The Ten Commandments
Notes
Transcript
Pastoral Prayer:
Thanksgiving:
Membership: Chris and Diane Heeter. Thanks for the work you’ve done in their lives, and the provision you’ve given them. Give them discernment and wisdom. Bless Chris and Diane’s efforts in business. Let their work and their lives be a witness to all who see them.
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Illumination:
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
1 Then God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. 7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. 8 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. 12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. 13 “You shall not murder. 14 “You shall not commit adultery. 15 “You shall not steal. 16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” 18 All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. 19 Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.” 21 So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was. 22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven. 23 ‘You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves. 24 ‘You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. 25 ‘If you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it. 26 ‘And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that your nakedness will not be exposed on it.’
Intro
If you were to look back on your childhood, there are likely a couple very clear rules or boundaries you knew were not to be crossed. The ones we remember are probably the ones we crossed because the consequences that followed tend to stick with us. At some point we probably heard a parent or teacher tell us not to run out into the road. Don’t start fights with your siblings or your classmates. Don’t throw rocks or baseballs at the neighbors house or cars. Very often teaching young kids begins a lot of prohibitions. “Don’t do that!” Our parents create boundaries that keep us safe and keep us from causing trouble, but the prohibition is only the beginning of the greater lesson. It’s good for a child to know not to run into the street, but if they never grow to pursue their own health and well-being then they’re just an adult who knows how to use a sidewalk. If children know not to start fights, but never grow to love people then they’ll end up as peaceful yet selfish adults. If children know not to damage their neighbors things, but never grow to be generous, then they may just grow into someone who’s never a burden, but also never a help. Prohibition serves as a protector and teacher for a time, but there’s often a greater lesson to be learned beyond, “Don’t do that!”
As we look at the ten commandments this morning, you’ll see that 9 of the ten commandments have some kind of prohibition in them. They’re prohibitions which protect and preserve the holy worship of God and the function of the society of Israel. These prohibitions are to be taken seriously, but they’re only part of the greater lesson. As Jesus would come to explain to the pharisees from Deuteronomy six, the whole of the law isn’t merely prohibition or even outward action it’s a call to
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,
Love your neighbor as yourself.
This morning exodus 20 and the ten commandments serve as a kind of table of contents that introduce us to the structure and content of the whole law. Really the rest of the book of Exodus can be summarized by this single chapter. Chapters 21 - 24 are the instructions regarding how the people are to love one another in maintaining justice, property, and well-being of everyone in Israel (Commandments 5 through 10). Chapters 25 through 31 are the instructions regarding how the people are to love God in worship in how they are to order the priesthood, the sacrifices, sabbaths, and the tabernacle. (Commandments 1-4)
What is all this leading to though? What is the purpose of the law for Israel at this time? Before the end of the book, the people of Israel are going to blatantly ignore the prohibitions that were given them, and worship a golden calf at the foot of the mountain. In response, Moses and God both will deliver a just punishment against those who participated in this act of idolatry. It’s a fearful reminder to the rest of Israel what the consequences are for those who disobey God’s law. But even this exercise of the law to punish the transgressors isn’t the end. What is the law leading them to?
At the end of the book and the end of this chapter is God in the presence of this sinful people blessing them - establishing His name among this people meanwhile sacrifice after sacrifice is being made. The end is a fellowship maintained largely by fear until that fear is turned to faith. The prohibitions, the call to love God in worship, the call to love one another, the fear of punishment, it’s all pointing to a greater fellowship, a fellowship founded in one who obeyed every prohibition, loved His Father perfectly, loved His fellow man to the degree that he would die for him. Christ has done it all that we might join Him in perfect fellowship with the Father. A fellowship characterized by faith and the hope of eternal blessing that bears fruit in real love for God and love for one another. A genuine love that comes from God Himself and not a fear of punishment.
Fellowship with God is found in the holy worship of God alone, and the selfless care of one another. Israel will be kept in this fellowship through fear until the fellowship of faith arrives.
Fellowship with God is found in the holy worship of God alone, and the selfless care of one another. Israel will be kept in this fellowship through fear until the fellowship of faith arrives.
