How the Ten Commandments Transformed the Lives of a Formerly Enslaved People

The Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5 reveal how Israel was to live after being delivered from slavery in Egypt. Before giving any commands, God first declared that he was the LORD who had brought Israel out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. This chapter shows how a people who remembered that deliverance were to live before God and with one another.

The covenant was for the people who were alive then

Moses summoned all Israel and told them to hear the statutes and ordinances. They were not merely to listen, but to learn them and faithfully follow them. The covenant made at Horeb was not simply a story from the past that applied only to their ancestors. Moses said that it was made “with all of us who are alive here today.”

The words Israel heard were not meant to remain a record of the past. They were a covenant to be learned and practiced by the living generation. That is why the command in verse 1 to “hear,” “learn,” and “follow” is echoed again in verses 32 and 33. They were not to turn aside to the right or to the left, but to walk in all the ways the LORD had commanded them.

God spoke of deliverance before giving commands

God began the Ten Commandments by reminding Israel that he had brought them out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Israel was to have no other gods besides the God who had delivered them. They were not to make any image and bow down to it or worship it, nor were they to misuse the name of the LORD.

These commands made it clear whose word was to guide Israel’s life. Because God was the one who had brought them out of slavery, they could not serve other gods or images of their own making. Loving God was not presented as a vague feeling. Verse 10 speaks of loving God and keeping his commandments together.

On the Sabbath, servants rested alongside their masters

Israel was to do all its work for six days and keep the seventh day as a Sabbath to the LORD. On that day, rest was not reserved for the head of the household. Sons and daughters, male and female servants, oxen, donkeys, all livestock, and foreigners residing within their towns were also to rest. God specifically commanded that male and female servants be allowed to rest just as their masters did.

The reason was closely connected to Israel’s own history of slavery in Egypt. God had brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, Sabbath rest that remembered their former slavery could not be merely a day of personal rest. It was a day when they were to extend the same rest to everyone under their care.

The commandments kept Israel from harming its neighbors

The command to honor one’s parents is followed by prohibitions against murder, adultery, theft, and false testimony. Israel was also forbidden to covet a neighbor’s wife, house, field, servants, livestock, or anything else belonging to that neighbor. The commandments set boundaries not only against taking or harming through outward actions, but even against coveting what belonged to someone else.

The Ten Commandments did not separate worshiping God from treating people rightly. A people who had no other gods were also to honor their parents and refrain from violating their neighbors’ lives, relationships, and property. Life after Egypt could not return to a system in which masters rested while the vulnerable continued to work, or in which people coveted and seized what belonged to their neighbors.

The promise to listen had to become a life of continued obedience

The people heard God’s voice from the fire and were afraid. They told Moses to listen to everything God said and then report it to them, promising that they would listen and obey. God affirmed their response, yet he also desired that they would always have hearts that feared him and kept all his commands.

It was not enough to say once, “We will obey.” Moses was to teach the commands, statutes, and ordinances, and the people were to put them into practice in the promised land. One practical step you can take today is to read Deuteronomy 5 again and mark the recurring calls to “hear and obey” and to “remember that you were slaves.” This will help you see more clearly how the Ten Commandments shape the worship, rest, family relationships, and treatment of neighbors among a people who have been redeemed.