How are the 10 Commandments Like God's Engagement Covenant in Exodus 20?

    After reading this you're probably going to see the ten commandments in a whole new. Here's why, lots of people take the commandments as a code of conduct, and like most kids growing up that’s all they were to me, too.  And my conduct wasn’t always the greatest.  I felt a bit frustrated by the ten commandments like how was I ever supposed to live up to all of that? 

With my grandkids on the Birch Bay tide flats

    When I was a young mother I read the  Life-Study of Exodus for the first time.  And it totally surprised me when Witness Lee shared that the 10 commandments weren’t about a list of do’s and don’ts, but they were actually God’s engagement covenant with His people!! Who would have thought?   I liked how he stopped at this point and shared the thread in the Old Testament to prove this:  

Hosea 2:19-20  And I will betroth you unto Me forever;… I will even betroth you unto Me in faithfulness: and you shall Know the Lord.

Jeremiah 2:2  I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothals, how you followed after Me in the wilderness,….

Ezekiel 16:8 Now when I passed by you, and looked upon you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I swore unto you, and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord God, and you became mine.

Jeremiah 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they broke, although I was a husband unto them, says the Lord.

If you’re having a hard time seeing this, I hope these excerpts on pages 617, 621- 622 that I pulled out of chapters 52 and 53 will make it clearer: 

The Bible may even be regarded as the story of God’s courtship of man….Have you ever realized that the giving of the law was a transaction in which God’s people became engaged with Him?...The law was an engagement paper, an engagement covenant….The law gave the terms for the engagement between God and His people….We may say that the first nineteen chapters of Exodus are chapters in which God was courting, wooing, even “dating” His people. He wanted to be their unique Beloved.  His desire was that the people would love Him and Him alone. Thus, God was the loving One seeking His people’s love (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Exodus. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1980, Print).

      Then brother Lee goes through how the first five commandments show the correlation between a human courtship  and God’s heart in Exodus 20.  Here's my paraphrase:  Just like a young man courting a young woman, God wanted His people to only love Him, and that's why the first commandment says we should have no other gods before Him. In the second command God tells them not to make any graven image and bow down to it.  This is like a man not wanting his fiancee to have any pictures of other men but only his own.

        In the third commandment God tells them they shouldn't take His name in vain.  In the same way that a young man wants his future bride to love and cherish his name, God wants His people to revere His name. When God told His people they needed to remember the Sabbath day, that was an action that separated them just like an engagement ring sets apart a woman for a particular man. Up to that time no people on the face of the earth had ever set apart a day just to worship God.

    I was thinking wow a lot while I was reading through some of these chapters.  And God's intention that His believers be His bride is developed further in the New Testament.  Check out John 3:29-30; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:22-29; and Revelation 21:2. These chapters in the Life-Study of Exodus have helped me to see that throughout all the centuries God's intention has never changed.  He's always been seeking a loving relationship with His redeemed people. 

You can listen to excerpts of this life training and some outstanding commentary by listening to Life-Study of the Bible with Witness Lee on Exodus.

Other Posts on the Life-Study of Exodus:

Why Did God Use So Many Women in Exodus 1 & 2?
Taking a Closer Look at the Conflict Between God and Pharaoh in Exodus 5
What Does the Name Jehovah Mean in Exodus 6:2?
Why Did God Really Send the Manna in Exodus 6?
What is the Meaning of the Bitter Waters at Marah in Exodus 15:23?
How are the 10 Commandments Like God's Engagement Covenant in Exodus 20?
How Can You Keep the 10 Commandments?
Why Did the Israelites Build a Tabernacle in Exodus 25:8?
Taking Another Look at the Priesthood of the Believers in Exodus 19:6
Seeing God's Spiritual Building in Exodus 26 - Part 1 of 1
Seeing God's Spiritual Building in Exodus 26 - Part 2 of 2
Taking a Closer Look at the Tabernacle in Exodus 25 - The Ark
Taking a Closer Look at the Tabernacle in Exodus 25 - The Showbread Table & the Lampstand
Taking a Closer Look at the Tabernacle in Exodus 27 & 30 - The Bronze Altar & Laver
Taking a Closer Look at the Tabernacle in Exodus - The Golden Incense Altar