The God spoke all these words:
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.
You should not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath day to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work - you, your son, your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock or alien residents in your towns. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
Honor your father and mother so that your days may be long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
You shall not covet your neighbour's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, "you speak to us and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die." Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin." Then the people stood at a distance, while Moses drew near to the thickness where God was.
Exodus19:16-22, 24&25, 20:1:22
Before we begin to think about the words of God on Mount Sinai, we must remember what Moses said to the Pharaoh of Egypt when he was pleading for the freedom of his people: "God says, Let my people go, so they may worship me in the wilderness." Enslaved in Egypt the Israelites forgot the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because of "their broken spirit and their cruel slavery." But God did not forget them, he heard their cries and he came to Moses saying, "I have heard the groaning of the Israelites whom the Egyptians are holding as slaves and I have remembered my covenant." The Israelites saw the persistence and the power of their God who remembered them. Before they escaped Egypt they would see the Nile turned to blood, flies, locusts and frogs swarm the earth and boils plague the Egyptians, they would see darkness descend and remain. I wonder what the Israelites thought as they witnessed the power of the God they hardly knew anymore? Who was He who moved the cloud behind them, who commanded the wind and the water, who made a way where there was no way, who swallowed their oppressors? Moses knew. God had spared his life as a child, had found him in Midian and brought him before the Pharaoh and he and Miriam lead their people in singing, in dancing, in worship on the other side of the shore saying:
The Lord is my strength and my might,
and he has become my salvation
This is my God and I will praise him
My Father's God and I will exalt him
Who is like you, O Lord, among the Gods?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness
awesome in splendour, doing wonders?
You stretched out your hand and the earth swallowed them.
But it didn't take long for the grumbling and the longing for the former life to set in, "If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by fleshpots and ate our fill," they said to Moses. Now, I appreciate this complaint because it reveals what we know to be true in our own lives: our memory is often unreliable. Sometimes we romanticize the past, life was so much easier when I wasn't working, when the kids were little, when we lived over there, when other people were making decisions for us/telling us what to do. Other times we re-interpret the past through our current circumstances, the questions we have or the hurt we are experiencing and we project these current feelings into our past experiences... "it's always been this way for me..." Life for the Israelites in Egypt was harsh but it was what they were accustomed to. They had no frame of reference for what it meant to be free and they began to despair, they began to long for what was, surely they must be facing death, what else could be before them? God cared for them in their anxiety and fear; he provided food from heaven and water from a rock, cloud and fire that they might trust him, that they might learn who he is and how to worship him. But this was hard learning; they had to confront their idolatry's, their wrong ideas about who God is and their own depravity. They would fail, repent, be renewed and sin again; in one breath bowing down to God and in another worshipping idols.
They came to Mount Sinai where they camped in the wilderness. And God said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians how I bore you on Eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my commandment you shall be my treasured possession out of all the people. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation... and the LORD said to Moses, I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after."(exodus 19:3-6) And Moses prepared the people to hear from the Lord, they washed their clothes and prepared for the third day. And on the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightening, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain and a blast of the trumpet that caused the people to tremble. The mountain was wrapped in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire, as he had descended on the bush before Moses. The smoke went up and the mountain shook. The trumpet blasts became louder and louder and God spoke these words to Moses and his first words were, "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."(Exodus 2-:1-3) God reminds them, I am passionately involved with you, I created you, I called you, I have paid dearly for you, you have been bought out of slavery that you might fully belong to me, that you might worship me, that you might be set a part, that you might live in such a way that people might see who I am. (Hauerwas & Willimon) As Christians we too are to live as those chosen by God, claimed by him, that we might proclaim in words and deed what God has done. These commandments are "given to a whole community and are only made possible by our initiation in a community where there are opportunities for confession, forgiveness and reconciliation;" we will fail, but we can receive forgiveness through Christ and be brought into right relationship with God and others (Hauerwas & Willimon p.217).
The commandments deal with our relationship to God (worship God alone, do not make idols, do not use God's name wrongfully, Keep the Sabbath) and our relationship with others (honour your parents, do not steal, do not murder, do not lie, do not commit adultery, do not envy). My tendency is to frame the commandments in the positive: live generously, be honest, practice fidelity and it is true that there is invitation to live this way in these words. But, if the commandments were written this way they likely wouldn't act on me in the same way. When I read or hear them as they are written, they convict me and show me my sin and the deep need I have of God's mercy and grace. I know my tendency to distort the truth, to lie, when it helps my cause; my bent towards idolatry; my struggle to stop working, to put aside what I would like to do and enter into the rhythms of sabbath. I think of Jesus' words: "You have heard it said that anyone who murders shall be liable to judgement. But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister you will be liable to judgement." (Matthew 5:21-22) I can't keep the commandments, the great prophet Moses couldn't keep them, David couldn't keep them. Not one of us can do it; lying, deceit and falsehood come quite naturally to us. And rules don't save us, it is God, in Christ who saves us and transforms us, by our obedience into a people of truth. (Hauerwas and Willimon, pg.134)
We have these words of God because we have been delivered and redeemed and we are delivered and redeemed because we have these words (Hauerwas & Willimon). These words are to shape our lives, in them we discover that how we live matters to God and we discover that these words give us life; they are a gift, not a burden.
The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and the drippings of the honeycomb.
Psalm 19:7-10
Our words matter, what we do with our bodies matters, how we view our property and our possessions matters, our attitude to our parents matters, fidelity matters, telling the truth matters because God has chosen us to be his people. God wants to use us to bring life out of death, order out of chaos, light out of darkness and whenever we do this, it is worship (Hauerwas & Willimon, pg. 187).
If you are teaching Pre K/K and Grades 1&2 this week and even Grade 3, I would recommend that you tell the story from the Children's Storybook Bible. 'Ten Ways to be Perfect' includes 'Bread from Heaven' and 'Water from a Rock' and the people gathering at the foot of the mountain before hearing the word of the Lord. The illustrations are evocative and she connects the Ten Commandments to Christ as the fulfillment of the law, "the only one who is perfect, the one who would stand in their place and be perfect for them; the only one who can save." (Sally Lloyd Jones) I hope that the rich imagery in this story will stir in us an imagination for the holiness of God, the relentless, self revealing nature of God who loves his people and longs to make them his own.
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