(REFLECTIONS ON Deuteronomy 5:1-22)

Although most of the people that were gathered together to hear Moses declare the Ten Commandments in their hearing were not alive during the time when the commandments were first declared on Mount Sinai (Horeb), yet what is interesting is that Moses doesn’t just address those that were in the past, who were present in the first hearing.

Moses also doesn’t refer to the covenant that the Lord made with Israel, as if this covenant was made just with their ancestors, those that were once alive, and now are gone. However, Moses says, “The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.” Although this covenant was made in the past, with a people of the past, yet what was spoken in the past is also relevant and for the present.

Moses said, “It was not with our ancestors that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.” This is a powerful message, that what happened on Mount Sinai wasn’t just for the people present at that time, but for Israel at this time, and for all time.

The Ten Commandments were delivered to Moses
and to the people in time and space,
but they were for all of Israel, spanning across time and space.

This also reminds us that our connection with Jesus is not just through those disciples that walked and talked with Jesus in the past, but Jesus speaking to His disciples, is also speaking with us, with all of us who are alive here today.

Jesus Christ did not just die on the cross for those that were alive at that time, and in that space, but His death on the cross was for all the world, spanning across time and space. In Christ, we are connected to God, not just with the brothers and sisters that we see each week at church, but with all the saints, across time and space that had believed, now believe, and will believe.

Jesus Christ and His words are yesterday, today, and forever.

In the same way, the message of the saints, the writers of Scripture, although for a specific people during a specific time, addressing specific problems in the church, also are relevant for us as well. When we read Paul’s letter to the Corinthians regarding Jesus’ establishment of the Lord’s Supper, this isn’t just for them, but for us as well.

It is a reminder that when we participate in worship, in reading of God’s Word, and in Holy Communion, that it is not just a relationship established with the disciples of the past, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today. Let us read 1 Corinthians 11 again with that perspective and that sense of unity with the Lord and with all the saints:

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy 5