Sermon Tone Analysis

*Exodus 20 – The Ten Commandments** - *

/What do we know about the 10 Commandments?/

*1 And God spoke all these words: *(the 10 Words)

*2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

*

This is the introduction~/prologue to the 10 commandments.

C           the 10 commandments are a series of principles /concerned with relationship with Yahweh and with humankind/, by reference to what that relationship has meant, thus far, for the people of Israel.

C                       Yahweh has given himself to them.

C                                   He has brought them out from Egypt.

C                                   He has made them who were not a people into a people

C                                   he has given freedom to those who were slaves.

C                                   What follows is what the relationship, if it is to be continued, must have from the people of Israel.

C                       What we have here reflects the /structure of royal treaties in the ancient near east/, in which the king is identified and a historical prologue is given in which he sketched his previous gracious acts toward the subject king or people., the king then set forth the treaty~/covenant stipulations to be obeyed (in this case the 10 commandments).

C                       Use of this ancient royal treaty pattern shows that the LORD is here formally acknowledged as Israel’s King and that Israel is his subject people.

C                       As his subjects, his covenant people are to render complete submission, allegiance, and obedience to him out of gratitude for his mercies, reverence for his sovereignty, and trust in his continuing care.

C                       The 10 Commandments are not isolated moral maxims, instructions for personal piety, commands in order for people to win God’s favor.

They are given in a historical and redemptive context and should be understood in that context.

/They are given to a specific people who’ve already been redeemed, not so that they might be redeemed.

/They are also given to the people as a whole, and the actions of individuals have broader repercussions.

The focus of many of these commands is to foster social cohesion, which serves not merely to make the Israelites “nice people”, but agents of world change, image-bearers of God to be a light to the nations.

C                       In the context of the covenant relationship of Yahweh with Israel, the Ten Commandments cease to be “law” in any legalistic sense, as commands which must be kept for their own sake or out of fear of punishment.

As the offering of the covenant was an act of grace on the part of Yahweh, so was the giving of the Ten Commandments.

C                       The commandments were given at the outset for Israel only, and they had at the outset a limited application to the Israelite Community.

Yet they contained from the beginning elements of universality and general applicability that made it inevitable for them to become a foundation stone for Judaeo-Christian ethics.

\\ *3 "You shall have no other gods before me.**

*

C           First commandment sets forth an expectation of absolute priority, a first and fundamental requirement of those who desire to enter into the covenant relationship with Yahweh.

No other gods in my presence.

C           Yahweh has /given /himself to them, and they are therefore no longer to have any other gods save them.

C           The first commandment is not an assertion of monotheistic conviction, that Yahweh is the only God, and hence the sole choice.

C                       The OT makes very clear that such was not the case in the world of ancient Israel.

C                       The first commandment, in a sense, was called for by the many gods who demanded of Israel the allegiance Yahweh alone had the right to command.

The commandment does not specify that no one is to have “other gods” but that Israel is to have no other gods.

C                       Rather than being a statement on monotheism (belief in one God), it is a statement on monolatry (there are many gods, but we must worship only one).

Yahweh had just defeated the gods of Egypt.

The Israelites just left a polytheistic culture and were about to enter into another one.

They had to be devoted to only one God.

C           Yahweh had opened himself to a special relationship with Israel, but that relationship could develop only if Israel committed themselves to Yahweh alone.

Yahweh had rescued them and freed them, delivered them and guided them, then come to them.

The next step, if there was to be a next step, belonged to them.

If they were to remain in his Presence, they were not to have other gods.

C           Discussion: What are some of the gods we are tempted to have before God today?

(Money, material possessions*, *busy-ness, self, family, school, church, etc.)

* *

*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.

5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; 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, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.

*

C           The word translated “idol” in the NIV can also be translated “image.”

C           In a way, this continues the first commandment.

Don’t make idols – images of false gods.

C           But it also means that in your worship of Yahweh, don’t make images that are to represent Yahweh.

He created everything.

