Words of Life: Jesus and the Promise of the Ten Commandments Today

by Adam Hamilton Narrated by Adam Verner

Overview

What if the Ten Commandments were not just a set of ancient rules, but a guide to experiencing the good life today?

“Adam Hamilton is a teacher of the highest order, able to bridge the gap between very old divine teaching and very current human reality.”-Barbara Brown Taylor, author of Always a Guest: Speaking of Faith Far from Home

Nearly everyone has heard of the Ten Commandments, the list of “thou-shalt-nots” found in the Bible. Jesus saw these commandments not as onerous burdens, but as guideposts to help us experience a good and beautiful life. These ten ancient “words” were given to us by a loving God who longed to set safe boundaries, create order out of chaos, help communities live peacefully, and protect us-often from ourselves.

In this book of Scripture and inspiration, bestselling author Adam Hamilton brings modern eyes to the most important set of ethics in history. He considers the commandments in their historical context, considering the meaning of each commandment in Hebrew, unpacking how Jesus reinterpreted them, and showing how every thou-shalt-not was intended to point to a life-giving “thou shalt.” He also explores how the latest research in science and psychology illuminates these commandments, rightly understood, as a way of ordering one's life beautifully in the present day. In a culture marked by workaholism, materialism, and social media-driven envy, God has given us a time-tested path that leads to gratitude, confidence, and peace.

A landmark work from one of our most trusted biblical thinkers, Words of Life is an inspiring, thought-provoking read for anyone seeking to live a meaningful and joyful life.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Adam Hamilton is a teacher of the highest order, able to bridge the gap between very old divine teaching and very current human reality with fidelity, intelligence, and a heart so attuned to his readers that even the most damaged truster can relax. Whether you ever plan to step inside a church or not, be sure to step inside this book. I have no doubt that your life and the life of the world will be richer if you do.”—Barbara Brown Taylor, author of Always a Guest: Speaking of Faith Far from Home

“Right after Sinai, Moses declared, ‘Not with our ancestors did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today.’ In our generation of moral relativism and ethical confusion, Hamilton has a powerful voice for ethical clarity and moral imagination. Here he takes up ‘the big ten’ and in a winsome study shows how the commandments both mandate us and yield new life for us. Hamilton is a master teacher and offers his work in a way that is accessible and persuasive.”—Walter Brueggemann, professor emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary, author of The Prophetic Imagination

“What a thoughtful, timely exploration of the Ten Commandments! Many of us slip into believing that there’s no more for us to learn from these familiar passages, but Hamilton’s smart, clear writing brings new understanding and new inspiration to this lifelong Christian. . . . A grounding and challenging book that I’ll be recommending over and over—to both younger and more mature Christians alike.”—Shauna Niequist, New York Times bestselling author of Present Over Perfect

“Biblically faithful, personally courageous, and pastorally sensitive, Hamilton shows how the Ten Commandments provide necessary guidance for today’s troubled times.”—Amy-Jill Levine, University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Vanderbilt Divinity School

“We have learned that whenever we are in the hands of Hamilton, we are in for a biblical, vibrantly Christian presentation of the gospel. But the Ten Commandments? Yes, even these ancient, imposing ‘thou shalt nots,’ under Hamilton’s guidance, can be seen as divine gifts pointing us the way toward more joyful, abundant living. His reflections will enable you to rejoice again at the wonder of a God who loves us enough not to leave us to wander alone but to show us, in the Decalogue, the way to become who we were created to be.”—Will Willimon, professor of the practice of Christian ministry, United Methodist bishop, retired, and author of Accidental Preacher: A Memoir

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177015958
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	12/29/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

The First Tablet

The Call to Love God

Moses then turned around and came down the mountain. He carried the two covenant tablets in his hands. The tablets were written on both sides, front and back. The tablets were God’s own work. What was written there was God’s own writing inscribed on the tablets.

—Exodus 32:15–­16


At the Center of It All

Then God spoke all these words:

I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You must have no other gods before me.

—Exodus 20:1–­3


When I told my wife that I felt compelled to write a book on the Ten Commandments, she gave me a quizzical look and said, “Really, why?”

I was puzzled by the question, so she continued. “I know the Ten Commandments are important. I believe them and try to live them. But I wonder how relevant they are to most people. Most of us don’t plan to murder or steal. And who is tempted to worship other gods these days?”

Now it was my turn to raise an eyebrow.

“Okay,” she said, “I know—we all struggle with our own false gods. But you know what I mean.”

