Disciple Hour: Exodus 20:1–6
Exodus 20:1–6
20 And 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 a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
As we begin, I want us to remember the purpose of the Law of God. The purpose is 5-fold. You may hear people at some point refer to the three uses of the Law, however, before we begin, I’d like to give you 5.
1. Five-Fold Uses of the Law of God
A. God’s Law reveals man’s sinfulness
It’s like a mirror showing us that we are, in fact, sinners
Romans 3:19–20 (ESV)
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
B. God’s Law reveals the shocking evil of sin itself; it shows us what sin is and where it’s located
It’s like a microscope to help us see the evil of sin and where it’s located.
Romans 7:7–13 (ESV)
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
Blue stuff you put on your teeth in school.
C. God’s Law reveals the complete otherness/holiness of God
It’s like a telescope that brings very large far away objects into view.
It shows us that God is not like us. It shows us His character and what He deems as acceptable living and true.
D. God’s Law restrains the sinner from sinning as much as he could
Here, the Law of God is like a curb in the street.
Golf ball illustration
It serves as a boundary for us to keep us under control so sin does not run rampant in our lives. It restrains us and serves as a tutor to point us to Christ.
Galatians 3:23–26 (ESV)
23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
E. God’s Law restrains society from sinning as much as it could
It serves as a boundary for not only the individual but also for society as well. Even those who will never come to Christ find godly boundaries within their social institutions.
With these proper uses of the Law of God in mind, let’s begin the 10 Commandments…
2. The Source of the Law of God
20 And God spoke all these words, saying,
The Bible leaves no doubt as to where the Ten Commandments or as some say, ten words. God, Himself met with Moses on top of Mount Sinai and spoke these words directly to Moses and God inscribed them on two stone tablets symbolizing their eternal nature.
3. The First Commandment…No Other Gods Before Me (20:2-3)
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.
We see first that God identifies Himself as the God who is Lord and who delivered the Israelites from Egypt and from slavery. This is the typical way the people would understand that God is making a covenant with them. In the typical covenant document of the day, it would start with the clear identity on the one making the covenant.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
It was not one of the Egyptian false gods who brought them out of Egypt. It wasn’t RA or Rameses who rescued them. The Lord wants His people to realize that He is the only true God and He is their Savior. He rescued them out of their slavery to the Egyptians.
He is showing His sovereignty and kingship as He begins the treaty or covenant process. He is the Sovereign making this promise to His subjects. He is the King and His people are subservient to Him.
He has the right to make Law and to enforce it. God is in charge. He has the right to make a universal law and the right to demand obedience to the law He has imparted to His people.
So, God has saved them from the land full of idols and false deities. They have been brought out of that to be a distinctive people who will worship the one true distinctive God.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
This first command is given as an emphatic prohibition. Yahweh, the Lord does not want His people to disobey this command. He is very clear and very insistent and absolute. Do not, what ever you do, never do this.
What does this verse mean? Some think it means that we are to have no gods that would take the role of first in our lives. In other words, you can have other gods as long as the true God, Yahweh is first in line. This is NOT what Exodus 20:3 teaches.
In keeping with the consistent translation of Hebrew, the phrase means this…Literally, you shall have no other gods before my face. No other gods stood up before my eyes. Here, monotheism is emphatically commanded. Our worship, loyalty, obedience, love belong exclusively to the God of the Bible and absolutely no other gods whatsoever.
For the Israelites who had been born and raised in Egypt where other gods were everywhere, this must have seemed like a radical command. This command must have jarred their thinking. They were polytheists and now Yahweh commands their entire worship be devoted to Him only.
He will be their God and they will be His people.
4. The Second Commandment: No Carved Images (20:4-6)
A. What Idolatry Looks Like (20:4-5a)
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them
What does idolatry look like? The word carved image is where we get the word idol from. In Hebrew it means to hew out or carve into shape. This does not mean it’s sinful to carve something or to even carve a statue or paint a picture. God has gifted humanity with a great imagination and skill. What it does mean is it is sinful to fashion a carved image and worship it as God or as a god.
Technically, this command explicitly states that it is sin to fashion an image of something in creation and worship it as if it were actually God. The sin lies in the fact that God is invisible and cannot be represented by anything physical in nature.
Deuteronomy 4:15–20 (ESV)
15 “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. 19 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. 20 But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.
It would not be very long at all when Israel would break this first command.
Exodus 32:4–5 (ESV)
4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.”
Aaron connected the Golden Calf to Yahweh the true God. This or these are the gods who led you up out of Egypt. What does the first commandment say? How does God identify Himself? I am the Lord (Yahweh) I brought you out of Egypt…
B. The reason idolatry is sin, God is jealous (20:5b-6)
for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
We see the reason God gives the prohibition is because He is a jealous God. God forbids Israel to worship other Gods because they belong to Him. He redeemed them from slavery now they are His. In Hebrew, God is seen as the husband and Israel His wife. In the covenant there is to be mutual fidelity just like in a husband-and-wife relationship. True fidelity is to define the union.
Normally when we think of the term “jealous” we think of something negative. We think, for example, of being jealous of someone’s wealth. However, when it is used of God in Exodus 20:5 (cf. Deut 4:24) it carries a positive and righteous connotation. The word jealous is translated in the Old Testament from the Hebrew word qinah. It means to be passionate in a good, justified sense. Even Paul uses it positively stating, “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy” (2 Cor. 11:2; cf. compare 1 Cor. 12:31; 14:1,39).
If Israel neglects the purity and sanctity of the covenant bond, God will respond with zealous jealousy and we see here the consequences of idolatry are severe.
God views worshipping other gods as adultery in a marriage. To worship an idol is to cheat on God.
Idolatry affects future generations.
visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.
People see this verse and want to question God saying that’s not fair. How is it right for the sin of the father to affect his future generations?
All we need to do is examine the Fall of Adam and see the curse because of Adam’s sin has fallen on all humans. His sin has devastated our world because now all are sinners like Adam. His sinful genetics are found in my DNA.
Jeremiah 16:11–13 (ESV)
11 then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, 12 and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. 13 Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
God has stated elsewhere that He will not punish the fathers for the sin of their sons or sons for the sins of their fathers (Deut. 24:16). However, sin has a way of continuing through a family and unless God works, that family also under the curse will die as a result of their sin.
What we are being told here is that God will punish each generation for the same sin. In other words, God will not say, I won’t punish this generation because they learned this sin from their fathers who also did it. I punished the fathers so I won’t punish their children. Rather each generation is punished for its own sin.
Notice the favor God shows the people who love Him.
6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Deuteronomy 7:9 (ESV)
9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,
The second promise is for a thousand generations.
Resources used:
Exodus by Stuart
Exodus in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary
Exodus by Currid
Moses and the Gods of Egypt by Davis
