Why the Ten Commandments? What's the point?

In Exodus 20, God calls Moses and speaks to Him the Ten Commandments. I still love the Mel Brooks rendition of this scene: "I give you these 15 ... (drops one of three stone tablets). Oy vay ... Ten! Ten commandments!" But in all seriousness, why did God provide these Commands? Was it - as is popularly misunderstood - to hold us down? To take the fun out of everything?

Quick answer: Of course not. Remember, God loves us with a perfect love. He is a good, good Father.

So why? Why the Ten Commandments?

1. To show us / To remind us. To show the Israelites (and to remind us) that we can not measure up on our own. We "miss the mark" every day. No matter how hard we try, we will mess up, we will stumble. Our pride and ego get in the way of a fulfillment of these commands. They show us what "sin" is according to God, and they are a constant reminder that we need a Savior to be holy and perfect FOR us. We can not and should not do it alone.
2. To direct us, to guide us. As a good Father, God is showing us the way. He's build our character and growing our awareness of our need for Him.
3. To protect us from what we don't understand. Again, a good Father creates rules to protect His children. Break any of these commands and bad things will naturally happen. He knows this and wants to keep us safe.
4. To give God the honor He is due. He is worthy. We should acknowledge that He is a loving and caring Father. When we obey the Commandments, He is pleased with his children as any father would be.

Let's take the very 1st Commandment as an example: "You shall have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:1) Everything we "worship" is a god. Money, power, popularity, our abilities/talents, a person (our spouse, a sports figure, a celebrity, a politician), our health/fitness, sex, etc. Every god will eventually fail you. They will disappoint you. Why do Wall Street brokers jump out of windows to their deaths after the market crashes? Because money and power has become their god. Why is a young girl crushed when a boy breaks her heart? Because she's made him her god.

Only God is worthy of the weight of being worshiped. Only He can withstand the responsibility that comes with being honored to the utmost. And He knows that. He knows that we will be crushed if we put any god before Him. And He does not want to see us crushed.

Put another way, if we put God above all else ...

• we can have money or not have money - doesn't ultimately matter
• we can have a man/woman in our lives or not - doesn't ultimately matter
• we can have popularity or be shunned - doesn't ultimately matter

With God as our focus, we can rest about all that other stuff. We can even have it still and enjoy it ... but putting God first, above all else, allows us to put all these other gods in their proper place in the pecking order where they can't hurt us when they ultimately disappoint.

The Ten Commandments are not for God. He does not need them. But we do. And he knows that. And He loves us. He wants us to love Him back through our obedience, which is an acknowledgement that we KNOW He loves us and wants the best for us.

All things are for HIS glory. Period. But when we give Him the glory he is due, we are blessed and protected from the unseen evil forces that are hoping to take us down.