Fully Devoted: Israel, Act 1Sample

Ten Commandments and the Law

As newly liberated people, the Israelites began their journey of discovering who they were and how to relate to the God who had rescued them. 

As they embarked on this spiritual journey, they also set out physically through the wilderness toward the Promised Land. But before they entered the place God had for them, He wanted to form them into the people He had always intended for them to be. So He created a new covenant with them. This included the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Law. Through these specific instructions, God was showing them how to become the kind of people who would represent Him to the rest of the world.

Reading through the laws in Deuteronomy or Leviticus may be overwhelming for us today. But what we have to recognize is that these people had spent generations being completely overpowered and brainwashed by the Egyptians. Every facet of their lives was influenced by the culture of Egypt. So the Law also had to touch every facet of life.

The people were out of Egypt, but Egypt was not yet out of them.

The Law was intended to teach God’s people how to relate to others and represent Him as a holy, set apart people. It provided a tangible way to relate to an intangible God.   

It starts and ends with covenant language. God opens by reinforcing that bond of Him being their God and them being His people; He ends with the building of an altar and the sprinkling of blood—just like the original covenant with Abraham. It’s an exclusive relationship He’s looking for, evidenced by the first command: 

“You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3 NIV 

He’s looking for singular commitment and devotion. We see this clearly in the Shema, which would become the rallying cry for God’s people, because it captures the purpose behind the Law: 

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 NIV 

These couple of verses, combined with other Scripture from the Torah, became a daily prayer for the Jewish people. The prayer goes on to emphasize the importance of teaching the next generation that only God is God, and there are tragic results of following idols.

The Shema helps us understand that following the Law was never about legalism or cold religious duty. Instead, it was about listening to and loving the God who had liberated them—letting His teaching sink in and transform every part of them.

When asked what the greatest command is, Jesus responds by quoting this opening line of the Shema:

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31 NIV

Jesus reinforced what the Law was always intended to do: To teach us to become the kind of people who can love God with all that we are and love others the same way He has loved us. 

As followers of Jesus today, we are living under a new covenant that is defined by a new command. In the midst of the Passover meal He shares with His disciples, Jesus says this: 

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35 NIV 

Jesus explains the new covenant, then He shows us how to live in it by getting on His hands and knees and washing His disciples’ feet—even the feet of Judas, the man who was about to betray Him. This is the kind of sacrificial, self-giving love that marks the new covenant. 

Jesus’ new command should be our new rallying cry. As people liberated from sin and passed over by death, we are called to be the kind of people who love God with all that we are and love others the same way that Jesus has loved us.  

Journaling Questions 

• Write down one of today’s verses in your journal. How does God’s institution of the Law change your view of Him? 
• Based on today’s reading, what do you think the purpose of the Law is? 
• How does love define the Law?

Memory Verse

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10 NIV