Lesson Focus:
God
gives us laws as a way to help us live in faithful relationship with him and
with others. All too often we fail to
fulfill these commands.
Lesson Outcomes:
Through
this lessons students should:
1.
Understand
that the nature of these commands are relational and not legalistic.
2.
Identify
how these laws are applicable to us in our current context.
3.
Confess
their failure to keep these commandments and subsequently seeking forgiveness
and strength to remain faithful.
Catch
up on the story:
As this passage begins, Israel is encamped at the foot of
Mt. Sinai. Israel arrived there after
being liberated by God from over 430 years of slavery in Egypt. When Israel arrived in Egypt, she was only a
small family. Now, however, she is a
numerous people whom God has chosen to be his special and called out people.
Israel’s departure from Egypt was nothing short of
miraculous. God, in power and might,
provided a safe way for Israel through sea and wilderness. By day and by night, God led them in the way
they should travel. Shortly after
arriving at Sinai, Moses went up onto the mountain to have a conversation with
God. Moses is told that soon God will
descend and speak so that Israel might hear him. God is going to make a covenant with the
people. Moses is instructed to gather
the people, inform them what is going to take place and ensure that they are
consecrated as a holy assembly. First, however, God wants to know if Israel
will do what God will command them to do.
Israel responds in the affirmative, “Everything that the Lord has spoken
we will do.” (19:8) The stage is set for
God to begin instructing the people concerning what it means to be the people
of God.
The events that are about to take place are classified as a
theophany, or a breaking in of God into the normal world and lives of the
created order. God is about to come
close enough for Israel to hear his voice.
This is a special event, and in the rest of the Old Testament, a unique
event. God will not be directly visible
to the people, but will be shrouded in clouds, fire and smoke.
Moses’ role in this event is important, not just for the
event itself, but for his continued role as leader of God’s people. To this point it has been Moses who has been
the direct mediator between God and the people.
For Israel’s part, they would still be back in Egypt if God had not
chosen Moses to be his mouth to both Israel and to Pharaoh. Moses’ leadership, however, has already been
questioned. The way in which God chooses
to reveal himself and his wishes to Israel at this point is partly to validate
Moses’ leadership role. God speaks to
Moses in the direct hearing of the people so that they will be able to believe
that the direction that Moses gives is not just his own personal whim, but the
command of God. Moses is standing among
the people when God gives the law.
The
Text:
The
First Word: I Am the Lord Your God
When all the players are in place God begins to speak. The very first words out of God’s mouth are
extremely important for all that follows.
“I am the Lord your God…” The “your” here is not plural as you might
suspect; it’s singular. God begins his
speech by addressing the individual in the congregation. While these commands have in mind the health
and vitality of the community that is Israel, the health and vitality of the
community begins with individual and interpersonal relationships.
Not only is God addressing the group and the individual, God
is presenting these commands in terms of relationship. It is not some impersonal, distant and
unknown God who is capriciously laying down commands. No, it is a God that is known to Israel,
known to Israel through mighty deeds that secured their salvation. This relationship is one with a history. Not only is God Israel’s God, he is the one “…who brought you out of the land of
Egypt.” These laws are given in the
context of relationship. Israel is
called not to obey the law for the law’s sake.
Israel is called to obey the one who gives the law. Further, it’s
important to note that God’s grace comes before the commands. God graciously
redeemed his people out of slavery in Egypt, and now they will be called to
respond to that grace through obedient living.
It’s important to keep in mind here that Israel’s
faithfulness to these commands is not conditionally based. God is not saying that if Israel keeps these
commands they will be God’s chosen people.
They are already, by virtue of their deliverance from Egypt, God’s
people. Keeping these commands does not
make them the people of God. Rather,
these commands allow God’s people to grow up into and flourish as God’s
covenant people.
One more thing is important to note before we look at each
of the commandments in turn. Eight of
the commands are negative in nature, “You shall not…”, while two of them are positive. One commentator points out that at this point
the commands are not intended to create life but to protect it from behaviors,
private and cooperate, that might destroy it.
Yet, he notes, that the commands implicitly move us toward considering
their positive side. “For example, not
bearing false witness invites speaking well of one’s neighbor, not killing
suggests efforts to preserve life, and not wrongfully using the name of God
commends the praise of God. It is not
enough for a community’s life and health simply to avoid crimes.”[1] With every “shall not” is
a “shall.” I believe that this is part of what Jesus means when he says in
Matthew that he did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it.
Our study of each command will focus on the prohibition of
the negative commands as well as the positive intention inherent in it. We will
ask: what does it look like to fulfill this negative command in positive
way? We will examine the first five
commands this week and the final five next week.
The
First Command: No Other Gods!
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.”
The prohibition against having any other gods other than
Yahweh is tied tightly to God’s previous action. As we have already said, these commands,
especially this one, is given in the context of a previous history and
relationship. This history of God as one
who delivers from slavery and bondage will be foundational for Israel. A phrase similar to “who brought you out of
the land of Egypt” is found in over 130 places in 30 of the 39 books of the Old
Testament. 91 times we are explicitly
told that it was Yahweh who brought Israel out of Egypt.[2]
There is to be no doubt left in Israel’s mind that the one
who freed them from slavery is the one who is in control. God is being clearly defined as the one who
has acted, in sheer grace, on behalf of Israel.
