Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;  And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.  Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.  Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:  For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.  Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.  Thou shalt not kill.  Thou shalt not commit adultery.  Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

God And The Law

The Ten Commandments literally translated is, the Ten Words. Ten declarations from the mouth of God himself.

We think of Moses going up one time to get the stone tablets written by the hand of God and then afterward he breaks them when he sees the people sinning in the camp, doing the very things the commandments forbid. We know that he returns and this time Moses write the Law on a second set of tablets. But if you carefully count, you’ll find that Moses climbed up to the peak or near the peak between 7 and 8 times.

This time, the first time the commandments are given is directly to the people before the tablets of stone were cut. They heard the voice of God in their own ears but when Moses was too long in returning, they turn back to their old gods of gold instead of the living God on the mountain.

Moses does receive the Law from God and we can see that the law is in two division or two categories.

The first category consists of the first 4 commandments, and they deal with God’s relationship to man. The second consists of the last 6 commandments, and they deal with man’s relationship to man.

The First Table: God’s Revelation To With Man

1st vs. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

2nd vs. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

3rd vs. 7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

4th vs. 8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

"The first commandment then guards the unity of God, the second His spirituality, and the third His deity or essence. -James Murphy, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1962 by Moody Press)

These first commandments reveal to us the true and only God. These are given so that we might look up in awe to God rather than think we can bring Him down to our level or lower.

This is what ancient man did and it is still what modern man wishes to do. Paul put it this way in Romans 1:21-25  …when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator…

When once God is brought down to our level then what is left for man but to go lower than the god he has imagined. For any god, even a false god, must be higher than the one worshipping their god.

But God has shown us, through his commandments and through His word of revelation that He cannot be brought down.

Listen to Isaiah, Isaiah 6:1-4 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

In Revelation 4:2-6 behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. 3 And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. 4 And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. 5 And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. 6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind… and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
As it was on Mt. Sinai, in the Temple and in the throne room of Heaven, God is shown in His glory as omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. He is righteous and holy. He is the One who inhabits eternity. He is the Holy One who rides on the clouds of judgment. He is revealed as He truly is, God above all others and beside Him there is no other!

That is what the first table of the 10 words tell us.

The Second Table of the 10 is God’s Expectation Of Man

5th vs. 12 Honour thy father and thy mother. Honor in obedience and in love.

6th vs. 13 Thou shalt not kill. The word used here in Hebrew is rasah and it means murder, not just kill, for there are justified reasons for killing, but this is about the taking of an innocent life not the life of someone trying to kill you, hurt your family or by force, destroy your nation.

7th vs. 14 Thou shalt not commit adultery. This prohibition speaks against any form of sexual sin. Adultery, fornication, pornography is one of the worst kinds of theft for it take something that belongs between only to a marriage and steal that precious thing away and turns it into a selfish, hurtful sin.

8th vs. 15 Thou shalt not steal. Do I need to explain this one? I sure hope that even in this day and age we understand what thou shalt not steal means. If I was in California, Portland or Seattle I would have to explain this but not in Athens, Texas. Thank you Lord for my town.

9th vs. 16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. It includes any lying that harms or defrauds. It especially deals with false testimony and gossip.

10th vs. 17 Thou shalt not covet. The root of where sin begins. The selfish desire for something you do not have.

The first tablet of the law shows us God and the second tablet shows us ourselves. The first tablet shows us God’s holiness, the second shows our sinfulness. The first shows us God in His glory, the second show us in our fallen state.

You and the Law

If you are lost, away from God, unsaved, under the judgment of God’s holiness, then you look into the mirror of the law, see your sin and go to that fountain filled with the blood of Jesus Christ to find cleansing, as the hymn says, What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

If you are saved, then you better know the law didn’t save you nor can it now keep you saved. Nor can you keep the law in your own power even after salvation. Jesus was the only one who could and did fulfill the law and our relationship should be with Him and not with the Law.

Paul, writing to the churches in Galatia, explained how spiritually dangerous it was to try and keep the law after salvation. Look in Galatians 5:1-6 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised (in order to keep the law), Christ shall profit you nothing. 3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. (fallen from the way of grace) 5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.

Oonly faith counts. The faith that God loves us and sent His Son to die for us.