TABLES OF THE LAW

038-TABLAS DE LA LEYThe crossing of the desert (Heb: midbar, a place where God speaks) from Egypt to Canaan of the people of Israel, has a midpoint, the Sinai, a place of personal encounter with God (Yahweh) with his people in formation. It is the place where a real God will contact in a real way with its people. Exodus 19: 5-6 says: “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you[a] will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites”. The beginning of the process of verbal communication of God is described with the following idea: “Then God spoke all these words…”1, which is followed by a reminder of the historical process that has lead them to that place: “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of slavery in Egypt”2, and reaching its climax hearing God’s voice, which is present through the Ten Commandments. Before were slavery and oppression; after, inner freedom provided by God through his instructions, the Ten Commandments, the law written by the very finger of God in tables of stone3, aiming to help his people to be his treasure on earth.

1st Word: Never have any other god.

2nd Word: Never make your own carved idols or statues that represent any creature in the sky, on the earth, or in the water. Never worship them or serve them, because I, Yahweh your God, am El Kanna. I punish children for their parents’ sins to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. But I show mercy to thousands of generations of those who love me and obey my commandments.

3rd Word: Never use the name of Yahweh your God carelessly. Yahweh will make sure that anyone who carelessly uses his name will be punished.

4th Word: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Yahweh your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

5th Word: Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live for a long time in the land Yahweh your God is giving you.

6th Word: Never murder

7th Word: Never commit adultery

8th Word: Never steal

9th Word: Never lie when you testify about your neighbor.

10th Word: Never desire to take your neighbor’s household away from him. Never desire to take your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox, his donkey, or anything else that belongs to him.3

God is designing a special people with a special way of life, knowing how to set correctly all the possible relationships: God- Man and Man-Man. After the communication of God, the people has an identity from God and a project of life: now he knows how to set all kind of relationships following God’s instructions.4

 

Biblical References:

  1. Exodus 20: 1
  2. Exodus 20: 2
  3. Exodus 32: 18
  4. Exodus 20: 3-17