SS07-30-06

STUDY THEME: MY DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE.” 7-30-06

“I WILL OBEY GOD’S COMMANDEMENTS.” EXODUS 19: 46; 20:3-17.

EXODUS 19: 4-6; 20: 3-6, 7, 8-11, 12-17.

PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO EXODUS 19.

One of the issues that has troubled the church through the ages is the idea that because we are in Christ we are no longer under the law. We focus so much on grace as the foundation of our Christian faith---and rightly so---that we tend to ignore the responsibilities of that faith, namely, to be subject to God and to carry out His will as expressed in the Bible.

Jesus asked His followers in Luke 6: 46, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say?” He also told them in John 14: 15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

Becoming a Christian does not absolve us of the need to keep God’s commandments. We keep them, however, not to find favor in the eyes of the Lord, but because we have found favor in His gracious work of salvation. The bottom line is that salvation is by grace through faith alone; but it is demonstrated by obeying God’s commandments, including the Ten Commandments.

Many adults are aware of the debate concerning displays of the Ten Commandments in government buildings. A deeper issue that sometimes gets lost in the debate is the role of the commandments in our society and in our personal lives. For believers, the Ten Commandments are relevant and valid God given principles to live by. They are laws believers are to obey.

For most believers the Commandments haven’t lost one jot of relevance and validity as God-given principles to live by. However, we live in a society in which many claim not to believe in any moral absolutes. They consider the Ten Commandments old-fashioned and out-of-date. Thus we face the challenge of presenting the best case for the Commandments.

In order to do this, we need to understand the Commandments and practice them. This calls for looking at some of the deepest biblical, moral, and theological issues. Such questions are: How do we interpret the Ten Commandments in light of the New Testament? How do the Commandments speak to the moral issues of today? What do the Commandments reveal about God?

Today’s lesson will point to the benefits of obeying God’s commandments and our need of His grace and forgiveness when we fail to obey.

When the Lord made a covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, He reminded them how He had delivered them and brought them there. He promised them that if they obeyed Him, they would be His special people. The Ten Commandments begin with four that deal with a right relationship with God. The other Commandments deal with human relations.

1. PLEASE READ EXODUS 19: 4-6

On the way to Canaan, the Israelites encountered the Lord at Mount Sinai, near the sacred place where God appeared to Moses in the burning bush. Exodus 19 opens with the Israelites arrival in the Wilderness of Sinai, where they camped “in front of the mountain.”

This wasn’t just any mountain; it was the mountain of God, sometimes referred to in the Pentateuch as Horeb, here in Exodus 19 the mountain is consistently called “Mount Sinai.”

Bible archaeologists traditionally have identified Mount Sinai with Jebel Musca, a 7,500-feet high granite peak near the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula.

Prior to this, God had made Himself known to Moses as Yahweh, the covenant God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, at Mount Sinai.

At that time the Lord had said to Moses, “I will certainly be with you, and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God at this mountain.”

The Lord was true to His word; Moses and the Israelites had arrived at Sinai in fulfillment of this divine promise. Israel had been redeemed. Now the people were free to receive a new identity and a new purpose----indeed, a new life. They would become God’s covenant nation.

At Mount Sinai the Lord outlined to them His plan to make them the means of blessing the world. This would fulfill the Abrahamic covenant and would become the Mosaic Covenant.

In this covenant Israel, as a servant, would carry out the mission of the Abrahamic Covenant, that is, to be a blessing to all nations.

The Mosaic Covenant was conditional in the sense that Israel could choose whether to participate in it and that the blessing it offered were dependent on Israel’s obedience.

The covenant at Sinai did not make the Israelites God’s people---they were already that.

The covenant invited Israel to the privileged position of serving God as a people chosen from among all the nations of the earth.

I carried you on eagles’ wings, the Lord said, and brought you to Me. This emphasizes that the exodus was purely and simply God’s work and not one of human effort. Its purpose was to bring Israel into a place of special relationship with the Lord and a unique witness for the Lord.

