The Ten Commandments. What a great movie! The special effects were so good you didn’t notice them, unlike a scifi movie of the same era where the flying saucer was really just a light globe.
I went to see it at the local theatre, I was entranced. I’ve seen it since, several times over the years, I have my own DVD of it, I loved Anne Baxter, such a wonderful job of overacting, but she did it so well, and John Derek, how gorgeous was he? And Yul Brynner. Wow. Who needs hair to be sexy?
And of course Charlton Heston. I always think of him as Moses.
And it was full of verses of scripture.
But was it really pointing to Christ? Was it really accurate?
Well no, it was really a pretty Hollywoodised version of the exodus.
What does the Bible say?
The ten commandments were given, along with the whole law of Moses to the children of Israel. God spoke them all, the whole law of Moses (read Exodus 19 on.) He wrote the ten with His finger, because they were the words of the covenant. Deut 4:13 And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone.
This covenant was not with anyone else, just the Israelites. It was one of several covenants mentioned in the Bible, Noah and his descendants, sign rainbow. Abraham, sign circumcision, Moses and the Israelites, sign the sabbath. The new covenant, sign the body and blood of Christ, the Lord’s supper. Other covenants were with David and Solomon.
All these commandments were with specific people, some for a specific time, some everlasting. The Mosaic covenant became obsolete (Hebrews 8:13) when the new one came into being at the cross. Jesus’ body was broken and His blood was shed for us. The Lamb of God was worthy.
Getting back to the ten commandments. The words “the ten commandments” are only mentioned 3 times in the whole Bible, and all of these were in the old testament. They are actually more correctly translated as “the ten words”, “the ten matters”, or “the ten chapterheadings”, because that’s what they actually were. The stone tablets were written on both sides, Exodus 32:15 15Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written.
I think we could have a whole discussion just on that!
Anyway we have the ten commandments/matters/words/chapter headings. And we have the rest of the commandments given at the same time, that is known as the law of Moses. Each commandments explains one or another of the ten “chapter headings”. You end up with 613 commandments divided roughly into the ten headings. You need them to fully explain the ten.
The book of the law also contains the ten written in two or three places. The book is not ceremonial law, it is every word spoken by God on Mt Sinai. The law cannot be divided into ceremonial/moral/etc, and the Bible does not record it as such. The law is one, just as God is one. The law of Moses. The Torah. This is what Jesus and the Jews of His time were keeping, not the ten commandments. The words “the ten commandments” were not mentioned in the new testament. Except when Paul referred to them as the ministry of death (1 Cor 3:7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end)
So when ever commandments are mentioned in the new testament why should we think of the ten? Jesus instituted a new covenant. New covenant, new commandments, new priesthood. All this happened, read about it in Hebrews. Instead of tablets of stone, the law is written on new hearts of flesh that have been given to us, the followers of Christ. We are God’s people, not an ancient nation, but the members of His Body. People from every land, and every time, male, female, Jew, Gentile. Everyone who follows the Lord and who is sealed by the Spirit.
An exercise for those who do not believe me, just go through your new testament and find how often the word ten appears. It IS there, but how often is it associated with the word commandments? Have a look and see.
Jesus gave many commandments in the New Testament. Over a thousand. Things like believe in Me, proclaim the Gospel, Love God, Love your neighbour. And of course the NEW commandment, Love each other as I have loved you. Now that is pretty deep, because He loved us to the death. You can’t get any more self sacrificial than that. So he wants us to love each other in such a way that we really put our heart and soul into it.
Compare these commandments with the ten. There is no commandment in the ten that tells us to love anyone. The only love mentioned is God’s love to the children of Israel. It is a list of thou shalt nots. Except for the fifth, where we are told to honour. That’s sorta the closest they come to commanding to love.
A list of duties, versus a list of love. Mt Sinai versus Mt Zion. Moses versus Jesus. The old covenant versus the new. Sarah versus Hagar.
Really that’s no comparison.
Light of Christ 