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The Ten Words:

The Foundation of the Torah

by Michael Bugg

Today, it is very common to find Christians who declare, "I follow the Ten Commandments!" as if those Ten were somehow separate from the the other 603 that are listed elsewhere in the Torah.  But when we examine them more closely, we find that the Ten Commandments (actually, the "Ten Words" would be the correct translation) form the foundation of every command that follows. 

Actually, the Jewish enumeration of them is different from both Protestant and Catholic enumerations.  The first "command" is this: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery."  That is, the first command, the foundation of all that follows, is to know who God is and what He has done for us.  And really, isn't that the basis for salvation under the New Covenant as well?

Every commandment links to every other commandment.  Yeshua gave the most important commandments as such:

1. "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might."

2. "And you shall love your neighbor as yourself."

The commandment to love our neighbor is derived from the commandment to love God, since our neighbor too is in the image of God (albeit many generations removed). 

The first four commandments are all derived from "Love God," and the last five from, "Love your neighbor."  The fifth command, "Honor your father and mother," bridges the two, since by honoring our parents we both love them and the Father who put them over us.

Every other commandment in the Torah is either derived from the Ten or was instituted out of grace to allow us to be restored when we violate the Ten (i.e., the sacrificial commands).  Here is a quick and non-exhaustive list:

1. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

• Recognize that God has predicated His right to rule not on His power, but on His kept promises
• Keep the Feasts that celebrate our freedom in order to pass that history onto our children (Exo. 12-14)

2. You shall have no other gods before me

• No occultism or spiritism
• No modern "idols" of people or material things (mammon)

3. You shall not take the Name of the Lord your God for nothing

• A call to ambassadorship
• A command not to misuse religious authority
• ;"Be holy as I am holy" - prefaces the commandments for kosher and ritual purity (Exo. 22:31; Lev. 11:44-45, 19:2, 20:7; Num. 15:40; cf. 1Pt. 1:16).

4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy

• Includes all the Feasts and their associated sabbaths (cf. Lev. 23)
• Letting the Land rest on the Sabbatical year
• Releasing debts and slaves on the Sabbatical year

5. Honor your father and mother

• Honor and obey the other authorities God has set up in your life

6. Do not murder

• Includes all commands against harming or even hating one's fellows or one's self

7. Do not steal

• Includes kidnapping, the theft of a life
• Includes refusing to release a slave in the Sabbath year for the same reason
• Includes holding a debt against the poor, the theft of their future
• Includes not bringing the proper offerings to God, the theft of His House, as well as refusal to support the ministries of those who serve us

8. Do not commit adultery

• Includes other forms of fornication
• Also includes other types of covenant-breaking

9. Do not bear false witness

• Includes deception in general
• Overlaps with falsely taking God's name
• False teaching and false prophecy
• Gossip and slander

10. Do not covet

• All commands to obey God in our hearts, not just observe things outwardly
• Circumcision of the heart
• A rejection of Replacement Theology, which covets the Jew's particular and peculiar call

On cannot simply separate the "moral" from the "ceremonial" commandments, as mainline Christianity would like to do.  Take the Sabbath, for example.  Is the command to let one's servants rest on the Sabbath merely a ceremonial observance, or should one obey it out of a moral regard for their welfare?  What about the release of debts on the Sabbath year?  Is that just a ceremonial technicality that we may safely disregard in the current dispensation?  While it is certainly true that some commandments are specific to the Land and that there is room for debate whether certain other commands are universal or particular to the Jew, one cannot simply dismiss whole blocks of commands as "ceremonial" or "shadows" that were done away with at the Cross without trampling on the moral commands connected to them as well. 

Shalom!

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