When the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai, God told Moses to give them His word. The Lord first reminded them that they had seen what He did unto the Egyptians. This included the plagues that caused Pharaoh to send the Israelites away and the deliverance at the Red Sea. The Lord compared His care to that of an eagle that sheltered her young under her wings. In this way He brought them unto Himself. Then the Lord offered a covenant to Israel.

There were two kinds of covenants. One was a contract between equals. The other was a commitment that a superior offered to inferiors. This cov4enant is not a contract, but a commitment of God to Israel and of Israel to God.

Their part was to obey God’s voice indeed, and keep His covenant. If they did this, they would be God’s special peoples chosen from all the people of the world.

Three covenant benefits are noted in vs. 5-6. First, Israel would be the Lord’s possession out of all the peoples. The term possession refers to a person’s especially valued personal possessions, one’s unique treasure. All the earth is Mine, the Lord declared. Yet Israel would be His special possession and would serve a unique purpose.

A second benefit was that Israel would serve as a kingdom of priests. The priestly role had dual functions. On the one hand, priests were called to maintain close relationship with God. Thus they could bring God’s word to the people through instruction.

On the other hand, priests were to be “of the people.” They were to live among the people, relate to the people, and care deeply about the people’s welfare. Thus they were called to lead the people before God in worship.

What a high privilege was offered Israel that they might lead others nations to the Lord and teach those nations the Lord’s way of life through word and example!

A third benefit of the covenant was that Israel would be God’s holy nation. The basic meaning of holy is “set apart,” Many Bible students consider holiness to be God’s central attribute. As part of His law revealed at Sinai, the Lord declared in Lev. 11: 44, “For I am the Lord your God, so you must consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy.”

In another place God said in Lev. 20: 8, “Keep my statutes and do them: I am the Lord who sets you apart.” Thus God’s people were made holy (set apart) by virtue of their covenant relationship with the Lord.

They also were expected to live holy---that is, to live in ways consistent with the character and nature of God. Holiness was to characterize not only individuals’ lives but also Israel’s national life. Their culture, social traditions, institutions, government,---everything was to reflect the ways of the Lord. By keeping the covenant, the Israelites would be a holy nation.

In writing to believers years after the church was established, Peter in 1 Peter 2: 9-10, called to mind the words of Exodus 19: 5-6 to proclaim, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people.”

Peter reminded his readers in that same epistle in 1 Peter 1: 15 that “as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct.” Can we be more specific about what constitutes holy conduct? Yes, we can. We can know what God expects of His holy people because He made it know to the Israelites in the Ten Commandments.

Under the covenant, Israel would be a kingdom of priests. Remember that this incident took place before the law set up one group to be priests. “Israel was not so much to be a kingdom with priests, as a kingdom which as a whole was to function in a priestly role to the rest of the world.”

What do priests do? They represent God to people and they represent people to God. Israel was given a priestly role not only to one another but also to all nations. In order to be accepted as priests of God, they needed to be an holy nation. The word holy means to be set apart” as righteous and godly people. The history of O.T. Israel shows how far short they came on both counts. They repeatedly yielded to temptations to be like pagan people. And without a holy life they had no basis for witnessing to other nations.

That role of a holy, royal priesthood has now been given to the church in both its collective and individual senses. Peter quoted both Exodus and Deuteronomy to make the case that believers in Christ “are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

By committing to live in covenant with God, people of faith acknowledge their God-given freedom and take on a special purpose as His people. What a privilege! What a responsibility!

Jeremiah saw the sins of Judah and in Jeremiah 31: 33-34 predicted a new covenant. The N.T. declares in Heb. 8: 6-12 that Christians live under this new covenant.

