Sermon Tone Analysis
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We’re moving through our biblical narrative, and we’re in the Sinai portion of our journey, and this morning we actually get to Mount Sinai for which this section is named.
We’re following God’s plan for redemption through the Old Testament.
This is a pivotal time for Israel for it defines their relationship as separate from any other nation before God.
It is also a pivotal time for Moses defining who he is as a leader.
As we left off in our story, the Israelites were fleeing Egypt and they were crossing the Red Sea.
If you have continued to read through the Book of Exodus specifically, you would have seen that God has continued to provide for his chosen people.
Providing food - Manna and Quail, and water.
I want to mention here because it will come up again later on in KINGS, on their way out of Egypt as they are heading towards Mount Sinai the Israelites are attacked by Amalek at Rephidim.
Thus the Lord makes the promise, “I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”
Exodus 17:14
So we get to chapter 19 of Exodus and we find the people at Mt. Sinai.
And we hear these words from God:
And we can see similarities to what is spoken by Peter:
Remember all of this is taking place in the context of relationship - this is the relationship between the Creator God and his chosen people (the people of Israel).
And we get to the 10 commandments also called the 10 words, or the Decalogue.
If you’ve not spent any time looking at them I want to run through them right now, you can find them listed in Exodus 20, and again in Deuteronomy 5.
All this time God is establishing and re-establishing his relationship with his chosen people.
In Exodus 20 God begins by identifying who he is:
God is giving these commands to those who already know him.
In ancient times, great kings would identify themselves and their benevolent actions on behalf of their subjects at the outset of a treaty.
This is often referred to as the historical prologue.
If we lay out the 10 commandments they hinge on two principles; the same principles that Jesus said all the Law and prophets hinges on:
If we look at the 10 Commandments they do indeed take on this sort of an outline - our relationship with God and then our relationship with our neighbor:
You shall have no other Gods before me.
You shall not make idols.
You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain
Remember the Sabbath
These first four commands emphasize our relationship with God.
And indeed, if we are honoring these commands the other six are not near as difficult:
Honor your mother and father.
You shall not murder
You shall not commit adultery
You shall not steal
You shall not bear false witness
You shall not covet.
I don’t know if it means anything in particular, but I find it interesting to note that there are only two of the commands spoken in the encouragement to do something, rather than not to do something.
Those being, “Remember the Sabbath” and “Honor your parents”.
Regardless, as we go through these we see that these are the very foundation for everything God will ask of his people throughout the Old Testament.
Remember, we started with one prohibition - “Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” and now we’re up to 8 laws of prohibition, and two commands to take action.
And all are summarized in Jesus words quoting the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:5
And his command to love others as ourself.
But if we think about it, this is just a natural outflow of the first command to love God.
IF, we truly love God then we would value what God values.
Since God values our neighbors, wouldn’t we then value them too?
I love the comment a child made to me during a children’s sermon once, “But pastor Murph, if I love God with all my heart, soul, and with all my mind, I don’t have anything left!?!”
He was right.
God asks us simply to Love God back with all of ourselves.
No barriers - and when we think about it, that’s the way it was back in the garden of Eden.
Nothing was in the way of God’s love for humanity nor humanity’s love for God.
No barriers.
I’m reminded of a quote from a professor of mine in seminary:
“Heresy leads to orthodoxy.”
- Dr. Russ Spitler
What he was saying was that it takes someone crossing a boundary for a boundary to be put into place.
So let’s go back and look at our 10 commandments again.
You shall have no other Gods before me.
You shall not make idols.
You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain
Remember the Sabbath
The people had reversed top priority in their lives - Eve, chose to listen to the tempter and chose not to listen to what her husband had said that God had said.
Adam chose to listen to Eve over what God had said.
We know that there were all kinds of other idols in the world.
The people had chosen not to follow God and but still used his name.
They had forgotten the Sabbath.
We can go on:
Honor your mother and father.
You shall not murder
You shall not commit adultery
You shall not steal
You shall not bear false witness
You shall not covet.
Obviously we’ve seen rebellion among the children.
We’ve seen murder in the 2nd generation, and just from these laws being commanded we can know that there had been adultery, stealing, lying and false witness and coveting.
The truth is that God is not a Kill Joy.
No, God wants to bring us joy in the midst of all the sin that we are surrounded by.
And their response is recorded in Ex 24:3
We can see how it’s getting worse.
The people mistake the idea of a relationship and they make it about the rules.
I would contend that it has never been about the rules - the rules or the laws - were guides as Paul says to let us know when we were off track.
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