From Commandment to Intimacy

Deuteronomy 5:6-10 (NASB95)
6 'I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
7 'You shall have no other gods before Me.
8 'You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
9 'You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
10 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

When I was younger I use to get hung up on this passage. I got God's statement "You shall have no other gods before me." But I didn't get "for I, the Lord your God am a Jealous God".
It wasn't until I was married that I saw the intimacy of that statement. God was saying to Israel, "I love you and you are mine; there should be no other between us."  They were set apart for Him.

In the New Testament followers of Jesus are called the Bride of Christ. We are intimately His and He is ours. This relationship is sacred and holy.

God opened the Ten Commandments with a reminder to Israel that they were in relationship with Him. His call for them to live differently than the other nations was not a list of do and don'ts, but a call to intimacy with Him.
Today God is still calling us to live in a sacred union with Him through Christ. And this love relationship compels us to live differently than the world around us.

Will Dungee