Episode 2490 - Lesson 8 - Monday August 18 - Preparing for the Gift

Preparing for the GiftRead Exodus 19:9-25. How did God prepare Israel to receive the Ten Commandments?God gave specific instructions for what the Israelites were to do in preparation for the giving of the law at Sinai. Their external purity was to reflect their total dedication to God. They needed to be ready for the splendid manifestation of the Lord’s glory that was about to come. And when it did, it was accompanied by "thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled" (Exod. 19:16, NKJV).The Decalogue (the Ten Commandments) is the heart of God’s revelation and biblical ethics. It forms the substance and foundation of divine standards for all humanity; its principles are eternal and universal.According to the biblical account, the Decalogue was announced by God (Exod. 19:19; Exod. 20:1; Deut. 5:4-5, 24), and was written by Him (Exod. 24:12, Exod. 31:18, Deut. 5:22). It was twice given to Moses as a special gift (Exod. 32:19; Exod. 34:1; Deut. 10:1-2).In the book of Exodus, the Decalogue is called "the Testimony" (Hebrew: ‘edut; Exod. 31:18); or it is named "the words of the covenant" (Hebrew: dibre habberit; Exod. 34:28). In the book of Deuteronomy, they are written on "the tablets of the covenant" (Deut. 9:9-11, 15, NKJV). Neither book in Hebrew uses the term "the Ten Commandments" (Hebrew: mitzwot, "commandments"). Instead, three times they call it "the Ten Words." The Hebrew is ‘aseret haddebarim, from dabar, meaning "word, sentence, matter, thing, speech, story, promise, utterance." (See Exod. 34:28, Deut. 4:13, Deut. 10:4.)There are two versions of the Decalogue with very slight differences; the first one is recorded in Exodus 20:1-17 and the second in Deuteronomy 5:6-21. The second version, presented orally by Moses to Israel, occurred almost forty years after Sinai, just before the people entered the Promised Land (Deut. 1:3-4; Deut. 4:44-47). These circumstances explain the slight differences between the two.When Paul summarized the law as being love, he quoted from the Decalogue (Rom. 13:8-10). Love is, indeed, the sum of God’s law because He is a God of love (1 John 4:16).How do you understand the idea of the Ten Commandments as an expression of God’s love? What does that mean? How is God’s love revealed in them?