What I Learned: The Commandments and Ordinances of God

Spoken by God, before the people of Israel, to Moses from the top of the Mountain of God

Have you ever stopped to consider how few were the commandments of God, until He gave the Ten Commandments?

The first command of God was in Genesis, after He made man: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28).

The second command of God was the first to declare a consequence for disobedience: “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16b-17).

It seems there were really no commands of God to all mankind until God gave this charge to Noah and his sons after the flood: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man. As for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it” (Genesis 9:6-7).

Before God declared the covenant of circumcision to Abraham, He did say, “I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly” (Genesis 17:1b-2). Circumcision was the sign of the everlasting covenant where God declared to Abraham He would “be God to you and to your descendants after you” (Genesis 17:7). God revealed His purpose regarding Abraham, “For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him” (Genesis 18:19).

Simultaneously interesting to ponder is how few people God appeared to. I think at this point in our chronological Bible reading, the list is Adam and Eve, Cain, Enoch, Noah, Job, Abraham, Hagar, Isaac, and Jacob. God did warn Abraham that his descendants would be enslaved in Egypt for 400 years (Genesis 15). The last appearance of God was before the Israelites entered Egypt when God reassured Israel (Jacob) that he should go to Egypt with his entire family to dwell there (Genesis 46). After the 400 years of enslavement that occurred after Jacob’s son Joseph, who ruled under Pharaoh, died and a new king arose who did not know Joseph (Exodus 1), God finally appeared again, this time to Moses.

It’s likely the sign of the covenant of circumcision preserved in God’s people the knowledge that He was their God during the years of enslavement in Egypt. But after God sent Moses from exile in Midian to confront Pharaoh in Egypt, He attempted to kill him en route, inspiring Moses’ wife Zipporah to circumcise his son. We don’t have any explanation of this event, but was God punishing Moses for failing to keep the covenant by failing to circumcise his son? We humans are prone to forget. God had provided a means of remembrance important enough to Him that, possibly, He was willing to kill Moses over it. If the commandments to men were so very few at that point, God seemed to take this one very seriously, likely because it symbolized memory of and allegiance to Him.

When God appeared to Moses near Horeb, the mountain of God, He identified Himself according to His people’s last knowledge of Him, the knowledge the sign of circumcision was supposed to preserve, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). Moses anticipated that when he went to tell the sons of Israel about this appearance, they would ask God’s name. “God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM…This is my memorial-name to all generations’” (Exodus 3:14, 15). He later clarified, “I am the Lord; and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, Lord, I did not make Myself known to them” (Exodus 6:2b-3).

God explained all He was about to do to Pharaoh and Egypt in delivering His people would be so that all who witnessed these things would know Who He is (Genesis 6:7, 7:5). All the signs and wonders done in Egypt, ending with the parting of the Red Sea and the killing of Pharaoh and his army in it, were done under the authority of His name. And “[w]hen Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses” (Exodus 14:31).

Within three days of this great final event in their rescue from Pharaoh and Egypt, this “believing” people were complaining because of thirst. God miraculously solved the problem by revelation to Moses. “There He made for them a statute and regulation, and there He tested them. And He said, ‘If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer’” (Exodus 15:25b-26).

When the people soon grumbled because of hunger, “[t]hen the Lord said to Moses, ‘Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they can gather daily’” (Exodus 16:4-5). When the people failed this test, “the Lord said to Moses, ‘How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions?’” (Exodus 16:28).

When the people soon grumbled again because of thirst, and God provided water by having Moses strike the rock at Horeb, Moses named that place after the words “test” and “quarrel,” “because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us, or not?’” (Exodus 17:7).

God provided a dramatic answer to this question. The next month, He appeared in fire and cloud on top of the mountain of God, again at Horeb. This is when He spoke the Ten Commandments and, less commonly discussed, numerous other ordinances.

It’s a marvel to me that God was so patient in revealing His commandments. He did so after He displayed so many signs and wonders that people knew He was God, trustworthy to fulfill His promises, and capable of protection and provision, and those same people demonstrated they were incapable of following even simple commands. He made the commands much more specific and He did it, once again, so dramatically, there was no doubt He was God. He gave His Name as the authority for all of these commands: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2).

We read the Ten Commandments and other ordinances of God in Exodus 20-23 (Day 36 & Day 37 of our chronological reading plan). We are all quite familiar with the Ten Commandments: have no other gods; make no idols; don’t use the Lord’s name in vain; keep the Sabbath holy; honor your parents; do not murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, or covet. We are not so familiar with the ordinances that followed. I counted roughly forty of them.

There are some that, though they are not in the top ten that we know, are simple commands without condition simply based on God being God. Here’s a summary:

           • “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry; and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless” (Exodus 22:21-24)

            • “If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him; you shall not charge him interest. If you ever take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, you are to return it to him before the sun sets, for that is his only covering; it is his cloak for his body. What else shall he sleep in? And it shall come about that when he cries out to Me, I will hear him, for I am gracious” (Exodus 22:25-27)

            • “You shall not curse God, nor curse a ruler of your people” (Exodus 22:28)

            • “You shall not delay the offering from your harvest and your vintage. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to Me. You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep. It shall be with its mother seven days; on the eighth day you shall give it to Me” (Exodus 22:29-30)

            • “You shall be holy men to Me, therefore you shall not eat any flesh torn to pieces in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs” (Exodus 22:31)