God is committed to Israel and now God wishes that Israel be committed
to him. This is made explicit in the
command to have no other gods. The
phrase may confuse some, making them think that the “before me” is a matter of
order. As in, God being the first god in
what might be a small pantheon. This
might give the sense that Israel (we) might serve other gods too as long as our
first allegiance goes to God. This is
not the case. The literal translation of
the phrase is “before/beside/in addition/together with my face.” God desires a solitary commitment. This includes, to be sure, placing ourselves
as god alongside the one who has freed us from slavery. A good and long discussion could be had
concerning the things or people lifted up as gods. They are legion and we do so, at times,
without ever realizing it.
In a positive way, what does it look like to not have any
other gods besides the one who brought us up out of slavery? Constantly, through the pages of scripture,
we are being called to become like this very God who desires our
allegiance. Keeping this command means
that we seek to be like God in that we are active in bringing people from
bondage to freedom. This may be very
literal, as in seeking to bring people to freedom from addiction, human
trafficking, and many other things. Or,
it could be more spiritual in nature.
The
Second Command: No Idols!
“You shall not make for yourself an idol…You shall not bow
down to them or worship them…”
Idols were prevalent throughout the countries that would
surround Israel. Indeed, even the house
of slavery from which they have just been liberated liberally used idols and
images to represent what was of ultimate concern for them. In short, idols were everywhere and presented
a grave danger to Israel. In other
places in Israel’s sacred literature, God would warn Israel that worship of
idols would bring about consequences of the gravest sort.
The problem with idols is that they are static. They represent an image of a thing, a person
or an animal in an unchangeable form. To
cast an image and call it God, as Israel will do in just a few short chapters,
is to represent God as something he is not, static and unresponsive. Rather, the God that is depicted in the pages
of our bible is one that is immanent; he is among us responding to us as we
live our daily lives. To cast God in an
image is to deny that God acts in relationship to the world he created.[3]
The prohibition against idols goes beyond their mere
existence. The tendency with all idols
is that one will bow down in worship to them.
Bowing down might seem innocent enough, but it’s the posture that is
important. To bow down, or to prostrate
oneself before someone or something, places oneself in a position of complete
subservience. In a bowed down position
one is totally vulnerable. “To prostrate
oneself is to announce that the person in whose presence one is in is vastly
superior and worthy of complete deference.”[4] For Israel and for us, as ones who have been
created in the image of God, this kind of posture should only be reserved for
the one who has brought us up out of Egypt, out of slavery.
To fulfill this command in a positive way is to find rest in
the God who has pursued us, who has sought us and graciously promises to remain
steadfastly loyal to us. It is a
constant burden to seek after something or someone who might bring us safety,
security, and love. We need not waste
our energy on that search. God is with
us. God has come to us in Jesus Christ,
the form of the invisible God. So, let
us leave off the work of constructing something to worship. Let us, instead, turn to the God who is
constantly calling to us and who is easy to find.
The
Third Command: Don’t Give God a Bad Reputation!
“You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord
your God…”
We often use this commandant to help our children learn how
not to talk. We teach them not to use
God’s name as a swear word, and then we teach them not to use swear words at
all. Somewhere along the line we make
the connection between this commandment and all forms of speech we deem as
unbefitting our status as Christians.
This commandment concerning the right use of God’s name goes
much deeper than swearing. It has
everything to do with God’s reputation here on earth. Names are important markers of identity. The modern world of marketing knows
this. That is why those involved in
marketing products or services do their best to ensure that the name of a
product matches what it does and becomes synonymous with quality and excellence
in that area. Companies and marketing
firms are so effective at this that people build up great loyalties to these
products. Names conjure up all kinds of
ideas about the nature of the product.
Just think of some of the conversations you may have had about companies
such as Apple and Microsoft or Ford and Chevy.
Names matter. They point back to
something larger.
The God of Israel is constantly concerned with his name and
the larger reality to which it points. Moses,
in a few chapters, will convince God not to destroy Israel because of the
damage it would cause to God’s good name. In this command, God wants Israel to
represent God, not only in how it handles itself in truthfulness, but in how it
characterizes God. God is the God of
truth. Therefore Israel should not
lie. God is the God who frees people
from slavery; therefore Israel should free others from slavery. God is the God who is steadfastly loyal in
love; therefore Israel should be steadfastly loyal in love. The question for us is, when we invoke the
name of God do we do so for things that are of great importance? In other words, are the things we proclaim
God being for really the things that God is for? Do we carry God’s name in the
world well, or do we bring it into disrepute through our words and
actions?
Positively, making right use of God’s name is done in praise
and recounting the great deeds of God.
“We can and do raise up God’s name for praise and adoration and for
support of the things God calls us to: actions for justice, lively and true
worship, support for our weakness, challenges to our sloth, hope in our
hopelessness.”[5]
The
Fourth Commandment: The Sabbath! Keep
it!
“Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy…”
The first word of this command, remember, is an important
word for Israel. So often in the Old
Testament Israel is commanded to remember.
