Approaching the Law of Moses
Today we continue our series through the book of Exodus, but with a little twist. The story thus far has led us to Mount Sinai, where the presence of God descends in fire and smoke, thunder and lightning and a trumpet blast in order to make a covenant with his newly delivered people. The rest of Exodus is devoted to the terms of that covenant—the laws and statutes that were to govern Israel’s life as God’s holy nation and royal priesthood (as well as some narrative sections detailing how the people respond). In fact, Israel will be in and around Sinai for the rest of Exodus, Leviticus, and halfway through Numbers, learning from Yahweh what he expects of them as his people.
Slowing Down for the Ten Words
Now Exodus 20 records the giving of the Ten Commandments, or the Ten Words. To this point, we’ve been moving through Exodus at a pace of 1 or 2 chapters each week. For the next ten weeks, we’re going to slow down considerably, as we focus each week on one of the commandments. And we’re doing this for three main reasons, one rooted in the Bible itself, and two rooted in our own contemporary context. The biblical reason is that the Ten Words are foundational for the rest of the covenant and the law. God gives them first, here in Exodus 20, and they have a pre-eminence in Israel (much like the Bill of Rights does for us as Americans). Many of Israel’s laws can be tied back in some way or another to these ten. So, in order to better understand the law code in Exodus 21-23, or to understand Leviticus and Deuteronomy, we’re going to lay a solid foundation with the Ten Commandments.
In terms of our contemporary context, one reason for focusing on the Ten Commandments is because of the evangelistic challenge we face in the 21st century. Recently I was on an airplane and had a three hour conversation with a man about Christianity. He was a professing Christian (of sorts)—Christian background, still attended church every now and then. We were having a great conversation about church and faith, until the question of biblical morality came up. Then our great conversation turned into a great debate, and it became clear that, while this man wanted to maintain some kind of connection to Jesus, he had serious issues with the Bible’s teaching on morality. Some parts he liked, but some parts he did not. And he felt free to discard the parts he disliked. It was basically a grab-bag approach to the whole question. It wasn’t that he was in favor of total lawlessness; he insisted that certain things were right and certain things were wrong. He simply didn’t want the whole Bible to tell us what those things were.
And then, when I pointed out that he was picking and choosing which biblical laws to obey, what do you think he said? “We all pick and choose.” He asked the same sort of question that I suspect many of you have been asked (or maybe have even asked yourself), “Why do we insist on the abiding relevance of biblical laws on sexual conduct, but feel free to eat shellfish and pork?” Aren’t we conservative, Bible-believing Christians picking and choosing as well? Aren’t we being hypocritical? That question (and ones like it) is often a barrier to faith for some unbelievers. Sometimes it’s the actual barrier; they’re willing to discuss Christ if that question can be answered. Other times, that question is a smokescreen for the real barrier (which is that they want to do what they want to do). The apparent hypocrisy of Christians is a convenient excuse for dismissing Christianity altogether.
And these types of ethical questions aren’t simply pressing because of the challenges of evangelism. They’re pressing for the sake of discipleship. Questions about morality and the law of God are sometimes part of the reason that professing Christians drift away from the faith. The apparent inconsistency of the Bible makes it easier to drift from Christ, to set aside his teachings, and to go our own way. And so ethical instruction—teaching about what God requires of us in our daily lives—is crucial for Christian discipleship in the 21st century. We can’t assume that people entering our church, or entering the faith, have a common understanding of God’s expectations for human beings. Two hundred, one hundred, sixty years ago, you might be able to assume a lot of common ground between Christians and non-Christians on the question of morality. Even people who rejected the doctrines of the Bible (like Thomas Jefferson) embraced the moral instruction of the Bible. But now, the Bible’s moral teaching appears confusing, inconsistent, even absurd to modern people in the West.
In many ways, our situation is closer to the early centuries of the church. When Jews converted to Christianity, there was massive amounts of common ground on moral questions (with New Testament debates centering around the distinctive Jewish rituals like circumcision and Sabbath-keeping and kosher laws). But as more and more pagans and Gentiles came to Christ, pastors and elders had to devote more time to teaching people how God expected them to live. The earliest Christian literature after the New Testament spends a lot of time on ethical instruction, helping people to understand what God expects from them in terms of their thoughts, affections, and actions. They would frequently present it as “Two Ways to Live.” There’s the Way of Life and the Way of Death. And the teaching on the Two Ways contains lots of “Do’s” and “Don’ts.” Love God, love your neighbor. Don’t murder. Don’t commit fornication. Don’t steal. Don’t practice magic or sorcery. Don’t be greedy or hypocritical. Don’t slander. Don’t be double-tongued. In other words, discipleship in the early church contained much teaching on how to live, on what it means to follow Christ in our conduct, because people didn’t know, and there was a large gulf between the way of the world and the way of Christ.
