Season 4 Podcast 120, In Defense of Christianity, “The Sabbath Day, Part III, The Ten Commandments B.”

Season 4 Podcast 120, In Defense of Christianity, “The Sabbath Day, Part III, The Ten Commandments B.” Parallelism has many uses in the Old Testament.  It allows for easy memorization.  It provides structure and makes strong connections over distance, even down the centuries.  It gives unity, economy, clarity, emphasis, variety, and coherence with minimum use of language.  It provides multiple ways of reading passages.  Parallelism suggests a unit of meaning and whenever repetition occurs, those passages can be read both separately and together, one enlarging the meaning of the other.  It is almost like a code.  Those who understand the code, as the Children of Israel would have, would have clearly understood what the prophets were saying because it would all be in context.  Because of parallelism one passage of scripture would automatically suggest to the mind another passage with a similar theme.  We all know that the mind links through association. Notice, for example, through parallelism, how the Ten Commandments are a direct offshoot of the six days of creation. The Hebrews would have made the connections automatically since Moses is the author.  It is built into their rhetorical patterns.For example, verse one of Genesis begins, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”  Notice that the first three commandments parallel the story of creation by acknowledging God as creator and defines our relationship to him. God instructs the Children of Israel that they should not confuse things that are created by the power of God with the creator himself.  The power is in God, not in the creation.  Having come out of Egypt, an idol worshiping nation, after living there for four hundred years, the Hebrews had forgotten the concept of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.But first notice the introduction to the Ten Commandment for it establishes the theme and explains why James calls the Ten Commandments The Law of Liberty.1 And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.The Lord reminded the Children of Israel that it was he who brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”  In the following Ten Commandments, the Lord instructs the Children of Israel on how to remain free from the house of bondage. Remember that the Israelites tried to take all the customs of Egypt with them to the Promised Land which centered around idol worship, the source of bondage. The Egyptian idols represented everything that was evil and kept them in slavery. Throughout history every evil is associated with idol worship. That is why we have the first two commandments.1.     Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 2.     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.Adding the third commandment to the two above turns their hearts away from idols. Introduces the principle of One God, and directs their worship directly to their creator. It also teaches a new concept in worship—reverence rather than fear.  3 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.