The new covenant has three distinctive features. Each person will know the Lord. The law will be written on believers’ hearts. Forgiveness will be available. This new covenant is the result of the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Of what value then are the Ten Commandments to those who live under grace, not law? The Commandments present the basic foundational components of God’s expectations. Love requires obedience to the moral absolutes of the Ten Commandments, but love goes deeper and demands more than the Commandments.

Jesus went behind the outward sin to the attitude and motive in Matt. 5: 21-48 He accused the Pharisees for using their traditions to avoid honoring their parents in Matt. 15: 3-9. In Mark 12: 28-34 He taught that the two greatest commandments summed up but did not cancel the Commandments.

Paul, who taught that love, fulfills the law in Romans 13:8-10 quoted the Commandments summed up by the Law. He also, in Romans 13: 11-14 condemned sins that break any of the Commandments.

So we who are N.T. Christians must still honor and obey God’s Commandments as His basic moral and spiritual expectations for us. From Exodus 19: 4-6 we learn the following lessons:

(1). God does not leave it up to us to try and figure out what He expects form His people. He gives His people divine revelation so we can know His will.

(2). To participate in the covenant and enjoy its benefits, those who are in covenant relation with God must obey and keep the stipulations the Lord imposes on them.

(3) God’s people are to represent Him to those who do not know Him, and they are to live holy lives before others. PLEASE TURN TO EXODUS 20.

2. PLEASE READ EXODUS 20: 3-6.

The covenant ceremony at Mount Sinai was an unforgettable experience for the Israelites. Cosmic disturbances in Exodus 19; 16 signified the awesome presence of God and made the whole congregation tremble. Moses alone was summoned to scale the mountain and speak with the Lord. Yet apparently the Lord spoke in vs. 9 in such a manner that all the people could hear what He said.

The first four Commandments in Exodus 10: 3-11 portray a holy vertical relationship while the final six outline holy horizontal relationships. The preamble to the Commandments in Exodus 20: 1-2 reminded Israel that these Commandments were part of a covenant with the Lord God who delivered them from Egypt.

The first commandment, Thou shalt have no other gods before me, set the Israelites apart in the ancient world. People of other nations worshiped many gods, but the Israelites were told to worship only one God, the only true and living God.

By faithfully keeping the commandment “Do not have other gods besides Me,” Israel would show that their relationship with the Lord was one of exclusive loyalty. In a world where belief in multiple deities was the norm, Israel’s single-minded, wholehearted devotion to the one true God would testify to this truth. The words other gods do not imply that the gods of pagans were real gods.

According to Deut. 18: 36 these so-called gods were made of “wood and stone.” They were the work of human hands and minds. The one God is the Creator and Redeemer; He alone is worthy to be worshiped. Only people who believe in one God can give their God their total devotion and love. Worshipers of many gods must spread their devotion among their gods.

The first four Commandments deal with our relationship with God. Many people who see some relevance to the last six Commandments, which deal with human conduct and relationships, see little value in the religious and spiritual foundation laid in the early Commandments. But these four commandments, especially the first Commandment are essential for living by the other six.

Only as we are rightly related to God can we rightly relate to others. When Jesus gave the great commandment, He placed first the commandment to love God with our total being. Then based on that, we can love our neighbor as our self.

The relevance of the First Commandment is that many people worship gods other than the one true God. Jesus spoke about the worship of Mammon (money) and said that such worship is incompatible with worshiping God. Yet more people worship the almighty dollar than the Almighty God.

The Second Commandment, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,” is closely related to the first; in fact, some people lump the two together. Making images was an activity associated with idolatry and the worship of false gods. If that is the meaning, the Second Commandment is indeed only a corollary of the First.

However the Second Commandment probably refers to seeking to worship the true God with images created by humans. Those who use images in worship claim the images help them worship God, but this Commandment takes the opposite view. This is the reason the Greek and Roman temples had all those statues of their gods and goddesses but the Hebrew temple had none.

