Nathan Johnston
Essay on the Book of Exodus
9/6/13
The Book of Exodus

For many people, these commandments represent the basis for all behavior - and the basis for whether God is pleased or not of His people. The Ten Commandments are just the beginning, but from that framework, for the next 12 chapters - God speaks to Moses about character, behavior, society, and worship. For the first time, God sets down expectations for the people. They might not have realized that when God brought them out of Egypt He was purchasing them as a people. Now He begins to reveal to them the kind of character that He expects them to live by.
The Commandments - verses 3through 17 are broken up into three groups: verses 3 through 6 involve who God is and how to and how not to worship Him. Verses 7 through 11 involve how they were to relate to this God personally, and verses 12 - 17 involve how to relate to one another as family and society.
The first and most important Commandment was that the Israelites were to have no other Gods. This sometimes sounds a bit selfish but He is simply stating a fact - simply there are no other Gods "before" or "besides" the Lord. But they were coming from and going to a land filled with "other gods." God is telling them that they must give their lives and allegiance to Him alone. It is true that there is only one God - but it will take time for them to really see and understand that. Right now - in their infancy, they need to know that no matter what they saw or will see about other gods - Yahweh is their one and only God.
This is important because by Chapter 32 they will do just that. God, it says, is jealous. God does not want to share you with anyone. It’s not that you have something that God needs and He is selfish - but He knows that He has something you need and wants to keep you from losing it by trying to find life from any other "god." The commands go on to give more spiritual and social boundaries.
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