The Constitution of Reality: God's Top Ten Text: Deuteronomy 5:6-21
Introduction: Law Before Grace, or Grace Before Law?
We live in an age that is allergic to law. Modern man, and particularly the modern evangelical, has been taught to pit law and grace against one another as though they were mortal enemies. The law is seen as the grim, finger-wagging schoolmaster, and grace is the indulgent grandmother who lets you have cookies for dinner. But this is a grotesque caricature of the Scriptures. The Bible knows nothing of this supposed antagonism. God's law is a function of His grace. His commands are not arbitrary hoops for us to jump through; they are the manufacturer's instructions for human flourishing.
The Ten Commandments, or the Decalogue, are not the ten suggestions. They are the constitutional foundation of God's covenant with His people. And notice the order. God does not show up at Sinai and say, "If you keep these ten laws, then I will consider rescuing you from Egypt." No, the prologue to the law is the gospel of redemption. The very first thing God says, before He gives a single command, is an announcement of His grace. "I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." Grace precedes law. Redemption precedes obligation. He saves them first, and then He tells them how to live as a saved people. We do not obey in order to be saved; we obey because we are saved.
This is crucial. The law is not a ladder we climb to get to God. The law is the trellis upon which the fruit of a redeemed life grows. It is the pathway of gratitude. Because God has done this great thing for us, this is how we now live. These Ten Words are a transcript of the character of God, and because we are made in His image, they are also a description of what true, restored humanity looks like. When we look at the Ten Commandments, we are looking at a portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only one who has ever kept them perfectly. And through Him, by the power of His Spirit, we are being remade into that same image.
As Moses rehearses this law for the new generation poised to enter the Promised Land, he is reminding them of their identity. This is who you are because this is whose you are. This is the constitution of your nation, the foundation of your families, and the grammar of your reality.
The Text
‘I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ‘You shall have no other gods before Me. ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol, any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. ‘You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. ‘Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as Yahweh your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of Yahweh your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male slave or your female slave or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who is within your gates, so that your male slave and your female slave may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm; therefore Yahweh your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day. ‘Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you on the land which Yahweh your God gives you. ‘You shall not murder. ‘You shall not commit adultery. ‘You shall not steal. ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. ‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male slave or his female slave, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’
(Deuteronomy 5:6-21 LSB)
The Foundation of All Law: Redemption and Exclusivity (vv. 6-7)
The law begins not with a command, but with a declaration of accomplished salvation.
"‘I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." (Deuteronomy 5:6)
This is the gospel preface. God's authority to command is rooted in His work as Redeemer. He is not an abstract deity issuing rules from a distance. He is the God who came down, who saw their affliction, and who acted with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Our obedience is therefore not the reluctant compliance of a slave, but the grateful response of a rescued son. Before we consider what we must do for God, we must first remember what God has done for us. This is the foundation of the Christian life. Our indicative (who we are in Christ) grounds our imperative (what we are to do).
Based on this redemptive act, the first command follows with absolute logic.
"‘You shall have no other gods before Me." (Deuteronomy 5:7)
The Hebrew here is literally "no other gods before my face" or "in my presence." This is a demand for exclusive loyalty. Since Yahweh is the one who saved them, He alone is to be worshipped. Polytheism is spiritual adultery. To worship another god is to turn your back on your rescuer. This commandment demolishes the modern notion that all religions are just different paths up the same mountain. No, there is one God who has revealed Himself, who has acted in history, and He will not share His glory with another. Every other "god" is either a demon or a figment of man's rebellious imagination. This is the foundation of all true worship: God's absolute uniqueness and our absolute allegiance.
The Form of Worship and the Character of God (vv. 8-10)
The second commandment governs how we are to worship the one true God.
"‘You shall not make for yourself an idol, any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them..." (Deuteronomy 5:8-9a)
The first commandment says "who" to worship; the second says "how." We are not to invent our own methods of worship. Specifically, we are forbidden from making any physical representation of God. Why? Because any image we make will inevitably be a lie. It will reduce the infinite, transcendent Creator to a finite, manageable creature. It domesticates God, making Him something we can control, put on a shelf, and manipulate. This is the essence of idolatry: trying to worship God on our own terms. We are to worship Him as He is, not as we imagine Him to be. We worship the God who speaks, not a god we can see.
The reason for this command is rooted in God's very nature.
"...for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments." (Deuteronomy 5:9b-10)
God's jealousy is not the petty, sinful envy we experience. It is the righteous zeal of a husband for his covenant bride. He will not tolerate rivals. And here we see the principle of covenantal succession. Sins, particularly the sin of idolatry, have generational consequences. Fathers who hate God by worshipping idols teach their children to do the same, and the curse of that rebellion cascades down the family line. This is not God punishing innocent children for their father's sin; it is a statement of spiritual reality. False worship deforms families for generations. But notice the glorious asymmetry of God's character. He visits iniquity to the third and fourth generation, but He shows hesed, covenant lovingkindness, to thousands of generations of those who love Him. His grace far outweighs His judgment. The river of grace is infinitely wider and deeper than the river of wrath.
