Trust and the Ten Commandments
A small boy was asked where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. After a moment's thought he answered ‘Mount Cyanide.’ He was not alone in associating the commandments with poison. You must have seen those images in picture Bibles of Moses descending down Mount Sinai carrying two massive tablets of stone with an impossible ease. His face always bears the most solemn of frowns and it seems clear that what he bears is a set of rules so unpleasant that they might as well be cyanide. Centuries of preachers have confirmed such a view by trying to highlight the New Testament’s message of grace by painting the Law of the Old Covenant in the gloomiest possible of shadows.
Such views are mistaken. When we look carefully at the Ten Commandments in both Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 we find that they are prefaced by an often overlooked introductory phrase; ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.’ In these words the Lord is saying in effect, ‘I am the gracious God who delivered you: you can trust me because of what I did for you.’ That concept of trust revolutionises the Ten Commandments. Let's work through the commandments through the eyes of trust.
The first three commandments deal with what we might call the focus of trust. The First Commandment tells God's people then and now that we are to have no other gods and reminds us that there is only one person – the Lord – who we can safely trust. The Second Commandment rejects idolatry and in so doing sounds the warning that God's people must trust him alone and not hedge their bets by trusting other powers. Taking the precaution of having both belt and braces or seatbelt and airbags may seem wise but it is a principle that doesn't work in a relationship with the Lord: here our trust must be utterly undivided. The Third Commandment is about misusing the name of God and it's easy to think of it as nothing more than prohibiting curses and blasphemies. In reality it prohibits any attempt to manipulate God by binding or commanding him to do our will, as if we were magicians conjuring up a genie. The trust of the believer must be one of utter dependence.
When we turn to the Fourth Commandment on ‘Sabbath keeping’ we shift from the focus of trust to the practicalities of living out that trust in every sphere of life. So keeping the Sabbath is in reality a deliberate standing aside from that universal temptation to work ceaselessly because we don’t stop. To keep this commandment is to say ‘I'm going to take a day off for God and I trust him to look after me.’ The Fifth Commandment, which deals with honouring our parents, is also linked to trust. After all, if we don't believe that God is in control of our lives it is all too easy to neglect our families in pursuit of other priorities and distractions. The Sixth Commandment – that we do not murder – also assumes a trusting relationship to God. Here, however intense the provocation, we say, ‘I will not take the law into my own hands because I trust you, Lord to be the judge.’
The Seventh Commandment condemns sexual misbehaviour and by keeping it we express our trust that, whether in singleness or in marriage, God will supply all our needs. With its prohibition of stealing the Eighth Commandment encourages a similar trusting contentment towards material possessions; what we have been given by God is enough. The Ninth Commandment is again underlain by the concept of trusting God; we need not lie because he who is the righteous Lord is Truth. And finally in the Tenth Commandment’s prohibition of coveting we see the fullest expression of trust; I will be content with all that I have because the Lord supplies all I really need.
Believers of the Old Covenant took the Ten Commandments seriously because they trusted in a gracious Lord who had redeemed them from Egypt. Shouldn’t we, who know the God’s grace in Jesus Christ, consider them just as trustworthy?
J.John (Canon)
To find out more about J.John's just10 series on the Ten Commandments click here
