Why Study the Ten Commandments - Part Four

The Ten Commandments were not punishment given to the people of Israel, but
God's love letter to them. That's been our point over the past few blogs. We ended the last blog by quoting the chapter just before God gave the Ten Commandments. We read from Exodus 19:3-6. In particular, I want to point out this thought: God said, "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to Myself." Whereas, God dealt harshly and in anger with the Egyptians, God acted in love toward the Israelites. Like an eagle, He swooped down and carried them away from their oppressors.

But what does God mean when He says, "I bore you on eagle's wings?" If you were a regular reader of Ranger Rick magazine, you'd understand. The mother eagle would make a huge nest high in the top of a tree - sometimes all of eight feet across. She would fill the nest with leaves and animal fur, and even her own down, so it would be nice and cozy for the little eagle - for awhile anyway. But when the time was right, she would make things very uncomfortable for little eagle.

The mother eagle would pick up her fledgling and carry him into the sky to dizzying heights. We're talking about nose-bleed elevation. Then she would drop him. Down, down, down he plummets. He's never flown before. Life has been comfortable, with every care met. But now there is nothing to keep him from smashing on the ground far below except his own two little untried wings, and he's never been to flight school. Surely this story is going to have a tragic ending, the little eagle thinks.

Well, not so fast. Mother eagle has been watching, and what does she do? Just before that little eagle crashes into the ground, she swoops down under him and catches him. "Oh, Thank God!" he shouts. Then his mother flies him back up to the stratosphere only to drop him all over again, and again, and again, until finally he gets it and takes off flying.

We too were headed for a crash. We were dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1) and without hope and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12). Then Christ swooped down to rescue us and give us new life and sustain us every day. Israel was the Old Testament example of that. They were dead as a nation, without hope in bondage in Egypt, when God rescued them, cared for them, and sustained them. And now, He has a plan to direct their steps, their conduct, as they learn to try out their new wings and live as His special people. So God gives them these rules.

Doesn't every good father do that? We, as dads, are a lot wiser than our children. We know there are some things in this sin damaged and cursed world that are so dangerous, so devastatingly shattering to our lives, that we want to protect our children from them. So we set rules. "Don't play in the road. Don't talk to strangers. Eat your vegetables. Stay out of the medicine cabinet." Do you see what I'm saying?

God feels the same way. He sets down rules that, if we follow them, will give us a better life and protect us from the dangers that are out there. And who can doubt that if we keep the Ten Commandments faithfully that our life would be better?