And so it is today. And when it comes to ethical instruction, the Ten Commandments provide a great entry point to considering how we should live as God’s people today. So in this initial message, I’ve got two goals. First, I want to make some general comments about the concept of “law.” What do we mean when we talk about “law”? Second, I want to make some basic observations about the Ten Commandments as a whole. Today’s message is designed to set the stage for the coming messages on the commandments themselves.
Approaching the Law in General
When we hear the word “law,” we immediately think of a rule that we have to obey. We think of obligations that are imposed on us from outside—traffic laws, criminal laws, and such. But “law” is really a much broader category that includes obligations imposed from outside as well as the principles placed within us (and within other things) by our very nature. So let’s take a step back and consider law in its broadest sense. (While the concepts below may be found in many Reformed theologians, the specific terms are sometimes my own in order to communicate clearly in our context. I’ve included some resources for further study at the end.)
At the macro-level, a law is something that determines what a particular thing does or should do. It’s a rule or standard or principle by which an action is determined. It’s a guide that directs and restrains and channels the power of something in particular directions. Law is what orders and directs a particular thing in a particular way. When theologians discuss the concept of law, they often begin with God and work their way down from there. So they’ll begin with the character of God himself, his inherent perfection that guides and directs him in everything he does. God’s nature and character is what directs and guides him in all of his actions. That’s the highest form of law. All other forms of law in the world in some way reflect and manifest the eternal law of God’s own character.
Forms of Law
So, for example, when we apply the eternal law of God’s character to nature—to the non-rational natural world— we get the laws of nature or natural phenomena—things like gravity, photosynthesis in plants, instinct in animals, digestion in our own bodies. There’s a guide or rule or principle that directs the behaviors of natural things. Similarly, theologians will say that there must be a law governing and guiding and directing angels. We don’t know much about it, but angels are governed by something, so there must be angelic or celestial law. Then, they move down to the law of human nature. This is the law that governs human beings by nature, the law that’s written on every heart. This is God’s design for human beings in creation, embedded in our very nature and conscience, and all people have access to it directly simply because they are human beings made in God’s image. It’s why Paul, in the book of Romans, can give a long list of sins—covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, disobedience to parents, faithlessness, heartlessness, ruthlessness—and then say about all people everywhere, “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Rom 1:32). They know that such things are wrong, that God’s character is opposed to these sins, and they do them anyway. They violate the law of human nature. Now how do we know these things are wrong? Because we’re human, made in God’s image, and God has made his character known to us in creation and in our conscience.
So the eternal law of God’s character manifests itself in the world in the law of natural phenomena (gravity), angelic law, and the law of human nature. All of these are forms of law that originate in God, but are embedded in the very fabric of creation. But then, on top of that, we can talk about the law of redemption. This is the kind of law that directs us to how we can be made right with God. It’s the law that we can’t know by nature. We can only know it if God reveals it to us in a special way. The highest example of this is the gospel. The gospel is not written on our hearts by nature. In order to know the gospel, we need a preacher. We need good news, from outside of us, not simply knowledge of our conscience. The law of human nature gives us the bad news, because our conscience tells us that we break it. The law of redemption comes from outside of us to show us how we can be saved.
Beyond these, we can talk about two other kinds of law, what I’m going to call prudential law and symbolic law. Prudential law is law that applies in particular circumstances and is a matter of wisdom and application. When Moses implements Jethro’s plan for judging Israel, he would be engaged in prudential law. That’s a good way to do it, but not the only way to do it. The same would be true of traffic laws; we need to decide which side of the road to drive on and when to stop and go, but those laws aren’t universal, and they can be changed. Symbolic law refers to laws that are not rooted in nature, but instead are designed to teach and instruct us in some way. Circumcision in the Old Testament, baptism in the New Testament, the Lord’s Supper are examples of symbolic law that aren’t rooted directly in human nature, but are intended to represent and remind us of God’s actions in history.
So eternal law of God’s character, law of natural phenomena (gravity), angelic law, law of human nature, and now prudential law (traffic laws), and symbolic law (baptism).
Finally, we can think about what I would call published law, which refers to a law code as a whole, which is published in a particular time and place. The law of human nature is written on the heart. But if you write it down (say, on tablets), then it’s a published law. And published law can either be human or divine. Published human law includes things like the law of nations (like America or Sweden), or church law (like our constitution and by-laws), or a code of conduct in a company. Published divine law would be things like the Law of Moses, or the Sermon on the Mount. In many cases, good published law will build on the law of human nature, but published law frequently clarifies, extends, and applies the law of human nature so that we have clearer and more direct knowledge of God’s expectations for us.