Her response was understandable. At first glance, the commandments do seem written for a different age (“Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Do not make for yourselves idols”) or so basic that we hardly need reminding (“Thou shalt not murder”). But if you dig in a little, understand their historical context, and listen to how Jesus and the apostles interpreted them, you’ll find these ancient words speak in profound ways to our lives today. Jesus, in particular, looked behind the rules to the condition of the heart each commandment sought to address. Murder wasn’t just the act of killing, he taught. It was resentment and bitterness and hate and the words that spring from them. It wasn’t just the act of adultery but desire and the myriad ways sexuality can be misused. We’re no longer tempted to worship the gods of the Egyptians and Canaanites, but we still struggle with misplaced devotion and making our pride or career or wealth the god we worship and serve.

But Jesus did more than look at the deeper issues. He had a way of turning the commandments on their head. As I noted in the introduction, for each thou-­shalt-­not there is an implied and important life-­giving thou-­shalt. In other words, rightly understood, the commandments don’t merely tell us what not to do. They point us, positively, toward how we’re meant to live our lives—toward God’s will for us in the midst of our deepest struggles. Nowhere is this truer than with the first command, I am the LORD your God.

Essential Religion and Ethics for a New Nation

Before we explore the first and most important of the commandments, I’d like to remind you of the context of the Ten Commandments in the biblical story.

It was a famine that led Israel and his children and grandchildren to travel to Egypt in search of food. Beginning around 1800 b.c., they and tens of thousands of other Semitic people migrated to Egypt’s lush Nile delta, a region of some five million acres of fertile land. These populations eventually formed a nation within a nation, of which Israel’s descendants were one small part.

Later, another wave of immigrants entered the area, a people the Egyptians called the Hyksos (the word meant, in essence, “foreign rulers,” though it was used at times with the sense of “shepherd kings”). Also of Semitic origin, they went on to wrest control of the Nile delta, and then much of the rest of Egypt, from Egypt’s ruling dynasty. These foreign invaders ruled over much of Egypt until about 1550 b.c., when they were expelled by several succeeding pharaohs marching with their armies from Thebes. Many of the foreigners who remained in Egypt, including the Israelites, were made slaves of the Egyptians.1

The Israelites spent generations enslaved and oppressed in Egypt. Among other things, their labor was used to form the mud and straw bricks that went into the massive building projects of the New Kingdom pharaohs. The Israelites did not build the pyramids—these predate the Israelites by many hundreds of years. But from approximately 1550 b.c. to perhaps as late as 1279 b.c., the Israelites were forced to make tens of millions of bricks, which were used to build Egypt’s temples, cities, and walls. You’ll find them at most ancient archaeological sites from the period, including the magnificent Luxor Temple.

Exodus records that even under oppression, the Israelite population multiplied. It got to the point where the Egyptian pharaoh feared that these foreigners, like the Hyksos before them, might one day pose a threat. So he escalated their oppression. Slaves were made to work harder, keeping the Israelite people under the foot of the powerful Egyptians. Boys born to Israelite women were ordered to be drowned. All of which leads to the story of Moses, found in the opening chapters of the book of Exodus.

When Moses is born, his mother, Jochebed, devises a plan to save him from Pharaoh’s decree. It appears she knows of one of Pharaoh’s daughters and believes her to be compassionate. Jochebed carefully prepares a basket that can float, then lays her son inside, and places it along the banks of the Nile at the very spot where Pharaoh’s daughter comes to bathe. When Pharaoh’s daughter finds the baby floating ­toward her, she takes the child home and adopts him as her own. Raised in Pharaoh’s household, Moses would have been educated like a prince, learning Egyptian religion, law, and philosophy.

At the age of forty, Moses goes to observe the Israelite slaves, apparently aware that he was born an Israelite. When he sees their mistreatment at the hands of a particular slave driver, his anger wells up, and he ends up killing the taskmaster. When the act is discovered, Moses is forced to flee to the Sinai. He spends forty years there, no longer a prince in Egypt but now a humble shepherd in the vast desert.

Then, at the age of eighty, Moses hears God speak to him from a bush that’s on fire. God says to him, “The Israelites’ cries of injustice have reached me. I’ve seen just how much the Egyptians have oppressed them. So get going. I’m sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:9–­10). With no small amount of resistance, and after exhausting all excuses, Moses does as God commanded. A series of plagues descends upon the Egyptians, and Moses leads the children of Israel to their freedom. He brings them to Mount Sinai, where he first met God in the burning bush, to seek God’s direction. Here God will speak to the Israelites from the top of the mountain, giving them the Ten Commandments.

Thousands of people—or millions, if the Exodus text is taken literally—are camped at the base of Mount Sinai when God begins to speak. They have left behind a familiar life with familiar gods. Although they were slaves in Egypt, they at least had food. Now they’ve risked everything to follow an octogenarian into the barren wilderness, to a place where he claims to have met the God of their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Until this day, however, none of them have heard the voice of this God Moses claims to have met.

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