C                       Worship Yahweh as he truly is~/in his fullness, not in your limited vision of Him that you’ve created.

C                       How are some of the ways that we can make and worship “images” of Yahweh rather than worshiping Yahweh himself?

(Music preferences, Biblical inerrancy & literal-cy, evolution, entire sanctification)

C           Notice that the Jealousy of Yahweh is here directed at Israel, not the “nations.”

The expectation is that they will demonstrate undivided loyalty (the first commandment).

Yahweh has every right, even every obligation, to punish any compromise.

C                       Yahweh’s jealousness comes only upon those who, having promised to have no God but him, have gone back on that promise.

C                       The word translated “punishing” can also be translated as “visiting.”

When Yahweh visits and your house is in order~/you’re living in proper relation to the covenant, then you have nothing to worry about.

You and your children will be blessed – for countless generations.

But if you’re not living in that proper relationship, God’s visit isn’t going to be so pleasant.

It’s going to feel more like punishment – which will be felt by you and your children.

C                                   It’s like taking an exam.

If you prepared well, you don’t have anything to worry about.

You’ll get an A. But if you didn’t prepare at all, you’d better worry...because you are going to flunk.

C           *            *Discussion? Comments?

* *

*Before moving to next commandment:*

C           For those of you who work in places where you frequently handle people’s credit card #s, bank account numbers, social security numbers, etc. - you’ve been entrusted with great responsibility.

You can’t turn around and buy something on e-Bay.

What will happen?

(You’ll lose your job, possibly go to prison for fraud~/identity theft, etc.) You’ve been given a responsibility, and if you misuse that responsibility, you will have to pay the consequences.

*7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.*

C           More direct translation: You will not lift up the name of the LORD your God in vain~/emptiness, for the LORD will not leave unpunished those who takes his name in vain~/emptiness~/nothingness~/insubstantial.

C           In general terms, this commandment prohibits a lack of seriousness about Yahweh’s Presence in Israel, demonstrated through a pointless, misleading, or even false use of his name.

C           Yahweh had not withheld his name but had freely given it to Moses and so to Israel as both a summary and an extension of the revelation of his Presence.

His sovereignty is such that he was not subject to the manipulation of his worshipers, and thus he opened himself to is people with as much fullness as they could stand.

Yahweh could not be controlled, or even altered in his set purpose, by men.

C                       (It’s like God has given Israel his credit card and said: use this responsibly for my purposes.)

[I recently read a story of a girl whose dad gave her his credit card to go to the store and buy some groceries.

The clerk, seeing that the girl was not the owner, called her dad, who assured him that she had his permission to guy the groceries.

If she had gone to a car dealership to buy a car with it, he would have said no way!]

C           This commandment is not directed toward Yahweh’s protection, but toward Israel’s.

Yahweh’s name must be honored, blessed, praised, celebrated, invoked, pronounced, and so shared.

To treat Yahweh’s name with disrespect is to treat his gift lightly, to underestimate his power, to scorn his Presence, and to misrepresent to the family of humankind his very nature as “the one who always is.”

*C          *Discussion, comments, questions?

* *

*8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 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.

11 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.

*

A few notes:

C           “Remember” can also be translated “observe”.

“Zacar” means “remember in the sense of “observing without lapse” or “holding as a present and continuing priority”.

C           (Sabbath from the SBT, meaning to stop, cease, rest; day of ceasing, stopping, for religious reasons, from the normal daily routine.

C                       What do you do for a friend or family member’s birthday or a wedding anniversary?

(Do you just think to yourself, oh hey, look, it’s so & so’s birthday, or do you give evidence that you remember it?)

/C           “by keeping it holy” /is better translated “/in order to make it holy/.”

Holiness means... being set apart.

By remembering the Sabbath, Israel is setting apart the day from the other six days, treating it as holy.

Notice that the 4th commandment is the longest – probably because it is so difficult for the people of Israel to keep it.

[Even now, we always find more work to do.]

Three reasons given for keeping the Sabbath: