The precepts of the Lord are rooted in God’s undying love for His people. His intention with these precepts is to ensure the happiness of the people who He created in His own image and likeness. He created them and endowed them with freedom, which underscores the dignity of their personhood. However, He is aware that freedom can be a burden and could lead to self-destruction, if not used wisely. To safeguard the wise use of human freedom, He provided human beings with some precepts. These precepts would help them achieve the divine purpose for their being, namely, happiness.
This understanding about the precepts (laws) of the Lord prompted the psalmist to sing: “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through your precepts I get understanding” (Ps. 119:103). The precepts of the Lord are not meant to curtail human freedom, as some believe, but to enhance it for the purpose of perfecting human destiny. What we understand as God’s laws are actually instructions, directives and admonitions of a father to his children. They are wise words of a wise Father to his children through which he exhorts them to succeed in the journey of life. These instructions are summarized in what the Judeo-Christian religion calls the Ten Commandments.
Instructions
The fact that we call them “commandments” dims perhaps the fatherly love and tenderness embedded in these precepts. The original rendition of the “Ten Commandments”, however, indicates that God does not actually command us but instructs us. He directs us in love because he wants us to succeed. His love is so tender that he would not want us to get into trouble. The Hebrew original rendering of what was translated in English as “Ten Commandments” is aseret ha’devarim (the ten words or declarations). The rabbinical writings call them aseret ha’dibrot (the ten statements). In Christian theological writings, they are called “Decalogue” (ten words)—from the Greek words deca and logoi respectively.
These “ten words” form the basis of all the admonitions of God to his people. Every “law”, every custom, every doctrine and every teaching that originates from God for his people has its roots in the Decalogue and is founded on love. These admonitions are intended to help us discover the sublimity of our human nature and the profundity of our godhood. It is only by following these instructions that we can come to the joy of being gods. We recall, of course, that the psalmist called us gods (cf. Ps. 82.6).
Lead to Greatness
This is the message Moses was conveying to the people of Israel in the first reading of today. He made them to understand that observing the “laws” and customs ordained by God would lead to their greatness both as individuals and as a nation, which would cause nations to marvel at the nearness of their God to them. This would mean that consistently observing the Ten Words would gradually resurrect the god in man and recreate a living bond between man and his God.
When Jesus was talking of completing the Laws and the Prophets, He was driving to this same purpose. We remember that part of His mission on earth was to recreate the image of God in man by calling him to repentance. Repentance means to return to the point at which one parted ways with the instructions, the Ten Words of the Lord and begin a new life by following the wise admonitions of the Father. This would in turn enable the recreation of the image of God in the penitent through the redeeming blood of Christ. The Lenten period is a special period to accomplish this task.
