Weightier Matters Beneath the 10 Commandments

Reflection Questions

• What’s the significance of God uttering “10 words” both in Genesis 1’s creation narrative and Exodus 20’s covenant ceremony? What do these two events have in common?

• How do the 10 Words represent life and death, as well as blessing and curse (Deut. 30:15-20)?

• In what ways do the Gospels show Jesus interpreting the laws of the Torah as wisdom literature?

• Paul calls Jesus “the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:30). How does Jesus embody God’s wisdom found in the 10 Words?

Chapter 1: Building a Moral Universe

In Scripture, the 10 Commandments are actually called the 10 Words, or aseret haddevarim (Exod. 34:27-28; Deut. 4:12-13; 10:1-5). And because there are more than 10 commands in them, it’s better to think of them as the “10 Matters.” These matters create a moral framework for us to world-build within, where we can “flip over” each command to see its deeper wisdom. In Genesis 1, God utters 10 words to build the cosmos, and that’s matched in Exodus 20 with his 10 words to build a moral universe.

Chapter 2: Wisdom Leading to Life

The 10 Words are aimed at instilling wisdom in God’s people. In Deuteronomy 4:1, Moses refers to them as “statutes and just rules.” “Statutes” in Hebrew is khuqqim, which literally means inscribed or etched in stone. And “just rules” is mishpatim, which means actions someone undertakes to create a situation of right relationships in a community. Moses says that the people must observe the 10 Words diligently as their wisdom for discerning good and bad, so that the nations around will see it and then honor their God as wise and good (Deut. 4:5-6).

Later in his speech, Moses calls the skies and land (meaning the whole cosmos) as witnesses against Israel that he’s placed life and death, blessing and curse, before them in the form of the 10 Words and all the proceeding laws (Deut. 30:15-20). Moses is not telling Israel to just keep the rules; he is exhorting them to live in tune with reality and the moral order of the universe.

Chapter 3: Biblical Laws as Wisdom, Justice, Mercy, and Love

The first time the Bible talks about someone acting as a judge is with Moses and Israel in Exodus 18:13-26. Moses alone is acting as a judge for all the people. His father-in-law Jethro advises him to simply act as mediator between God and the people, and then to appoint wise and discerning men to administer justice for the people. These same words for “wise” and “discerning” are what Moses uses to describe all the laws in Deuteronomy 4. The laws of the Torah, therefore, are not intended as a comprehensive law code, but rather an internal hyperlinking system of case studies connected to values found in the 10 Words. For example, the sixth command, “Do not kill,” feels very broad (Exod. 20:13). But its values get worked out as wisdom in a number of case studies in Exodus 21-23.

We actually see Jesus treating the laws of the Torah as wisdom (rather than stark rules) with the woman caught in adultery in John 8:1-11. Jesus admonishes the woman to sin no more, but ultimately values mercy over carrying out the capital punishment taught in Leviticus 20:10.

In another example, Jesus allows his disciples to pluck grain from a field on the Sabbath, even after the Pharisees remind him that this breaks the 4th Commandment (Matt. 12:1-8). Jesus responds with the story of David’s men eating priestly bread on the Sabbath (1 Sam. 21:1-6) and his point is that satisfying someone’s hunger is equal in value to resting on the Sabbath. Further, Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for caring more about the letter of the law than God’s khesed, or loyal love (Hos. 6:6).

To Jesus, the heavier matters of justice, mercy, faithfulness, and love are most important, and these values are what all the Torah’s laws point to (Matt. 23:23). Jesus is not innovating here, but he is carrying forward a tradition of seeing all the commands as facets of a diamond, pointing to a common core of wisdom.

Chapter 4: Jesus as the Embodiment of Wisdom

The Apostle Paul says that Jesus “became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). When properly understood as wisdom, the Torah’s laws are also all those things. And Pauls says that Jesus embodies all those things on the cross when he forgives his enemies. All the laws boil down to love, and Jesus’ life and death perfectly embody love. He is the embodiment of God’s wisdom and also the one who fulfills the law of love. And we find true life and wisdom by joining our lives to his through baptism, life with his people, the Holy Spirit, the Lord’s Supper, and the reading of Scripture. Together with Jesus, we can become people of wisdom.