Are We Under the Law of Moses?
So then, here in Exodus, as God delivers the law to Moses, we’re dealing with published divine law. And that has important implications for how we approach the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses, including the Ten Commandments, is a covenant for the people of Israel from Exodus until the coming of Christ. It’s God’s law for God’s people in a particular era of redemptive history. And this means that, as Christians, we are not under the Mosaic Law, including the Ten Commandments, as a covenant. It was a covenant for a different era of redemptive history.
So does this mean that we’re free to commit idolatry and steal and bear false witness? Not at all. Those commandments are rooted in and founded upon the universal law of human nature, which is binding on all of us. Think of it like this: The United States has laws against stealing. So does England. So if you steal in the US, you can be punished, but you won’t be punished by England, because you’re not under English law. In the same way, we’re not under the Mosaic Law, including the Ten Commandments. We’re under Christ (I’ll say more about this in a moment).
Layers to the Law of Moses
Even though we’re not under the Mosaic Law as a covenant, the Mosaic Law is still Scripture, and therefore God-breathed and useful for instructing and equipping us to do what God requires of us. We ought to meditate and reflect upon the law so that we can grow in our knowledge of God and ourselves. And if we reflect on the Mosaic Law, we begin to recognize different layers to the Law of Moses. Within this published divine law, this covenant, we can recognize different layers or aspects of the whole (and this is where the earlier broad categories of law can come in handy).
1) There is a layer of the Law that is totally founded on the law of human nature, and is therefore universal and unchangeable. “Don’t murder” and “Don’t steal” have always been requirements for human beings. When God wrote those laws on the tablets, he wasn’t giving Israel totally new information. It wasn’t like “murder is fine,” and then Moses comes down the mountain, and now it’s not. Murder was always a violation of God’s character as it is imprinted on human nature. The sixth commandment simply republishes that law of human nature in a clear verbal way, because as fallen human beings, we’re prone to ignore it and disobey it. We know God’s righteous decree against murder and theft, and we do it anyway. So the natural law layer of the Law of Moses (much of the Ten Commandments, as well as laws related to them) is still binding upon us, not because we’re under the Law of Moses, but because we’re human beings in God’s image. This is one layer of the law, and theologians often call it the moral aspect of the Law.
2) There is a layer of the Law that is not founded on the law of human nature, but instead on symbolism and typology. So the laws about circumcision, or about clean and unclean animals, or about sacrifices reflect this layer of the law. And this layer, unlike the first, is changeable. Eating pork was once contrary to God’s law for his people. Now it’s not. At one time, sins required the killing of a goat or an oxen; now it doesn’t. Theologians call this the ceremonial aspect of the Law of Moses.
3) Finally there is a layer of the Law of Moses that includes applications of the law of human nature in that particular context. A lot of the Old Testament case law fits in this category. “If your oxen breaks out and gores someone, this is the penalty.” “If a man steals an ox and sells it, he must repay fivefold.” This aspect of the Mosaic law often contains particular penalties and sanctions for disobedience. Even though this layer of the law doesn’t directly apply to us (because we’re not under the Mosaic Law), this layer is still an example and model for us as wisdom, as we seek to apply the universal law of human nature and the commands of the New Testament in our own context. These case laws can often show us how serious certain violations of the law are. This layer is often called the judicial or civil aspect of the law.
Let me pull some of these threads together to summarize how we ought to approach the Law of Moses. God’s holy character is reflected and expressed first in the law of human nature, which is universal and unchangeable, applying in all times and all places. The Law of Moses is a specific covenant between God and his people for a particular era of redemptive history. The laws within it contain various layers in various combinations. There’s a moral layer which is connected to that universal law of human nature. There’s a ceremonial layer, which teaches us through symbols and images and can be changed when God chooses to. There’s a judicial layer, which applies the moral and ceremonial layer in Israel’s context, with particular penalties, and which we can use as wisdom in our own attempts to apply the law. But, as Christians, we’re not directly under the Mosaic Law as a covenant. We’re under grace. We’re in Christ; all authority has been given to him as the head of the new covenant.
The Ten Commandments
Turning to the Ten Commandments in particular, let me make five brief comments that will guide us for the next ten weeks.
1) Structurally, we can divide the commandments up in two ways. First, theologians have often divided the laws into the First Table of the Law and the Second Table of the Law, based on Jesus’s words in Matthew 22 about the two greatest commandments. According to Jesus, the Greatest Commandment is to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the second greatest is to love your neighbor as yourself. All of the Law and Prophets hang on these two. Applying that to the Ten Commandments, we see that the first four commandments have to do especially with love for God (no other gods; no graven images; don’t bear the Lord’s name in vain; keep the Sabbath), and the last six have to do with love for neighbor (honor your father and mother; don’t murder; don’t commit adultery; don’t steal; don’t bear false witness; don’t covet). And so theologians speak of the First Table of the Law (love for God) and the Second Table of the Law (love for neighbor). So that’s one way to divide up the Ten.
