The Ten Commandments by David Hazony is a wonderful understanding of how the commandments or utterances impact our personal and communal lives. It is available at Amazon
For the Commandment that I give you this day—it is not beyond you, nor is it far away. It is not in heaven, that you may say, “Who will go up to heaven and bring it to us, and we will do it?” Nor is it across the sea, that you may say, “Who will cross the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we may listen?” For the thing is very near to you, on your lips and in your heart, that you may do it. (Deuteronomy 30:11–14)
This passage spells out for us something we by now already know: that all the grand words of commanding normative overlords, of the teachers and preachers and even the Ten Commandments themselves, are as nothing if they are approached as alien, sublime, distant, and otherworldly, an escape from life, a plane ticket to heaven. The only way to understand them, rather, is as potential keys to the gates of ourselves, as a signpost for our inner truths that no one can ever show us, but that we may find only through lonely, painful, and stubborn exploration. This is the only life we have, the only truth worth finding. The redemption of our world, in other words, begins with the redemption of ourselves—with a relentless, churning, powerful effort of honesty and self-investment, endlessly stoking the fire of love that burns in every one of us as surely as we breathe, expanding its warmth, including, exciting, inspiring, providing, loving our families and friends and communities and beyond, never stopping as long as we live.
Hazony, David (2010-09-07). The Ten Commandments . Scribner. Kindle Edition.
