Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture Reading

Introduction

As we continue our study in the covenants in Scripture, we are continuing to look at the covenant that was made was Moses at Sinai.

We could more specifically said that this covenant was made between God and Israel as a nation.

Indeed, that is what we are going to find as we continue to look at this morning through Exodus chapter 20.

Nonetheless it was Moses that was the mediator, the one to whom God spoke as he entered into this covenant with his people Israel.

As we come to consider this passage this evening.

I do want to make a couple of preliminary comments in terms of the importance of what is taking place as God gives the law to Israel by which they are to live.

What we will be considering this evening is what is referred to as the 10 Commandments.

These are in the sense the 10 basic rules by which Israel was commanded to live.

What will not touch on this evening are the further Commandments that God gave to Israel.

But we do need to keep in mind that God did give additional commandments in addition to the 10 Commandments.

As we consider these 10 Commandments that were given, we will find that this covenant in essence deals with God’s chosen people living in right relationship with him as well as living in right relationship with those around them.

In other words, God is desirous of a true worship of him as the true and living God.

In God desires that humans treat other people in a just and honorable way to the glory of God.

In this sense, social justice is not a movement of the 21st-century.

Social justice in the true sense flows out of the Scripture and and understanding of God’s requirements.

The world’s concept of social justice has some elements that are true and good, but many elements that are incorrect.

And the reason is that the world does not know God.

Nonetheless, as Christians, we want to ensure that genuine justice and love and compassion and all of these aspects in terms of relating to one another are done well according to the word of God because this is God’s revelation to us.

Before we consider the 10 Commandments together, it may make one further comment on the structure over here.

In Exodus 20 we find these 10 words that are given.

They are not in fact called 10 Commandments, but rather 10 words.

“Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water.

And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.”

(Exodus 34:28, NIV84)

“He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets.”

(Deuteronomy 4:13, NIV84)

“The Lord wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments he had proclaimed to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.

And the Lord gave them to me.” (Deuteronomy 10:4, NIV84)

In all of those cases, the word “commandments” is really the Hebrew word for “word”.

There are 10 words that God gives by which I his nation Israel is essentially constituted.

Some commentators make a link between these 10 words of God and his people Israel and the 10 words that God spoke at the point of creation.

As God created the world, we find that repeated phrase, “and God said,” and then creation takes place from that word of God.

There are 10 words that God gives in the book of Genesis as he creates the created order.

I want delve into the technical arguments of whether this is a definitive connection, but I do appreciate the words of one commentator in this regard when he says,

“In a very real way, the entire creation depends or hangs on the word of God.

Here the book of the covenant is what forges Israel into a nation.

It is her national Constitution, so to speak.

And it is also the 10 words that bring about the birth of the nation.

Like the creation, Israel as a nation hangs for her very life on (the) 10 words.”

(Gentry et al., 2018:366)

With this in mind, let us consider…

1.

The Law Given

The opening 2 verses of Exodus 20 give us the context in which the Lord is given.

I will not delve into this in detail this evening because we are very dealt with it last time we were looking at this covenant.

Those verses read,

“And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

(Exodus 20:1–2, NIV84)

So just by way of reminder, the giving of the law was founded upon God’s delivering mercies as he brought Israel out of the land of Egypt.

With that said, let us just briefly consider the 1st four commandments that are given, that particularly relate to the Israelites worship of and relationship to God.

We will spend a little bit more time on this and then a little bit less time on the commandments relating to man’s relationship with one another.

Think it’s worth making one further comment at this point, and that is that there are different ways of dividing up the 10 Commandments.

Looking to spend time trying to defend either way of structuring the 10 Commandments.

Instead I am going to focus on the emphasis of what the commandments are instructing God’s people to do.

1.1.

No Other gods

The 1st commandment is found in verse 3 of our chapter in Exodus.

““You shall have no other gods before me.”

(Exodus 20:3, NIV84)

as we consider this command, we must remember the context into which it is given.

We know very well from our Christian instruction that there is only one true God and we believe that.

But we need to keep in mind that idol worship and the worship of false gods was very common / prevalent in the day.

We must also keep in mind that God has consistently gone about the task of separating for himself the people that belong to him.

He furthermore delivered Israel out of captivity and bondage in Egypt in order to demonstrate his own power and authority is the only true and living God.

When God brought upon Egypt all of the plagues when Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go those plagues were targeted at the gods of the Egyptians.

God was showing that he was superior to all the gods that they claim to worship.

And what was going to be distinct about the nation Israel is that they would refuse to worship any other God, since these God’s would be false gods.

They were to worship the one true living God.

It’s also helpful to understand other the cultural milieu of that day.

One commentator notes:

“In the culture of the ancient near East at this time, the gods operated within a pantheon, the divine assembly... “When the 1st commandment prohibits other gods in the presence of Yahweh, it is ruling out the concept that he operates within a pantheon, a divine assembly, or the consort.”

In other words, God was not merely one God among many.

He was not one God that operated within a pantheon of other gods.

Rather, he was the true and living God, and the only true God.

(e.g. 1 Kings 20:28… Arameans…)

But this commandment goes beyond merely stating that the Israelites are to worship no other gods.

In essence, this commandment was instructing the Israelites that God was to be the highest priority in their attitudes, thoughts, words and ways.

That’s certainly the way the Westminster confession conveys the thrust of this commandment.

1.2.

No Idols to be Worshiped

The Next commandment is found in verse 4-6 of our text.

““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; 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.”

(Exodus 20:4–6, NIV84)

It’s also important that we understand the cultural background as we consider this command.

There are various ways in which it was seen that idols operated within that cultural setting.

One of the aspects in terms of the idol worship of the day, was that they believed that only the god that they claimed to worship could initiate the manufacturing of the idol.

They would then make the idol, and hold a particular ceremony, called a mouth opening ceremony, at which point they believe that the god that they were serving would come and inhabit the idol that they were worshiping.

Further to this, the worship of the god centered around this image.

In other words, the image was in a sense a mediator between the people and the god that they served.

In addition to this they also believed that this divine image manifested the presence of the God.

Given this understanding of the cultural context in the day, is important to realize that the command that God gave to the Israelites had to do with images being set up as mediators of the presence or the revelation of deity from God to human.

It had to do with the worship of people in that day and how they would worship these images as if the gods were present with in those images.

Just a little bit further on in the book of Exodus you will find where Israel actually fell into this idol worship themselves.

When Moses had taken a long time up on the mountain as he was receiving God’s revelation for the Israelite nation, the Israelites became impatient and they asked Aaron to set up an idol for them to worship.

Turn with me to Exodus 32.

“Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.”

So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.

He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool.

Then they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.”