The Bride and the Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments continue to be important to us 3500 years after God gave them to Israel because they frame our response to the marriage covenant that God entered into with Israel and that Christ forms with the church. Living as the wife of God in the Old Testament and the bride of Christ in the New Testament produces changed behavior in the bride in response to the nature of her husband. The Ten Commandments (or “Words”), are spoken by a husband [God] to his wife [Israel] and express how God and his wife will live together because of who he is—his nature, character and works.

God first announces the marriage covenant in Exodus 6:7 when God declares that he will free the people from bondage and will take Israel for his wife. God tells Israel, “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.” This is the form of an Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) marriage covenant— “I will be your husband and you will be my wife.”

The Exodus 6 text continues with God promising to bring his bride to a home in the Promised Land. The purpose of this home is so that God might dwell there with his bride. After the covenant is consummated in Exodus 24, God gives Moses the detailed plans for the tabernacle as the place, “that I might dwell among them.”1 God desires to dwell with his people, as a husband dwells with his wife and loves and cares for her; communing with her in intimacy—each knowing and loving the other.

But Israel was not willing to be a faithful wife. Her sin is described sometimes graphically in Scripture as prostituting and adulterating herself after other lovers. God accuses both the Northern and Southern kingdoms of adultery saying, “Return, faithless people…for I am your husband” (Jer 3:14). God speaks through the prophet Isaiah saying, “For your Maker is your husband—the LORD Almighty is his name….” (Is 54:5); and “I was a husband to them, declares the Lord…” (Jer 31:32).

God speaks at length of his marriage to Israel in Ezekiel 16 describing the covenant he made and the lavish, tender care and blessing he gave to his bride. But Israel turned away from her husband and committed adultery. God says, “You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband.”2 She even sacrificed God’s children to idols, “You took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was your prostitution not enough? You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols.”3

God tells Hosea to go and marry the prostitute, Gomer, and when she commits adultery, to buy her back as a living illustration of God’s forgiving, redeeming love for his sinful wife, Israel.

The giving of the Ten Words follows Exodus 19 and the tender statement of God’s action in freeing the people from slavery and his invitation for them to be joined with him forever. God asks Israel for her hand in marriage. It is not a coerced request because Israel has already been freed from her bondage in Egypt. It is a statement of God’s love for her, his choosing of her, and a request that she choose him and bind herself to him. God says,

You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession….”4

Israel willingly, even eagerly, accepts God’s marriage proposal and answers, “We will do everything Yahweh has said” (Ex. 19:8). This is Israel’s “Declaration of Intent.” Wedding ceremonies performed today that use the Book of Common Worship still include a “Declaration of Intent” in which both the bride and groom affirm their “desire and intention to enter the covenant.” The minister asks, “John, understanding that God has created, ordered, and blessed the covenant of marriage, do you affirm your desire and intention to enter this covenant?” John says “I do.” Then the same question is asked of Mary and she also states her intent. This statement of willingness to enter into the marriage covenant precedes the vows and shows that neither the bride nor groom has been coerced.

After Israel states her willingness to enter into this marriage covenant with Yahweh, the nation consecrates itself—sets itself apart—in preparation for the marriage ceremony. Then the marriage takes place. This first Word is the marriage covenant vow—”I am the LORD your God or “I am Yahweh your husband.” This is a shortened version of the full formulaic ANE marriage covenant language promised in Exodus 6, “I will be your God and you will be my people”— “I will be your husband and you will be my wife.” The longer version appears almost 50 times in the Old and New Testaments.5 The relationship between God and his people, Yahweh and his bride, is one of revelation and response, action and thanksgiving, giving love and responding in love.

Interestingly, Yahweh’s words to Israel that “[I] brought you to myself” are echoed in Jesus’ statement to the disciples at the last supper when he compares himself to the bridegroom who is going to prepare a place for his bride and then he will “come again and receive you to Myself.”6

The purpose of this marriage covenant is two-fold. First, it is so that Yahweh might dwell with his bride in communion and fellowship. Yahweh gives his bride a home in the Promised Land and he gives Moses instructions on building the tabernacle where he will dwell with his people.

Second, this marriage union with God will transform Israel. As Israel comes to “know” her husband, and responds to his character and actions, she will become like the One she loves. God describes this process of transformation negatively through Hosea the prophet when Israel chases after idols, “they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved.”7

Scripture records the sad decline of Israel into adultery as Israel joined herself to the pagan gods of the neighboring nations. The story is not finished however, God promises through Jeremiah the prophet to make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah in Jeremiah 31:32-33. As the New Testament opens, the Gospel writer John explains that the One who was in the beginning with God and is God, has now come in flesh to “dwell among us.” Jesus came so that the bride might “know” her husband.