“Do not make an idol for yourself” reminds us that human beings are prone to idolatry. Idolatry is closely related to the sin of worshiping multiple gods. Idolatry can include putting ultimate confidence in parts of the created order, such as the stars or other natural wonders. But idolatry also can include elevating oneself or something that a human has made to a level where greater trust is placed in the created thing than in the Creator.

The Lord is a jealous God, not in the sense of childish, petty jealousy but in the sense of zealously guarding His people. For God to be jealous is not to suggest He is envious of other gods and threatened by them, but His holiness cannot be intruded upon or compromised by worship of idols. He alone is God, and He alone must be acknowledged and worshiped.

Paul in Rom. 1: 20-25 echoed this warning in the New Testament as he described how idolatry can lead to the basest and most degrading conduct imaginable.

The only two images of God approved in the Bible are humans, whom God made in His own image, and His Son, in whom we see the express image of God. Human beings bear some of he image of God. This was true before sin came, and it is true to some degree of God’s children today. This likeness, however, is not true in our physical appearance, which can be put in a statue, but in inner qualities. Only One is the express image of God---Jesus His Son, the One who reveals the Father.

Exodus 20: 4-6 spells out the kinds of images forbidden and issues a warning about the serious consequences of image making. This iniquity influences and corrupts several generations. By contrast, obeying God enable God to show limitless mercy.

3. PLEASE READ EXODUS 20: 7.

The Third Commandment is usually applied primarily to profanity and swearing, but the literal meaning is “You shall not bear up (or lift up) the name of the Lord your God to falsehood (or emptiness).

God had made known to Moses’ generation His name that not even Abraham had known. The name Yahweh reflected God’s nature and character. Now God commanded them, “Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God.” To misuse His name is virtually the same as dismissing God Himself as of no consequence. To misuse the name by associating it with evil and falsehood was blasphemy.

The violators of this Commandment are not only the many people who use foul-mouthed profanity and those who have developed the habit of using the name of God to express surprise but also churchgoers who only mouth the name of God in empty prayers and routine songs. When we only go through the motions of worship, we break this Commandment. The name of God represents God Himself. We glorify Him when we speak or sing with sincere worship and praise.

Some people today think this Commandment primarily prohibits “cussing.” While that is one appropriate application, the Commandment originally was intended to help God’s people make their word their bond. It forbade the insincere or evil use of the Lord’s name in oath-taking. Keeping this Commandment also prohibited one’s use of sorcery to try to manipulate the Lord to send blessings or curses.

4. PLEASE READ EXODUS 20: 8-11.

The Fourth Commandment, like the Second, includes several verses. In fact, it is the longest of the 10. This Commandment and the next are the only two stated positively. The basic commandment is “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” The Sabbath Day is the seventh day. One reason for setting it aside sit ah t genesis 1 teaches us the Lord created all things in six days and rested on the seventh day. God’s rest does not imply tiredness but the completion of His work of creation. It is this momentous event that Israel must celebrate in order to reflect on the Lord’s power and perfection.

This pattern of working six days and resting on one day was to be the pattern for humans also. This does not mean that the other six days are unimportant: instead, keeping the Sabbath…holy is a way of acknowledging that every day belongs to God. In this respect the Sabbath is like tithing. We do not give a tithe and then do as we please with the rest of our money. The tithe signifies that all we have belongs to God. In the same way, observing that a day set apart for the Lord signifies that all our days belong to Him.

The Commandment has many practical implications. For one thing it sacrifices the value of honest work by saying, “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work”. Yet while affirming work, it liberates from endless toil. Many people were slaves or servants whose masters or employers were tempted to overwork them. Notice in vs. 10 the many categories of people who were not to work or to be worked on the day of rest. For them the Fourth Commandment was an Emancipation proclamation from the tyranny of ceaseless toil. The Sabbath Day became a day for worship as well as rest.

