Bible Materials

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (I)

by   06/14/2019   Exodus 20:1~11

Message


In the last lesson, we thought of God’s grace upon and hope for the Israelites. His grace was expressed in these words, “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” “Eagles’ wings” showed how God rescued them from oppression in Egypt, cared for them, and disciplined them through adverse circumstances. No one but the LORD could carry them on eagles’ wings. Then he revealed his amazing hope for them saying, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Again, no one but the LORD could have such a hope for the Israelites, a former slave people. Expressing his grace and hope for Israel in this way, the LORD God was making a covenant relationship with the Israelites on Mount Sinai. The LORD came down on Mount Sinai in a thick cloud with thunder, lighting, and a very loud trumpet blast, and everyone in the camp trembled while the whole mountain trembled violently. The LORD’s descension reveals his humbleness, yet the atmosphere, his holiness. On this mountain, the LORD, the humble and holy God, spoke the Ten Commandments (Ex. 34:28; Dt. 4:13; 10:4; Decalogue). These are the laws by which his people are to live. Yet these laws are more than simply good rules. The laws reveal the nature of God. Moses said in Deuteronomy 4:8, “What other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?” He also said, “Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people” (4:6). What kind of law a person or a nation lives by really matters. Nowadays, we see that human laws change according to man’s carnal desires, becoming increasingly secular and degraded to the point of moral revolution. However, the divine law of God never changes. It makes people wise and truly great, lifting their souls to God. As we study the ten commandments, may we probe into the heart of God so that we can live by them, teach them to our next generation, and truly be his great people. Among the ten commandments, today we will think of the first four commandments, which concern our relationship with God. Verse 1 says, “God spoke all these words.” During creation, God spoke beginning with the words, “Let there be light.” The LORD God spoke to Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (2:16-17). He spoke to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Also, in Exodus certainly God spoke to Moses. Now, God spoke the ten commandments to Israelites. The LORD God is the God who speaks. He also speaks to us personally. Look at verse 2. “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of the slavery.” This is the prologue of the ten commandments, and so the ground of the whole commandments. It shows the relationship between the LORD and Israel. The LORD was a deliverer and the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. Instead of saying, “You were slaves in Egypt and were brought out of the land, he said, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” The focus was not on them, but the LORD their God. He wanted them to know the LORD their God and his grace upon them. No one but the LORD could bring them out of Egypt, the land of slavery. Knowing the grace of the LORD their God would be the motivation of keeping the commandments. To know and remember the grace of God is of foundational importance in the lives of believers. Moses said in Deuteronomy 6:10-12, “When the LORD your God brings you into the land…then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” It is also written in Hosea 13:4-5 concerning the Israel, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Saviour except me. I cared for you in the desert, in the land of burning heat. When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.” Betraying God’s grace would be the worst sin. It is betraying the very one who showed such grace. Even betraying men’s grace is a wicked thing. We should all watch out for this terrible sin of forgetting the LORD our God and his Now God gives the ten commandments to the Israeliteswhom he brought out of Egypt as his redeemed people. The first commandment (3). Look at verse 3. “You shall have no other gods before me.” As the first commandment, this command is a central point on which the other nine commandments hinge. It is the basis from which the other nine derive their meaning, providing a conceptual framework for the understanding of the other commandments. “Before me” means “besides me” as the footnote indicates. “You shall have no other gods besides me.” Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 8:4-5, “We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, yet for us there is but one God, the Father.” In fact, people make gods and there were many manmade gods in time, past and present. And behind all those gods are demons (1 Cor. 10:20). As we studied in the previous lessons, there were many gods in Egypt and God judged all the Egyptians gods. When they entered the land of Canaan, there would be many gods (gods that neither they nor their father have known, gods of the people around them) (Dt. 7:6-7), such as Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molek the god of the Ammonites, (1 Kings 11:33). It is of foremost importance to know that there is only one God, one true God, the LORD. The LORD said in Exodus 7:5, “The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it”, and in 9:16, “…my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” God’s heart desire is that not only the Israelites but also the Egyptians and all people of the world might know him. It is written again and again in Isaiah, “I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no Saviour” (43:11), “I am the first and the last; apart from me there is no God” (44:6), “I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God” (45:5), and “there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me” (45:21). In our time people often say, “There are many religions and many ways to reach heaven.” But our answer should be crystal clear, “No, never.” Our Lord Jesus unambiguously said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). Jesus also said in his high priestly prayer, “…they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent,”, which is eternal life (Jn 17:3). Apostle Paul also said in 1 Timothy 2:5-6, “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men.” What the people of the world or our friends or humanly respectable people say can matter. But the most important