Most of those commands demand that what is to be remembered is God or
what God has done. What are we to
remember? We are to remember the
Sabbath. The call is not so much to
remember a certain day, but to remember the way in which God created all that
is. Six days God worked to bring the
world to order. On the seventh day he
rested. God did not rest because he
needed to; he did not rest because he was tired. God did not even rest from his completion of
creation; God rested as a way to
complete creation. By doing so God
establishes within creation a rhythm of work and rest. This is the way it is supposed to be: work
then rest. It is only when creation
honors this work-rest rhythm that creation can be what it was intended to
be. In a counter intuitive way, not
working keeps the forces of chaos away.[6]
This is certainly contrary to how we think and talk about
the world. We scurry around, working
constantly (at our jobs or at other things as well) so that we can live our
lives in the way that we want to live them.
Our constant working is an attempt to ensure that we are in control. The opposite happens. The more we frantically work the more things
unwind. Our marriages unwind, our
relationship with our children disintegrates, and so does our heath. When we do not stop to rest we declare that
God is not really in charge.
Ironically, our call to remember the Sabbath is more than a
call to cognitively remember.
Remembrance in the bible is almost never passive. We are called to remember the Sabbath by
keeping it. In our world today, keeping
the Sabbath requires planning and commitment.
It requires the work of discipline to set it apart as holy.
So
What…?
As we journey towards the cross, we are confronted with the
numerous ways in which we fail to keep God’s commands, not just in not doing
wrong, but failing to fulfill these commands in their positive aspects as
well. Our failure to keep these commands
damages our relationship with God and with others.
When we stress keeping the law by stressing the importance
of the law itself rather than the relationship behind the law, we miss the
point. It’s a sin because it
characterizes God and the law as caring more about what we do and do not do
over the law as a way to help us become the people God wants us to become by
way of our redemption from slavery.
When we build idols for ourselves we fail to represent God
as a personal God who is in a responsive relationship with us. We end up creating a god we can control, one
we’ve made in our own image instead of serving the God who created us in his
image.
When we wrongfully use God’s name we do damage to his reputation. The ways we talk about God, the things we
pray for, and the ways we live—those things show others what we think is the
nature of the God whom we serve.
Finally, when we fail to keep the Sabbath holy we sin by
failing to allow God to be God. We work
and believe that if we were to cease our toil that the world would come
crashing down on us. We fail to trust
that the God who created and sustains the universe will now take care of us as
we seek to follow the rhythm of creation: work then rest.
As we confess our sin and our unfaithfulness we need to
remember that our confession is just the first step toward our collective
repentance, our walking in a different direction. If we are to be faithful it will be because
we have allowed the Holy Spirit to work in us as individuals and as a
community.
Critical Discussion Questions:
- What does God look like in this text/Who is God in this text/What is God doing in this text?
- God has created us as his holy people. He has liberated us from slavery and is helping us as we journey toward the Promised Land. God is giving us the guidance and rules we need to fully become what he has intended us to become.
- What does holiness/salvation look like in this text?
- Holiness looks like following these commands because they come from the God who has brought us up out of slavery. Holiness looks like faithful obedience as a grateful response for the saving actions of God.
- How does an encounter with this story shape who we are and who we should become?
- We often gloss over these commands thinking we know what they mean and what they demand of us. We must confess that we have read them too simply and have often missed the point and then move toward being more faithfully obedient.
Specific Discussion Questions:
Read
the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were very
unfamiliar with the story.
1.
Why
does God begin the Ten Commandments by speaking these words, “I am the Lord
your God.”
2.
Regarding
the first commandment, why doesn’t God want us to have any other gods beside
him?
3.
Why
does God specifically remind Israel of what he has just done for them?
4.
What
is an idol? What are our idols today?
5.
The
prohibition against bowing down to an idol had in mind the complete vulnerable
state that bowing down created. We may
not physically bow down before our idols today, but what are some of the ways
in which we make ourselves completely vulnerable to our idols?
6.
What
does it mean to make wrongful use of God’s name? Is it mainly about using God’s name as a
swear word? How else might we make wrongful use of God’s name?
7.
A
name represents the nature and character of the thing it represents. For Israel, God’s name represented a whole
set of beliefs about who God is and how God interacts with creation. For instance, for Israel the name “God” comes
to mean “the one who sets the captive free.”
When you talk about God, what beliefs about who God is come immediately to
mind?
8.
The
commandment to keep the Sabbath holy is rooted in the creation story. God works six days and then rests on the
seventh. God intended this to be the
normal rhythm of creation: work then rest.
Why do you think God planned it this way?
9.
Is
it tough to truly take a Sabbath, that is, to rest from your work? If so, why?
What might that say about the trust, or lack thereof, that we place in
God for our future?
[1] Terence
E. Fretheim, Exodus: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and
Preaching (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1991), 221.
[2] John
C. Holbert, The Ten Commandments: A Preaching Commentary (Nashville:
Abingdon Press, 2002) 17.
[3] Fretheim,
227
[4] Holbert,
29
[5] Holbert,
48
[6] Fretheim,
230
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