Living as the People of God
This article is based on a message on Exodus chapter 20, given by Eddie Arthur at Above Bar Church, Southampton, on Sunday 29th May 2005. It may be reproduced in print or on other web sites, subject to the copyright notice below.
When Sue and I were at Bible College there was a rule that men and women were not allowed to go into each others' rooms. Sue and I were married at the time and lived off campus - otherwise it could have been very complicated. One day, a friend (male) invited us round to his room for a coffee and Sue stood in the flower bed and leaned in through the window so that she could join us for coffee without breaking the rule. Now, you can understand what the rule was trying to achieve, but you have to question whether or not it was effective!
The point is that Christians are really good at making up rules about behaviour and then insisting that other people follow them. From the chaos of man-made rules, it can make a refreshing change to look at something a straightforward as God's requirements for good behaviour.
Introduction
Very briefly, it is worth noticing that the Ten Commandments are special in a couple of ways:
They were given directly by God to the people of Israel. Other commandments were passed on through Moses. You can see this quite clearly if you compare Exodus chapter 20 verse 1 with Exodus chapter 21 verse 1. These commands, too, were written out by God on tablets of stone.
Though we call them laws, the Ten Commandments are not actually laws in the strictest sense. In ancient times, as today, laws tended to focus on a specific offence and then prescribe a penalty. Along the lines of: 'don't wear a hoody in a shopping centre, or you will go to jail for thirty years.' You know the sort of thing.
The Ten Commandments, however, give general statements (for example, 'You shall not murder') without being at all specific about the difference between murder and manslaughter, or suggesting punishments. The Bible does actually get into that sort of detail, and you can read about punishments for killing people in Numbers 35 - but that is not what we are dealing with here. In fact, some of the issues raised in the Ten Commandments could never be looked at by a human court - how could you judge covetousness?
You see, what we are dealing with here is not a judicial system - that comes later - but a covenant, an agreement between God and his people. This is signalled in the opening words of the passage
And God spoke all these words: 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. (verse 1)
God is saying that he rescued Israel - that is his part, now he is laying out the way that he would like them to behave. I will rescue and keep you safe, which is pleasing to you, now you lead holy lives - that is pleasing to me.
Inside Out, not Outside In.
This aspect of a covenant or agreement is underlined in Jesus' attitude to the Commandments. Take a look at these quotations from the Gospels:
One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. Some of the Pharisees asked, 'Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?' ... [verse 5] Then Jesus said to them, 'The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.' (Luke chapter 6 verses 1-5)
Or:
You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew chapter 5 verses 27-28)
The Pharisees were determined to see the Ten Commandments in their strictest light, so they spent vast amounts of time and energy working out exactly what constituted breaking the laws. The decided that picking a few grains and rubbing the husks away counted as harvesting, so it was work and was not allowed. Jesus has none of this. His attitude is basically to say that the Sabbath is there to help people, not to make their life difficult. But before you start to think that Jesus is not serous about the law, his comments in Matthew show that he is, indeed incredibly serious. Looking at a woman lustfully (or at a man for that matter) is just the same as sleeping with them outside of marriage.
Do you see what this adds up to in Jesus attitude? He is saying that you cannot create good behaviour by forcing people to obey more and more minute rules. What God really wants is an internal change that then works itself out in behaviour which pleases God. Which is why when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is, he replied not in turns of outward actions, but of inward attitudes:
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got
together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this
question:
Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the
Law?' Jesus replied: ' 'Love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the
first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love
your neighbour as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on
these two commandments.' (Matthew
chapter 22 verses 34-40)
As we will see in a moment, Jesus's answer reflects the structure of the Ten Commandments as they are presented in Exodus 20. But just before we get back to Exodus I would like to say something to anyone who is a little frustrated by the length of this introduction. You may be in a hurry for me to get into the Commandments themselves. You may want to get into the meat of the commandments, and to hear what I have to say about working on the Sabbath and such. If you are thinking like that, can I say, with all due respect, that this is exactly why we need to look at the wider context. The issue at stake is one of attitudes producing Godly behaviour, not a legalistic imposition of laws.
For sub-titles, I have used the commandments written in the old King James Version (Authorised Version), with the text from the New International Version. This is not because I want us to go back to the King James version, but because many of us are familiar with its wording, it is useful to refer to it in this instance.
Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. The first four commandments are effectively an explanation of how we would behave if we did this.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me
You shall have no other gods before me. (verse 3)
Quite simply, Israel was to be a monotheistic people. They were not to have a series of Gods. The Lord was not the head of a pantheon or a family of gods. He stands alone as the only God.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image
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, the Lord 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. (verses 4-6)
This commandment is about how we worship. We are not to try and create an image of God in order to worship him. The point is that God is so much bigger than anything that we can imagine that trying to create an image to worship is bound to be in insult. By the way, I do not think this commandment rules out using pictorial representations of God for teaching purposes or art - as long as we do not worship them. You can see from the warning, how seriously God takes this, but note too the extent of God's loyalty - thousands of generations, compared to his judgement.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. (verse 7)
If you take God seriously, then you will not want to use his name as a swear word. This is also a prohibition of trying to use God's power is a sort of magical way to curse people.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy
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 the Lord 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 the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (verses 8-11)
Work-life balance is not a modern invention. We show our respect for God by honouring the natural order of his creation - and that includes a time for work and a time for rest.
