Sermon Tone Analysis

Great Commandments

In the next several weeks, you will find the parts of Deuteronomy we have already looked at and those to come interweaving with each other, with a continuous theme throughout.

The theme is that through Moses, God is reminding the Israelites that He is their God, and has already shown himself faithful and powerful and gracious and merciful towards them, and because of this, He expects them to be loyal to him, to worship Him only, to learn His ways, and follow His commands.

Today we will begin looking at the Ten Commandments, and in our context here this morning, this is the second time the Ten Commandments are recorded.

The first is in Exodus, where Moses received these directly from God on the Mountain, and here he is repeating them for the generation that is going to enter the promised land.

Before we begin looking at the commandments themselves, I want to give an overview of what these commandments represent.

Why were they given, and why were they to be obeyed?

And if they were obeyed, then what did that mean?

What good would it do?

It would be enough for God, the all powerful creator of us all and creator of all the world, to simply say to us, follow these commands because I said so.

When we are teaching someone, such as our children, something, we often explain the reasoning behind our procedures or rules.

But sometimes, the child may question a little too much.

They insist on an explanation, so the parent finally answers, “Do it because I said so.”

And sometimes if it gets really extreme, a mother may say something like “I brought you into this world, and I can take you out of it, just obey me”.

But that is not our usual attitude.

We usually want our children to understand some logic and reasoning behind our commands.

And God has not left his people Israel without a reasoning or motivation to obey his commands.

He repeatedly reminds the people of his goodness towards them, the things He has accomplished on their behalf, not the least of which comes right before the first commandment:

43.

What is the preface to the Ten Commandments?

The preface to the Ten Commandments is in these words, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

44.

What doth the preface to the Ten Commandments teach us?

The preface to the Ten Commandments teacheth us that because God is the Lord, and our God, and redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all His commandments.

This comes in both recordings of the ten commandments.

This is the answer to one of our big “Why” questions.

Why should the people of Israel obey God?

Because He is their Lord and God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and out of slavery.

Now, I like to say from time to time that context is king.

Another concept we must use when we try to understand any part of scripture is that we use scripture to interpret scripture.

Especially if we have some evidence that another biblical writer has connected two or more passages, we can begin to have a more complete understanding of the Word of God.

In this case, our current section of Deuteronomy is quoted directly or alluded to dozens of times in scripture, both in the Old Testament and in the New.

But one very important thing we can learn about the commandments is what Jesus thought about them.

In the gospels, we can know what Jesus considered the greatest command because the question was asked and answered:

The greatest commandment, according to Jesus is found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5

This is so important that immediately following this commandment is another; that is, to teach these things to your children:

I talked last week about how this is the basis for the Sunday School curriculum we will begin using in September, called D6.

Based on Deuteronomy 6.

We are going to focus as a church on being obedient to these commands.

To love God, and to teach His commands to our families.

And since many families are unsure how to begin doing this, we are using a curriculum that takes it beyond Sunday morning and we will be teaching parents that may not know how to engage with their children about the things of God and we are going to offer you an opportunity to be trained and equipped to obey this command.

Now, when Jesus answered that important question, what is the greatest commandment, he answered directly, and added to it the second greatest commandment, which is you shall love your neighbor as yourself and he added: On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.

So this has often been applied to the ten commandments: It has been said, and generally this is a right way to look at it, that the first four commands have to do with obeying the greatest commandment, to love God, and that commandments 5-10 are about the second greatest commandment, to love your neighbor.

Or to put it another way, we may say that the first 4 commandments are about our relationship with God and the next six are about our relationship with people.

I would agree with that assessment generally.

However, it can also be said that our obedience of all the commands is about us keeping the greatest commandment, that is Deut6.5

Now, I am going to get to Deuteronomy 6 soon, and will be coming back to this to go more into depth about this saying that the Jews refer to as the Shema.

But today we are not focusing on Deuteronomy 6, we are in chapter 5, so let us stay focused on the ten commandments.

Let us remember as well that the ten commandments is by no means the limit to the requirements that God places on His people Israel; But the ten commandments are also commands for all people.

Everyone is expected by God to adhere to these commands.

so they are by no means limited to the Israelites, or even just to us Christians here and now.

