Как известно, Христос и Его ученики считали Моисея автором книги Исход (Мк 1:44 и Ин 1:45). Да и в самой этой книге содержится свидетельство о том, что Моисей, по указанию Господа, был не только вождем, но и летописцем израильского народа (например, в 17:14). Его авторство как в отношении этой книги, так и остальных частей Пятикнижия признается неоспоримым многовековой иудейской и христианской традицией. Исходя из этого можно утверждать, что книга эта была написана в то далекое время, когда в истории израильского народа произошли два важнейших и взаимосвязанных события: освобождение из египетского рабства и установление особых отношений с Богом - заключение Союза, или Договора (традиционно - Завета), с Ним. И то, и другое произошло по Его желанию и во исполнение Его особых намерений и прежде данных обещаний.

Еврейское название книги - «Шемот» («Имена») - отражает древнюю традицию, когда книга называлась по первому значащему слову. В одном из древнейших переводов этой книги - в переводе на греческий язык, который принято называть Септуагинтой (LXX), - она получила название Эксодос («Уход»), отсюда и пришедшее к нам из церковнославянского «Исход».

Название книги воплотило в себе ее основную идею - от рабства, погибели, безысходности спасает Бог. Он спасает людей для того, чтобы, заключив с ними Завет-Союз, восстановить взаимоотношения, разорванные их жизнью «во тьме египетской», и сделать их народом святым, царством священников. Это главное, о чем говорится в книге, однако внимание уделяется и доскональному описанию подробностей того, как создавалась богослужебная система, в самом центре которой было Свидетельство о воле Бога и о том удивительном Пути, которым грешник приходит к восстановлению своего единения с Ним.

Всё это служит предзнаменованием значительно большего «Исхода» - того великого избавления, которому тогда только предстояло еще осуществиться со смертью и воскресением Господа нашего Иисуса Христа, и указывает на появление «народа Божия» из числа тех, кто, по определению новозаветных авторов, «вообще не был народом» (1 Петр 2:10). А Завет, или Союз, скрепленный кровью великого Агнца Божьего, кровью, пророчески представленной в древних жертвоприношениях, полагает начало той Церкви, контуры которой вырисовываются в книге Исход.

20 All things being prepared for the solemn promulgation of the divine law, we have in this chapter,

1. The ten commandments as God himself spake them upon Mount Sinai, Исх 20:1-17.
   
2. The impressions made upon the people, thereby, Исх 20:18-21.
   
3. Some particular instructions which God gave to Moses, relating to his worship, Исх 20:22-26.
   

20:3 The first commandment is concerning the object of our worship, Jehovah, and him only, Thou shalt have no other gods before me - The Egyptians, and other neighbouring nations, had many gods, creatures of their own fancy. This law was pre - fixed because of that transgression; and Jehovah being the God of Israel, they must entirely cleave to him, and no other, either of their own invention, or borrowed from their neighbours. The sin against this commandment, which we are most in danger of, is giving that glory to any creature which is due to God only. Pride makes a God of ourselves, covetousness makes a God of money, sensuality makes a God of the belly. Whatever is loved, feared, delighted in, or depended on, more than God, that we make a god of. This prohibition includes a precept which is the foundation of the whole law, that we take the Lord for our God, accept him for ours, adore him with humble reverence, and set our affections entirely upon him. There is a reason intimated in the last words before me. It intimates,

1. That we cannot have any other god but he willknow it.
2. That it is a sin that dares him to his face, which he cannot, willnot, overlook. The second commandment is concerning the ordinances of worship, or the way in which God will be worshipped, which it is fit himself should appoint.Here is, [1.] The prohibition; we are forbidden to worship even the true God byimages, Исх 20:4-5. First, The Jews (at least after the captivity) thought themselves forbidden by this to make any image or picture whatsoever. It is certain it forbids making any image of God, for to whom can we liken him? Ис 40:18, Ис 40:25. It also forbids us to make images of God in our fancies, as if he were a man as we are. Our religious worship must be governed by the power of faith, not by the power of imagination.Secondly, They must not bow down to them - Shew any sign of honour to them, much less serve them by sacrifice, or any other act of religious worship. When they paid their devotion to the true God, they must not have any image before them for the directing, exciting, or assisting their devotion. Though the worship was designed to terminate in God, it would not please him if it came to him through an image. The best and most ancient lawgivers among the Heathen forbad the setting up of images in their temples. It was forbidden in Rome by Numa a Pagan prince, yet commanded in Rome by the Pope, a Christian bishop. The use of images in the church of Rome, at this day, is so plainly contrary to the letter of this command, that in all their catechisms, which they put into the hand of the people, they leave out this commandment, joining the reason of it to the first, and so the third commandment they call the second, the fourth the third, etc only to make up the number ten, they divide the tenth into two.For I the Lord Jehovah, thy God, am a jealous God, especially in things of this nature. It intimates the care he has of his own institutions, his displeasure against idolaters, and that he resents every thing in his worship that looks like, or leads to, idolatry: visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation - Severely punishing. Nor is it an unrighteous thing with God if the parents died in their iniquity, and the children tread in their steps, when God comes, by his judgments, to reckon with them, to bring into the account the idolatries their fathers were guilty of. Keeping mercy for thousands of persons, thousands of generations, of them that love me and keep my commandments - This intimates, that the second commandment, though in the letter of it is only a prohibition of false worship, yet includes a precept of worshipping God in all those ordinances which he hath instituted. As the first commandment requires the inward worship of love, desire, joy, hope, so this the outward worship of prayer and praise, and solemn attendance on his word. This mercy shall extend to thousands, much further than the wrath threatened to those that hate him, for that reaches but to the third or fourth generation.