The Weight of a Name (v. 11)
The third commandment protects the reverence due to God.
"‘You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain..." (Deuteronomy 5:11)
This is about far more than just using "God" as a curse word, though it certainly includes that. To take God's name "in vain" means to empty it of its weight, to treat it as a light or common thing. This happens when we swear a false oath in His name, making God a witness to a lie. It happens when we live as practical atheists while claiming to be Christians, attaching His holy name to our unholy lives. It happens when our worship is flippant and frivolous, treating the holy God as our casual buddy. The name of God represents the whole of His character and reputation. To bear His name as Christians means we are His ambassadors. To misrepresent Him is to take His name in vain, and God will not hold such a person guiltless.
Time, Rest, and Redemption (vv. 12-15)
The fourth commandment structures our time around the pattern of God's work and rest.
"‘Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy... Six days you shall labor... but the seventh day is a sabbath of Yahweh your God; in it you shall not do any work..." (Deuteronomy 5:12-14a)
The Sabbath is a day to be set apart, made holy. It is a day of rest from our regular labors. Notice that the command to work for six days is just as much a part of this commandment as the command to rest on the seventh. God has established a rhythm of work and rest for our good. This is a gift, not a burden. It is a weekly reminder that we are not slaves to our work, that our lives are not defined by our productivity, and that ultimately, it is God who provides, not our frantic, seven-day-a-week toil. The command extends to everyone in the household, including slaves and animals, demonstrating God's concern for the well-being of all creation.
In Deuteronomy's version of the law, the reason given for the Sabbath is rooted in redemption.
"You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm; therefore Yahweh your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day." (Deuteronomy 5:15)
In Exodus 20, the reason is rooted in creation. Here, it is rooted in redemption. Which is it? Both. The Sabbath is a memorial of God's finished work of creation and a celebration of His finished work of redemption. For the Israelite, it was a weekly re-enactment of their liberation from the ceaseless toil of Egyptian slavery. For the Christian, the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, is our Sabbath rest. We celebrate on Sunday because it is the day of Christ's resurrection, the first day of the new creation, and the ultimate sign of our redemption from the slavery of sin and death. It is the day we cease from our own works and rest in the finished work of Christ.
The Second Table: Loving Your Neighbor
The remaining commandments shift from our duty to God (vertical) to our duty to our fellow man (horizontal). But we must remember that the second table is built upon the first. You cannot truly love your neighbor if you do not first love God.
"‘Honor your father and your mother..." (Deuteronomy 5:16)
This is the hinge commandment, connecting the two tables. Our parents are God's first and most foundational representatives of authority in our lives. How we relate to them shapes how we relate to all other authority, including God's. To honor them means to give them weight, to respect them, to provide for them in their old age. This is the foundation of a stable society. When family structures break down, when children despise their parents, the whole social order begins to crumble. And notice the promise attached: long life in the land. Obedience in the home leads to stability in the nation.
"‘You shall not murder." (Deuteronomy 5:17)
This prohibits the unlawful taking of a human life. It does not prohibit all killing, such as in a just war or in the case of capital punishment, which God Himself institutes. The reason this is so serious is that man is made in the image of God. To murder a man is to attack the image of God, and thus to attack God Himself. Jesus radicalizes this command in the Sermon on the Mount, showing that the root of murder is anger and contempt in the heart (Matthew 5:21-22).
"‘You shall not commit adultery." (Deuteronomy 5:18)
This protects the sanctity of the marriage covenant, which is the foundational institution of society. Adultery is a profound act of theft, treachery, and covenant-breaking. It attacks the one-flesh union that is meant to picture the relationship between Christ and His Church. Again, Jesus shows us the root of this sin is lust in the heart (Matthew 5:27-28).
"‘You shall not steal." (Deuteronomy 5:19)
This command establishes the right to private property. God gives gifts, and we are not to take what He has given to our neighbor. This forbids everything from shoplifting to embezzlement to defrauding someone in business. The positive implication is that we are to be diligent in our own work and generous with what God has given us.
"‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." (Deuteronomy 5:20)
This protects a person's reputation and the integrity of justice. It forbids lying, slander, gossip, and any form of speech that would misrepresent reality to the harm of another. Truth is the currency of a healthy society. When words can no longer be trusted, everything falls apart.
"‘You shall not covet..." (Deuteronomy 5:21)
This final commandment is brilliant because it goes straight to the heart. It moves from outward actions to inward desires. To covet is to have an unlawful desire for something that belongs to another. This is the root sin from which theft, adultery, and even murder can spring. It is a sin of discontentment with God's provision. This commandment reveals that God's law is not merely concerned with our external behavior; it judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And it is this commandment that exposes us all. We may be able to say we haven't murdered or committed adultery, but who can say they have never coveted? This law drives us to our knees, shows us our need for a Savior, and points us to the one who can give us a new heart with new desires.