Decalogue Reflection

Decalogue Reflection
The biblical book of Genesis presents the story of how God's new way for humankind
finds its first adherent in a single individual-Abraham, a man out of Mesopotamia-and how that
way survives through three generations in the troubled households of Abraham, his son Isaac,
and his grandson Jacob, who is renamed Israel. By the end of Genesis and the beginning of
Exodus, the children of Israel are settled in Egypt, a land of good and plenty, where they are soon
teeming and prospering-only, a brief time thereafter, to find themselves subjugated and enslaved.
How this multitude becomes transformed into a people, out of and against Egypt, is the subject
of Exodus and the following books.
The central event in the national founding of the Israelite people is the giving of the Law
at Mount Sinai. The "Ten Commandments", pronounced there by the Lord God to the assembled
and recently liberated children of Israel, constitute the most famous teaching of the book of
Exodus, perhaps of the entire Hebrew Bible. Prescribing proper conduct toward God and man,
the Decalogue embodies the core principles of the Israelite way of life and, later, of what would
become known as the Judeo-Christian ethic. Even in our increasingly secular age, its influence
on the prevailing morality of the West is enormous, albeit not always acknowledged or
welcomed.
The Ten Commandments also known as the Decalogue are ten laws in the Bible that God
gave to the nation of Israel shortly after the exodus from Egypt. The first three commandments
deal with our relationship with God. The last seven commandments deal with our relationships
with one another. The Decalogue is written in the Pentateuch which are the five books of Moses,
it is also called torah.
One thing I noticed while reading the Decalogue is that, nearly all of the statements are
formulated in the negative. The first few statements proscribe wrongful ways of relating to the
divine-no other gods, no images, no vain use of the divine name-while the last six begin with lo,
"not." Human beings, it seems, are more in need of restraint than of encouragement.
In this sea of prohibition, two positive exhortations stand out: the one about hallowing the
Sabbath, and the one about honoring father and mother. Hallowing the Sabbath is also one of two
injunctions that receive the longest exposition or explanation; the other one concerns images and
likenesses. Clearly, these three deserve special attention. But far more important than structural
features is the context into which the Decalogue fits. This is the new, people-forming covenant
proposed by God through His prophet Moses to the children of Israel. The overall terms of that
agreement are concisely stated. If the children of Israel (a) "will listen unto My voice" and (b)
"keep My covenant," then, as a consequence, (a) "ye shall be Mine own treasure from among all
peoples" and (b) "ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."
Of all the statements in the Decalogue, the one regarding the Sabbath is the most farreaching and the most significant. It addresses the profound matters of time and its reckoning,
work and rest, and man's relation to God, the world, and his fellow men. Most important, this is
the only injunction that speaks explicitly of hallowing and holiness-the special goal for Israel in
the covenant being proposed. Here is the relevant text:
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the
seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord thy God. Thou shalt do no manner of work, thou, thy son
and thy daughter, thy servant and thy maidservant, thy cattle and thy stranger that is within thy
gates. For in six days made the Lord the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them;
but He rested on the seventh day; and therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and He
hallowed it.
The passage opens with a general statement, specifying two obligations: to remember, in order to
sanctify. Next comes an explication of the duty to make holy, comprising a teaching for the six
days and a contrasting teaching for the seventh. At the end, we get the reason behind the
injunction, a reference to the Lord's six-day creation of the world, His rest on the seventh day,
and His consequent doings regarding that day.
Imagine ourselves "hearing" this simple injunction at Sinai. We might find every term puzzling:
what is "the Sabbath day"? What does it mean to "remember" it? And what is entailed in the
charge, "to keep it holy" or "to sanctify it"? And yet the statement seems to imply that "the
Sabbath day" is, or should be, already known to the Israelites. What might they have understood
by it?
The word "sabbath" comes from a root meaning "to cease," "to desist from labor," and "to rest."
Where, then, have the ex-slaves encountered a day of desisting? Only in their recent experience
with manna.
After the exodus from Egypt and their deliverance at the Sea of Reeds, the Israelites encounter
shortages of water and food, and begin to murmur against Moses' leadership. Comparing
unfavorably their food-deprived new freedom with their well-fed existence in bondage, they long
for the fleshpots of Egypt and accuse Moses of bringing them into the wilderness to die of
hunger. As if waiting for just such discontent, the Lord intervenes even without being asked. He
causes manna to rain from heaven for the people to gather, "a day's portion every day," not only
to tame their hunger but explicitly "that I may prove them, whether they will walk in My law or
not." The restrictions placed on their gathering are threefold: each should gather only what he
and his household need and can eat in a day; there is to be no overnight storage or waste; and
there is to be no gathering on the seventh day, for which a double portion will be provided ahead
of time on the sixth.
Just like in our present times even if its just for one hour more or less on sundays. We
should give time to the lord our God. We should always give Him time with our barrowed lives.
For often times than not we forget his presence in our daily lives. We then act mighty and fail to
remember that we need Him.

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