Today, we are going to work through "kind of" a big section in Exodus. It's maybe a mistake, to do it this way. We are going to fly high over some of God's most basic, well-known commands, and they deserve to be explained better than I'm going to. But the passage as a whole will make more sense, if we do it this way. And it will hit you harder, the way it should, if we do it this way. So I think (from a pastoral perspective) this is the best way to do it.
Let's start by reading Exodus 19:16-25. The people have been consecrating themselves for three days, to prepare for this moment-- when God descends upon Mount Sinai, and meets his people.
With these verses, the most important thing you can do, is feel them (much easier if you're reading out loud, with feeling). Try to picture God in his glory. Picture yourself responding with fear, and reverence, and trembling. When God comes, it's scary:
(16) and then, on the third day, when it was morning, there was thunder and lightning and a dense cloud upon the mountain, and the sound of a very loud horn,
and all the people trembled who were in the camp,
(17) and Moses brought out the people to meet the God/Elohim from the camp,
and they stood at the base of the mountain.
(18) Now, Mount Sinai was completely wrapped in smoke because Yahweh descended upon it in the fire,
and its smoke went up like the smoke of the forge,
and the whole mountain trembled greatly,
(19) and the sound of the horn was moving, and extremely loud/strong. [I picture a tornado siren]
Moses would speak,
while the God/Elohim would answer him in the thunder,
(20) and Yahweh descended upon Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain,
and Yahweh called to Moses, to the top of the mountain,
and Moses went up,
(21) and Yahweh said to Moses,
"Descend. Warn the people, lest they push through to Yahweh to see,
and many will fall from them,
(22) and, what's more, the priests coming near to Yahweh must consecrate/dedicate themselves, lest Yahweh becomes hostile/breaks out against them,
(23) and Moses said to Yahweh,
"The people can't ascend to Mount Sinai,
because you warned us, saying,
"Set limits around the mountain,
and consecrate/dedicate it,"
(24) and Yahweh said to him,
"Go! Descend, with Aaron with you, while the priests and the people shall not push through to ascend to Yahweh, lest He becomes hostile/breaks out against them,"
(25) and Moses descended to the people,
and he spoke to them,
Let's pause here. When God descends upon Mount Sinai, it looks like the apocalypse (and it is, actually, his "revealing"). There's thick smoke, and dark clouds. There's thunder, and lightning. There's a blood curdling horn going off, that no human is blowing. It's loud, and it sets your hair on edge like a tornado siren. The mountain itself trembles. And so do you. When God comes, in all his glory, it's overwhelming.
And it's also dangerous. A few people might be tempted to get a better look. Maybe, you want to call them brave. Probably, you want to call them stupid. These people might be tempted to move from the base of the mountain, up it. They want to see God. God knows that the people are still struggling to obey. God knows that the temptation is real. And so He tells Moses, for a second time, to make sure the people don't get any closer. Even if you are a kingdom of priests, and a consecrated nation, and God's prized possession, God will still kill you, if you break through the cloud (h/t Duane Garrett).
Everything about this is dangerous, and overwhelming. If I'm an Israelite, seeing this, I'd be thinking, "Three days wasn't nearly enough time, to prepare myself to meet God." But here we are.
If you've captured the feel of these verses, you're ready to push ahead to chapter 20:
(20:1) and God spoke all these words, saying,
(2) "I-- Yahweh-- am your God/Elohim,
who is bringing you (masculine singular, here and throughout) from the land of Egypt-- from a house of
service.
Let's pause here. Yahweh starts by reminding Israel who He is for them. He is the one bringing them from Egypt. He is the one who freed them from slavery. So everything you're about to hear, you should hear from a place of gratitude, and thanksgiving.
The other thing we should notice, is who Yahweh is addressing. The "you" here is masculine singular. Yahweh is not directly addressing the nation as a whole. He is addressing the male heads of each house. Each male head has the responsibility of hearing these words, and making sure they are obeyed within the context of the larger family. [This is widely accepted within OT studies.] So if you're a woman, or a kid, these words are still supposed to be obeyed. But you hear them indirectly. And why this matters, will make more sense as we go.
Verse 3:
(3) There will not be for you another god/elohim in front of me.
Picture God seated on his throne, looking down at you. When God sees you, He wants to see only you. He doesn't want to see another god in the picture. It's just like your spouse doesn't want to see you hugging or kissing someone else. You belong to your spouse. And your spouse is not okay with some other man or woman being "in front of" him/her.
There will be no other god. Period.
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The text is not addressing the reality, or unreality, of other gods/elohim. It's not a philosophical or theological statement. It's practical. For you, there is no other god.
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Verse 4-6:
(4) You will not make for yourself an idol or any form/likeness that [is] in the heavens above, or that is on the
earth below, or that is in the waters under the earth.
(5) You will not bow down to them, [bow down is a better translation than worship]
and you will not serve them,
because I-- Yahweh your God/Elohim-- [am] a jealous/zealous God/El,
counting (see Num. 1:19) the sin/guilt of the fathers upon the sons, upon the third [generation], and
upon the fourth, to the ones hating me,
(6) and demonstrating loyalty to a thousand [generations], to the ones loving me and to the ones
keeping my commands.
One of the things that makes it hard to worship, sometimes, is that we have nothing to look at. On a bad week, when you're struggling spiritually, it's like you're worshipping the words on the screen. You're just singing empty words, to no one.
And so you might be tempted to make an idol, or likeness, of Yahweh. Maybe, that would make it easier to focus, and worship God the way you should. You can talk to the idol, or image. You can make promises to it. You can bow down to it. It's there, in front of you.
So what you'd do, maybe, is pick an animal with qualities like God. God is like an ox, powerful. God is like an eagle, soaring above the earth, looking down on people. You carve an idol of an ox, or an eagle, and call it "Yahweh."
You might find all of this helpful in serving, and praying, to God. But God finds all of this appalling. God cannot be imaged. And if you make an image of anything, and bow down to it, and serve it, what you have actually done is make a rival to God. That idol is God's competition, fighting for you.
And here's the thing about Yahweh: Yahweh is not the kind of God who is willing to share his affections with anyone else. If Yahweh sees you pursuing someone else, He's going to get super worked up. He is a zealous, jealous, Husband. He will record your offenses in a book, and He will punish not just you, but your descendants as well, to the third and fourth generation.
Why? If you serve an idol, you no longer love God. You've rejected him (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:4, where there are other ways to reject God). Instead, you hate him.
I've been a part of a church that thought idolatry wasn't a big deal. At this church, people understood that lots of Christians, have lots of idols. Money. Collectible cars. Family. Sports. And so because so many Christians have so many idols, it's not a big deal. It's not something to be concerned about. It's not a very serious sin (1 Corinthians 6:9).
But when it comes to idolatry, there is no safety in numbers. You might be part of a huge herd, serving false gods. You might even understand that Yahweh is a like a lion. Scary, fierce, deadly. But you tell yourself, the Lion can't kill you all. That's a pretty cruddy bet (1 Corinthians 10:8). What Exodus teaches, is that God picks you out of the crowd. He writes down your offense. And He will punish you.
Yahweh is a jealous God.
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Keep this in, or take it out for time reasons?:
The other thing verse 4 teaches, is that you can't make an image/idol of anything, regardless of whether or not you worship it. You might be a fisherman, and fishing is your life. But you can't have a 10 foot iron fish on your front lawn. You might be a cattleman, but you can't have a giant cow by your front door. You aren't allowed to make any images of anything. And that will help you avoid becoming an idolater. That day you had a miraculous catch, and you drive by the giant fish, you don't give it a little praise as a thank you, because the fish isn't there. You thank Yahweh, instead.
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Now, Yahweh doesn't end here on a sour note. Verse 6. If you are faithful to Yahweh, serving him alone, staying away from idols, you love him. Loving God is a practical act of commitment, and obedience. And if you love him, and keep his commands, God will show loyalty, not just to you, but to a thousand generations after you.
Before we move on, let me just say a couple things about the generational nature of the blessings and curses here. Lots of people talk about generational sins. They think God punishes people, even today, because of something their parents and grandparents did.
If that's you, there's two things you should hear:
(1) This is part of why it matters that God is addressing the male heads of house. Picture a young grandpa, or a dad with a house of teenagers. Someone in their 50s, or 60s, maybe [the 10 commandments assume that some of the heads will have living parents, which is why I'm framing it this way]. God is addressing you, as head of the house, warning you about the consequences of your actions. When God comes in judgment in the OT, it's usually in the form of foreign invaders. He sends Assyria, or Babylon, as punishment. And when those nations come, they don't selectively kill idol worshippers. They wipe out cities, and take prisoners into exile. It's not just the male heads of house who are punished. Your kids are taken; your grandkids are taken; your great-grandkids are taken. When God punishes to the third and fourth generation, that basically covers everyone who is alive, at the time that you sin. And probably it covers the generation that's stuck in bondage, or captivity (the fourth generation would often fall into this). That's what punishment to the third and fourth generation looks like (I'm following an OT scholar here I read somewhere, a long time ago, but I have no idea who).
(2) The other thing you should know, in talk about generation sin, is Ezekiel 18. I'm not going to read it, but write down the reference, and think about it later. In that chapter, God promises that his days of punishing the children for their parents' sins, are done. From now on, each individual will rise or fall, based on his/her own obedience.
The bottom line, is that you don't need to worry about generational sin. You don't have to confess your parents' sin to God. You don't have to worry that God is punishing you because of something they did. He's not. What God is focused on, is you. When He looks at you, does He see another god? Does he see idolatry? Worry about that.
Exodus 20:7:
(7) You will not lift up the name of Yahweh your God for worthless/false things,
because Yahweh will not forgive/leave unpunished (see DBL) the ones who lift up his name for
worthless/false things.
This command is usually explained as "taking God's name in vain." Like, you shouldn't say, "Oh my God," or "Jesus Christ," when something bad happens. That's true. And it's maybe part of the idea here.
But probably, the idea is even bigger than that (John Goldingay is really good here). What God is saying here, also, is that you aren't allowed to attach his name to worthless or false things. You can't start a war, and say that this is Yahweh's war, if it's not. You can't start a ministry, and say "Yahweh told me to do this," if He didn't. If you're a single guy, you can't walk up to a woman, and say, "Yahweh told me to marry you," if He didn't. You can't offer a prophecy in Yahweh's name, if God didn't give you the words. When it comes to Yahweh, and his name, you can't make stuff up.
And if you do, depending on how you understand the verb, God either won't forgive you, or He won't leave you unpunished. Either way, you will suffer, if you misuse his name. [William Propp says it doesn't mean, "won't forgive," in contrast to all the lexicons, but I didn't spend time looking at it, to be honest].
Verse 8-11:
(8) Remember the seventh day, to consecrate/dedicate it.
(9) Six days you may/will serve/work, and you will do all your tasks/deeds,
(10) while the seventh day [is] a Sabbath to Yahweh your God.
You will not do any task/deed-- you, or your son, or your daughter, or your servant, or your female servant, or
your cattle, or your resident alien who is within your gates,
(11) because [in] six days, Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them,
and He rested on the seventh day.
Therefore, Yahweh blessed the seventh day,
and He dedicated/consecrated it.
God's teaching about the Sabbath, is by far the longest, and most detailed, of all the ten commandments. Why?
Keeping the Sabbath is the most costly of all the commandments. Farmers understand this, in a way that we city slickers maybe don't.
Maybe 10 years ago, there was a spring where it rained 30 straight days in ND. I still have horrible memories. Awful. If you're a farmer, you reach the point where you're desperate to get your crop in the ground. What do you do when you have two nice days, and the land has dried up perfectly by the Sabbath morning, but it's supposed to rain the next day?
Or what do you want to do, when your corn is ready for harvest, and the forecast is for an October blizzard the next day?
What you want to do, is get our your tractor, and put in an 18 hour day. You drive, until you fall asleep at the wheel. And then you drive some more. You won't care, in that moment, whether or not it's the Sabbath.
There are times when you will want to work on the Sabbath. And there are times, as the male head of house, when you'll want your household to work. You want your ox to work, and pull the equipment. You want your servants to cook for you, or clean the house, or run errands. You want your kids to do stuff. But God tells you, everyone gets a break. The Sabbath is dedicated to Yahweh.
The other thing we should see here, is that when it comes to the Sabbath, wives aren't addressed. This doesn't mean that the wife is still expected to cook up a perfect Sabbath dinner, while the men watch football. What it shows, actually, is the high status of wives (h/t NET Bible). Husbands don't control their wives. They aren't responsible for their wives' obedience. Wives are equals.
Verse 12:
(12) Honor your father and your father,
in order that your days may lengthen upon the land
that Yahweh your God is giving you.
(13) You will not murder.
[Duane Garrett has a nice explanation of "murder." It's more complicated than one would expect, but I'm going to pass over it. In the end, the distinction we make between "murder" and "kill" is basically the distinction the OT makes. But it's far easier in English.]
(14) You will not commit adultery (Leviticus 20:10; Jeremiah 29:23; Hosea 4:13).
Here, I want to just focus on adultery. Sexual immorality of any type is dangerous. Paul warns that sexually immoral people won't inherit God's kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9).
Why then, does God only talk about adultery here? Why doesn't he talk about fornication, or prostitution, or any other perversion that humans seem to get sucked in to?
I think the reason is that adultery is far more destructive to society (contrast Exodus 22:16; 1 Thessalonians 4:4 in RSV). It tears families apart. It makes things like your inheritance, hopelessly complicated. If I, as head of the house, have my first son with someone who is not my wife, who inherits my land? Does my son inherit my land? Does he inherit my neighbor's land?
Adultery ruins families. It makes things horribly complicated. It creates poverty. It destroys the fabric of society. And when we look at the U.S., and all the broken homes, and mixed families, we see the truth of this. It makes life really difficult for kids, in a lot of different ways. And it weakens us, as a whole.
So it's not that other sexual sins are okay. It's that adultery quickly destroys a nation. And God's immediate priority here, is to create a society/nation that is strong, and ordered, through the generations.
Verse 15-17:
(15) You will not steal.
(16) You will not declare/testify against your neighbor false testimony.
(17) You will not desire/covet the house of your neighbor.
You will not desire your neighbor's wife, or his servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.
Verse 17 is the clearest example, maybe, of where the commandments are directly addressed to the men. There's no talk here about desiring someone else's husband, right? Everything is addressed to (heterosexual) men.
You may look at someone else's wife, and think she's quite the catch. Maybe, she's a strong, capable woman (Proverbs 31). Maybe, she runs her household better. You may look at someone else's servant, and be impressed by how responsible and hard-working they are. Or, maybe you want his oxen. They pull harder than yours. They have better endurance. Maybe, his donkey is less stubborn.
The bottom line, is that when you look at your neighbor, it's quite likely that some of the things he has, are nicer or better than the things you have. In one way or another, he has a better, easier life.
But Yahweh says, you can't desire anything of his. His things, are his. They belong to his "house." And if you let yourself desire them, it will only lead to bad things-- adultery, or stealing, or murder, or false testimony (as a "legal" way to steal from him).
What we see here, really, are three things. First, your desires, are the root cause of many sins (Micah 2:2).
Second, what you desire, is a choice. You are not a slave to your desires, helpless to them. There is something deep inside of you (your spirit?), that lets you choose what you will desire. You can squelch your desire, and rule over it (different words, but the idea of Genesis 4:7).
And third, this commandment teaches that obeying God is not simply about external acts. Obeying God also is a matter of the heart-- of who you are, on the inside (h/t Duane Garrett).
This brings us to verses 18-20. Here, we find everything tying together nicely (and this is why I grabbed a big section-- the smoke and fire frame the ten commandments, giving us the right perspective for hearing them):
(18) Now, all the people [were] seeing the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the horn, and the mountain smoking,
and the people saw,
and they trembled,
and they stood far off,
(19) and they said to Moses,
"Speak-- you-- with us,
and we will listen,
and may God not speak with us, lest we die,"
(20) and Moses said to the people,
"Don't fear,
because, in order to test you the God/Elohim has come,
and in order that fear/reverence of him would be upon your faces,
so that you don't sin.