Preserving the love of God
Preserving the love of neighbor
The fear of the LORD to keep from sin.
Sacrifices in fellowship and blessing
Preserving the love of God
Preserving the love of God
If you weren’t here last week, Mount Sinai is covered in smoke and fire and the mountain is shaking because the presence of God. There’s a kind of volcanic character to the mountain as God delivers His law to Moses and to the people, but right at the onset there is this wonderful, gracious reminder.
1 Then God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
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God in all His righteousness and holiness and glory is before the eyes of the people such that they rightly fear Him, but the foundation of this call to obedience and fellowship is not absent His grace. The introductory words of God to His people remind them that they are a redeemed people. They are no longer slaves to the tyrant Pharaoh. They’ve been bought and are now servants to a righteous and holy God, full of grace and mercy who will call them into fellowship with His perfect and holy law. It is only by God’s gracious hand that the people have made it this far to receive the law of God. It’s with this reminder of God’s deliverance, and God’s taking possession of the people that he calls them to worship Him alone.
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
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In just these first two commandments the people of Israel are given a clear picture of who God is.
Because He is God, He is deserving of exclusive worship. All the glory and honor is to be given to Him and Him alone.
Since the time of Moses to this very day there are those who make God out to be like us. God is like man who expects a degree of devotion like a king, but ultimately leaves us to our own devices once he’s received his taxes. So many religions today are perpetually trying to make sure they’ve paid their dues to their god or gods and try to keep them all happy meanwhile withholding just a little bit for themselves and their own carnal pursuits. Man made religion is so often defined by the question, “How much is enough?” What is the minimum that god requires of me for him to spare me from punishment or just leave me alone to my own pursuits.
Because God is God, the creator of all things and redeemer of Israel, he is due all the glory! Nothing is to be held in reserve. The second commandment addresses idols and images. It’s a very tangible prohibition. Someone can come into the house look around and recognize, “No idols, no images, well done”. But we know there’s more to that command! The commandment itself even explains. The difference between the idolater who’s punishment carries consequences for his children and grandchildren and the one who experiences the lovingkindness of God, is love for God. He says those who love Me and keep My commandments will know His lovingkindness. It’s those who hate God, who are found in idolatry.
Already, we see the heart of God in the commandments. He’s not interested in a people are only absent idols and false gods; He’s looking for a people who love Him from the heart! He desires them to know Him, to believe in Him as Abraham did and truly love Him from the heart such that idols of wood or of the heart both are cast aside!
For now though, as a teacher with a child, God establishes what is forbidden until the maturity of faith and love come later.
In addition to this exclusive worship, the LORD prohibits his name be taken in vain, and any work to be done on the Sabbath that it would be kept holy. Two things which are not to be subjected to the ordinary use of men. There are things like idols which threaten to steal the love and worship of the people and there are things which threaten to dull the love and worship of the people by making God ordinary.
The LORD make it clear that the name of God and the Sabbath are not be appropriated by sinful man for their ordinary purposes.
There’s a common understanding that taking the name of the Lord in vain means using God’s name in an exclamatory so instead we say, “Oh my goodness.” so we don’t take the LORD’s name in vain. That’s true, but it’s more than that. It also includes false prophecy. Anyone coming with the Word of the LORD as authoritative, when in reality they’re taking the Lord’s name to sanctify their own. When people go into battle they may go in the name of the Lord when God has not instructed them to. They use the name of the Lord to persuade people that they’re efforts are blessed by God. The name of God is not a tool to be used by men to bless their selfish pursuits, because God himself is not beholden to the will of men. God does not go where we tell Him, we go where God tells us. We do not preach or teach or make disciples with the words that we have to say, we speak the words of God that have already been given to us.
Have you ever heard a child say, “Mommy said...” or “Daddy said...” and sometimes it’s true, but sometimes you have to ask, “Did mommy really say...” Even as children we know the power of appealing to a higher authority, using the name of a higher authority to get us one step closer to those cookies we want.
In short, to take the Lord’s name in vain is to subject God to our will rather than subject our will to God. To prohibit such an act again is to protect the love and devotion Israel is intended to have for God, and in order to protect that love God promises punishment for those who would think they can subject God to their will.
