All Days
Use these resources to help pray specifically each day.
The Ten Commandments need to be understood within the context they were originally given to be able to appreciate their meaning and transformational relevance for every society.
For the sake of brevity, I have summarised them below contrasting the context of slavery in Egypt and the paradigm for a just and free society that YAWHEH was proclaiming from Mount Sinai.[1]
| CONTEXT OF EGYPT | COMMANDMENT | CONTEXT OF THE SINAI | |
| 1 | The children of Abraham had lived under a tyrannical Pharaoh who claimed to be god and did not know YAHWEH, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. | I am the Lord who brought you out of Egypt. Have no other gods before my face. | The children of Abraham were to perceive, trust and obey the LORD, the one who saved and led them out of slavery and not fear or obey any other power or authority. |
| 2 | Egypt was full of lifeless gods and graven images that did not save people or help them to live creative responsible lives but kept them in bondage to Pharaoh’s oppressive system of exploitation. | Do not make graven images. | The children of Abraham were to live in a trusting relationship with the compassionate, just, true and ethically moral LORD instead of trusting in man-made gods and superstition. |
| 3 | Pharaoh and Egypt had built a name for themselves through their power, wealth, and might by controlling and exploiting people, their gods, and the natural environment. | Do not misuse my Name. | Through Exodus, the children of Abraham learn that is was through the mighty name of YAHWEH that the corrupt and exploitive gods of Egypt were judged and found wanting, that they were delivered from bondage, that the enemies that pursued them were destroyed, that their sicknesses were healed, their thirst quenched, their bellies filled and the laws that preserve life were given. They were forbidden to misuse His powerful name for malevolent or frivolous purposes. |
| 4 | Egypt demanded unrelenting labour imposed upon the children of Abraham to further its wealth and power. | Do no work on the Sabbath. | YAHWEH commands rest for all one day in seven, specifically for servants, maidservants, and animals. |
| 5 | Egypt demanded allegiance to the Pharaoh, the state, and the taskmasters who used whips to enforce obedience. | Honour your father and your mother. | YAHWEH commanded a free society to be structured around extended family households where people’s parents were to be honoured before Pharaoh. |
| 6 | Egypt murdered at will even throwing the Israelite boy children into the Nile. | Do not murder | YAHWEH commanded such unlawful killing to stop. |
| 7 | Egypt exploited the Israelites economically stealing their time, their bodies, their labour, and the benefits of their labour. | Do not steal | YAWHEH commanded all such stealing to stop and for people to be apportioned their own plot of land from which they could produce wealth and be protected from greed and exploitation of the rich and powerful. |
| 8 | In Egypt, masters could take a slave girl at will, violating her, her husband, and her family. | Do not commit adultery | YAHWEH commanded such exploitation of women to stop enabling them to build stable loving/faithful relationships and families. |
| 9 | In Egypt, people were victims of massive social injustice where the rich and powerful were a law unto themselves falsely accusing the weak and vulnerable for personal gain. | Do not accuse falsely | YAHWEH commanded that all people, no matter their station in life, be protected from being falsely accused, particularly in the law courts. |
| 10 | Egypt and Pharaoh had an insatiable desire for more buildings, more labour, with poorer working conditions. | Do not covet | YAHWEH commanded that even the desire to possess the bodies and property of others should stop. |
Reflection
List your top ten rules for life.
Which are self-centred and which are focused on building and protecting just and compassionate communities where relationships between humans and relationships with the environment can creativity flourish?
Prayer
Thank the Lord for his liberating laws that reveal his compassion and justice for all, especially the vulnerable.
Thank the Lord for leaders and administrators who understand the heart and laws of God and tirelessly labour to see them established in law throughout the legislative and in practice throughout the judiciary.
Pray for forgiveness wherever we make faith a personal affair and ignore the purposes of God to bring his kingdom Truth, grace and Spirit to every nation and sphere of society.
Pray for President Sisi and his government to receive the wisdom and council to make and uphold just laws for all the people in Egypt.
Please pray for families, churches, schools, universities, businesses and institutions in the Sinai to be sent followers of Christ so that they may grow in the principles and practices of the Kingdom of God.
[1] Exodus 20:1-17.
Use these resources to help pray specifically each day.
