January 5, 2007
“THOU SHALT NOT…”
Exodus 20
Over the past two weeks, I have had the opportunity to go back to my roots. Esther Ruth and I went to Kenya to spend Christmas and New Year’s with my brother Shel and his family. Shel still lives in the house we all grew up in, a house my father built in 1960. I found it deeply satisfying to sit on the porch, looking out over the Rift Valley – to reminisce, to wander the familiar roads and trails of my boyhood. I find it good, from time to time, to reconnect with my roots, to look back at the old familiar foundations stones upon which my life has been built.
It struck me as supremely fitting, then, as I sat on the porch one afternoon to begin writing this sermon, to turn my thoughts to the next chapter in the book of Exodus. Because here, in Exodus 20, I found I was reconnecting with the moral and ethical foundation stones upon which my life has been built. For it is in Exodus 20 that we find the account of the giving of the Ten Commandments: the ten moral imperatives that provide the compass points, the absolute boundaries for a righteous life, for a happy family and for a just society.
Just as my visit to my boyhood home in Kenya put me in touch with my emotional, family roots, so my meditations and study on the Ten Commandments put me in touch with my moral roots.
As we turn to the passage together, I first want to recapture the Setting. The people of Israel are camped at the foot of Mt. Sinai. God has come to enter into a covenant with the nation. Moses has summoned them all from their tents to meet God and so they all stood together before the mountain. Thunder rumbled, lighting flashed, and Yahweh himself descended in fire to the top of the mountain. As he came down upon the mountain, the whole mountain billowed with smoke and trembled violently and there was the sound of a great trumpet blast which grew louder and louder. Then Exodus 19:19 states that in the midst of this awesome display, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.
So, what did God say? It is my conclusion from my study of the text here, and the parallel passages in Deuteronomy, that the words from God’s mouth that day constituted the Ten Commandments that are recorded in Exodus 20.
Let me just briefly cite the evidence for my conclusions. First look at Exodus 20:1: And God spoke all these words. “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Then the passage continues to give the text of the Ten Commandments. I believe these were given in God’s own voice. To further support this idea, let’s also turn over to Deuteronomy. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses retells the story of the giving of the Ten Commandments.
Look at Deuteronomy 4:10-13: Remember the day you stood before Yahweh your God at Horeb (another name for Sinai) when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.” You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness. Then Yahweh spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets. First he spoke them, then he wrote them.
From this passage and some other clues sprinkled in the text, I believe God orally and audibly spoke these commandments directly to the Israelites. Why is this setting important? It would be hard to imagine what more God could do to get our attention to underline and emphasize his words. In fact, the reason for God’s display of power is clearly explained by Moses in Exodus 20:18-20:
When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”
In other words, this is not a fear that should lead you into terror for your lives. God has not come down to strike you dead! But he has come down to create in you a righteous fear of sinning, so that you will understand the consequences of violating the decrees of such an awesome God! I think it is healthy for you and me to keep this setting in mind as we study Exodus 20. Let us imagine ourselves standing among the Israelites as the very voice of this invisible, yet majestic God speaks these words.
As we turn to God’s words, I face a certain dilemma as a preacher. I had to make a choice between taking a detailed approach or a very broad stroke, summary approach. On the one hand, there is enough material here to fill a whole series of sermons. On the other hand, I set out to preach a series of messages on the narrative passages of the Pentateuch. If we interrupt that to look at these commandments in detail, we will not finish this year. So maybe at some time in the future we will come back to Exodus 20 for a closer look, but for now, we will content ourselves with a quick summary. It will be like walking down a hallway with 10 doors opening off the corridor. Rather than enter each door and explore each room, we will simply walk down the corridor stick our heads in each door and take a quick look around and move on.
Door # 1: I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:2-3)
A moment’s thought shows this to be a most logical and fitting place for the Ten Commandments to begin in light of the setting (the voice speaking out of the fire) and the occasion (the setting of the conditions of the covenant). God identifies himself as the principal party in the covenant, the sovereign, all powerful one who has delivered them from Egypt. He then declares that foundational to the covenant is that it is an exclusive covenant. As the God who brought them out of Egypt, he demands exclusive worship and loyalty.
At the heart of this command are the words, “no other gods before me.” What does the phrase “before me” mean? Many interpreters and preachers seem to go in the direction of “ahead of me” or “above me.” They interpret “before” in the sense of priority. This is an important truth and a legitimate application. But it is not the heart of what God is saying here. The actual Hebrew word, “before”, comes from the word for “face”. “You shall have no other gods before my face or in my presence. There were many religious systems in that day that had many gods. Typically they had a chief or most powerful god – a supreme deity – who was then surrounded by a pantheon of lesser deities. In this first commandment, God makes it clear that he will not settle for being a chief god, a first among many. He is the one and only God. You shall have no other gods at all.
This claim to exclusive worship and loyalty is also emphasized in Deuteronomy 4:35: You were shown these things (the plagues of Egypt) so that you might know that Yahweh is God; besides him there is no other. And in Deuteronomy 4:39: Acknowledge and take to heart this day that Yahweh is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.
Door # 2: You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:4)
The second commandment follows closely on the heels of the first. In fact, so close is the connection that some ancient church traditions actually put them together and label them the first commandment and then separate the final commandment on coveting into two to keep the number of commandments at ten. They are closely related, but there is a distinction. While the first commandment lays the emphasis on exclusive worship, the second one emphasizes the mode of worship, and rules out the use of idols or images as objects of reverence or worship, or even as aids in worship.
Any attempt to reduce God to a shape, an image, or a visible form will always reduce him, make him less that he is and therefore lead to false worship, to worshipping as God that which is not God.
