Exodus 20: Rules of Relationship

Thunder on the mountain, a trembling crowd, and ten sentences that reshape a nation. We open Exodus 20 with Pastor Brandon as God speaks to a former slave people and teaches them how to stay free. The Ten Commandments land here not as random restrictions, but as “rules of relationship” built on a reminder: “I am the Lord your God who rescued you.” That rescue-first order changes everything, because it means God’s commands are aimed at our good, our freedom, and our stability with him and with each other. 

We walk through the commandments one by one, starting with loyalty and worship: no other gods, no idols, and a hard look at how easily we adore what is right in front of us. We also unpack “do not misuse the name of the Lord” as more than avoiding certain words. It is a warning against carrying God’s name while living in a way that misrepresents him. Then comes the Sabbath, a striking command to rest given to people fresh out of slavery, showing that biblical freedom includes dignity, limits, and holy rest. 

From there, the focus shifts to how we treat people: honoring parents, refusing murder, rejecting adultery, turning away from theft and lies, and refusing the quiet poison of coveting. We talk about why the text highlights “murder,” what reverence is meant to do in our hearts, and why God even cares about these everyday choices. We close by connecting Exodus 20 to Jesus’ summary of the law: love God with everything you have and love your neighbor as yourself, then we leave you with reflection questions and a prayer for real freedom. 

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Transcript

Welcome And Daily Bible Breakdown

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Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

Why God Gives Ten Commands

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Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Exodus chapter 20, and today's title is Rules of Relationship. Rules of Relationship. Today is one of those chapters that reminds me so much of the movie The Ten Commandments, because that's what we're going to get today, the Ten Commandments. And what God is doing is He is trying to teach a slave nation that is now free how to stay free, how to have the right relationship with God, and how to have the right relationship with one another. And I think it's possible that you could look at the rest of Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, the rest of the books of Moses as a commentary or a breakdown of how to do the Ten Commandments. And so we're going to read about these today and we're going to break them down one at a time to see what they mean. And then we ain't got to worry because after this, Moses is going to definitely break down what they mean. So if you got your Bibles, want to get those out with me, get your Bible journals out, get your coffee out, get whatever else you need. Also make sure you take just a moment, like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast. It really does help. And make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook. There's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job. And you can get all that information by going to the Biblebreakdown.com. Well, if you were with us yesterday, we got to read about when the glory comes down on Mount Sinai. There was lightnings and thunder, and there was the sound of the ram's horn, and it was just powerful and it was amazing. And then God says to them, I want you to know me, and I want you to not kill each other. And so he is going to give them the Ten Commandments. And once again, this is reminds me so much of Charlton Heston. And, you know, when he's he's going down and he's showing them that the Ten Commandments written on stone and all this kind of good stuff. And God is going to give them these ten, and the first five could be argued, are all about how to relate to God. And the second five is all about how to relate to one another. God wants freedom and our relationship with him, and then freedom and our relationship with one another. And so let's dive into this and read this and just realize that God is laying down how to stay free. Here

Walking Through The Ten Commandments

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we go. Exodus 20, verse 1 says this. Then God gave all the people these instructions. I am the Lord your God who rescued you from the land of the land of Egypt, from the place of your slavery. So pause. So he's saying, first of all, remember who I am. I am the God who is for you and not against you. So everything I'm going to tell you to do is for your benefit. I did not rescue you to bring you out here to kill you. I rescued you so you could be free. So this is how you stay free. Number one, you must not have any other God but me. God will not compete for your attention. Verse 4, you must not make for yourself any idol of any kind or of any image of anything in the heavens or on earth or on the sea. Pause. The reason why is because God knows that we will tend to worship what's in front of us. That's why he says, Don't have any other idol, because at some point you may forget that the idol is not actually me. So here we go, verse five. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affections for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and the entire families affected, even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands. Other words, what he's saying is that when you start down the bad track of having other gods in your life, it will continue through your family. That it has a way of passing itself down. Because what children tend to do, we all know this, is they chant they tend to do what they see, not what you say. And so he's saying, Don't do that because it'll affect your family. All right, here's the next one, verse 7. Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you use misuse his name. Now, in older translations, that will say, do not use the Lord, thy God's name, in vain. Now, what a lot of people think that means is don't say like G D, you know, that kind of thing. And believe me, you shouldn't say that. That's not good. But but this is more than that. What he is saying is, is he is saying, don't take his name and live out in his name in vain. So that would be like he's saying, Don't say you're a Christian. Don't say that you represent Christ and then go kill a bunch of people because you are representing me in the wrong way. And he's like, Don't do that. If you are going to be for me, then be for me. Don't take my name and do something bad with it. All right, verse 8 says, Remember to observe the Sabbath day and to keep it holy. The Sabbath day was a day of rest for all people. I think it's amazing that he made sure to tell a recently liberated slave nation, don't forget to rest. All right, verse 9. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest, dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day, no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestocks, and any foreigners living among you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. But on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy. Next, honor your father and mother. Now this is getting to relationship with one another. Then you will live long and full life in the land of the Lord your God is giving you. Next, you must not murder. Now notice that this is this is a newer translation which says murder. Older translations say kill, but that Hebrew word means to murder. So other words, there is a time to kill, a time of war, in time of self-defense, but that is not murder. Murder is premeditated evil of ending someone's life. Verse 14, you must not commit adultery, no flings, none of that. You must not steal, you must not testify falsely against your brother. Don't be a liar. Verse 17, you must not covet your neighbor's house, you must not covet your neighbor's wife, male or female servants, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.

Fear Of God And Why It Helps

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When the people heard the thunder and the loud blast of the ram's horn, and when they saw the flashes of lightning and smoke billowing from the mountain, they stood at a distance, trembling with fear. And they said to Moses, You speak with us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak directly to us, or we will die. Moses said, Don't be afraid, for God has come in this way to test you, so that you will fear him, for you will uh for you will fear him. Wait a minute, so that your fear of him will keep you from sinning. As the people stood in the distance, Moses approached the dark cloud where God was. So he's saying, God is wanting to show you how big he is, so that it will keep you clean and free. Go and this is the God who can keep us and keep us safe. All right, verse

Altars Without Idols Or Hype

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22. And the Lord said to Moses, say to the people of Israel, you saw for yourselves that I spoke to you from heaven. Remember, you must not make any idols of silver or gold to rival me. Build for me an altar made of earth, and offer your sacrifices to me, your burnt offerings, your peace offerings, your sheep and goats, and your cattle. Build my altar wherever I cause my name to be remembered, and I will come to you and bless you. If you use stones to build my altar, only use natural uncut stones. Do not shape the stones with a tool, for that would make the altar unfit for holy use. And do not approach my altar by going up the steps. If you do, someone might look under your clothing and see your nakedness. I love how it ends with, by the way, I'm gonna help a brother out. I'm gonna keep anybody from getting a peek. Hey, thanks, Jesus. Thank you, God, very much. I appreciate that. And so

Jesus Summarizes The Whole Law

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we have the 10 rules for freedom and relationship. God says, you keep your relationship right with me, I'm gonna help you keep your relationship right with everybody else. And you're gonna do that by treating other people the way you'd want to be treated. You know, there was a place when Jesus was asked in the New Testament, you know, Jesus, is there a cheat code to all this? I mean, there's a lot of things, and we're gonna read over the next few days. What the Bible starts to do is it starts to break down those Ten Commandments into, okay, what if this happens and what if that happens? And he's gonna be like, okay, if this happens, do this, if that happens, do that. He's teaching them how to stay free, how to think like a free person. That's one of the things that the rest of this is going to do is it is teaching them how to think through problems from the position of freedom. And then one day someone asks Jesus, hey, listen, there's a lot. Is there any way that we can kind of sum all this up? And he said, Yeah, absolutely. Love God with everything you have. He says, Your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength, all that, love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor as yourself. And if you think about it, if you look at the first five commandments, if you love God with everything you have, you got it. And then if you treat your neighbor as yourself, then you're not going to murder people. You're not going to steal from people, you're not going to take someone's spouse. You're not going to want to take things that are because it you're treating them as though it you're is yourself. And what God is saying is, I didn't free you from slavery just to leave you out here in the wilderness by yourself. I freed you from slavery so that you could be free, so that you could have the dignity of freedom. So you could know me and you could know one another. Let me teach you how. That's one of the things I love about the Bible. Is if you think about it, why in the world would God care if we lied to one another? Why would he care if we killed one another or if we, you know, stole from one another or whatever? He doesn't he he doesn't become less God if he does that. If if somebody does something bad to somebody else, that is terrible, that is awful, but it doesn't affect his his godness, right? He gets nothing out of telling us to not or to be kind to one another. It is for our benefit, so that we can protect our freedom from one another that he tells us these things. So every single thing in the Bible is for our freedom, so that we can know him and so that we can be free with one another. Which

Self Check, Prayer, And Closing

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one of these ten commandments do you need to work on? Which one of these and if we want to do it like this, is there an area in your life where you are loving something more than you love God? Is there an area of your life where you are not treating someone else the way you would want to be treated? That's hard. That takes all my time. I ain't got time to worry about somebody else. I'm still trying to work on me. Where do you need to work on you and to realize that it is for freedom that Christ has set you free? Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, God, that you're with us and you're for us. I'm thankful for your word. I'm thankful, Lord, that you give us our word, your word, so that we can be free. I pray, Lord, you will bring back to our attention the areas we need to work on, and you'll keep on setting us free every day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And amen. Well, God's Word says in Exodus 6, verse 6, he says, I will free you from your oppression and I will rescue you from slavery. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Exodus chapter 21.