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    While they were camped around Sinai, God gave his people much more than Ten Commandments; he endowed them with laws to guide every part of life. God’s own decrees of love and limits shaped the development of morality and personal character. He provided Israel with standards of right and wrong—further defining good and evil. God set up civil laws and provided ready-made cultural mores. He set standards for community health, for legal judgments, for farming, for funerals, and marriage and family concerns. He thought of everything, including traditions, rituals, feasts, worship practices, and specific laws for how to treat the poor, the weak, and the strangers. God provided the best.

In the future when your children ask you, “What is the meaning of the laws, commands, and rules the LORD our God gave us?” tell them, “...The LORD brought us out of Egypt to lead us here and to give us the land he promised our ancestors. The LORD ordered us to obey all these commands and to respect the LORD our God so that we will always do well and stay alive, as we are today. The fight thing for us to do is this: Obey all these rules in the presence of the LORD our God, as he has commanded.”...   So know that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God. He will keep his agreement of love for a thousand lifetimes for people who love him and obey his commands. DEUTERONOMY 6:20-25; 7:9

    God’s promises are rock solid, but his people’s promises proved much easier to make than to keep. The people were slow to learn and quick to devalue God’s commands; in short order, they failed to keep their part of the agreement. They turned their backs on God’s leadership and trusted their own abilities and plans. Each time they violated God’s laws, or ignored his commands, they faced his discipline—his corrective consequences.

    The thundering God on the mountain, the God who ordained laws, became the God of the wilderness, the God of training. God used every experience of life, even consequences, to help his new nation learn how to be the best they could be.

Reflection: God’s national standards provided specifics for how to please and love the holy, almighty God. There never was a time, however, when people were able to keep all the rules, to do everything perfectly. Yet over and over Moses told the people to obey and to love the Lord. Either alone—love or obedience—was hollow. Together, even in their imperfection, God was pleased.