Strictly speaking the content of the Ten Commandments, from a moral perspective, presented no new revelation, since sacred reality is intuitively understood within every created soul (Gen. 1:27; John 1:9; Acts 17:24-28). As it is written, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress (i.e., hold down: κατέχω) the truth by their unrighteousness, because that which can be known about God is evident within them, for God has revealed it to them” (Rom. 1:18-19). Where Paul says, “against all ungodliness” he refers to our universal duty before the Living God (בֵּין אָדָם לָמָקוֹם); and likewise “all unrighteousness,” refers to our universal duty toward other people (בֵּין אָדָם לְחֲבֵרוֹ). The “invisible things of God are seen” so vividly that people are “without excuse” (ἀναπολόγητος) for their evasion and rejection of the Divine Presence, which constitutes a disposition of rebellion, treason, and desecration (Rom. 1:20).
The deeper revelation given at Sinai, however, was not an elaborate law code but something else, namely, the solution for the problem of sin as prefigured in the Altar of the Tabernacle and the daily sacrifice of the lamb (i.e., korban tamid: קָרְבַּן תָּמִיד; Num. 28:1-8). “The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was” (Exod. 20:21). The onlookers saw the outer, the imposing, the threatening, and this made them distant, but Moses entered the inner region and was given the vision of the altar (Exod. 25:9; John 5:46-47; Heb. 8:6). Likewise Yeshua did not come to be a moral teacher of the law but to bear the penalty of our lawlessness (2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13). Our Savior died upon the cross shrouded in complete darkness, yet entering the inner region reveals God’s passion offered up for you (Luke 23:44-45).
Hebrew Lesson:
