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Chapter 19
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Exodus, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
God’s Identity and Power
Redemption and Deliverance
The Covenant
Mediators and the Priesthood
Summary
Analysis
God addresses Israel through Moses, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt […] you shall have no other gods before me.”
In this chapter, God gives Moses the Ten Commandments the people must live by. God prefaces the commandments by identifying himself as the God who delivered them—a reminder that God’s deliverance of the people comes first, and their obedience follows from God’s initiative in saving them. Because of this, it’s especially fitting that the people be loyal only to God, not worshipping any others.
Active
Themes
God commands the people not to make idols—whether they are in the form of anything in heaven, or on earth, or in the water under the earth. They must not worship such idols, because God is a jealous God.
The second commandment’s prohibition of idols (images used in worship) is counter-cultural because surrounding nations—like Egypt and Canaan—often associated their deities with natural phenomena. The exodus events (like the plagues and sea crossing) showed that God is all-powerful over nature. Worshiping God in a physical form would suggest that his people don’t believe that.
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The people must not make “wrongful use” of God’s name.
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Themes
They must remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. They have six days to accomplish all their work, but on the seventh day, neither they nor anyone in their households, their livestock, or aliens who live among them may do any work. This is because the LORD made all of creation in six days, then rested on the seventh.
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Themes
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The people must honor their father and mother, so that their days in the promised land may be long.
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They must not murder, commit adultery, steal, or “bear false witness” against a neighbor. They also must not covet anything belonging to a neighbor.
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The people are frightened by the thunder and lighting, the smoking mountain, and the trumpet. They tell Moses that if God speaks to them, they will die. Moses reassures them—God is only testing them and making sure that the people fear him so they won’t sin.
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The LORD tells Moses to instruct the Israelites that they must not make gods of silver or gold. They only need to make an earthen altar and offer burnt sacrifices on it. If they make stone altars, they must not use hewn stones, because chiseled stones are profaned. They also must not go up steps to the altar, so that human nakedness won’t be exposed upon the altar.
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