Exodus 20:1-11

The Ten Commandments is brought to us out of God's great love for us. He begins instructing Moses of the Ten Commandments, by stating what God has done for them. Likewise, we need to think on what God has done for us. We should seek to glorify God and honor Him with our lives--because of God's great love for us.

Two more commadments are given that go with how we treat God. With the whole thing, we should be asking:

• Are we showing Him our love? 
• Genuinely loving Him? 
• Or, do we only love Him when He does good things for us? 
• Where are our hearts at? 

These are the questions we should be asking ourselves.

The layout of the Ten Commandments is like this:

God reminds Israel (and us) what He has done for us. We may have not been literally trapped in Egypt as slaves, but we were slaves to sin...and it is only because of the power of God through His son Jesus Christ that we have been. set. Free.

There are four commands that go directly with loving God:

1. We are to have no other gods before our great God- Yahweh.
   
2. We are to not have idols, or bow down and worship these. Pulpit Commentary shares this significant insight:
   
   "Verses 4 and 5 are to be taken together, the prohibition being intended, not to forbid the arts of sculpture and painting, or even to condemn the religious use of them, but to disallow the worship of God under material forms."
   
   There is a blessing found inside verses 6. God lavishes His love on those who love God and keep His commands. There is also the warning God gives to us: "I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me," (verse 5). God is a jealous God. He has poured out everything to us--willingly calls us His children though we were once His enemies. That should draw us ever close to Him. But if we turn our backs on God,... woe to us!
   
3.  We are to not misuse God's name. Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible reminds us why this is to be a serious thing, just read: "the name of God ought never to be mentioned but in a grave and serious manner, and with an awe of the greatness of his majesty upon the mind." We take God's name too loosely instead of recognizing the great POWER of God even at the sound of calling out His awesome name! We fail to recognize the greatness of His name!
   
4. Ahh yes, the last of the four: Sabbath. This is another thing many of us do not do well or often enough. Taking time to literally rest and remember what God has done in our lives and what God is going to do in our lives and the lives of others. We need that time of reflection, thinking upon God and His Word, how He has worked not only in our lives but the lives of others. The Sabbath day is to be a blessing, but we often take it for granted... We need to come back to the true meaning of Sabbath and what God intended it for.

I came upon this quote a few days ago. David Murray wrote: "Redemption brought the Israelites into a relationship with God, which they were to respond to with grateful obedience." It wasn't a mere "earn it and you can be with me." They were already given access to God and His divine riches! The relationship always comes first, and obedience will follow. The Ten Commandments are a way to help us show our gratitude for all God has done for us, and to show our love for Him! It is to help us keep our gratitude and keep our relationship with Him "happy and healthy" as Murray says in his book (Jesus on Every Page)