Exodus 20: The Ten Commandments and the Fear of the Lord
I was helping my son build a birdhouse last weekend. Nothing fancy. Just a box with a hole in it, some scrap cedar, a handful of nails. He wanted to wing it. I pulled out a piece of graph paper and sketched the dimensions. He asked why we could not just start cutting.
I told him the blueprint is not the boss of you. It is the thing that keeps the roof from caving in.
That is the closest I can get to what the Ten Commandments are. They are not a list of restrictions handed down by a distant authority. They are the structural requirements for a life that does not collapse under its own weight. And in Exodus 20, God gives them directly to Israel at Sinai.
The Meaning of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20
The chapter opens with a statement that matters more than most people give it credit for.
I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
God does not start with the rules. He starts with the relationship. I saved you and I brought you out, so now here is how you live as my people.
The law came after the deliverance, not before it. That is the order of the gospel. Grace first, then instruction. The commandments are not a ladder you climb to reach God. They are the guardrails that keep you on the path after he has already set you on it.
The first four commandments deal with our relationship with God. No other gods, no graven images, no taking his name lightly, and remember the Sabbath. The last six deal with our relationship with each other. Honor your parents, protect life, keep marriage sacred, respect other people's property, tell the truth, and learn to be content with what you have.
Jesus would later summarize the whole thing into two commands: love God and love your neighbor. But the ten are the working drawings. They show you what love looks like in specific situations.
Why Did the Israelites Fear God at Mount Sinai
The setting is hard to imagine. Thunder, lightning, a thick cloud, a trumpet blast that got louder and louder. The mountain itself was smoking. The people saw it and backed away.
And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
They were terrified. But Moses tells them something important.
And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.
There are two kinds of fear in that verse. The first is the kind the people felt when the mountain started shaking. That is the fear of being harmed. Moses tells them not to feel that one. The second is the fear that keeps you from sinning. That is reverence. A recognition of who you are standing in front of.
I felt something like that once. I was flying a helicopter through a narrow canyon in southern Utah. The walls were close on both sides, and the light was coming through at an angle that made the whole place look like it was lit from inside. I was not scared of crashing. I was scared of being in a place that felt too big for me. That is the kind of fear Moses is talking about. It does not make you run. It makes you pay attention.
I wrote about a similar idea in Exodus 19: What It Means to Be a Peculiar Treasure and a Kingdom of Priests. The people had been told they were a chosen nation, a kingdom of priests. Now they were standing in the presence of the God who chose them, and the reality of it hit.
I also think about what Paul wrote in Romans 7: The Law Reveals Sin but Cannot Save; Paul Describes the Inward Struggle. The law shows you what is wrong, but it cannot fix you. The Israelites felt that same problem at Sinai. They saw the law and knew they could not keep it perfectly. That is why they needed a mediator.
How to Apply the Ten Commandments in Modern Life
The commandments feel old, and they are old. But they are not outdated.
The first commandment says no other gods, and that one hits closer to home than I would like. I bow to my phone and my work more than I bow to God. I bow to the idea that if I just get enough done, I will finally feel okay. That is a god I serve. It is not the one who brought me out of Egypt.
The fourth commandment says remember the Sabbath. I am bad at this. I work on Sundays more than I should, but when I actually keep it, something shifts. The week stops feeling like a treadmill and starts feeling like a rhythm. The commandment is not about being rigid. It is about remembering that the world keeps spinning without your help.
The tenth commandment says do not covet. That one is the hardest because it is the only one that deals entirely with what happens inside your head. You can keep all the others on the outside and still lose on this one. Coveting is the root of most of the other sins. You covet, so you steal, you lie, you break the marriage covenant.
I have found that the commandments work best when I stop treating them as a checklist and start treating them as a diagnostic. When something in my life is not working, one of these ten is usually the reason.
The Difference Between Fear of the Lord and Terror
The people at Sinai thought they were going to die, and I can understand why. God had to show them his power so they would understand who they were dealing with. But the goal was never to terrify them into submission. The goal was to give them a healthy respect that would keep them from wandering off.
Verse 20 says it plainly. The fear was meant to be before their faces so they would not sin. It is the same reason I teach my kids that the stove is hot. I do not want them to be afraid of the kitchen. I want them to know there are real consequences for touching certain things.
The fear of the Lord in the Old Testament is not about cowering. It is about taking God seriously enough to let his instructions shape your life. That kind of fear leads to wisdom, not hiding.
The Importance of the Sabbath in Exodus 20
The Sabbath commandment takes up more verses than any of the others. That alone tells you something.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God.
The reason given is creation itself. God rested on the seventh day, and he hallowed it. The Sabbath is not a break from work. It is a return to the pattern of creation. It is a reminder that you are a creature, not the Creator. You need rest because you were designed for it.
I have a rule in my shop. I do not run power tools when I am tired. The mistakes are too expensive, and the injuries are permanent. The Sabbath is the same principle applied to your whole life. Stop running the tools for one day and let the wood sit. You come back fresh.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did God give the Ten Commandments after he already rescued Israel from Egypt?
The law was given as a way to live in covenant with the God who had already saved them. Grace came first. The commandments are the instructions for how a holy people stay holy. They are not the way to earn salvation. They are the way to keep it.
What does it mean to fear the Lord in Exodus 20?
It means reverence and awe, a serious respect for who God is. This is not the fear of being harmed by a cruel deity. It is the kind of respect that keeps you from making choices you know are wrong. Moses tells the people to let the fear of God keep them from sin instead of being afraid.
Is the commandment against coveting still relevant today?
More than ever. In a culture built on comparison and consumption, coveting is the engine that drives most of our unhappiness. The commandment is not just about not wanting your neighbor's stuff. It is about learning to be content with what you have. That is a skill you have to practice.
How do the Ten Commandments apply to Christians today?
Jesus summarized them into two: love God and love your neighbor. The ten are the working details of those two commands. They show you what love looks like in specific situations. They are not obsolete. They are the structural blueprint for a life built on love.
I finished the birdhouse with my son. It is not square, the roof gapes on one side, and he does not care. He hung it in the maple tree and checked it every morning for a week.
The blueprint did not make the birdhouse perfect. It just kept us from making something that would fall apart. That is what the Ten Commandments do. They keep you from falling apart even when they cannot make you perfect.
-- D.