Exodus
Betrothed forever (Exod 21:7-11)
Exod 21:7-11 As noted in the previous post (see it here), these initial laws on slaves seem to be as much a commentary on Israel’s experience with God as they are instructions on how the people should conduct themselves. Other…
Shaped by our experience of God (Exod 21:1-6)
Exod 21:1-6 A friend, who worked in IT and was nearing retirement, decided to take a significant salary cut by leaving his well-paying job to support a rather smaller Christian institution. He asked and was promised flexible hours, since some…
Encountering God in the mundane II (Exod 20:22-26)
Exod 20:22-26 Once, I overheard a woman talking to her friend describing her partner or spouse, ‘One minute, he is so sweet, it melts my heart and the next I could hit him, he irritates me so much’. Anyone who…
Encountering God in the mundane I (Exod 20:22-26)
Exod 20:22-26 Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had been one of the Israelites coming out of Egypt, seeing God’s hand so tangibly in the plagues, the parting of the waters and experiencing His presence at Sinai? The truth is…
Is fear bad for you? (Exod 20:18-21)
I continue the series on Exodus with chapters 20-24 (see my introduction to Exodus 1-24 here), which are mainly ancient Israelite laws. Reading these is hard work, but if we believe that all Scripture is God-breathed, we should not skip…
You shall not covet (Exod 20:17)
Exod 20:17 There is a certain progression in these last five commandments we covered going from actions (murder, adultery, stealing) to words (false witness) and then inward desires, the latter in turn giving rise to actions and words prohibited before.[1]…
You shall not bear false witness (Exod 20:16)
Exod 20:16 This commandment is primarily concerned with false testimony in court and therefore with justice through telling the truth. The law elsewhere expands on this and warns against lying to one another and slandering a neighbour (Lev 19:11, 16).…
You shall not steal (Exod 20:15)
Exod 20:15 Stealing in the ancient Near East was a capital offence, but in Israel it only required restitution (reimbursement and additional compensation – Exod 22:1, 7, 9), hence it was of a different order from murder or adultery. On…
You shall not commit adultery (Exod 20:14)
Exod 20:14 The prohibition about adultery is the command that has lost the most weight in Western societies. Not only does marital unfaithfulness loom large on our TV screens but sexual promiscuity has become so commonplace that no one raises…
You shall not murder (Exod 20:13)
Exod 20:13 Perhaps the most fundamental command in any society is the prohibition of murder. In keeping with the rest of the Ten Commandments that focuses on larger principles, the word here, which is not the usual one for murder,…