The same principle applies to the Sabbath. The sabbath is to be kept holy: six days of work, one day of rest. No one, not even the stranger is allowed to work on the Sabbath, that day in which even God rested from His work of creation. God knows the heart of men. He’s seen it already as the Israelites disobeyed God when they went to collect manna when they were supposed to be resting and enjoying what God had already provided for them. The heart of sinful men always looks for a little more security, a little more comfort, a little more provision, and is willing to work 7 days a week to get it. In an ancient agrarian society there would have been very little rest. Israel would have been a people utterly different to the foreigner. A stranger would walk through town and wonder why no one was working. They were to be a people trusting in God weekly through rest. Remembering what God did for them on their sabbath holidays. The prohibition was intended to turn eyes from what they need to do .. to what has already been done for them. A love for God is preserved by using freedom and rest to remember what God has given us. To appropriate what God has intended for rest to the ordinary work of men is to tell God, “I don’t trust you! So just in case you don’t provide for us tomorrow, I’m going to work today.” Again God is establishing a prohibition that protects a faith and love for who God is that comes with maturity.
How do we respond as the church under a new covenant to these prohibitions which are given to Israel?
Firstly, because we know the love of Christ through faith, because He first loved us and redeemed us by the blood of Christ we do love Him. Because Christ has perfectly loved the Father in obedience for us, may the Spirit stir our hearts to love Him with all that we are and in that love and adoration for God let’s do all that we can to protect and preserve it. Let’s attend to the work of abiding in Christ.
Whatever idols may be robbing us of our affections for Christ, let’s put them away. What is that thing we love and think we need, but is actually just distracting us from our greater loves? It doesn’t even have to be an evil thing. It can be a blessing that has turned into a necessity and a god.
For some their work is that place of comfort, security. It crowds out love and devotion to god and family.
For some it’s their material blessings. The house, the car, whatever it may be. No one is allowed to touch it!
Maybe it’s our time. Some have a certain amount of time that no one is allowed to touch, and there’s security found in that time.
Consider asking the Lord to show you what that idol may be. Put it all out in the open before God and let Him show you what that idol may be. And when he does show it to you, come to Christ with it in repentance. Before we renew the work of loving God we receive His love in forgiveness.
Additionally, what are the ways in which we try to subject God to our will… Let’s confess it!
What are those things we’ve acquired or pursuits we go after that we’ve placed God’s name over that are really just our own pursuits? May our confession be followed by the prayer of Christ, “Father not my will but yours be done.
Finally, what ways do we use our freedom and rest promised in Christ to labor for our security before God, let’s stop and remember His grace is sufficient, the work is done. There is nothing to be added to the work of Christ for us!
If the foreigner or a stranger were to walk into our lives, would they find contentment? Would they find rest? Would they find an enduring trust in the sufficiency of Christ for us, or would they find a striving and searching soul like the rest of the world? Let’s bring our striving and searching before the Lord and ask for faith! Confess our unbelief and rest in the promise of Christ for us.
When we are diligent to put away idols, our own prideful will, and our faithless striving we preserve and protect our love for Christ and our abiding with Him who loved us first.
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This preservation of Israel’s love for God naturally overflows to their preservation of their love for one another.
Preserving the love of neighbor
Preserving the love of neighbor
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. 13 “You shall not murder. 14 “You shall not commit adultery. 15 “You shall not steal. 16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
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You’ll notice the last six commandments are horizontally oriented. We’ve addressed our vertical relationship with God, but now God addresses the horizontal - the societal relationships that hold a people together. If Israel is going to be a nation at all, there are going to need prohibitions and commands protecting these every day relationships they have with each other. Already, Jethro has needed to give Moses advice on how to settle all the disputes that arise among the people, there’s going to be more, and God will give them a law by which to judge these disputes and preserve themselves as a nation.
If you look at the last six commandments closely, you’ll notice that each protects a fundamental facet of God’s created order. God’s calling Israel back to the natural order of things which has been corrupted by sin since the garden.
