This month we start a new series in our  Scriptural Thought for the Month on the Ten Commandments.

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Deuteronomy 5:6).

When I am out doing door-to-door in the area around the church my first words will often be “hi, my name’s Keith, I’m from the church down the road”. This tells people who I am where I come from and probably a hint about what my business is. God does pretty much the same as a prologue to the Ten Commandments. In verse 6 God introduces himself in a quite clear and concise way which tells us much about him and his nature.

In it God draws attention to three things. Firstly, he is: ‘the LORD your God.’ There is much that could be written about this verse and this title, but the key thing here is that the Lord is to be their personal God as he has made himself known to them. So this establishes the relationship between God and his people. Meredith Kline makes the point that this introduction corresponds with the preamble that is found in many of the ancient near eastern  Vassal Treaties of that time: ‘which identified the zuzerain, or great King.’[1]

Secondly, he had made himself known by bringing them: ‘out of the land of Egypt.’  He had by this action made himself known to the Israelites. The third thing is that they had been brought: ‘out of the house of slavery.’ In other words, he had redeemed and rescued them before he had asked anything of them, something people often forget when talking about the Ten Commandments! So if they were now free people it was purely because of what God had done for them!

When we were doing door to door at my first church if people were not in we would leave a calling card that gave them all the details of who we were and where we were from. So this short but concise introduction is, in effect, Gods ‘calling card’. This is the introduction of a powerful God who has revealed himself and has acted for the benefit of the people he has chosen to care for. So here we are reminded of a theme that runs throughout the book of Deuteronomy, and that is God’s love and care for his people.

Often when I am speaking to people when I am doing door-to-door, in the area around the church I Pastor, people say to me “well, my view of God is” and then proceed to tell me what ‘their’ god is like and how he should behave. But God has introduced himself to us far more thoroughly and clearly than that in the way he speaks here and in other parts of the Old and New Testament. We also see a wonderfully clear example in the Lord Jesus Christ of what God is like. We really do not have to grope around in the dark to try and work out for ourselves what God is like, or limit him by our own likes and dislikes. He can be found anywhere in the Bible in his full glory!  So why look anywhere else?

[1] Meredith G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King, The Covenant Structure of Deuteronomy (Eugene, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2012 [formerly 1963])  14.