Q. 101. What is the preface to the Ten Commandments?

 

Q. 101. What is the preface to the Ten Commandments?

A. The preface to the Ten Commandments is contained in these words: I am the Lord your God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Here God manifests his sovereignty as the everlasting, immutable, and almighty God; and as the One who subsists in himself, and who gives being to all his words and works; and as the God who made a covenant with all his people, as he did with Israel of old; and as he brought Israel out of the bondage of Egypt, so he has delivered us from the bondage of spiritual slavery; and this God alone is our God, and we are to keep all his commandments.

Exodus 20:2 "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." The Book of Exodus is about Moses leading the Israelites to Mount Sinai and receiving the Ten Commandments from God. The content mentioned in Exodus 20:2 was the two stone tablets that God had initially made. However, when Moses went up Mount Sinai and did not come down for a considerable period of time, the people, led by Aaron, made a golden calf and began to worship idols.

Exodus 32:1-4 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered together and said to Aaron, "Up, make us gods who will go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." Aaron said to them, "Take off the gold rings that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me." Then all the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. Then Aaron took the gold rings from their hands and graved them with an engraver's tool and made them into a molten calf. And they said, "These be your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt."

So Moses came down from the mountain and saw the people worshiping idols, so he broke the two stone tablets that God had given him. And God said in Exodus 34:1, "Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Cut two stone tablets like the first ones; and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.'"

The first two stone tablets and the second two stone tablets differ slightly in the content of the second commandment.

Exodus 20:4-6 “You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth… ”

If we translate chapter 20, verse 8, it says, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the sky, in the likeness of anything on the earth or in the waters or in the waters or in the earth.” The sky is not the sky that you see with your eyes, but the kingdom of heaven in your heart. When you think of the kingdom of heaven, you should not think of it as an image.

Deuteronomy 5:8-10 “You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth… ”

The first stone tablet says not to make any images in the sky, on the earth, in the waters, or above. The second says not to make any images in the sky, on the earth, under the earth, or in the waters. The first says not to make any images in your mind. The second says not to make any images, even images in your mind, like visible things. Images have expanded to include visible things in your mind or outside your mind. That’s how serious idols have become.

The image in the mind means an invisible image. Each human being visualizes God according to his or her own thoughts. People in agricultural societies or those whose livestock is their business think of God as a being who gives abundance. Furthermore, it develops into a symbolic image of a cow as God. A representative example is the golden calf made by the Israelites. The second stone tablet is a concern that humans have expanded their images of plants and animals that are actually visible.

The Ten Commandments written in Deuteronomy were proclaimed by Moses at the entrance to Canaan, in the land of Moab. Twelve spies were sent into Canaan, but the zealous spies reported that everyone who entered Canaan would die. When all the people heard this, they wept and mourned. God was angry and made the people wander in the wilderness for 40 years until they all died. Only the two spies, Joshua and Caleb, the new people born in the wilderness, and the children under 20 years old at the time of the Exodus were allowed to enter Canaan.

So Moses is urging them to not repeat the mistakes of the previous generation of people as they enter Canaan, but to engrave God’s words in their hearts and live. It means to engrave them in their hearts. This means to keep and protect God’s words in their hearts so that they do not forget them, and through those words, to help the people understand God’s will.