Daily Devotions – The 10 commandments

Daily Devotions – The 10 commandments

 

 

Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:

 

Deuteronomy 5:1-22 (ESV)

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.

The 10 Commandments first appear in the Bible in Exodus 20. Today we look at their second appearance. Here in the book of Deuteronomy, the people of Israel have finished their 40 years in the wilderness, and are just about to enter the promised land of Canaan. Before they go in, Moses gives a long speech to the people, reviewing the key teachings and events from the time they left Egypt. Since the giving of the 10 Commandments was one of the most important things that happened, Moses repeats the teaching, but adds a few items of emphasis. The first is in verse 5:2, which explains that the Commandments are part of a covenant God made with the people at Horeb (Horeb is the other name for Mt. Sinai.) A covenant is a solemn, two-way agreement. Israel would agree to live according to God’s instructions, and God would promise to be their God and protect them and prosper them. The second new detail is in v. 15, where Moses explains why they should rest on the Sabbath day. Whereas Exodus points to how God himself rested on the 7th day of creation, here Moses points to the Sabbath as a weekly reminder of how God rescued Israel from slavery. Christians worship on Sunday for the same reason: to remember and appreciate how Christ has rescued us from sin, death, and Satan.