As a child growing up with Christian parents, most of us definitely will had spent some times during our childhood in Sunday School held at church. Sunday is the day of waking up in the morning, rushing to the toilet, get dressed, coming downstair then enter the car of parents or church bus that will drive us to church. It should be admitted, going Sunday school some times could make such a great effort for us since the temptation of a comfy bed and amusing cartoon played on TV during the sunday morning but of course most of the kids attending Sunday School will feel a lot of fun there. Certainly, Sunday School attendees will hear a lot of bibical narratives and one of them is The Ten Commandments.

Teachers will explain it for next several weeks and some of them will conclude this series by telling the students to memorize the whole Ten Commandments at the end of the series. It’s truly a deep terrible nightmare as a conclusion for this topic, wasn’t it? But as we had left our childhood many years behind, in our current age now at least some questions need to be asked related to the Ten Commandments: What is Ten Commandments? Why is there Ten Commandments for Israel? What is the role of Ten Commandments for our daily Christian life?

Now, let’s turn to the first question. As we go to the Book of Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:1-22, we will find the records of The Ten Commandments. They were spoken by God Himself (Exo. 20:1; Deut. 5:22) and they were written by God Himself (Exo. 34:1; Deut. 10:1–4). God then handed these commandments to Moses at Mount Sinai to be the mediator of His laws to Israel. The Ten Commandments is composed in a structure and two categories could be derived from this structure. First, loving God. The commandments included in this category are the first five of the commandments (Exo.20:1-12) which are no other Gods, no images, no misusing God’s name, remembering the Sabbath, and honoring parents. Second, loving neighbor. Since the first five commandments fall into first category, obviously the second five commandments fall into this second category. They are no homicide, no adultery, no stealing, no false witness, and no coveting (Exo. 20:13-17).

The Ten Commandments are apodictic and paradigmatic in its nature. The term apodictic explains that ten commandments are true and must be performed and by the term paradigmatic, ten commandments mean models of behaviors. In sum, The Ten Commandments are commands from The Lord to be obeyed and also serve as a model of Israelites behavior as the people of God. Now, after knowing what The Ten Commandments is, let’s move to the next question: why is there The Ten Commandments? To answer this question, we need to take a bit backward move to the book of Genesis. As we know, after God created Adam and Eve, he ordered them to multiply and have dominion over the other creations God made (Gen. 1:28). Further, God ordered Adam and Eve not to eat the tree of the knowledge of good an evil. Why did God give such orders to Adam and Eve? It’s logical to say that because of what God has done, he demands response from them. God has made Adam and Eve as a living creature so he has the authority to give them rules and expects obedience from them.

The same thing also applies to Israel. They had been in hundred years of bondage under the rule of Pharaoh. They lived miserably in Egypt so they shouted on God for a deliverance. In Exodus, we know that God answered to their prayer. They left Egypt with His Outstretched arm. That’s why in Exo. 20:2 God said “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” and directly ten commandments in verses 3-17 come out. God expects a response from his people for the deliverance he had made by giving them The Ten Commandments. Furthermore, there is an additional reason why Israelites get The Ten Commandments. In Exo. 19:6a God said to Israel “and you shall me to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”. God did not delivered Israel only for the sake of their suffering but for a divine purpose: to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. But how do Israel being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation? By The Ten Commandments.

Through it, Israel live a different or special life (holy nation) from other nations surrounding Israel. This kind of life will marvel other nations surrounding Israel. They will curious to know the God of Israel. Thus, in obeying The Ten Commandments Israel will attract other nations to the Lord. Just as a priest being a mediator between Israel and God, Israel being the priest to mediate other nations with God in obedient to The Ten Commandments. In sum, God gived The Ten Commandments to Israel in order to expect a response from them for their deliverance from Egypt and to make them a kingdom of priest and holy nation that will attract other nations to know and believe God of Israel.

Now, after knowing what is and why is there The Ten Commandments, it’s time to make a reflection of it in our Christian life. Certainly, The Ten Commandments still apply to us today as a Christian of 21st century since it tells us how to respond to what God has done for us. We had been delivered not from the bondage of Egypt but from worse bondage, so called bondage of sin through Jesus. We need to show gratefulness for what He has done for us. Obeying The Ten Commandments is the best that we all have. Through it, we state our thankfulness to Him and witnessing to non-believers the beauty of Christian life so that one day they too can join us as a community of God’s people. Will you?    

SX, Holyland Specialist Team