We've come to the final episode in our series on the Ten Commandments,

or as the Bible calls them, the Ten Words.

Now, all along we've kept referring to this idea.

The ten words are not simply rules or commands to check off a list.

These ten words orient us to true reality.

They are creating a moral imagination and a moral universe, a set of claims about what is really true about the world we inhabit.

All of God's commands work this way. Every rule and regulation in the Bible is an opportunity for us to look underneath

and find God's wisdom. The most common word other than command or statute or rule or regulation

that's used to describe how God is trying to get its people to live is the word wisdom. The 10

words are aimed at instilling wisdom in God's covenant partners.

Now, we may think of wisdom as just advice.

You can take it or leave it.

But in the Bible, wisdom is essential.

To live with wisdom is to live in a way that leads to life.

You're living in tune with reality. So it's the difference between

I'm doing it because God commanded me and I'm doing it because God loves me and is showing me the way to

life. All of the commands in the Bible, they're pointing to weightier matters of life,

matters that Jesus teaches us to keep front and center. In Jesus' mind, justice, mercy, and

faithfulness are the values of the moral universe. And the commands are like surface manifestations

of all these different ways you could apply the heavier values. This isn't Jesus innovating. He's

just carrying forward this tradition of seeing all the commands as facets of a diamond pointing to a comic core.

Today, Tim Mackey and I wrap up this series on the Ten Commandments by reflecting on God's commands as wisdom that leads to life.

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