anything that is your neighbor’s.” “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire anything that is your neighbor’s.”

So, the Jewish interpretation treats God’s opening statement, “I am the LORD your God…” as the First Word.

It then groups the imperatives “to have no other gods” and “to make no images as the Second Word,” and then at the end, it groups the imperatives to not covet one neighbor’s wife and not to desire anything that is one’s neighbor as the Tenth Word.

The Augustinian-Lutheran interpretation treats God’s opening remark,

“I am the LORD your God…” as part of the introduction to the Ten Words. Like the Jewish interpretation, it then groups the imperatives to “have no other gods and to make no images” as a single Word—the First—but it treats the imperatives to not covet one neighbor’s wife and not to desire anything that is one’s neighbor’s as two separate Words—the Ninth and Tenth.

The Orthodox-Reformed interpretation, like the Augustinian-Lutheran one, treats God’s opening remark,

“I am the LORD your God…” as part of the introduction to the Ten Words. Unlike the Jewish and Augustinian-Lutheran interpretations, it then separates the imperatives to have no other gods and to make no images as two separate Words—the First and Second—but, like the Jewish interpretation, it treats the imperatives to not covet one’s neighbor’s wife and not to desire one’s neighbor’s property as a single Word—the Tenth.

One can thus see that the question of how the material in the Decalogue should be divided historically boils down to three questions:

1. Is the statement “I am the LORD your God…” one of the Words (or not)?

2. Should the imperatives against other gods and idols be grouped together or not?

3. Should the imperatives against coveting a neighbor’s wife and desiring his property be grouped together or not?

If one can settle these three issues, one can settle the numbering of the Decalogue. I do not find a reasonable solution in any of these views.

So instead of taking what people call the ten Commandments, and cobbling them together or worse yet, abbreviating them into ten memorable quips, which today often overlook all the application they have to that Nation then, and instead of trying to take the Ten Words and to assign 1 word to the collection of ten phrases, perhaps there is a better way to understand and interpret these statements and the term, the Ten Words, and that is like this:

The first ten words of the first statement are the ten words and all the other statements are expressions or substrate supports of the first.

Using this approach, we take the first ten Hebrew words found in verses 2-3 that speak to a command, and they are:

2 “I am YAHAVAH thy Elohiym,” (which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage) “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

To get ten words in Hebrew, we have to remove what looks and sounds like a parenthetical reference (which is, “which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,” and which were only given to identity Him – and then add the rest of the ten) “Thou shalt have no other elohiyms before me.”

I suggest that these are the ten words of the Decalogue, that they are preeminent in God’s mind and ought to have been seen as the singular ten-words of the marriage contract YAHAVAH was making with the Nation through Moses.

Extending off these first ten words, were expressions that this YAHAVAH ELOHIYM desired of this people as His Bride, almost as if YAHAVAH said,

I am your lone husband, have no other husbands before (or even alongside me)

And in this light,

Don’t make graven images and
Keep my sabbath holy, and honor your father and mother.

In other words, as your only God these are the things I want you to seek to do and to avoid.

As an example of this from my own experience as a father is when our girls were you I made up some family expectations. There were only three,

Love and obey Heavenly Father,
Be kind to family, friends and enemies, and
Do well in school.

It wasn’t until Delaney was in her first years of Junior High that she said, upon hearing me recite these rules for the billionth time to her and her sisters,

“But that’s everything” and then the cat got out of the bag. Because she was right.
If they actually did the first one they probably would have also done the other two.

This is similar thinking going on here with Moses, YAHAVAH and the Nation as the first ten words of the ketubah contract were everything!

“I am YAHAVAH thy Elohiym. Thou shalt have no other elohiyms before me.”

But because YAHAVAH is good, and apparently did not want them to decide for themselves what this actually looked like, he added other expressions to help them understand what this first phrase means.

And those are the rest of the descriptions found in verses 4-17.

The profundity of the first ten words YAHAVAH gives is seen, as we said before, in the life of King David. Why?

