Salvation comes first, from God, for God's people.
The Commandments are not God's way of controlling the people. Instead, they are gifts—instructions or teachings—that give birth to life in its fullest. The foundation of the commandments is God's grace.
God is the God of all the things. In the Ancient Near East, the different levels of the universe and Earth were controlled by other gods. The God of the Hebrew people is the God of all.
Remember, the Old Testament texts for Lent remind us of God's covenant. The covenant is a promise—and God promises the people of God to be their God, and they will be God's people. From the creation story, the flood story, and now Abraham's story, emerges the foundation of God's relationship to nature, to the people of God then, and to us today. Despite all the obstacles that stand in the way of God's covenant, promises to God's people are fulfilled.
The giving of the Ten Commandments is an important moment in the life of the Hebrew people. It is known as "the time when our Torah was given," or zeman matan toratenus. The liberation of God's people out of Egypt and the giving of the Torah sets the God of the Hebrews apart from the other gods. These gods were involved only in nature, whereas the Hebrew people's God acts in history. These two events are essential in the development of the identity as God's people in that these acts display God's manifestation as Israel's redeemer—a God who is concerned with the redemption of the oppressed.
What happens on Sinai is an important moment in the development of the identity of our Jewish siblings. The momentous encounter with God at Sinai is, for Judaism, the defining moment in Jewish history, the moment when God came down on earth and spoke to all the Jewish people, present and future, given them God's rules of life, which they embraced enthusiastically.
The Ten Commandments are about life. The covenant God made to the Hebrew people leads them to a place of promise where they will know life abundant. Thus, we mustn't relegate the Ten Words to a 'set of rules' put forth by God to control us. Instead, we must see them in the context of covenant—God enunciates the terms for an enduring relationship with Israel. The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 is one more example—one more layer to the covenant relationship between God and God's people. The Hebrew people's God is wanting a covenantal community—which is quite unlike every conventional community of abuse, leverage, and exploitation.
God wants to save God's people. Salvation is from God for God's people. God does this through covenant—in giving the Ten Commandments, teachings, or instructions of laws that enliven and enlighten humanity. The commandments [all 600+ of them] are gifts from God—sorry to be so redundant. They are a part of the Torah—together as a whole, they form patterns of respect and relationship that can shape all of life!
And what's happening is God restoring us to God, creation, one another—and to ourselves.
The Ten Commandments are to remind us of God's saving work in history! God took sides and responded to the cries of the oppressed by liberating them. As God's creative agents in the world now—this is our call!
As you create your painting for the Ten Commandments, what images come to mind when you see them less as a means by which God controls and more as gifts that deepen relationships with God, creation, others, and yourselves?
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