            • “You shall not bear a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not follow the masses in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after a multitude in order to pervert justice; nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his dispute” (Exodus 23:1-3)

            • “You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute. Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit the guilty” (Exodus 23:6-7)

            • “You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just” (Exodus 23:8)

            • “You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9)

            • “You shall sow your land for six years and gather in its yield, but on the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove” (Exodus 23:10-12)

            • “Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as your stranger, may refresh themselves” (Exodus 23:12)

            • “Now concerning everything which I have said to you, be on your guard; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth” (Exodus 23:13)

            • “Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me. You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. And none shall appear before Me empty-handed. Also you shall observe the Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field. Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD” (Exodus 23:14-17)

            • “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor is the fat of My feast to remain overnight until morning” (Exodus 23:18)

            • “You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the LORD your God” (Exodus 23:19a)

            • “You are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother” (Exodus 23:19b)

            • “Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My name is in him. But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. For My angel will go before you and bring you in to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will completely destroy them. You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their sacred pillars in pieces. But you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst. There shall be no one miscarrying or barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. I will send My terror ahead of you, and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you. I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land. I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you. You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. They shall not live in your land, because they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you” (Exodus 23:20-33)

The Ten Commandments are separated into commands that deal with our relationship with God and commands that deal with our relationship with other people. The ordinances that God spoke at the same time as the Ten Commandments could be categorized in the same way. There are those, just shared, that are based on God being God. Then there are those which teach us how to handle our relationships with other people. To me, they reveal the heart of a protective God that wants us to treat each other fairly and justly. I just quoted the ordinances that fit the “I am God and I say so” category. Now I’ll summarize those that deal with our relationships with others. In the first category, we deal with God, for the most part, for any infractions. In the second category, He teaches us what penalties to enforce on each other:

• Hebrew slave: shall serve for six years, but go then free; if he has been given a wife and has children, they stay behind; if he does not want to go without them, he can choose to serve permanently (has his ear pierced with an awl as a sign) (Exodus 21:2-6)

• Female slaves: are not to go free as males slaves are; she can be redeemed if her master is displeased with her; if he sells her to his son, she is treated as his daughter; if he takes another woman, her food, clothing, or conjugal rights cannot be reduced, or she gets to go free (Exodus 21:7-11)

• Capital punishment: someone who kills should be put to death; if it is an accident, he may flee; if not an accident, the man may be taken even from God’s altar to be put to death (Exodus 21:12-13)

• ·Striking one’s father or mother: assailant should be put to death (Exodus 21:15)

• Kidnapping: offender should be put to death (Exodus 21:16)

• Cursing parent: offender should be put to death (Exodus 21:17)

• Man who strikes another man in a quarrel: shall pay for his loss of time and shall take care of him until he is completely healed (Exodus 21:18-19)

• Man who strikes his slave with a rod so that he dies: shall be punished if he or she dies immediately; no vengeance if the slave survives a day or two (Exodus 21:20)

• Sorceress: should not be allowed to live (Exodus 22:18)

• Whoever lies with an animal: shall be put to death (Exodus 22:19)

• He who sacrifices to any god, other than to the Lord alone: shall utterly be destroyed (Exodus 22:20)

• Men struggle but strike a pregnant woman: premature birth—>shall be fined as husband demands and pay as judge decides; another further injury:  life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise (Exodus 21:22-25)

• Man strikes slave and causes permanent injury: slave shall go free (Exodus 21:26-27)

• Ox gores someone to death: animal stoned and flesh not eaten; if animal was previously in the habit and owner did not confine it, owner also shall be put to death; owner shall give ransom for lost property/life (Exodus 21:28-32)

• Open pit: if a man opens one or digs one and does not cover it, and an animal falls into it, the owner shall make restitution to the owner of the animal but may keep the animal (Exodus 21:33-34)

• Animal kills another’s animal: sell live animal and divide price between owners and divide the dead animal; if the animal was known to be in the habit of goring and the owner had not confined it, he shall pay for dead animal and it shall become his (Exodus 21:35-36)

• Theft of animal: whether sold or slaughtered, thief pays five oxen for an oxen and four sheep for a sheep; if thief is caught while breaking in and struck so that he dies, no blood guiltiness; if he owns nothing, thief himself is sold; if animal is found in his possession, he shall pay double (Exodus 22:1-4)

• Man lets his field or vineyard be grazed bare and lets animal loose to graze elsewhere: make restitution from best of field and vineyard (Exodus 22:5)

• Starting a fire that causes property damage: starter of fire must make restitution (Exodus 22:6)

• Breach of trust: stolen property: if thief caught, pays double; if thief not caught, owner of house who was keeping property for his neighbor shall appear before judge; whom judge condemns shall pay double to his neighbor (Exodus 22:7-9)

• Lost animal while under care of another: if circumstances unknown, oath of innocence sworn before Lord; if animal stolen, caregivers shall make restitution; if it can be demonstrated that animal was torn to pieces, no restitution needed (Exodus 22:10-13)

• Borrowed possessions: restitution made for injury or death if owner not with it at time of injury or death (Exodus 22:14-15)

• Seducing a virgin who is not engaged: pay dowry (father may or may not agree for her to be man’s wife) (Exodus 22:16-17)

• Wandering animal: return it to its owner; if even the animal of one who hates who lying under a load, release it (Exodus 23:4-5)

God is God. He has proven He is worthy of being obeyed. He has taught us what He expects of us. He has also taught us how to deal justly and fairly with one another, and teaches us to implement consequences if we don’t.