He never broke the first ten words but He certainly broken some of the other expressions that came thereafter, didn’t he, like

Killing (Uriah)
Coveting Bathsheba (neighbors wife)
Committing adultery (with Bathsheba)
Bearing false witness (to get Uriah to the front)
Dishonoring his parents (in and through these actions)
Strictly speaking David seems to have broken the established Law letting His men eat the shewbread which example Yeshua used in His defense of breaking the Sabbath.

My point is, the commands that came on the heels of the first ten words, were descriptions of someone wandering from YAHAVAH and running the risk of turning to other Gods – but this was something David never did, and was therefore called, “a man after His own heart.”

Certainly, David failed to evidence perfect allegiance to YAHAVAH ELOHIYM, but he did appear, while weak, to honor Him by never having any other God before Him.

Yes, he put His desires for Bathsheba ahead of right action toward God, which I see as a fine line in terms of other Gods, but even though He sought after her and took her, he did repent and did acknowledge His sin which, he said, was against YAHAVAH and YAHAVAH alone.

With this perspective on the ten words in hand, lets move forward and address the other items of the ketubah God made between He and Israel.

Verses 4-6 all speak to an direct extension of the first ten words as YAHAVAH will say,

4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Now, to really get to the heart of this issue, idolatry is always – listen – always a matter of the Heart.

When idolatry becomes a matter of material, proximity or passions we will certainly run into trouble with making judgments and assessments of others.

What I mean by this is if a brother or sister loves their collection of dolls, or motorcycles or their bank account we cannot assume that they practice idolatry in any form.

We do have things we love in life. The reality is what are people serving from their heart first, what do they worship, think of, speak of and look to as their primary go-to in life.

Such things are matters of the heart making idolatry truly a manner between the individual and their Maker.

Proving this is the fact that the living God will even have His people make items that reflect items in heaven and earth (like the brass serpent or the tabernacle ornamentations) which flatly contradicts verses 4-6 here in Exodus. But again, it’s always the Heart.

Specifically, for the nation, the idolatry that was forbidden was taking/making anything and

* worshipping it.
* praying to it.
* serving it
* looking to it or trusting it
* adding it to the worship and adoration of the same toward the living God.

“NO OTHER” was the command and this is obviously an extension of the first ten-words,

“I am YAHAVAH thy Elohiym, have not other God’s before me.”

In addition to not having any other God’s before Him, YAHAVAH adds at verse 7

7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

I would suggest that taking the name of God in vain means to wrongfully site Him and His ways without authority and/or without citing Him rightly.

I wonder about the application of them using YAHAVAH itself wrongly or vainly, but in the least, it means resisting speaking for Him wrongly.

That His name is not God or Lord ought to be readily understood as there are god’s many and lords many and using these titles does not make a breaker of this command.

Verses 8-11 YAHAVAH specifically speaks to the Sabbath day and explains what it is to them, saying

8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

YAHAVAH takes some time here to explain the import of the Sabbath and I have to admit that the reference of it being hallowed appears to have universal application for all people forevermore.

But all things in the Old Testament are types and I suggest that this fact is more important than the day itself – that the Sabbath day, even though it speaks back to the creation, has zero material application to us today might be seen in the following,

It was given to the Nation of Israel and they were the ones who had specific requirements attached to it. For instance, the punishment for breaking the Sabbath was death. Obviously, this is no longer the case.
When the type of the Sabbath was filled by Christ, it was removed from observing a day of the week to rest (which is what shabbot means) and takes on a spiritual significance that is easy to overlook. That spiritual significance is found and fulfilled in the person of Yeshua who called Himself

Lord of the Sabbath, and who
Invited all to come to Him and that He would be the one to give people rest, as “His yoke is easy and His burden is light.”

Verse 12

12 Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which YAHAVAH thy God giveth thee.

Paul calls this command, in Ephesians 6:2, “the first commandment to which God has added a promise” meaning, obedience to it would bring long days upon the land.