Why do Christians worship on Sunday instead of on Saturday? N.T. times Christians have used the first day of the week for worship of Jesus resurrection. The earliest believers were Jews who had always worshiped on Saturday, but Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday, the first day of the week. For a while many of them kept both days, but as the church grew, Sunday became the one-day in seven set aside, following the pattern in the Fourth Commandment.

In keeping with first-century Christians, believers today show their devotion to God and their dependence on God by worshiping Him alone, honoring His name, and observing a weekly day of worship and rest.

Unfortunately, many people---even many professing Christians---see Sunday as their day, not as the Lord’s Day to be devoted to Him as reflected in the N.T.

5. PLEASE READ EXODUS 20: 12-17.

The last six Commandments focus on right relationships among people. Or in other words, these Commandments draw out the lines of holy horizontal relationships. Two Commandments undergird the family---the fifth and the seventh. The fifth deals with parenthood and the seventh with marriage.

These are not case laws designed to cover every possible legal dispute that might arise among people. Rather, they are divinely designed boundaries that create a social environment in which God’s people can truly love their neighbors and reflect a distinctive, godly lifestyle.

Of all human relationships the one between parents and their children was foundational for Israel’s future success as a holy nation. Families are microcosms of the larger community and history often has borne out the truism “as the family goes, so goes the society.”

Thus it is not surprising that the initial horizontal Commandment directs children to “honor your father and your mother.”

What does it mean to “Honor Thy Father and thy Mother?” Paul said in Ephesians 6: 1-3 that for the children it means to obey them and for adults it means to respect them. Prov. 31: 28 describes a mother whose “children rise up and call her blessed.” Jesus and Paul emphasized the importance of caring for the needs of dependent parents, especially widows. The entire Bible honors elders as those-whose wisdom is needed by younger people. In Exodus 18 Moses himself had only recently learned from the wisdom of his father-in-law, Jethro.

Commandments six through nine are stated with few words. They are designed to protect basic God-given rights of human beings. They protect human life, marriage, personal property, and reputation.

The Sixth Commandment is based on the sanctity of human life.

Because God made each one of us ands gave us the precious gift of life, it is wrong for someone to take a life away. In the O.T. the Commandment specifically applies to “murder.” It applies especially to the intentional murder of another person, as Cain did when he murdered his brother Abel in Gen 4: 1-15.

This Commandment in its day was not applied to war or to capital punishment. Those of us who believe strongly in the sanctity of human life apply it to abortion and to assisted suicide. The preborn baby is a person whose life is precious. The preborn also are helpless to defend themselves.

In Matt. 5: 21-22 Jesus looked behind the outward Commandment and condemned the anger and hatred that can lead to murder. Such sins of the heart are sins in the eyes of God and can lead to actual murder. Abuse can result in the loss of life. It is sobering to hear that someone known by the victim, and often a family member is the one who commits the murder.

The Seventh Commandment was designed to protect marriage. The family is the basic building block of society and marriage is the foundation of the family. Families are only as strong as the marriage relationship.

Adultery destroys the love and trust of the marriage commitment. It perverts the God-given gift of sex, which is a one-flesh union of one man and one woman who are committed to responsible love for each other for life.

Strictly speaking, adultery is a sexual act involving two people in which at least one is married to someone else. Sexual intimacy is intended to be an act of total trust and love that makes the man and the woman completely vulnerable. Adultery is a breach of that trust and a betrayal of that love.

The N.T. condemns not only adultery but also others sins of sexual immorality. This includes any sex out side of the biblical definition of marriage, specifically premarital sex and sexual perversions such as homosexuality. As in the case of murder, Jesus looked behind adultery for the inner sins of mind and heart. In Matt 5: 27-28 He condemned lust in the heart as adultery.

This does not mean that anyone who lusts might as well commit adultery. Lust is sinful and can lead to sexual immorality, but committing such acts harms others. Like the world of Paul’s day, ours is a sexual wilderness that desperately needs to hear and heed the Seventh Commandment.