Authority (Honor your Father and Mother)
Life (You shall not murder)
Marriage (You shall not commit adultery)
Property (You shall not steal)
Truth (You shall not bear false witness)
and an interesting one at the end, contentment. (You shall not covet)
All of these were perfectly present in the garden.
Adam was given authority to take dominion and name the animals.
Death was not present, Adam and Eve were given access to the tree of life.
Adam and Ever were united in a perfect marriage
As image bearers they were called to take dominion, take possession of the land and order it, preserve it.
The truth was always before them until they believed the lie that Satan fed them.
And they had all they needed for contentment. It wasn’t until they coveted what was forbidden that all humanity was plunged into sin.
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Everyone of these aspects of God’s created order are necessary to any community, people, or nation. If you surrender one, it’s only a matter of time until that people ruin themselves. We don’t exactly have to imagine what it’s like. In one way or another our world is surrendering all of them to a degree, and it always has been. Authority in the home and righteous authority in government is cast aside when it becomes inconvenient. Life is no longer protected. Abortion, euthanasia, and murder are ordinary in our world. Marriage is being forsaken utterly and redefined to accommodate the worldliness of our age. There’s a waning respect for personal property, and we live an age of consumerism where every covetous desire can be met. So few are content! We have a taste of what God wants to protect Israel from don’t we?
In truth not much has changed since the times of ancient Israel. The hearts of men remain committed to themselves and by nature are absent the love of God or neighbor. Knowing the heart of sinful men and Israel, God establishes this boundary to protect them. If you know your child wants to cast themselves headlong down the stairs you set up a gate.
What is this boundary which God sets up? It’s not a new or novel order of things. He’s explicitly revealing what was perfectly clear in the garden of Eden. God is to be worshipped above all in love, and with the dominion we’ve been given we love one another.
Unfortunately at this time in Israel’s history they do not have the hearts that Adam and Eve had in the garden. There are some who may have received the good news in faith which Abraham received and had their hearts stirred to love God and neighbor like the Psalmists did, but there are many who remain cold hearted and unbelieving as we’ll see. In order to preserve and hold in custody as Galatians put it this wandering people, prohibitions and consequences must be established in law.
Prohibitions and consequences which all await a genuine love for one another that comes from faith in the good news and a love for God. A love which we are called to.
As 1 John states
16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?
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We can acknowledge the good which such a law may do for Israel in the coming years! It will protect them from utterly ruining themselves for a time. It will teach them about the good creation which God has made, but it cannot make them love one another. It can call to love… but it cannot create a love in the hearts of Israel. If anything it will only reveal their selfishness and they’re need for forgiveness.
How is it that John states we come to love one another? From knowing the love of God in Christ! It’s in having believed in Christ for forgiveness and having received His love do we love God and love our neighbor.
When John looks at the man who withholds from caring for his brother, forget theft, murder, or adultery this man has simply kept what is his in the face of his needy brother, what is John’s conclusion? Does he conclude, surely this man has not received the law. NO! The problem is the love of God does not abide in him! This selfish soul has not looked upon the love of Christ in faith and received the abundance of His love found in the cross. That’s the problem!
It’s the same problem which will plague Israel for the next 1000 years. They’re society will be ordered by a perfect law. There is no flaw in it whatsoever. It perfectly reflects the will of God for His people. It soundly reveals the character of God Himself, but it will not accomplish what the gospel will accomplish. It will reveal sin. It will call to repentance. It will point men outside themselves for their standing before God, but it is the gospel of Jesus Christ which calls to life and faith and ultimately bears the fruit of true love for God and one another.
As Paul says in his letter to the Romans
3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
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It’s in the giving of the Spirit that this fruit which the law calls for is ultimately born. What is the first fruit of the Spirit? Love. The protection of law is no substitute for what Christ has accomplished in giving us salvation and life in the fellowship of the Spirit.
As believers we have a clear view and firm grasp on the what Israel was waiting for and what the law called for because we have Christ Himself! He is the one loved His Father perfectly. He is the one who loved us perfectly. While we were dead in our trespasses and sins he died for us! What kind of love dies for an enemy and the dead? An extraordinary and perfect love in which nothing is lacking and that love is for us! Because we know this perfect love for us, because we know the fellowship of God in the Spirit, let’s be diligent to show that love to one another. Let’s protect it and preserve it not for our own preservation, but for the good of our brothers and sisters. Even more so, let’s go beyond preservation! Let’s attend to the work of cultivation in love for one another!