In Deuteronomy 5:16 it adds the thought that by obeying it, that “ it may go well with thee;”

The thinking is those who honor mom and dad will have “longer lives” than those who fail to do such.

It stands to reason since most parents, if they are wise and good, advise and direct their children for their well-being and safety.

To disregard them and their advice would seem to automatically serve to throw a child’s life into danger. Therefore, honor your parents.

Where the next commandment is at verse 13 and says,

13 Thou shalt not kill.

Yes, it says, kill. Biblical literalist, you better not kill ANYTHING. But reason shows in the context of the rest of scripture that this prohibits murder of every kind.

Murder of every kind. This is really HUGE in my estimation because while it certainly speaks to the unlawful taking of human life, could it also apply to the unlawful murdering of all things that lend to sound human life.

I can say this because of what Yeshua taught relative to this command when He said,

Matthew 5:21 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: 22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

Then speaking to the Pharisees, He said in John 8:44

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

In this sense, we too can be murderous by killers of people’s reputations, livelihoods, relationships with others, and even of their hearts for God, stamping out faith and trust in Him with lies.

I am convinced that the sixth commandment, from the heart, speaks to every form of murder and not just the taking of human life murderously, which seems to be the main point. Here YAHAVAH is telling His Bride that He wants her to refrain from murder, in every way. Then . . .

14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

The criminality of adultery, like murder, runs deep in the human experience as it introduces all sorts of unfortunate things into the world when committed.

Adultery will almost always carry with it the breaking of many of the rest of the commands including,

The acts of worshipping/serving/adoring someone other than YAHAVAH and or a spouse,
The act of making “an outside party” an “idol” (by taking something and doing with it what is forbidden over God’s will it is really a close act of idolatry)
The act of bearing false witness,
Coveting (the neighbors spouse),
The act of stealing of the spouse and robbing someone of their spouses affections,
The act of murdering the lives of the associated parties like children and their families
The act of dishonoring parents

Of course, adultary is very similar to idolatry and is seen in these similarities in what the Nation would do in pursuing and worshipping other pagan gods.

The very same relationship of fidelity to God is founded on fidelity to spouse and all the principle traits and acts of an adulterer are found in an idolator.

15 Thou shalt not steal.

For me the principle of theft, stealing and taking what is not lawfully ours runs right in hand with adultery, idolatry, and even murder as all of them include theft –

In the case of adultery, the theft of trust, time and attention from the unaware spouses.

In the case of Idolatry, stealing time and attention from the Living God.

In the case of murder, taking life from another, which, depending on what is killed, will require more life to get it back.

I mention the story of my older sister and her family of four coming home during Christmas one year and finding all of the presents under the tree in their home gone.

And how there was only a few days left before Christmas and how much pain, infringement, time and money (which takes time to earn) had to go into replacing all that was taken.

The idea of stealing, if we really think about it, is rife with dark evil selfish intent and works opposite of the living God.

He did not want His Bride involved in such. (Verse 16)

16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Again, a huge all-encompassing rule because it strikes to the root of the fallen human condition. Certainly, there is the flat out lie about another but bearing false witness takes lies to another level and in my estimation speaks to whatever comes out of the mouth.

This is getting heavy because to only speak truthfully about our neighbor requires a concentrated effort of self-control.

And then we abandon all the covenants that speak to actions like Sabbath Day, Honoring parents, not committing adultery, not killing, not stealing, not bearing false witness and God takes the people straight into their “thoughts,” and “desires” saying

17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.

Coveting describes desiring or long after someone or something with the aim or hope to enjoy a property or property that does not belong to us.

Interestingly, observance of this tenth commandment would probably prevent breaking most of the others.

This is the death blow of the ketubah given here in my estimation because if we were able to remove coveting from the human heart society would rid itself of most crime.

Moses has now recited to the people all that YAHAVAH has said is important to His taking the Bride into His arms and walking with her.

We will, from this point forward, now that the Law is in place, watch how the Nation responds.

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