Door # 3: You shall not misuse the name of Yahweh your God, for Yahweh will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. (Exodus 20:7)
God’s name stands for and is synonymous with his reputation, his honor, his essence. God went to great lengths to reveal his name to Moses in Exodus 3 as “Yahweh” – “I AM”, the eternally existent one. Now he says to his people, “do not misuse the name of Yahweh your God.”
We can expand on this commandment and apply it in various ways. One way to misuse Yahweh’s name is to use his name in an oath, to swear by him, and then not keep the commitment you make in his name. Another way to misuse his name is to speak his name blasphemously or even frivolously and thoughtlessly. At the heart of the commandment, though, is a deep commitment to God’s honor and reputation. It is no accident that we find this same commitment at the center of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray: Hallowed be thy name – may your name be held in reverence.
Door # 4: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
In this commandment God declares himself Lord of our time, our schedule, our priorities. He commanded the Israelites to set one day in seven aside for rest and worship. In a way, this commandment differs from the other nine in that there is a sense in which a complete observance of this commandment requires a community which is dedicated to such an observance, which is what God desired Israel to be – hence the emphasis on those who are “within your gates.” But on another level, each individual and family can make a priority to set aside adequate time for both spiritual and physical replenishment.
Door # 5: Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land Yahweh your God is giving you. (Exodus 20:12)
In this commandment God demonstrates his commitment to families and establishes a proper order in the family. When properly followed, this commandment will also ensure the preservation of a channel for true worship and for God’s standards to be passed from generation to generation. Especially in Deuteronomy, an emphasis is placed on parents teaching the words of God to their children. When parents fulfill this responsibility, and the children honor their father and mother in obedience, the truth of God and his covenant is passed accurately from generation to generation.
The next four commandments I am going to pass over even more quickly, because they are the most familiar. You will sometimes hear people say, “I live by the ten commandments.” When they say this, they are most probably referring to these four.
Door # 6: You shall not murder. (Exodus 20:13)
This commandment declares and protects the value of human life, which ultimately derives from the fact that we are made in God’s image.
Door # 7: You shall not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14)
This commandment is given to protect the sanctity of marriage.
Door # 8: You shall not steal. (Exodus 20:15)
In this commandment we are required to respect the rights of others, including (but not limited to) their personal property rights.
Door # 9: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. (Exodus 20:16)
We are commanded to speak the truth, to be an honest witness when called upon. The adherence to this commandment is essential in any just society.
Finally we come to the tenth commandment; one that at first glimpse may seem strangely out of place.
Door # 10: You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
This commandment has several effects. First of all, it peers into our hearts in a way that the earlier ones may not. It measures us against a continuum between contentment and greed, and between a love that rejoices in the blessings of others and a selfishness that measures all tings in terms of one’s own needs and desires. This tenth commandment also moves from the external commands to the internal motives and the evil desires which so often lead to the breaking of the other commandments. It reveals that God is concerned not only with external righteousness, but internal righteousness as well; a righteousness of the heart as well as the hands.
This, then, is our quick trip down the corridor. These are the saying, the words God spoke out of the fire of Sinai to his people. They formed the foundation of his covenant with Israel.
This promptly leads us to a key question. How do these Ten Commandments, which formed the basis and foundation for the Old Covenant with Israel, relate to us who live under the New Covenant? Are they binding on us today?
The simple answer to that question is, “Yes!” But maybe I should explain. As we study the legal literature of the Bible, the laws which are given in such detail here in Exodus and in the book of Leviticus, and then regiven in Deuteronomy, we find that the laws fall into three different categories. First, there is the moral law, the laws that reveal God’s moral absolutes, his standards of right and wrong. Then there are various civil laws. We must remember that Israel was a new nation, without any experience than that of slavery in Egypt. They needed a legal code, a set of laws to govern their everyday lives, assessing legal standards and specified penalties for certain sins and crimes. Then the third category of laws are the ceremonial laws which governed their worship, their sacrifices, the temple worship, the priests, and all the specific details of the Israelites approach to God.
Of these three categories of laws found in the Old Testament/Covenant, the moral laws are the one category that carries over from the Old Covenant into the New Covenant. And the Ten Commandments are the heart of God’s moral law. These commandments represent God’s essential values. They are moral absolutes which govern our lives on both the vertical (God-ward) and horizontal planes of life. God has not changed. Neither have his values. If we would represent him before the world, we must reflect his values, his character. He is the designer of the moral and ethical order, just as he is the creator and designer of the physical order. We must live by his commandments, his moral law, if we would know life in its fullness.
But we do need to proceed with some considerable caution. The Ten Commandments do not represent the path to salvation, to being right with God, to earning his approval. The New Testament is crystal clear on this point. Turn with me to Romans 3:20-22: Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
We could not be saved by the law, because we couldn’t keep it. Because of our sinful nature, we fell short of God’s righteous standard, and therefore under his condemnation. But now he has provided a way for us to be right with him through faith in Jesus Christ.
But what happens after we have entered into this new relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ? Let’s turn to Romans 8:1-4: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according the sinful nature but according the Spirit.
First of all, God has set us free from the penalty of sin by sending his Son as the sin offering. But when we accept Christ’s sacrifice, something else happens. Christ places his Spirit within us.
Now what does the Spirit within us do? According to the Scripture, he writes God’s law on our hearts and helps us fulfill it. You see, the difference between the old and new covenant is not a different set of moral standards, but a new Resource in the person of the indwelling Spirit of God. As we, who have trusted in Christ as Savior, walk in the Spirit, we will find ourselves living according to the words God spoke to his people that day at Mt. Sinai. For Christ did not come to make righteous living unnecessary. He came to make it possible!