Tikkun Magazine, March/April 2009
The Ten Commandments Should Be Interpreted as Deliverance for the Vulnerable
By Glen Stassen
The headline at the beginning is the key to understanding all ten of the commandments: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery" (Exodus 20:2).
The name of God throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, YHWH or YHVH, is represented in Christian Bibles as "the LORD." That's not a translation; it's a substitute for the holy, unpronounceable name. But what does it mean?
Scholars don't know where the word "YHWH" came from. When they guess its meaning based on the origin of the word, or its connection with Exodus 3:14, variously translated as "I AM WHO I AM" or "I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE" or "I CAUSE TO BE," they offer a variety of suggestions. I propose instead to ascertain its meaning by how it functions in context, in Exodus 3 and 6.
Moses was keeping his father-in-law's flock on the mountain, just minding his own business, when suddenly God gave him a job—to lead the people out of oppression. It wasn't Moses's idea. Moses said: "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh? If they ask me, what is his name, what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I am who I am," and instructed him to say, "YHWH has sent me to you.... This is my name forever, and this is my title for all generations." This revelation of the name of YHWH in Exodus 3 and 6 is so important that three different biblical traditions come together here. We can ask if any clues to the meaning are repeated in all three traditions.
All three traditions say YHWH is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Each got in a jam, and God delivered them. Abraham was about to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Jacob was coming back home after hiding out for fourteen years, afraid his brother, Esau, would kill him. God delivered them, and made a covenant with each of them. Five times God tells Moses he will be faithful to his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 2:25; 3:6; 3:15; 6:3; 6:8). Five times God tells Moses, I will be with you, I will deliver you from the oppression of the Egyptians (3:8, 10, 12, 17; 6:6-8). So God's name connotes "I will be present with you, I will be faithful to my covenant with you, and I will deliver you."
Five times Exodus 3 and 6 tell us God experiences the suffering of the oppressed with compassion: "Their cry for help rose up to God and God heard their groaning ... and God took notice of them.... I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings" (Ex 2:23-25; 3:7; 3:9; 3:16; 6:5). So God's name also means "I am present to hear the cries of the oppressed and see their misery, and I know their sufferings with compassion."
Moses removes his shoes, for this is holy ground. And he hides his face, for he is afraid to look at God. YHWH is mighty and majestic; holy both in the sense of having compassion for the oppressed and delivering them, and in the sense of having the might to deliver them. We notice that when the psalms address YHWH, they often say, "Hear me," "Do not turn your back on me," "Have compassion on me," "Deliver me." It seems clear that YHWH connotes the One who hears our cries, sees our needs with compassion, and brings deliverance to those in need. Or as the prophet Isaiah often says, "the holy One of Israel, our Deliverer."
We are delivered from legalism and self-righteousness if we interpret each commandment not as a legalistic rule based on an authoritarian God. They are based on a delivering, compassionate God:
You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.
People in the ancient culture didn't think those idols were literally gods. They thought the idols symbolized the character of the gods. The point is that the character of YHWH is revealed in the Exodus. The antidote against idolatry is to say God is revealed in the Exodus, not in some idol.
You shall not misuse the name of YHWH your God.
As Jesus interprets this commandment in Matthew 5:33-37, it concerns swearing by heaven (a stand-in for the name of YHWH), or by some other holy thing to deceive someone into believing you are telling the truth or will carry out a promise. It uses the name of YHWH—who cares especially about the vulnerable—in order to make someone trust you and become a victim of deceit.
Remember the Sabbath day, by keeping it holy.
Exodus 23:12 states the reason unmistakably: "Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien [immigrant] may be refreshed." The reason is rest for the weary, especially the powerless weary, most vulnerable to exploitation.
Honor your father and your mother.
The Ten Commandments were given primarily to adults whose parents were elderly, who did not have social security, who were dependent and vulnerable to abuse by their offspring's greed. How you treat your elderly parents is probably a measure of how you treat orphans, widows, immigrants, and the poor.
You shall not kill.
Can there be any question that the potential victims of murder are vulnerable and in need of deliverance?
You shall not commit adultery.
The adultery of a married man with a married woman victimizes two marriages, and their community. Anyone who has been the victim of adultery committed by his or her spouse knows the pain of this breach of trust, loyalty, and deep covenant with the spouse and with God.
You shall not steal.
By contrast with the Texas man who murdered two burglars as they tried to enter his neighbor's house, despite urging by the 911 operator to wait for the police to arrive, and by contrast with our market-driven culture of possessive individualism, the Bible places a much higher value on persons than on property. The penalty for killing was death, but not for stealing. But being robbed is nevertheless an experience of being victimized.
You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
The context is a legal trial, and your neighbor will be unjustly victimized if you bear false witness against her or him.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house, wife, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
To focus your desire on how you can steal from your neighbor is to violate the core nature of YHWH, who will hear their cries, come to deliver them, and bring you to judgment.
Conclusion
The Ten Commandments are not arbitrary commands. They are unified by their heading—the character of YHWH, whose name means: "I am present with you to hear the cries of the oppressed and see their misery and know their sufferings with compassion. I will be faithful to my covenant with you, and I will deliver you." YHWH is compassionate and mighty. This can connect for Christians: The name of Jesus is the Hebrew, Yeshua or Joshuah. It means YHWH delivers. Jesus heard the cries of the outcasts, the poor, the dominated, the victims of violence, and acted to deliver.
So when some politician pushes to put the Ten Commandments in a government building, you ask whether that politician is an advocate of an ideology or party that stands for deliverance of the weak and vulnerable from oppression by the privileged and authoritarian, or whether that politician is an advocate of an ideology or party that stands for the privileged, the wealthy, and the authoritarian, in their victimizing of the poor, the immigrants, the weak.
Glen Harold Stassen is the Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary. His Kingdom Ethics won the Christianity Today award for best book of 2004 in theology or ethics.
Source Citation
Stassen, Glen. 2009. The Ten Commandments Should Be Interpreted as Deliverance for the Vulnerable. Tikkun 24(2): 22.