thing is my response to the LORD, the only true God. So, the first commandment is not “There is no other gods besides me”, but “You shall have no other gods besides me.” Here, “you” is singular. God seems to be saying, the “you and I” relationship is important. However, no matter what all other people of the world think, God wants each of his people to be sure of the LORD their God. This personal relationship with the LORD, the only true God, makes all the difference. Now let’s think about the words, “before me.” “You shall have no other gods before me.” “Before me” means “in preference to me.” He is an exclusive God and his love is exclusive. So, he demands such exclusive love from his people. It shows how he loved them, his own. He chose only Israel among many nations. He chose them, because he loved them. Human reason cannot explain why he loved them. This was his sovereign grace upon them and he poured out his love upon them. When the Israelites went after other lovers, he could not bear it. The LORD expressed his pained heart this way in Hosea 6:4-5, “What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? You love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears. Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth; my judgments flashed like lightning upon you.” Love kills, devouring like the grave. This happens even among human love. Song of songs 8:6 says, “love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave.” It is written in Hoses continually, “I am God, and not man—the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath” (11:9). The love of the Holy One is that he killed his own Son as a ransom sacrifice to save his people from their sins. The name Jesus means this. God’s sacrificing his own Son shows that he knew us beforehand and loved us first (1 John 4:19). Because of his initiating and outpoured love, the LORD God says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” The Ten Commandments are written again in Deuteronomy 5. Afterwards Moses said, in 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Because of oneness of the LORD our God and his love, may we able to keep this command, “You shall have no other gods before me.” The second commandment (4). Look at verse 4. “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.” Fallen men have a tendency to bow down and worship visible images, while God is invisible. It says, “for yourself.” They make visible carved images of gods for themselves. In Exodus 35, when Moses did not come down at the time they expected, the Israelites under the leadership of Aaron, made an idol of gold in the shape of a calf and said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt” (32:4). Afterward, they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. Some may wonder how such a thing could happen. Anyway, that is what happened. There have been many icons in Christian history. Roman Catholics omit this commandment and bow down to Mary and other saints, making their statues or other images. But God forbids it. God said also in Leviticus 26:1, “Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it.” The Reformer John Calvin helps us understand the problem of making God in a visible and tangible shape. The majesty of God is so great and glorious that no shape or image can represent God. If any shape is made to represent God, that will be an attempt to subject the glorious God to human imagination, demoting God, and defiling him. God says concerning this command again and again. Bowing down to an image is downgrading and insulting the God who is alive today with us and cares for us. In our time, instead of adoring and worshiping the invisible God, people admire and adore celebrities as idols. When I heard that an estimated two million people gathered for the Raptors parade, I was stunned. I had thought that probably a maximum of a couple hundred thousand people would gather. The Population in Toronto is about five million. That means that more than one third of the people in Toronto gathered and celebrated. I have never heard of such a large gathering of people. Even the Prime Minister of Canada along with Ontario Premier and Toronto mayor participated in the celebration. Kawhi, Lowry, Prime Minister , and some others, one by one, came out and said something like, “Enjoy this moment and have fun.” Truly this is an idol in our time. I was reminded of the Nephilim, who were heroes of old, men of renown in Noah’s time. God grieved over then and wiped out all people of the corrupted world except Noah and his family members. People may say that such a parade is better than the pride parade. Still, it is an ominous sign of the dark future of this idolatrous city. I had to repent of my sin of enjoying the Raptors’ NBA championship secretly in my heart instead of having a broken heart for the people of our city. I also could better understand the meaning of “multitude”. In Revelation, a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people and language stood before the throne of God and in front of the Lamb and sang in a loud voice wearing white robes and holding palm trees in their hands, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (7:9-10). We can have a hope that in the last days such a large gathering, of two million people, may hear the gospel of Christ Jesus. Anyway, the people of our time seem to be desperate to find visible objects of worship to identify with. But the LORD God strongly forbids it. We should watch out that certain people, our children, or money or career may not be our idols. God says continually in verses 5 and 6, “…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.” The LORD is not the one for whom everything is okay no matter what people do. No. Of course he is an absolute being who is not affected by anything. Yet, he is a responsive God who punishes or shows love according to how people respond to him. Some may wonder why he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers. We should understand this correctly. It is clearly written in Deuteronomy 24:16, “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.” It is also written in Ezekiel 18:20, “The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son.” Then we understand verse 5 in this way: that children are seriously influenced by an godly or ungodly environment made by their parents and the parents’ generation. Again, the LORD God is a responsive God. If possible, he wants to show love more, even more than 250 times than to