I’d encourage everyone to look at those 6 aspects of God’s created order.
Authority
Life
Marriage
Property
Truth
and Contentment.
I hope we would begin by preserving each of those, but the call to love is a call to cultivation, growth, and advancement.
We might ask ourselves, how can I cultivate the authority that’s been put in my life? Kids, how can you show respect to your parents and set an example to your siblings. Maybe start by saying thank you! That goes for everyone with a boss or are subject to government in some way. That’s all of us. How can we show honor to that authority placed in our lives and cultivate the position God has ordained for them?
Life: How can we cultivate the lives of those around us? Protecting life is essential, but let’s go one step further and pursue a fruitful life for our neighbor. That’s love!
Marriage! For every married person in the room, what steps can we take to cultivate our marriage? There’s a certain love in abstaining from evil, but the love of Christ is one which pursues and sacrifices for the cultivation and fruitfulness of the church.
Property: For those of you who took time to cultivate the property here at the church by working on the playground. Thank you for your example! Thank you for loving this church well. For those of you who have so diligently attended to the needs of others in the church, thank you! That’s cultivating the property of one another. We go beyond abstaining from theft and property damage, we seek the cultivation of one another’s property.
Finally, how can we cultivate contentment? It may seem a small thing, but it was covetousness that delved the world into sin. Let’s be diligent to lay aside time for gratitude, for remembering everything we do have! For remembering all that God is for us in Christ and the inseparable love which we experience in Him. Looking to Christ in gratitude is the beginning of cultivating contentment.
There’s a lot there. Maybe choose two.
Pick one to protect that you know needs extra attention, and pick one to cultivate.
Write those down somewhere where you can see it next week and the week after, and in your devotional time pray to see the love of Christ more for the good of that love! It’s the love of Christ for us which motivates us to protect our love for one another. It’s the love of Christ for us that motivates us to cultivate our love for one another.
As we’ll see, the law provides a different motivator to Israel than the fullness of the love of Christ.
The fear of the LORD to keep from sin.
The fear of the LORD to keep from sin.
18 All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. 19 Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.”
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We concluded our time last week in chapter 19 with the people trembling from afar as they approached the mountain and not much has changed. One thing has been added this time that contributes even further to their fear.
“Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.”
The very voice of God has brought the people of Israel to despair and so they plead for Moses to step into the gap! They would rather hear it from Moses than directly from God for fear of their lives. Moses replies with a rather difficult statement, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.”
My paraphrase: “Don’t be afraid, God is here to make sure you’re afraid of Him and don’t sin.”
What are we to make of this?
Firstly, Moses is bringing them back from the point of despair. God isn’t going to kill them! He’s gathered them at the mountain in order to bring them into the promised as a people protected by the law, not to crush them. And yet Moses knows that apart from the fear of God and an understanding that transgressing this law can and will mean death, Israel will not endure. Apart from faith one of the primary motivators to abide by the law is fear. It’s true to this day.
Why do so many obey the speed limit? They fear the authority which will deliver a ticket if they don’t.
Why do we pay our bills on time? I hope it’s because we know it’s the right thing to do, but if we’re honest we fear the late fee if we don’t.
In order to preserve this people and their persuasion to idolatry as we will see before too long, there must be some kind of fear. A fear of God who can kill with a word. Everyone has witnessed it. The threat of God’s pure justice functions as a teacher and a preserver for Israel. As we know though, God is not content with the conformity of Israel to a standard by means of fear as effective as that may be. We must see in this a first step towards a greater obedience to come much like we train our children.
When our children are very young there are few things which teach better than clear consequences. Kids learn pretty quickly what is acceptable and what is not when a fear of consequence directs behavior. As we might recognize though, the character of a child or an adult for that matter is evident when that fear is absent. Who are they really when all consequences have been removed? God is content to protect His people through fear for a time, but it’s so that they will be kept for the greater obedience to come.