Yahweh could've given the ten commandments in a way that was less scary. But by coming with the thunder, and lightning, and smoke, and horn, God made it easy for people to view him the right way. Yahweh is not a God to be messed with, or ignored, or half-followed. When you meet Yahweh, you will tremble. You will realize that Yahweh is a God to be obeyed, and you will revere him, and you won't sin against him.
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So, we flew pretty high over the text. There were a lot of things I could've unpacked more, and I didn't. But what's the big picture?
Yahweh is inviting his people into a covenant relationship with himself. Israel can be Yahweh's prized possession. It can be a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation. "If." If it actually obeys Yahweh, and if it keeps his commands.
When we look at the ten commandments as a whole, they line up, more or less, into two categories (with some overlap). There are commands about how you should act toward God, and how you should act toward people.
When it comes to how you should act toward God, Yahweh expects total allegiance. You will serve, and worship, him alone. You won't have any other gods. When Yahweh sees you, He has to see only you. He can't see some type of idol. He can't see any other god.
If you ignore this, God will not forgive you. He won't simply let it go. He will punish you, for sure.
And if you find yourself struggling to take God seriously in all of this, think about the thunder, and lightning, and hair-raising horn, and smoke. Think about what happens to people who try to push through that, to see God. God is someone who demands reverence. As C.S. Lewis would say, "God is not safe." At least, He's not safe, to those who disobey him.
So how do you show reverence to Yahweh? Partly, by not making idols or images. Partly, by not making stuff up in his name. You don't get to walk around, pretending God spoke to you about something, if He didn't. You don't get to baptize your desires, or plans, by putting God's name on them. You treat Yahweh's name with reverence. You don't use his name for deceitful, or empty, purposes.
Another part of how you show reverence to Yahweh, is by keeping the Sabbath. When you keep the Sabbath, you are dedicating that day to Yahweh. That's his day; he claims it for himself. And He does this, as a kindness to you. The Sabbath is how He teaches you to trust him for what you need. It's how he teaches you to not live in a slave mentality, of always worrying where the next meal, or the next harvest, will come from.
The other half of the commands mostly have to do with how we treat our neighbors. We have to honor our parents. We treat them with respect, as important (more literally, as "weighty"). We provide for them, even as they become less valuable from a purely work (economic) perspective. Your elderly parents are not an extra mouth to feed. They're not an extra roof you have to provide. They are someone to honor, and take care of. And when you do this, you lengthen your own life.
Most of the other commands focus on what we shouldn't do-- not on what we should. We can't murder people. We can't steal from them. We shouldn't defraud our neighbors, by lying about something they did. We shouldn't commit adultery with someone else's wife. We shouldn't make people work on the Sabbath-- even our servants, and our kids. Everyone needs a day off, where they can commit it to Yahweh. And we can't desire anything of our neighbors. Our neighbor's stuff, belongs to him.
These ten words are not enough, by themselves, to make society function. And they don't come close to summarizing what all God wants from his people. If we want that answer, we need to read a lot more in the Bible (Matthew 5-7 is a nice place to turn next).
But the ten words are a fine starting point, in helping us think about what God wants. God expects us to act in a particular way toward himself. And God expects us to act in a particular way toward our neighbor.
So we covered a lot of ground today. But if I could leave you with just one thought today, it'd be based on Exodus 20:5-6, and idol worship:
(5) You will not bow down to them,
and you will not serve them,
because I-- Yahweh your God/Elohim-- [am] a jealous/zealous God/El,
counting (see Num. 1:19) the sin/guilt of the fathers upon the sons, upon the third [generation], and
upon the fourth, to the ones hating me,
(6) and demonstrating loyalty to a thousand [generations], to the ones loving me and to the ones
keeping my commands.
What does it mean to love God?
We want to be able to say, "I love God," even if we aren't really committed to him. We want to separate love from obedience. But the Bible refuses to do this. Let's read from John 14:23-24 (RSV no reason):
23 Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
And now from John 15:10:
10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
If you love God, you'll obey him. And when you obey him, you will abide in Jesus' love, and the Father's love.
