Then God spoke all these words, saying,2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
8 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
(Exodus 20:1-17)
Just when you think there is nothing left to get out of reading God’s word, we see something we have never noticed before, like the concept of the Trinity being hinted at in the Ten Commandments. God’s word tells us that meditating on God’s law makes us grow strong and dependable, like a tree planted beside a river. For example, Psalm 1:1-3 reads:
“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.”
Psalm 1:1-3 (emphasis mine)
I have read Psalm 1 many times. I have even taught it. But for some reason it really struck me when I read it several years ago. Do I delight in God’s law? Have I ever really “meditated” on it for any length of time? So I decided that day to read and start meditating on the Ten Commandments. That was many years ago, and I am still meditating on them regularly. What I have discovered by doing this is has led to me writing this short series on the Ten Commandments.
Many of the Old Testament stories are allegorical to the New Testament Gospel message as well as being the recorded history of God’s interaction with humanity over the years of our existence. For example, being in the Ark in the story of Noah to avoid being destroyed by the flood is also symbolic of being in Christ to avoid being destroyed in the final judgment. The Passover lamb is also symbolic of Jesus, the “Lamb of God” (John 1:29). The Passover lamb protected us from the angel of death during the Exodus from Egypt – and Jesus, the Lamb of God, protects us from eternal death in the final judgment. Throughout the Old Testament we see types and shadows of the things to come in the New Testament. They are hidden in the Old Testament, whereas in the New Testament Jesus and the Apostles tell us plainly. One of the reasons Jesus came into our world was to explain God to us. (John 1:18)
The Ten Commandments are not a religious doctrine, but rather are God’s guidelines for how to successfully create a free society. They are God’s instruction book on how to live in a way that promotes human flourishing. The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years, and are now free. But they do not really know how to live as free people. It has been a long time since they were on their own. Many have commented that God first gets the Israelites out of Egypt, then He must get Egypt out of the Israelites. We see this in the wilderness wandering when they are pining for the good old days of slavery in Egypt when they had various kinds of food, for example. In the Ten Commandments, God provides them with a core set of laws that if followed will enable them to live as free people.
The Ten Commandments are also God’s instructions on how to live the best life we can live. The entire Bible is an instruction manual on life, written by the creator of life, and at its center is the Ten Commandments. They summarize the entire book. and Jesus narrowed the message of the entire Bible down even more, to two just things – Love God and Love Others:
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40
The first section of the Ten Commandments addresses our relationship with God. The second section addresses our relationships with other people, starting with our parents. Almost any scenario we can think of is covered in some way by the Ten Commandments, which is pretty amazing when you think about it. Jesus showed us how this works when he explained to us that if we simply look at a women and lust for her we have committed adultery in our heart and are guilty of breaking the commandment to not commit adultery (Matthew 5:27-29).
Following is an attempt to share some of the gospel elements that appear to be contained allegorically in the Ten Commandments. I believe we can see allegories to the Trinity and to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Ten Commandments. Biblical allegories like this illustrate the depth and complexity of God’s word, providing additional support for the supernatural origin of the Bible. The depth of some of the Biblical allegories seems beyond the ability of humans over the span of centuries and the number of different authors to have created on their own.
This series is a work in progress and needs more work. I will probably be updating it for years, but I wanted to go ahead and get started on it. Please feel free to share with me any comments you have or thoughts that I should explore to improve the writings. My prayer and hope is that God will use this in your life to improve your relationship with Him and your relationships with the people in your life, as well as strengthening your faith in God and deepening your understanding of God’s word.
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