These are a moral code for all people.

And the moral code begins with a recognition of who God is, and a reverence for Him.

And so we will look this morning at the first three commandments, which speak to us of the idea that God is to be completely and utterly without competition in our lives for worship: Deut5.7-11

I think it is important for us to group these commands together.

Many of us at some point had to memorize the commandments, and so they are in our heads, 1-10.

But really these first three are tied together, so that even though it is ok to list the ten commandments, we really need to understand something about these three that says something about the very character of God.

God is holy.

Of all the attributes of God, which there are many of, and they are a worthwhile study.

Many people have benefitted from studying the attributes of God.

Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent.

Gracious, merciful, glorious, loving, just, righteous, and many more.

But there is one attribute of God that is held in scripture above the others, that is Holy.

IN fact, he is thrice holy.

In Jewish vocabulary, if something is repeated, it holds a much higher precedent.

So when Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, the repetition of the word truly meant we are to take notice that this is a statement that is strongly claiming to be true.

But is repeating something once was enough to grab your attention as to the importance of that writing or saying, how much higher importance is placed when something is repeated three times.

Isaiah recorded his encounter with the Lord and the seraphim, which were a type of angel, stood around the Lord and there is a word that is repeated 3 times:

And in the revelation, around the throne of God, are four living creatures: Rev4.8

What does this word holy mean?

well, it means pure, divine, sacred, perfect, set apart, dedicated, morally pure, upright, most sacred, commanding respect, awesome.

God is Holy.

In respect to these first three commands, it is God’s holiness that commands our attention and obedience to them.

You shall have no other gods before me.

Are there other gods to begin with?

Well, not really, but certainly in the world there are many people who worship false gods, and gods that are idols.

This command is not implying that there are other gods, it is simply saying that you are not to worship any other god.

The people of Israel had come from Egypt, where other gods were worshipped.

They were entering a land where other pagans worshiped various satanic beings.

God was saying to them clearly that because he was holy, so his people needed to be holy was well.

Lev11.44-45

God is holy, and his people are to be holy, and this means they cannot, must not, are forbidden, to have any gods before God.

He does not allow it.

He is a jealous God, and not jealous like we sometimes think of it, but jealous like a good husband who sees anything coming at his wife that may harm her reputation or come between his relationship with her, he will rise up and defend his relationship with her.

He loves he so much that he is not willing to have anything come about that would in any way damage her or their relationship, and so it is that God defends his relationship with his people, calling himself a jealous God.

He wants the relationship to be pure, holy.

2. Saying that the Lord is a jealous God makes a covenantal claim about God and expresses a positive word about the proper and inherent exclusiveness that belongs to the nature of the relationship between God and God’s people, or to the nature of covenant.

As a covenantal claim, the jealousy of God has a double force: jealousy for Israel’s full and exclusive worship of the Lord (Exod.

20:5; Deut.

32:16, 21; Ps. 78:50) and jealousy or zeal for God’s powerful commitment to and love for his people, as one sees, for example, in such contexts as Isaiah 9:7; 26:11 (“Let them see thy zeal for thy people”); 37:31–32; 59:17 (where the armor of God is righteousness, salvation, vindication, and zeal or jealousy—all to do battle for justice).

The jealousy of God, therefore, is that dimension within the divine encounter with the Lord’s people that brooks no other final loyalty and ensures no other recipient of such unbounding love and grace.

It is God’s way of saying, I will have nothing less than your full devotion, and you will have nothing less than all my love.

It is the kind of attribute that belongs to a marriage relationship, where there is a proper covenantal jealousy.

45.

Which is the first commandment?

The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

46.

What is required in the first commandment?

The first commandment requireth us to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God, and our God, and to worship and glorify Him accordingly.

47.

What is forbidden in the first commandment?

The first commandment forbiddeth the denying, or not worshipping and glorifying, the true God as God, and our God; and the giving of that worship and glory to any other, which is due to Him alone.

48.

What are we specially taught by these words, before me, in the first commandment?

These words, before me, in the first commandment teach us that God, who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other God.

To back up the first command comes the second: Deut5.8-10