JUL 3

Exodus 19:1-6
Memorise Exodus 19:5
“we love Him, because He first loved us”

One very important thing that we must realize about the Ten Commandments is that it is the result of God’s love for us (and when I say ‘us’, I refer to us as God’s chosen people). When we ask why God gave these commandments to us, we must know that it is only because He loved us and cared enough for us that He bothered to let us in on how He wants us to live. Why else would he patiently gather the whole multitude at the foot of Mount Sinai, specially meet with them, speak directly to them and then personally carve out these commandments in stone?

In Exodus 19, God tells Moses to remind the Israelites of how He had personally led and guided them out of Egypt, and desires for them to be ‘a peculiar treasure’ unto Himself. The word ‘peculiar’ in this context does not mean strange or unusual. The phrase ‘peculiar treasure’ actually comes from a single Hebrew word, a term of intense endearment that has the idea of being a special valued possession or property. It is elsewhere translated as ‘a special (people)’ (Deuteronomy 7:6) or ‘my jewels’ (Malachi 3:17). It thus carries the idea that God wanted them to be a special select group of people whom He owns, and would cherish and love above all other people in the world.

As believers in the New Testament, these same promises apply to us. As God’s elect, He also regards us as ‘an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light’ (1 Peter 2:9).

However, such a relationship, though based upon God’s eternal love for us, does come with its conditions as well. In order to truly be a treasured possession in the eyes of God, we have a part to play. For Israel, in order to be blessed and cherished by God, they were to obey the voice of God, and keep His covenant. That would primarily be the Ten Commandments, and then the civil and priestly laws that were an application of the moral law for Israel as a nation. Likewise, for us we must understand that these commandments were given to us for our sakes, in order that we might know how we ought to live as God’s peculiar people, able to shew forth the praises of Him who called us!

Thought: We have the Ten Commandments, because God loves us!
Prayer: Lord, help me to treasure my relationship with God, and in turn be a treasure to God by obeying His Word.