THE DECALOGUE:
Living as the People of God
By David L. Baker
IVP Apollos. 240 pages. £12.99
ISBN 978 1 783 595 501
Christians wanting to know how to live today need to start with the Decalogue.
So David L. Baker tackles an important topic. He shows that it is important for the church today. His work has a scholarly feel but without getting bogged down in detail.
Israel’s constitution
Under the general question: ‘What is the Decalogue?’ Baker looks at its shape, form, origin and purpose. He concludes that the Decalogue constitutes Israel as God’s people (p.35). He then proceeds to look at each commandment in turn, within three contexts: firstly, how other Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) cultures dealt with the issue; then how the Bible as a whole handles the commandment; and finally, reflecting on its application today. The book closes with a brief chapter arguing that the church, as the present-day people of God who enjoy his saving grace, has the same constitution and so must live according to the Decalogue.
Two problems
While it was an enjoyable read, there are a couple of problems that limit its usefulness.
The first is that the book lacks a certain conviction. I did wonder if the root of the problem was his view that the Decalogue was specifically for the people of God. Baker paid little attention to the fact that the commandments are clearly operative in the Genesis and Exodus narratives before Sinai, and so are principles, not just for an elect people, but as creatures made in the image of God.
This gives the Decalogue an over-arching authority in human life. Instead, Baker spends a great deal of time reviewing other ANE law-codes. While interesting, I found myself regularly asking, ‘Why is he telling me all this?’. He seemed to be arguing for only a relative importance of the Decalogue, which seemed to weaken his argument for the relevance of the commandments today.
A second problem seemed to be a lack of grounding theology. For example, the discussion on the second commandment on the issue of images in worship could have done with a discussion on the question of images of Christ, a perennial question for the church which requires a certain theological depth. In another example Baker did not address the present-day debate on the place of the Lord’s Day (Fourth Commandment) in the church’s life. While he landed on the right view in my opinion, he did so without interacting with the increasing number of evangelicals who don’t take that view. A final example was on the question of adultery. I felt it could have done with a better grounding in the biblical-theological place of marriage in the Bible.
I have nothing much against this book. It is just that I would recommend other works before this.
