A lot that happens at weddings is picturesque and photo-worthy. The wedding party, dressed in fancy attire, slowly strides down the aisle as beautiful music is played. Family and friends stand as the bride processes forward, looking radiant. Many of the onlookers wipe tears from their eyes as they smile and share in the joy of the ceremony.
But the real power of a wedding is in the vows and covenant promises the couple makes to God and to one another. When we hear words such as, “To have and to hold, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live,” we sense that something sacred and powerful is happening. God joins two people together, and the two become one flesh (Genesis 2:24).
Wedding vows are promises of covenant faithfulness and love. Wedding vows are also a wonderful and vivid metaphor to help us understand the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17).
The Ten Commandments Are Our Covenantal Promises
Hardly any passage of Scripture is better known than the Ten Commandments. Even outside the religious community, these ancient God-given laws are commonly cited or referenced. Unfortunately, however, we often think of them as austere, heavy-handed, or threatening. The old language of “Thou shalt not” has a punitive and perhaps angry feel, at least for some of us.
Let’s think, then, of the Ten Commandments more like marriage vows between God and his people. This image reframes them as promises between two parties of faithful covenant love and commitment.
Take, for example, the commandment “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3 NIV). God is asking for his people to be completely devoted to him, much like two people pledge exclusive devotion to one another at their wedding.
Keep in mind the context of the Sinai event. God delivered Israel, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, from slavery in Egypt. With a series of powerful signs, God freed his people (as God reminds them in Exodus 20:1-2). He even parted the waters to bring them to safety.
By doing so, God demonstrated his love and grace to his people. Therefore, the commandments are not given as a standard to earn God’s love and grace. Instead, God’s love and grace is freely given to us.
Why Is God Jealous?
Continuing in Exodus, when God commands his people not to make for themselves any images to bow down to (Exodus 20:4-6), he adds a fascinating rationale: “for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God.”
Why is God “jealous”? That sounds strange to us.
To understand this, we need to recall that jealousy is not the same as envy, although we often use those terms interchangeably. Envy is wanting what someone else has or wishing for someone who has more than we do to be miserable. Clearly, God is not envious.
Jealousy, on the other hand, means being zealous for what’s rightfully yours. God is “jealous” of all our devotion and worship because it rightfully belongs to him as our Creator and Redeemer. We can refer again to the marriage metaphor: A spouse is “jealous” of their partner’s love and will rightly be offended if they see their partner flirting with someone else.
This framework helps us understand the jealous nature of God, which is really a sign of his love for his people and his desire for their full commitment to him.
Righteousness and Justice: Obeying God in Two Directions
As you read through the Ten Commandments, you might notice a shift partway through. The first four commandments address our relationship with God. Starting with the commandment to honor one’s father and mother, however, the focus shifts to our relationships and dealings with other people. This is an important reminder that our relationship and obedience to God are not only lived out vertically; they’re also lived out horizontally.
To put it a different way, the way we treat others is a direct reflection of our relationship with God.
We can refer to these two “directions” of obedience—the vertical and the horizontal—as righteousness and justice. These two must always go together. To practice pious spirituality while ignoring the physical needs of other humans is no way to serve God (see, for example, Micah 6:8 and Isaiah 1:17). Neither can we practice a social religion focused solely on justice and physical concerns while ignoring devotion to God and proper worship. The Ten Commandments are a constant reminder that following God means practicing righteousness and justice together (Amos 5:24).
The Weight of Guilt
A final observation about the Ten Commandments is that these instructions are each really the “tip of the iceberg” of a larger area of life. For example, Exodus 20:14 simply says, “You shall not commit adultery.” However, we cannot assume that by avoiding any blatant physical act of adultery, we are obeying the spirit and scope of this commandment. Jesus makes this clear in Matthew 5:27-28 (NIV): “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
This brings the reality of the commandments down to the heart level — which also places each of us under the weight of guilt. The fact is, each of us has sinned in our hearts by hating others, belittling others, lusting after others, etc.
What hope, then, is there for us?
The answer is that there is wonderful hope for us in Christ Jesus. It’s true that we can’t be people of perfect righteousness and justice on our own. Each one of us has fallen short of God’s calling (Romans 3:23). Yes, the wages of sin is death, but thanks be to God that, through Christ Jesus, the gift of God is eternal life (Romans 6:23)! Through Christ’s death and resurrection, our sin is taken away, and Christ’s righteousness is reckoned to us. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV) tells us, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Our New Reality
See, there’s something else that happens at a wedding besides the vows. At some point, the couple and the officiant sign the marriage license, a legal document that declares these two people are now married. The officiant’s signature authenticates that new reality.
Similarly, God used the death and resurrection of Christ to bring us from lives of sin into the new reality of being united to him in love and grace. We don’t earn that status through obedience to the Ten Commandments, but God invites us to pledge our loving devotion to him in response to his amazing grace to us. Thanks be to God!
Adapted from the NIV Application Bible. Learn What the Bible Means. Discover What It Means for You.
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