The children of Israel did not know the grace of God. Not only so, they did not know that they were fallen, that they were idolatrous (Ezek. 20:7-8), that they had an evil heart of unbelief (Exo. 14:10-12), and that they often murmured (Exo. 16:2-3). Because they did not know their corruption, weakness, and inability to keep Jehovah’s commands, they answered Him, saying, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (Exo. 19:8). Hence, God immediately changed His attitude toward them and also caused a change in the atmosphere. He told Moses that He would come in a thick cloud. He also charged the people to sanctify themselves, to wash their clothes, and to observe the boundary, not to go up into the mount, nor touch the border of it, for whoever would touch the mount would surely be put to death. On the third day in the morning, there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceedingly loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled (Exo. 19:7-16). This was the result of the children of Israel’s not knowing themselves; this was also the background against which God made a covenant with them.
The basic content of this covenant is the law. God gave the law to the children of Israel as a covenant that He made with them and through which He also revealed Himself to them. In the enactment of laws there is an important principle: the kind of law a person makes expresses the kind of person that he is; a law is always a revelation of what kind of person has enacted that law. This principle applies even more appropriately to God Himself. Therefore, through the law, the children of Israel were able to know what kind of God He is. Hence, the law testifies for God and is called the testimony of God in the Old Testament (Num. 17:4; Exo. 32:15; 25:16, 22; 38:21; Psa. 19:7; 119:88).
The contents of the law are divided into three big items: commandments, statutes, and ordinances (Deut. 30:16; 1 Kings 2:3; cf. Exo. 15:25-26).
The commandments, as God’s basic commands, are the general principles of the law. There are ten commandments (Exo. 20:2-17). The first commandment is that Jehovah God is the only God and that man should have no other gods besides Him. This reveals that God is singularly one, without mixture. The second commandment is that man should not make for himself graven images nor worship or serve them. The reason for this is that Jehovah God is a jealous God, visiting the iniquity on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Him, but showing lovingkindness to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments. This tells us that God is jealous, righteous, and, even more, merciful and loving. The third commandment is that man should not take the name of Jehovah God in vain. This shows that God is holy and that we should sanctify His name (Matt. 6:9). The fourth commandment is that man should remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, for the seventh day is a sabbath unto Jehovah God. The Sabbath is a sign of God’s holiness, of His separation, indicating that God is holy, separate. The fifth commandment is that man should honor his father and mother, that his days may be long in the land which Jehovah God has given him. This shows that God as the source of love desires to bestow blessings on man. The sixth commandment says, “Thou shalt not kill”; the seventh, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”; and the eighth, “Thou shalt not steal.” These three commandments reveal that God is merciful and loving and that He is also righteous, not permitting man to inflict injury on another person’s physical body, wife, or possessions. The ninth commandment says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” This reveals that God is truthful and full of light; with Him there is no falsehood nor darkness. The tenth commandment says, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.” This indicates that God is pure; man covets because he is not pure.
The Ten Commandments are divided into two groups of five. In the first group the sacred title “Jehovah thy God” is used with respect to each commandment. But with the second group, the name of Jehovah is not mentioned even once. Hence, the use of God’s name is a determining factor in reckoning the arrangement of the Ten Commandments. The fifth commandment, concerning the honoring of parents, is ranked with the first four commandments, related to God Himself. This is because when we honor our parents, we honor our source, which ultimately is God Himself. In Luke 3 the human generations are traced all the way back to Adam, and then to God. Therefore, God is the source, the origin, of the human race. In brief, the significance of the first five commandments is that we should love Jehovah God the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind; the significance of the latter five is that we should love our neighbor as ourselves (Matt. 22:36-40).