As I begin my review, I want to say that the two previous reviews, by Ted Manby and Jason C give excellent overviews and I won't repeat the information they shared. My purpose is to encourage people to read this book and better understand why the Ten Commandments are still important to us as Christians today. I also like to know what direction a book may take before I spend a lot of money on it and I think others might want to know too.
In order to avoid any misunderstanding of the purpose of the book, Rooker doesn't try to put believers back under the law in any way. Three comments are made in the summary section of the book that you may want to understand before buying/reading the book.
First off, Rooker states that, "obedience to the law was not to be the means to a relationship with God but was the desired response to that relationship." This of course goes along with what John says in I John, what we do is a reflection of what we believe.
Earlier in the book, when discussing the first five commandments as a whole, Rooker makes some comments well worth considering. He says, "The behavior of those who love God is characterized by obedience to God's laws, while a man cannot be considered to love God if he does not keep His commands. The fact that love can be commanded of the believer (Deut. 6:5; 19:12; 11:1, 13, 22; 19:9; 30:16, 19-20; Josh. 22:5; 23:10-11) proves that love is not an emotional feelings but a behavior characterized by obedience and commitment to the Lord."
Second, Rooker says, "the law was given in the context of grace. In Israel's faith, the good news of what God has done precedes the exposition of what the people must do. Thus salvation by grace through faith is the message of the bible from Genesis to Revelation. ---Works have never been the instrument of salvation; they are the evidence of salvation."
Third, on the final page of the book, he comments that "the law is not understood as a means of salvation but as instruction regarding the shape a redeemed life is to take in everyday affairs."
With those points stressed, I just want to share some insights, things that were meaningful to me personally, from the book to encourage others to read it. The first insight is on the first commandment, which is to worship God alone. Rooker points out that "the prohibition against the worship of all but one deity was unique in religious history. The other nations of the world were polytheistic and thus innately tolerant of the views of others, as it was believed that no one god had absolute power and controlled all the phenomena of nature." Then Rooker compares this belief to our own age by stating, "This same tolerance that characterized pagan culture in the biblical period is now true of much of Western culture. Tolerance of other views, not truth, is thought to be the highest virtue in our time."
The second insight is on the equality of the law as represented in the first five of the Ten Commandments. For instance, Rooker says, "In Mesopotamian law, the injuring of a nobleman would commonly entail a far heavier penalty than the infliction of an identical injury to a commoner or slave. In Israel, by contrast, equality before the law for all social groups, including aliens and immigrants, is made explicit in Exod. 12:49; Lev. 19:34; and Num. 15:16. In Israel, all offenses were ultimately offenses against God.--thus, all infractions are religious infractions."
The third insight is in regard to the third commandment of taking God's name in vain. Even Jesus instructed His disciples to avoid such frivolous swearing. He said they should be known for their integrity; that their yes should be yes, and their no should be no (Matt. 5:37). Rooker says, "this transcends the issue of oath taking, swearing, or keeping vows, and addresses the heart of the issue: sincerity, honesty, and truth.---It is the condition of the heart that decides whether the `yes' is really a `yes' and the `no' really a `no.'"
From there, Rooker addresses a point that is too often incorrectly taught in our churches. He says, `the popular American view that the words "misuse the name of the Lord' or "take the Lord's name in vain" refer only to profanity cannot be substantiated from the text.---But if God's name is used in any kind of profane way, this would constitute a violation of the third commandment. This applies as well to an inappropriate use of Jesus' name."
Rooker wraps this up by saying, "While the third commandment is a warning to human beings, it is greatly concerned with God's reputation and honor. As the source of truth, God cannot be associated with falsehood and deceit. The aim of the third commandment is to protect the name of Yahweh from any kind of disrepute."
The fourth insight has to do with the sixth commandment concerning murder. I was pleased with Rooker's teaching on this because of my own experiences in life and the misrepresentation of this commandment by using the word "kill" instead of the correct word "murder." I have met people opposed to capital punishment and people who were pacifists because of the difference in the wording. Rooker's comments on the Hebrew word flatly prove the term is "murder." Rooker points out that "the root of the word comes from the Hebrew term rsh and is specifically used for murder. RSH is thus used to refer to premeditated killing that could be viewed as illicit. While these meanings and nuances share the basic idea of killing, the distinction in the range of meaning comes from the circumstances or intentionality of the killing."
Rooker further states, "the verb rsh is never used of killing in battle or even in self-defense or suicide." He continues by saying, "because a murderer strikes at the image of God borne by a human being, murder is an attack on God's dominion."
My fifth and final insight has to do with Rooker's comments on the tenth commandment, coveting. Rooker's explanation of the tenth commandment, on coveting, is really interesting and needs to be understood by Christians. He says, "The commandment is not just to prohibit the yearning because the yearning may contribute to overt criminal acts, but the commandment addresses the desire itself because it too is a transgression." Rooker goes on to state, "Thus mere wishes without actions constitute coveting and are a violation of the tenth commandment." Looking at the Hebrew verbs in the original language, and respecting a number of Hebrew scholars, Rooker says, "The overwhelming focus is on the emotion or feeling of craving without any accompanying action."
Rooker's explanation of "coveting" thus would have been the central focus of Jesus' Sermon on the 'Mount and explains his statement in Matt. 15:19, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders." Rooker also points out that it ties in with Paul's comments in Roman 7:9-10, "I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; 10 and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me." Of this verse, Rooker says, "Apart from the tenth commandment, all the other commandments can be obeyed ostensively, outwardly. But the tenth commandment applies to the heart, a matter of attitude. This commandment thoroughly convinced Paul that he was a sinner."
On each of the ten commandments, where other nations had similar laws that addressed the issue, Rooker shows how there were similarities with those of God's law, but also how each of God's laws were unique and superior to the surrounding nations. However, Rooker makes it clear that the 10th commandment, on coveting, which deals with "intention" and not the actual act, was not addressed by any other nation's laws.
This is the fourth book from the NAC Studies in Bible & Theology series that I have reviewed and like the others I highly recommend it. You won't learn these things in most churches; so you have to learn it from sources like Rooker's book and others.
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