So let me just encourage you: loving God is primarily a matter of loyalty, and obedience. It's a matter of keeping your covenant with God. All of us can say whatever we want about how important God is to us, and how much we love him. But from God's perspective, if you serve other gods, you are someone who hates God (Exodus 20:5). It's the one who obeys, and serves, and worships him alone, who truly loves God (1 John 2:14). So look at your life, and be honest. Are you serving money? Collectible cars? Your pickup truck? Your family? Your job? Make sure you have no God, besides Yahweh. Make sure that when He looks at you, He sees only you.
Translation:
(16) and then, on the third day, when it was morning, there was thunder and lightning and a dense cloud upon the mountain, and the sound of a very loud horn,
and all the people trembled who were in the camp,
(17) and Moses brought out the people to meet the God/Elohim from the camp,
and they stood at the base of the mountain.
(18) Now, Mount Sinai was completely wrapped in smoke because Yahweh descended upon it in the fire,
and its smoke went up like the smoke of the forge,
and the whole mountain trembled greatly,
(19) and the sound of the horn was moving, and extremely loud/strong.
Moses would speak,
while the God/Elohim would answer him in the thunder,
(20) and Yahweh descended upon Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain,
and Yahweh called to Moses, to the top of the mountain,
and Moses went up,
(21) and Yahweh said to Moses,
"Descend. Warn the people, lest they push through to Yahweh to see,
and many will fall from them,
(22) and, what's more, the priests coming near to Yahweh must consecrate/dedicate themselves, lest Yahweh becomes hostile/breaks out against them,
(23) and Moses said to Yahweh,
"The people can't ascend to Mount Sinai,
because you warned us, saying,
"Set limits around the mountain,
and consecrate/dedicate it,"
(24) and Yahweh said to him,
"Go. Descend, with Aaron with you, while the priests and the people shall not push through to ascend to Yahweh, lest He becomes hostile/breaks out against them,"
(25) and Moses descended to the people,
and he spoke to them,
(20:1) and God spoke all these words, saying,
(2) "I-- Yahweh-- am your God/Elohim,
who is bringing you (masculine singular, here and always in the 10 words) from the land of Egypt-- from a house of service.
(3) There will not be for you another god/elohim in front of me.
(4) You will not make for yourself an idol or any form that [is] in the heavens above, or that is on the earth below, or that is in the waters under the earth.
(5) You will not bow down to them,
and you will not serve them,
because I-- Yahweh your God/Elohim-- [am] a jealous/zealous God/El,
counting (see Num. 1:19) the sin/guilt of the fathers upon the sons, upon the third [generation], and
upon the fourth, to the ones hating me,
(6) and demonstrating loyalty to a thousand [generations], to the ones loving me and to the ones
keeping my commands.
(7) You will not lift up the name of Yahweh your God for worthless/false things,
because Yahweh will not forgive/leave unpunished (see DBL) the ones who lift up his name for
worthless/false things.
(8) Remember the seventh day, to consecrate/dedicate it.
(9) Six days you may/will serve/work, and you will do all your tasks/deeds,
(10) while the seventh day [is] a Sabbath to Yahweh your God.
You will not do any task/deed-- you, or your son, or your daughter, or your servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, or your resident alien who is within your gates,
(11) because [in] six days, Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them,
and He rested on the seventh day.
Therefore, Yahweh blessed the seventh day,
and He dedicated/consecrated it.
(12) Honor your father and your father,
in order that your days may lengthen upon the land
that Yahweh your God is giving you.
(13) You will not murder.
(14) You will not commit adultery.
(15) You will not steal.
(16) You will not declare/testify against your neighbor false testimony.
(17) You will not desire/covet the house of your neighbor.
You will not desire your neighbor's wife, or his servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.
(18) Now, all the people [were] seeing the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the horn, and the mountain smoking,
and the people saw,
and they trembled,
and they stood far off,
(19) and they said to Moses,
"Speak-- you-- with us,
and we will listen,
and may God not speak with us, lest we die,"
(20) and Moses said to the people,
"Don't fear,
because, in order to test you the God/Elohim has come,
and in order that his fear/reverence would be upon your faces,
so that you don't sin.