The Eighth Commandment, Thou shalt not steal, was designed to protect personal property. This is a basic human right; possessions enable people to meet the needs of their families and to have something to give to others.

One of the best N.T. verses related to this is Eph. 4: 28. “The thief must no longer steal. Instead he must do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need.” This implies that some of Paul’s readers had been thieves but needed to put that behind them, do honest work, and be generous in helping others. Those who break this Commandment steal another person’s food, clothing, shelter, education, memories, treasures, and their ability to give to others.

The Bible gives examples of various ways to break the Eighth Commandment. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the thieves beat and robbed a lone traveler. Then in Luke 10: 30 they left Him to die.

The prophet Amos in Amos 8: 4-6 condemned merchants who sold the poor inferior products at inflated prices. In James 5: 1-6, James condemned landowners who withheld wages due to laborers who worked for them. Stealing can involve white-collar crime.

Whenever I study the Eighth Commandment, I try to think of the many different English words that describe violations of this commandment. Here are some of those words: steal, rob, burgle, embezzle, extort, pilfer, swindle, con, kidnap, car nap, mug, pickpocket, purse snatch, graft, fraud, and so on. The conclusion I draw from such a list is that if it takes this many words to describe various violations of the Eighth Commandment, many people are breaking it.

The Ninth Commandment is designed to protect reputations against the lies of others. This applied specifically to slandering someone in court. It also applies to slandering anyone in more informal settings. We often call this gossip.

The Israelites were careful in their laws to try to avoid lying in court. They demanded at least two witnesses. The witnesses, if proved false, were punished as if they had committed the crime falsely charged to another.

They also were warned by their wise men of the danger of gossip. Solomon wrote in Prov. 6: 16-19 “These six things doth the Lord hate; yea, seven are an abomination unto Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

Notice how many of these things that the Lord hates are violations of the Ninth Commandment. In Matt. 5: 33-37 the N.T. emphasizes telling the truth and avoiding swearing. In Eph. 4: 25 Paul told each person to speak the truth with his neighbor and brother. In vs. 15 he called for “speaking the truth in love.”

The Tenth Commandment is the only Commandment that directly deals with an attitude rather than an action. To covet is to want something that belongs to someone else. It’s roots are greed and envy. Greed is the desire of more and more for yourself. Envy is wanting what someone else has. Jesus condemned covetousness after a man came to Him in Luke 12: 13-15, and asked Him to make his brother share their inheritance.

Exodus 20: 17 gives a long list of things that we should not covet. The list includes thy neighbor’s house and thy neighbor’s wife. It included the neighbor’s male and female servants, his livestock, or anything that belongs to the neighbor,. The old saying is, “The grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence.”

Coveting sometimes lies behind the violation of other commandments. A tragic example of this is found in 1 kings 21. Ahab coveted the vineyard of his neighbor Naboth. Ahab’s unscrupulous wife, Jezebel devised a plan to get it for him after Naboth refused to sell his family’s ancestral land.

Her plan involved a number of people in breaking Commandments Six, Eight, and Nine. She was a worshiper of Baal: therefore, she observed none of the Commandments, but Ahab was a nominal worshiper of the Lord. Yet he went along with his evil wife. She bought false witnesses and controlled the court officials with intimidation. As a result, innocent Naboth was killed. His confiscated property became the king’s. The prophet Elijah confronted the king as he inspected his costly new vineyard. Elijah pronounced on this evil pair the sure judgment of God.

The opposite of covetousness is gratitude and contentment with what you have. Paul in Phil. 4: 10-13 shared his secret of contentment. “for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” A.V. DAUGHERTY <altav@swbell.net>

NEXT WEEK WE BEGIN A FOUR LESSON SERIES TITLED “WHAT ON EARTH ARE Y0U DOING FOR HEAVENS SAKE?” JOHN 17 SAYS WE ARE SET APART BY GOD.