The other way is to divide them in half (5 and 5) based on shared features in the text. The first five all contain the name of Yahweh, and they provide a motive for obedience. The last five do not. We’ll want to pay attention to those common features, especially the motives, as we work through each commandment.
2) Though most of the commandments are given in the form of a negative (“You shall not…”), the commandments should be understand to have both a negative and a positive dimension, something it forbids, and something it requires.
“You shall have no other gods before me” = “Worship Yahweh alone.”
“You shall not make a graven image” = “Worship Yahweh in the way that he requires.”
“You shall not take Yahweh’s name in vain” = “You shall honor the name of Yahweh in your words and conduct.”
“Remember the Sabbath” = “You shall not labor or make others labor on the Lord’s day”
“Honor your father and mother” = “Don’t disobey or disrespect authorities.”
“You shall not murder” = “Respect and protect human life.”
“You shall not commit adultery” = “Respect and protect marriage and chastity.”
“You shall not steal” = “Respect and protect other people’s property.”
“You shall not bear false witness” = “Respect and protect the truth and the integrity of society.”
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, house, etc” = “Be content with what God gives to you.”
So as we look at the commandments, we want to think about both the negative and the positive duties in each.
3) Recognizing the negative and positive dimensions of the commandments allows us to see that they are not narrow commands about particular actions, but instead address the major areas of human existence at all levels. Worship, representation, labor, life, marriage, property, societal integrity, and the satisfaction of the human heart—all of these are addressed. And the commands don’t simply aim at external obedience. They aim at our minds, our hearts, and our actions. As we said above, they are about love for God and neighbor. When Jesus expounded upon some of the commandments in his Sermon on the Mount, he wasn’t adding additional laws; he was offering the true and proper interpretation of God’s law as God originally intended it. So as we work through the commandments, we want to understand them in their breadth and depth, as they apply to these crucial aspects of human existence.
4) The commandments are all written in the second person, masculine singular form (“You shall,” not “Y’all shall”). I think there are two reasons for this. First, the commands are first addressed to the heads of household in Israel. There’s a particular obligation directed at the men of Israel to lead the way in obedience to God (notice that the 10th Commandment forbids coveting your neighbor’s wife, but doesn’t mention coveting your neighbor’s husband. This isn’t because women get a free pass on coveting husbands; it’s because God intends men to lead out in obedience as the heads of their household).
But the other reason for the second person masculine singular form is because of Israel’s identity as God’s firstborn son. In Exodus 4, Yahweh says it explicitly, “Israel is my firstborn son. Let my son go that he may serve me.” Now that his son has been let go, the Father will teach his son what he is like and call his son to follow in his steps.
5) That leads to the final introductory note. We ought to read the Ten Commandments as the instructions of a loving Father to his firstborn son. These commandments show what God’s character is like—what he cares about and values, how he loves and what he prioritizes. And they do so, in order that God’s son—his people—will come to resemble and reflect him, to share his priorities and values, to join him in his loves and hates. In reflecting on the Ten Commandments, we’re seeking to understand the heart and character of our Father as he instructs us in how to live for our good and his glory.
The Table
Which brings us to the Table. Israel was God’s firstborn son, delivered from bondage in Egypt. But the true Israel, the fulfillment of Israel and God’s true firstborn Son, is Jesus. He is Yahweh’s firstborn son, who resembles and reflects and obeys his Father’s commandments perfectly, from top to bottom and front to back. Not only that, he is the head of his household, the church, and as our covenant head, he obeys on our behalf and thereby becomes our righteousness before God. Therefore, as we approach the Ten Commandments, we don’t approach them directly. We come to them through Christ, who is the Supreme Law-giver of the new covenant, and as his disciples, we seek to observe all that he commanded. More than that, as God’s firstborn Son, he is also our elder brother, and we seek to become like our Father by becoming like his Son. Jesus is the model for our obedience, and God’s aim is that we would be conformed to his image, so that Jesus would be the firstborn among many brothers. Finally, as God’s firstborn Son, we look to Jesus for the strength to fulfill God’s law through love, loving our Father with all that we have, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. And he offers us that strength here at this Table. So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.
Resources
Westminster Larger Catechism, Q.91-148
Heidelberg Catechism, Q.91-115
Kevin DeYoung, The Ten Commandments
Richard Hooker, Divine Law and Human Nature
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2, Chapter 8 “Exposition of the Moral Law”