Today you should read: Deuteronomy 5:1-33
In Deuteronomy 5 we see how God makes promises to us through what most people know as the Ten Commandments. Of course, almost everyone knows the Ten Commandments and, agree to them or at least believe they are generally good rules to live by. They have caused some controversy in our country over the last few decades as politicians and education administrates have debated whether they should or shouldn’t be put up in government buildings or schools. Late show host, Stephen Colbert even showed how one politician in Alabama who built his campaign on the matter could only name 2 of the 10 commandments himself. You heard that right, 2!
We must remember that these covenant words and rules are not laws that God requires us to put into laws of the land ourselves, like Israel, but instead a revealing of God’s true heart, character and holiness. While some aspects of God’s law delivered to Moses reflected God’s standards for moral holiness for all time like the Ten Commandments, there were other aspects that did not deal directly with morality but with procedures for conducting Levitical worship under the Old Covenant with ceremonies and rituals showing Israel as a distinct nation and government.
However the Ten Commandments along with the Mosaic law’s main purpose is not to make us better Christians or morally good people because that’s impossible. It’s to show that we are sinners and can never measure up to God’s standard of perfection and holiness. But that’s not our job. Instead that’s the job of Jesus who imputes it on us and through the Holy Spirit helps us desire and be more obedient to that standard of holiness the commandments reveal.
By: Erik Koliser — West Campus Pastor
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