Jesus said the second greatest commandment was to love your neighbour as yourself - the rest of the ten commandments give a practical outworking of that statement.
Honour thy father and thy mother
Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. (verse 12)
The word honour is one which is normally applied to God, not people. The image here is of parents being respected because they stand in God's place, instructing their children in God's ways. So there is an implied commandment for parents here as well as an overt one for children.
Thou shalt not kill
You shall not murder. (verse 13)
As Jesus says, this means not getting angry with people and not insulting them - in other words, not wishing them harm in your thought life. This commandment is talking about people, not animals. You cannot defend vegetarianism on the basis of this verse.
Thou shalt not commit adultery
You shall not commit adultery. (verse 14)
We have already seen that Jesus said that this means not keeping lustful thoughts in your mind. For many men, in our overtly sexual society, this commandment has to be the hardest to keep. Can I make a plea to Christian women - do not make it any harder than it already is for your male friends to keep their minds in the right place.
It is easy with this to focus on the negative: do not do this. But the point is that God wants us to have happy, harmonious and fulfilled lives; lives which are lived through a series of appropriate relationships where sex is kept its proper and most fulfilling context.
Thou shalt not steal
You shall not steal. (verse 15)
Do not cheat people out of things which belong to them. This can be their property, but also extends to their reputation, their status and other intangibles.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour
You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour. (verse 16)
The last few commandments have covered acts. This one talks about our words and the last one moves on to our thoughts. In modern terminology this one could say, do not libel or slander anyone else. It is easy to run people down and attack them with words and God does not want us to do that. This means no sending abusive text messages to or about others, by the way.
Thou shalt not covet
You shall not covet your neighbour's house. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour. (verse 17)
This commandment points forward to what Jesus would say many years later. The issue is not really about our actions, it is about the attitude of our minds which leads to our actions. Have you ever considered that the whole point of advertising is to convince you to break this commandment? To make you desire something which is not yours? I will leave that thought with you.
Conclusion
To tie up the different issues raised by the Ten Commandments, let's look at the last few verses of the chapter:
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.'
The
people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness
where God was.
Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Tell the Israelites
this: 'You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from
heaven: Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for
yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.
Make an altar of earth
for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings,
your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be
honoured, I will come to you and bless you. If you make an altar
of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will
defile it if you use a tool on it. And do not go up to my altar
on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it.' (Exodus
chapter 20 verses 18-26)
There are two things that happen in these verses. Firstly, the people of Israel are overawed by their contact with the living God. Meeting God is an awesome and frightening experience and the people of Israel cannot cope.
Then God gives instructions about how the Israelites are to worship him. They are to make altars from undressed stones, and which do not have steps so that the priests do not accidentally expose themselves while offering sacrifices.
The linking theme here can be summed up in one word - holiness. God is different to us. There is no way that language or our imaginations - limited by time and space - can ever get to grips with the reality of the eternal God who created everything that we are and everything that we can ever see. God is orders of magnitude different, from us. So big and powerful that he defies all our concepts of big and powerful.
When people are faced with the reality of God, like the people of Israel, they are frightened - it is only natural. When Jesus' disciples saw him calm a storm they bowed down before him and told him to leave him. When you see the reality of God - you do not mess around. By the same token, it is not up to us to define how we set about approaching God. He is the one who says what appropriate worship is, who sets the parameters for appropriate behaviour in his presence.
This is why we have the Ten Commandments in the first place. A holy God, a God who is so different to us is bound to have his own standards for our behaviour - standards which will cut across the boundaries of human cultures and wishes. In the final analysis, this whole chapter is about God's holiness and how he wants us to respond to it.
But there is a problem. A very basic one - we cannot live up to God's standards. The bar set by the Ten Commandments is higher than we can reach. Now, you need to get this clear. This is not about God making a cosmic sick joke - setting an exam which he knows we will all fail. The Ten Commandments are not arbitrary orders that God gives us. They are rooted in his character. If the bar is too high for us to jump over, it is because God is so much greater than we are, but the bar cannot be lowered. We cannot live up to God's standards because God is God and we are human - end of story. Or not quite.
By writing down the Ten Commandments, God has indicated very clearly that on our own we cannot live up to his standards, and this points us to the need of an alternative solution. If we cannot get over the bar on our own, we need some help:
So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. (Galatians chapter 3 verse 24)
The Ten Commandments are a guide to the kind of behaviour that comes from the attitudes a Holy God wants to see. But more than that, they are a pointer showing us that what we really need from a Holy God is forgiveness and restoration - which are available to us through the work of Jesus Christ.
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