Jesus identifies himself as the bridegroom in Matthew 9:15 and John refers to Jesus as the bridegroom in John 3:29. At the last supper, Jesus comforts his disciples with a glimpse of the future. He identifies himself with the bridegroom in a Jewish marriage rite telling his disciples, “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”8 In a Jewish marriage rite, the man becomes engaged and then goes back to his father’s house to add on a room for he and his bride to dwell in together. When the room is finished he comes to take his bride to his father’s house where they will live together.

Paul explicitly teaches that Christ is the bridegroom of the church and gave his life for her in Ephesians 5. And John sees the heavens part in Revelation at the end of the age and is shown the marriage of the Lamb.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.… ‘Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’9

The consummation of all history occurs when God dwells with his bride in the home he provides, the new Jerusalem. John sees a new heaven and a new earth,

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling [tabernacle] of God is with men, and he will live [tabernacle] with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’10

Finally, salvation history is complete. The marriage has taken place as the marriage covenant is once again repeated, “They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God.” The bride now dwells with her husband and every hindrance and sin is removed. The husband gives his bride a new home in the new Jerusalem where they will dwell together. And the promise of Genesis is restored. The bride is in the image of her husband and rules over creation with him forever.

The Ten Words have not changed since the Old Testament because God’s character and intent have not changed. The Words still reveal God’s nature, character and works. And our response should be as a wife to her husband. Now, however, in the new covenant, God has sent his Spirit to dwell in us to know God and be able to respond to him.

The First Word, “You shall have no other gods before me,” restates the absolute singular devotion of this marriage covenant. There can be no husbands “besides me” for God is a jealous husband and rightly so. God is Israel’s true husband who saved her, provided for her, healed her, gave her a home. He is the one who loves her. If Israel gives her love to an idol, she gives to another the loyalty and devotion that belong to Yahweh alone and she breaks the marriage covenant.

The Second and Third Words expound on the first. You are to love your husband Yahweh exclusively by not elevating idols to Yahweh’s position as husband. You shall not take God’s name in vain, and thereby lower Yahweh’s name and character to the level of useless idol. We are to know the living God as he truly is. We are not to imagine God as something we create nor are we to deny who he is by using his name falsely.

The Fourth Word to remember the Sabbath calls us to remember the power of God to create and rule and therefore we are to rest from our striving. To refuse to enter into rest is to profane God’s name by denying his ability to provide for all our needs. Our refusal to rest makes an idol of work as if our efforts will redeem and sustain us. Both work and rest are a gift of our loving husband. Both are to be enjoyed and entered into as we conform ourselves to his image.

In the Fifth Word, we honor our parents because they are God’s instruments of life-bearing. Duke University professor Stanley Hauerwas writes that, “our belly button keeps reminding us that all we have and all we are is a gift.”11 Our parents were our first teachers of God’s love, will and work. To reject this Word is to make an idol of self. We misuse God’s name when we deny that God is the author of life and claim we are monarchs over our own lives, grateful to no one, unfettered by any bonds or ties.

The Sixth Word not to murder acknowledges that all life belongs to God. Human life bears the image of God and to destroy life profanes his name. The corollary is that we make an idol of power. Absolute power is ultimate control even over life itself. The Seventh Word forbids adultery which includes every kind of sexual immorality. Because marriage is an image of God’s relationship with Israel and Christ’s with the church, to destroy human marriage is to profane God’s name. To commit adultery is to make an idol of pleasure.

The Eight Word not to steal calls us to be content with all that our loving husband has provided for us. To steal is to say that either God does not own all that exists and therefore cannot distribute it as he chooses, or that he is not attentive and loving toward his bride and therefore will not supply her needs. To steal is to profane God’s name by denying his loving care for us. To break the Eighth commandment is to make an idol of possessions.

The Ninth Word not to bear false witness calls us to live as our beloved husband lives with us—in truth. We are to be assured that the sovereign Creator, our husband, rules over every circumstance. We blaspheme his name when we deny the world as it really is and instead create our own reality. God spoke and created reality. To lie is to make an idol of our intellect as if our thoughts and words can create a different truth.

The Tenth Word not to covet is a summary of the nine and calls us to recognize that all acts of idolatry begin with coveting what God has not given us. To love our husband, God, is to praise him for his blessings to us— his care and provision and mercy. To reject our husband is to blaspheme his name with our ingratitude as if his care and love have been inadequate to meet our needs and bring us joy.

The Ten Words frame our response to God’s marriage relationship with us. They also teach us about the meaning of human marriage covenants. Even though marriages today are egalitarian, the Ten Words teach us how a relationship in which God joins a man and a woman and makes them one looks and is lived out. In marriage, the man and woman are no longer autonomous individuals but have been joined into one. Human marriage between a man and a woman is to be an image of Christ’s union with the church.

This article first appeared in Theology Matters, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Jan/Feb 2007).