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| The Ten Commandments
For Israel to be a kingdom of priests and administer God’s blessing to all nations, they need to be a holy people. Therefore, God gives Israel the Ten Commandments, which aim to shape their lives so that they can receive the fullness of God’s blessing and communicate that blessing to others. These commandments are rooted in the Exodus narrative and must be read in that context; reading them in isolation of the narrative often leads to a narrow and legalistic misunderstanding of the law. Exodus 20:2 precedes the commandments and puts them in the proper context: “I am the L ORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of p 77 bondage.” The commandments are given in the context of relationship, only after the Lord manifests his love in freeing Israel from bondage. As the Catechism notes, “The Commandments properly so-called come in the second place: they express the implications of belonging to God through the establishment of the covenant” (No. 2062). In first place is the covenant relationship into which God invites Israel. A life lived according to the commandments is simply a return of the love God has first bestowed. The first three commandments pertain to the relationship between God and his people, and are codifications of the lessons of the Exodus. The first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex 20:3), gives the great precept of monotheism. The renunciation of all gods but the one Lord is at the heart of the conflict between God and Pharaoh. The second part of this command is a prohibition against graven images. The Egyptians viewed and worshipped creation as manifesting the divine. The plagues taught Israel that God is distinct from and sovereign over his creation, and he is not to be worshiped in the form of idols. The second commandment, “You shall not take the name of the L ORD your God in vain” (Ex 20:7), follows the revelation of God’s inmost and personal name (Ex 3). To invoke God’s name is to invoke his presence, and so God’s name should always be called upon in reverence and love. To invoke God’s name without attending to his presence is to call upon him in vain. Much later, Jewish tradition will guard God’s name with such piety that only the priests in the Temple can pronounce the Name (Yahweh). This tradition recognizes the close connection between presence and name; God could be named only in the Temple, where he is present. The third command, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God” (Ex 20:8–10), recalls the battle over whom Israel would serve ( avad), Pharaoh or Yahweh. Now, after being delivered from Egypt, God establishes the Sabbath to “let Israel go” rest and worship ( avad) him every week. The Exodus is renewed every week. The work of the world is given six days, but the seventh day reminds God’s people that all their work should be ordered to what is eternal and lasting. A p 78 failure to observe the Sabbath, which was ordained from creation, is a refusal to be an Exodus people, a people freed from the world for a relationship with God. The remaining seven commandments direct relationships among God’s people. These commandments also contain lessons taken directly from the Exodus narrative. The first of these is the command to “honor your father and your mother.” Just as Israel is called to honor God their Father (after all, if God can refer to Israel as his “firstborn son,” then God must be Israel’s Father), so too must they honor their fathers and mothers here on earth. Next is the prohibition against murder. Pharaoh, who was systematically taking the lives of the firstborn Hebrew male children, learned well that God alone gives and takes life. These last commandments end with the prohibition against coveting, which was what motivated the Egyptian plan to enslave the Hebrews and kill their male children. Following the Ten Commandments is Exodus 21–23, known as the Book of the Covenant. It is a list of practical laws aimed at governing the people of Israel for their life in the Promised Land. Notably, the first subject it takes up is slavery. Slaves are to be freed in their seventh year of service, for God set Israel free from slavery in Egypt. There are repeated admonitions to treat strangers and sojourners with compassion, for Israel, too, were strangers in the land of Egypt. God’s compassion on Israel when they were sojourners and his liberation of them from slavery, were not only for Israel’s benefit, for now Israel is to imitate the Lord and treat others as he has treated them. God’s law spells out how to put the love he showed Israel into practice and thus bless the other nations. The Mosaic Covenant God has spoken his words (in Hebrew, the Ten Commandments are literally the “Ten Words”). Will Israel answer the summons? A covenant takes two willing partners; God does not coerce, but invites Israel into a covenant with him that will make them his people. Moses communicates all the laws to the people, who repeat twice their acceptance, saying, “All the words which the L ORD has spoken we will do” (Ex 24:3, 24:7). Erecting an altar with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes, Moses and some of the young men sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. Moses throws p 79 half of the blood upon the altar and the other half upon the people. This deeply symbolic gesture suggests the covenantal family bond between God and Israel. Ancient covenants forged lifelong kinship bonds between the two parties, using the language of adoption or marriage to indicate the new family reality brought about by the covenant. The two primary metaphors used to describe the covenant bond between God and Israel are that of sonship, with God as Israel’s Father, and that of marriage, with Israel as God’s bride. Since family members share blood, the covenant ceremony administered by Moses requires blood, blood that is distributed on both God (signified by the altar) and Israel. Following the covenant ceremony is a meal, another element of ancient covenant ceremonies. Sharing the flesh of the sacrificed animals and eating the meal in God’s presence (Ex 24:11) becomes a means of sharing the same body and thus of becoming one flesh. The shedding of animals’ blood also signifies the punishment for those who would violate the covenant: their blood would likewise be shed. The Significance of Sinai After the covenant meal, God recalls Moses to the top of the mountain (Ex 25–31). The mountain is wrapped in fire and smoke as Moses enters the glory cloud of the Lord to receive the last of God’s instructions. Having received the law, Moses now receives the liturgy. This liturgical legislation comes at a key point in the story. Now that Israel has received the Torah (law) and the mission to be a priestly people, they will soon leave Mount Sinai to sojourn back to the land of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the land that God promised Abraham he would give to his descendants once he freed them from the land of slavery (Gn 15). The question thus arises, “In leaving the holy mountain, will Israel be leaving God’s presence?” The liturgical legislation revealed to Moses on the mountaintop answers this question by making clear that the tabernacle—where God will be perpetually present—and the liturgy surrounding it perpetuates God’s presence in the midst of Israel, functioning as the portable mountain of God based on the heavenly “pattern” shown to Moses on the mountain (Ex 25:9, 25:40). |