punish. The LORD is the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in love (Ex 34:6). He says, “…showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Here we learn how to worship God. It is to love him and keep his commandments. Though he is an invisible God, he has given us his written words. Through his words we come to know who God is, how the world and human life began, how much he loved mankind, the way of salvation and the inevitable judgment, we see that the end will come and God will estalish his everlasting kingdom. Instead of trying to have certain images, God wants us to meditate on his words and know him and keep his commandment out of love for him. According to John 1:1,14, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh.” The Son Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15), and the exact representation of his being (Heb. 1:3). We have seen the picture of the good shepherd; it is good to see this picture again and again. Yet, we should not get stuck there, for the picture of the image of the good shepherd Jesus cannot show all about the good shepherd. We should meditate on him continually based on his words. According to Jesus we should worship God the Father who is spirit, in spirit and in truth (Jn 4:23-24). God’s words are the truth (Jn 17:17). The third commandment (7). Look at 7, “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” One’s name represents the person. Misusing God’s name is to use his name for one’s own selfish purpose or for some other purpose, which is not solely for God’s glory. This command includes dishonouring God. On one occasion, the Israelites brought the ark of God into the battle against Philistines when they were losing the battle, thinking that the battle situation would be reversed because of the ark of the LORD. It was treating God with superstition. They miserably defeated, and the name of the LORD was badly defamed. Many people’s faith can be like superstition. They just want to receive God’s blessing irrespective of their relationship with God and their life of faith. They are misusing the name of the LORD their God. We remember Abraham. When there was a dispute between Abraham and Lot, Abraham’s first concern was that God’s name should not be dishonoured particularly among the unbelieving people. So, he said to Lot, “If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left”, (Ge. 13:9), even if it meant much material loss. Contrary to Abraham, when Lot lived a compromising legalistic life pursuing a comfy and affluent life in this world as a believer, he dishonoured God’s name by being a bad influence to his family members and his sons-in-law and the people around him. In history, crusades were terrible events that misused the name of Christ for man’s selfish purposes. That event made Christ’s name dishonoured throughout history. Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Hollowed your name.” The Fourth commandment (8-11). Look at verses 8-11. “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour 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.” This commandment is written in a positive command form and is the longest one among the ten commandments. This commandment begins with the words, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” “Holy” means set apart. By keeping the seventh day holy, by setting apart the seventh day, God’s people were to remember the Sabbath day. This commandment ends, with the words, “Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Again, the word “holy” is used. All these emphasize the importance of the Sabbath day, and the Sabbath is to be set apart as a special day to the LORD. The reason is clearly written: in six days the LORD made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that is in it, but he rested on the seventh day. According to Genesis 2:2, “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” In short by completing his creation work in six days he rested on the seventh day. Interestingly, after man’s fall, the word “Sabbath” began to be used from Exodus, after being brought out of Egypt, the land of slavery. In Egypt, there was no way to keep the Sabbath day. As we studied in chapter 16, the word “Sabbath” is written four times. Especially it is written in 16:29, “Bear in mind that the LORD has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where he is on the seventh day; no one is to go out.” Also, the way to keep the Sabbath day is written lengthily, “Six days you shall labour 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.” How extensively written is the direction not to work at all on the Sabbath! It is written very emphatically in 31:13-17, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy. Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people. For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested.’” In Numbers 15, even a man who was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day was put to death, according to God’s instruction. (Num. 15:32-36). Why was God so serious about the Sabbath day? It is becasuse Sabbath day keeping is a visible expression or sign of one’s relationship with God. As for Christians, our Sabbath day is Sunday, the first day of the week, the day the Lord Jesus rose again from the dead, so called the Lord’s day, because the Lord Jesus completed the redemptive work through his death and resurrection. And Jesus said that he is the Lord of Sabbath (Mt 12:8; Mk 2:28; Lk 6:5). Nonetheless to say, Christians should not keep the Sabbath habitually or legalistically as Sunday Christians do. We must worship God wholeheartedly, truly taking rest by having fellowship with God through his words and prayer and praising and serving others as worship service. Worshiping the Lord on the Lord’s day is a great way of enjoying him. Isaiah 58:13-14 tells us, “...if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, ...then you will find your joy in the Lord and I will cause you to ride in triumph...” May we really remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Thank God for his words of the first four of the ten commandments which show what kind of relationship the LORD our God wants with us. Thank God that there are no other gods besides him and he wants us to have no others gods before him. Because of his exclusive love may we love and worship him, by keeping his commandments, keeping the Sabbath holy, and living a life that honours him.



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