Text Study for Sunday, October 12th, 2025.

Series Theme: First Things

Reading: Exodus Exodus 20:1-17

CONNECTING QUESTIONS

If you could add one more commandment to the ten commandments, what would it be? Why?

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Loving God, as I see Your great wisdom reflected in Your wonderful creation, I want to praise You with my whole being. Thank you for the creative Word of God. Who not only spoke the world into being from nothing but died for me so that I could have life – everlasting life and life more abundantly. Thank You, in Jesus' name, AMEN.

CONTEXT

Let us focus on some of the firsts from Genesis and Exodus, in all these stories God does something new! God takes the time to show the people more than they expected. Our series, First Things, will question what this means for us as we prepare to do something new here at Easter. What is God doing in our familiar things? September is a time when Easter returns to certain elements of programming, let’s look at those things in a new light. A light where God is up to something new with Easter, our community, and each of us!

From Dr Cameron BR Howard at EntertheBible.org:

The Ten Commandments appear three times in the Pentateuch, each with variations, but the first and most well-known of these appearances is in Exodus 20. There these laws are not specifically labeled as “ten commandments,” but they are editorially separated from the rest of the statutes and ordinances given to Israel at Sinai. The text mentions both before and after the words of the Commandments that God communicates from a cloud surrounded with thunder and lightning. Before the Commandments are given, Moses is instructed to warn the people not to approach the mountain lest they die. After the text of the Commandments is given, the people ask Moses to receive communication from God, for they fear they will die if God communicates to them directly. This framing heightens the importance of the Ten Commandments, even without the title. The number ten and its association with two tablets are derived from Exodus 34, in which Moses “wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words” (Exodus 34:28).

LOOK AT THE BOOK

How is it with your spirit this week?
Our series is named “First Things.” What is something you put “first” in your life? Coffee? Family? Bills?
What was one take-away from listening to the Carry On Cast podcast that connects with this Grow Guide?
Open to Exodus 20. When do you remember studying the 10 Commandments?
Chapter 20 opens with God. What is God doing-what is the first verb? Where else does God do this?
In verse two, God explains whom God is. How is God described?
This is another example of God being described by the relationships that matter to God. Tell about a relationship that is defining in your life.
If you’re sharing this study in a group, did anyone number the commandments differently? Why?
Martin Luther argued that the first commandment is that we fear, love, and trust God above all things. He said if we get that commandment right, the rest will follow. Why do you think he said that?
Jump to verse 12, this is the only commandment that comes with a promise attached to it. What is the promise? How is that good news?
Which commandment speaks to you today? Why?
The commandments show us our inability to keep them all, and thus we need a savior.
Open to Matthew 22:36–40, what do you make of how Jesus explains the most important commandment?
What would you like to talk about that we have not yet?

TAKING IT HOME

We conclude our series “First Things” this week. If you summarized a “last word” of Jesus, what would it be? Share that with a close friend.

Holy God, creator of life and giver of goodness, all we are and all we have comes first from you. Grant us your grace and send us your Spirit, that we may follow your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Grow Guide | October 12, 2025