THE TEN COMMANDMENTS: GOD INTRODUCING HIMSELF

“And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the LORD God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Exodus 20:1-2 (See also Exodus 20:1-17)

The Ten Commandments are divided into two major parts; one part deals with the relationship of God and man and the second deals with the relationship between man and man. But let us first look at the relationship between God and man. It is no doubt that the commandment were given by God telling the children of Israel the kind of God he is (verse 1), expressing God’s introduction of himself to the children of Israel. Except God introduces himself to a sinful man he or she cannot understand the God he is. Yes, the children of Israel might be tempted to take him like one of the Egyptian gods. They may also attribute all those exhibitions of power over the gods of Egypt to one of the superior gods of the Egyptians. For example, the staff of Moses in the hands of Aaron which swallowed the Egyptian sorcerers’ staff turned snakes; the ten plagues which the Egyptian sorcerers imitated to an extend; the division of the Red Sea; and the destruction of Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea.

So he said, “I am the LORD your God.” It was the confirmation of the God whom Moses introduced to the Israelites when he went back to bring them out of Egypt, the house of bondage (Exodus 3:13). It is the same I AM that spoke to Moses through “the flame of fire” (Exodus 3:4-5) saying “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.” As at the time when God was speaking to Moses he did not know this God personally. The only gods they knew and have seen were the gods of the Egyptians. So that causes God to start with them afresh. God, in other words, engages them into an introductory lesson, to introduce himself personally without any intermediary. At this introductory level they could not stand the voice of God, they asked for an intermediary (Moses) whom they later refused to listen to.

Jesus similarly introduced himself to Thomas saying “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6). Till today God has not stopped introducing himself to people. That is why we are witnessing people turning over to Christ. As it was in the beginning so it is now and forever. (Hebrew 13:8). The relevance of God introducing himself to men is the continual growth of Christianity in the world till this present age.