How Shall We Live?

To be completely honest not a lot has happened since what we talked about last week and now finding Moses on Mount Sinai. Yet at the same time what has happened is rather telling for us. If we take a look at the verses were left out we see that the Israelites in Exodus 19:1 had been in the desert for 3 months since they left Egypt. So what has happened, is that Moses turned a bitter stream into drinkable water, then we have the story of the manna and the quail, then Moses produces water from a rock, they defeat an enemy, and then Moses, at his father-in-law Jethro’s idea, creates new leaders within the Israelites to help deal with all the problems and issues that are arising between the Israelites. It is at that point that they arrive at Mount Sinai.

I said that what has happened it not a lot and yet is very telling. Last week we talked about how that relationship between God and the Israelites is brand new. We see through those first few stories how that is being tested with the need for water and food…the basic necessities of life…and God provides. Then we see how Moses’ time is completely taken up by hearing the needs and issues of all the people. Basically what these texts are telling us without outright saying it is that the people of Israel have no structure for their life and do not know how to live properly.

That might seem like a harsh statement, but it’s not their fault. Remember that they have just come out of slavery from the land of Egypt. Their life likely consisted of being woken up, given an amount of time to eat breakfast and then off to work while being watched by Egyptian soldiers. They may have been told when they could use the bathroom, when to break for lunch and for how long. They were told when they could go home and what time they needed to be back to work the next day. Yes they may have remembered the wonderful food and drink they had, but they also likely had a very structured life that was at the hands of Pharaoh and those he put in charge of these slaves.

Every aspect of their lives was controlled by the Egyptians and now they find themselves in the desert trying to sort it all out by themselves and naturally they turn to Moses, the one man who has been communicating with God to figure out all the issues that they are dealing with as a people. After all, it was God who freed them, but it is also due to God that they are dealing with issues like hunger, thirst, and all of these relational issues that are coming up between them, that they have no idea how to deal with them because their is no real authority, there are no longer the Egyptian rulers telling them everything they can and cannot do. It’s not lawlessness and chaos, but I bet it wasn’t easy being able to figure out it on a constant basis all the time, which I am sure led to a lot of disagreements and arguments with each other.

What we see happen today is God’s way of fixing that problem. What we need to notice is that in our first part we read today we see that God covenants with the people first and then gives the ten commandments. As with every other story we have looked at these last five weeks we see covenant and promise come first, and the 10 commandments are no exception. I also believe that part of the problem that exists today is that we see the ten commandments as a list of, “Thou Shall Nots”. That is sometimes, if not, oftentimes how it is taught in Sunday School and confirmation classes. It is a way to teach people how to live moral lives and that, if we are somehow able to live by these and not break them, then we will have fulfilled what God has asked us. There is another problem with that though. We always talk about the 10 commandments because those are the ones that Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai, but who knows how many commandments are in the Bible? 613. So if we want to talk and teach about following the commandments to make God happy, we’ve got a lot more work to do than the 10 we cover in Sunday School.

What I believe God is doing is helping the people to live into the covenantal relationship that they have just started to experience with God. This list and the other 603 are about living in relationship with God and one another. And not just about that, but also about how living in this relationship makes them a priestly people. It also helps to set their lives specifically apart from the life that they were living in Egypt where there was a different way of living and a different way of worshipping multiple gods. It’s also important to notice and pay attention to the language God uses here. God doesn’t say that they are the only people that God cares for and wants do be in relationship with but that God wants them to be priestly for God as a nation. It also says that God continues to be God of the whole earth even if Israel is the precious possession. If we think about what it means to be priestly, if we think about Moses’ role and about the roles of priests and pastors we often think of these people as the ones who share about God to others and cares for the people. God says that these Israelites, these precious people are the ones that are being called into covenant for that task. The way that are to live out and share that is by living into the covenant of the 10 commandments.

In the ten commandments we learn how to properly live into covenantal relationship with God and with one another. Martin Luther does an incredible job talking about this in the Small Catechism where he speaks about how they are also about what we are to do. Not only should I not kill, but I should also lift up the life of every person, not only should I not commit adultery but I should help people in their relationships with one another. Not only should I not steal but I should help ensure the safety of another’s property. I think you see what Luther is getting at. Again, Luther helps us to understand the way to live into this priestly role, and to not see it is just a list of things we can’t do.

We once again see how God is continuing to uphold God’s covenant and promises that God made all the way back with Abraham, and how that covenant isn’t just kept, but God continues to expand and further define that covenant with God’s people. That promise continues on and is made complete through Jesus. Jesus breaks the barriers to ensure that the world knows that all people belong to God and are a part of the family of God. In 1 Peter 2:9 and most of chapter 2 we see how we should respond to the new life we have been given through Jesus Christ and even uses the language that we too are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people who are God’s own possession.

God wants the Israelites and us to know how precious we are to God. God wants us to know that we don’t have to live lives that are in bondage to slavery whether that was the Israelites in Egypt or us to the bonds of money, fame, poverty, or whatever it is that would try to take us away from the the chosen status we have been given freely by our loving and gracious God. That that kind of love and grace will extend to the thousandth generation, a love that comes from the one who created heaven and earth, is the same love that extends to me and to each and every one of us, all becuase God wants us, and that through us we can bless this whole world and be ambassadors of that love that extends now and to the thousandth generation. Amen.