John explains this greater obedience to which we’ve come as the church.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us.
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We are not perfected by a fear of punishment! We do not obey so that we may have confidence at the day of judgement! Our confidence and our obedience comes from our confession and our belief: Jesus is the Son of God and we believe in His sacrifice of love for us on the cross. It’s through this confession and this faith that God has come to abide with us in love such that we love Him, such that we love one another. We love not out of fear of consequence, We love and obey and abide because He first loved us.
There is a place for fear in the Christian life. There ought to be a reverence and awe and even a trembling before the holiness and glory of God, but this holy and righteous fear must be grounded in faith. Absent faith we obey just like every other religion and ordinary citizen of any country - that’s a worldly obedience out of the fear of consequence. In the fullness of faith and from the abundance of what God is for us in love do we reciprocate that love and reflect to one another in obedience to Christ. It’s in this faith that we also experience the fullness of fellowship with Christ that Israel awaited.
In these last few verses of the chapter we'll noticed some interesting instructions, but at the heart of these last few commands is Israel experiencing the fellowship and blessing of God.
Sacrifices in fellowship and blessing
Sacrifices in fellowship and blessing
21 So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was. 22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven. 23 ‘You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves. 24 ‘You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. 25 ‘If you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it. 26 ‘And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that your nakedness will not be exposed on it.’
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The conclusion to this summary of the law in the ten commandments has this wonderful note of hope for the people as they fear and tremble at the foot of the mountain. God intends to come to us, to fellowship with us, and bless us. The last few verse of the entire book gives us this wonderful picture of the visible glory of God coming to rest among the people in the tabernacle. No more fear, no more fire, no more trembling. God has always intended to return to fellowship with man in the garden, but as we see here and as we’ll see at the end of Exodus, there continues to be an ongoing sense of not yet. This fellowship isn’t perfect. It’s incomplete. They’re waiting for something more! As we see here in chapter twenty, this hope of blessing is couched in more commands and prohibitions. In light of the commands which have already been given for the exclusive worship of God, sacrifices are to be given on an altar of earth or stone.
We’ll see this before too long in chapter 24, but there’s going to be a period between the giving of the ten commandments and the construction of the tabernacle where all the sacrifices are to be given, and until then, the altar is going to be made of stone. Sacrifices are expected from the very beginning of this relationship even before the tabernacle is built. Sacrifices on an altar that is not to be profaned by the hands of men or exposed to the shame and nakedness of man.
What do we make of these seemingly unrelated instructions?
Before the people are given a chance to respond there’s this humbling reminder at the end of the text. Even with the law, sin is going to continue. Because sin continues, sacrifices continue, and these sacrifices are going to be offered for years to come by men bearing the shame of sin that Adam and Eve did when they hid themselves. When Israel is faithful to this exclusive worship, faithful to offer sacrifices, they will experience blessing in the land, but it is a blessing that pales in comparison to what is to come. A blessing that comes from the seed of Abraham and through promise. A blessing and fellowship that is accomplished through one worthy sacrifice and one great high priest who was without sin.
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
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Our hope for blessing isn’t ultimately found in our law-keeping. We can acknowledge that for any ordinary person that life will go better for them if they respect their neighbor’s property and work to cultivate their neighbor’s good, but at the end of the day the law delivers a curse - a curse that can only be lifted by one worthy sacrifice and one great high priest. It’s only through faith in Christ that we can receive the blessing of Abraham, and having received that blessing as the church of Christ, having received the fullness of the love of Christ, we love God. We love one another. We labor and strive to preserve that love and cultivate that love.
Let’s be diligent to pursue that work of cultivating love! Not because we lack something before God, but precisely because we have an abundance of blessing in Christ.
Let’s pray.
Devotion:
Local Ministry: Ohio Disaster Relief, John Heading’s leadership. May the love of Christ be extended through Baptist churches across Ohio to those in need.
International Ministry: The church in Hungary. As of 1990 Christian freedom was established in Hungary. Continue to grow the maturity of your church in Hungary. Let the love of Christ drive the church their to be devoted to you in worship and devoted to one another.
