Students, what’s the best day of school? Well, definitely not Mondays since you have the whole week to get through. Fridays aren’t bad. Get through that school day and the weekend awaits. While weekends are nice, before you know it, Monday has rolled around again. Ugh. No, the best day of school is the day before summer vacation. I remember the sense of freedom I felt as I left school for summer break. Before I started working over the summers, those months off from school meant freedom to sleep in and the freedom to ride my bike pretty much wherever I wanted to any day of the week.
Isn’t that what freedom means—the right to do whatever we want and no one telling us that we can’t? As we continue our sermon series on Moses, we’ll see that Israel’s freedom from slavery in Egypt didn’t mean that they could now do whatever they wanted. God made that clear with the giving of the Ten Commandments. At Mt. Sinai, the Israelites would learn that they had also been freed for something—they had been freed for fidelity. That is, they had been freed by God to live faithfully for him as his treasured people. Like the Israelites, we too have been made for more—to use our freedom from sin, which Jesus won for us, to faithfully serve him and others. Let’s find out why this is a blessing and not a burden. (Read text.)
Exactly three months after leaving Egypt, the Israelites arrived at the foot of Mt. Sinai. In all, the Israelites would spend almost a year at Mt. Sinai. One big event that happened there was the giving of the Ten Commandments. If you were to make a comic strip of that event, how many frames would it have? A frame of the Israelites camping before Mt. Sinai? A frame of Moses climbing the mountain? Then a frame of him returning clutching the two tablets of stone inscribed with the Ten Commandments? If so, you’d be skipping 40 days’ worth of excitement! This is how events unfolded.
On his first trip up Mt. Sinai, Moses met with God and was directed to tell the Israelites: “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Ex. 19:4-6)
Tell me, what’s the normal reaction if a parent calls home and says: “I expect the living room to be tidy and the dinner table set by the time I return. Why? Because I said so!” Wouldn’t the children who are expected to clean up do so with much grumbling? On the other hand, if the parent says: “Hey, I’m picking up pizza for supper and I also bought ice cream to eat while we watch a movie. Can you all tidy up the living room and set out plates and napkins before I get home?” Won’t the reaction be much more cheerful? After all, Mom or Dad is going through some trouble and expense for an enjoyable evening.
Likewise, the opening words God spoke to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai reminded them that he was their loving, Savior-God who had already done much for them and who was going to do more. Therefore the commandments that he was about to give them weren’t coming from a taskmaster who enjoyed bossing people around. No, God wanted the Israelites to retain an ongoing privileged relationship with him.
God said that the Israelites were his segula—treasured possession. Your segula might be the car you rebuilt and take to car shows—the car that you don’t let anyone else drive. Or your segula might be nothing more than a neat rock you found on a hike. No one else understands why you brought the thing home, but you do. It’s precious because you love it, not because you would get any money if you tried selling it. That was also true of the Israelites. They were precious because God loved them, not because there was anything about them that made them unique from the other peoples of the world.
But didn’t the Israelites first have to obey God to be treated as his segula? Isn’t that what God meant when he said: “…if you obey me fully…then…you will be my treasured possession”? But God had already demonstrated that the Israelites were precious to him when he called them his “firstborn” and rescued them from Egypt (Ex. 4:22). Therefore, the commands that he was about to give them were meant to keep the Israelites in this blessed relationship. It’s like your boss inviting you and your family to spend a month on his yacht sailing the Caribbean. As long as you remain on the yacht, you’ll enjoy the refreshing sea breeze and eat sumptuous meals prepared by the chef. But if you decide you don’t want to be on the yacht anymore and jump ship, well, you chose to turn your back on all the amenities the yacht offered and all the places it would have taken you. So it was with the Israelites. They were already cruising with God to the Promised Land. One purpose of God’s commandments was to outline how they could remain in the relationship, like how guardrails on a yacht keep passengers from falling overboard.
But not only were the Israelites God’s segula they were also his kohanim—priests. Now that God had revealed himself to the Israelites, he was planning on revealing himself through them to the rest of the world. So no, the Israelites weren’t free to do whatever they wanted now that they had escaped slavery in Egypt. They had been freed for fidelity—freed to show their thanks to God by living by his commands so that they might be a blessing to others.
This truth finds an echo in the New Testament. The Apostle Peter wrote to us New Testament-era believers: “…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9) Like the Israelites rescued from slavery in Egypt, Jesus rescued us from the slavery of sin and hell. He did so for the purpose of putting us on display—that we might declare his praises, not our own.
But how exactly does God want us to praise him? The Ten Commandments make that clear. Do you remember the first time you heard the Ten Commandments? I bet your parents shared them with you, or you heard them in Sunday School. I doubt the occasion was very memorable. The Israelites, on the other hand, were treated to a Ten Commandment-reveal-event not matched by even the glitziest product launches today. First of all, the people were supposed spend two days getting ready for the event since God himself would be addressing them. Is that what you did to get ready for church today? Did you take Friday off from school and work, and then cancel all basketball games and trips to the mall yesterday so you could be well rested and well focused to listen to the sermon today? That sounds laughable until you consider what I am sharing with you right now: God’s Word. And whenever God speaks to us, whether directly or indirectly as through a preacher like me, it is a big deal. Listen to how God himself drove that point home with the Israelites at Mt. Sinai. “On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled... 18 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, 19 and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him... And God spoke all these words [the words of the Ten Commandments.]” (Exodus 19:16, 18-19; 20:1)
Fire. Smoke. Lightning. Thunder. Earthquake. Crescendoing blasts from a rams’ horn. This was a full-sensory experience. And there may have been more to the display. In the NIV translation, Exodus 20:18 reads: “When the people saw the thunder…” Hmm. How do you see thunder? It could simply mean that the Israelites perceived the thunder, but the word “thunder” can also be translated as: “When all the people saw the voices…” Some Jewish rabbis conclude that each word that God spoke at Mt. Sinai became tangible to the extent that it took on physical form and could be seen in the air as floating, sparkling letters—like fireworks exploding into giant speech bubbles! What’s more, some rabbis say that the voices (plural) means that God’s voice divided into seventy languages signalling that his commandments are for all people (sefaira.org).
Before we dismiss this speculation, and that’s what it is, it’s interesting to note that the giving of the Ten Commandments took place exactly 50 days after the Israelites left Egypt—that is 50 days after the Passover. Do you remember what Jewish festival is celebrated 50 days after Passover? Pentecost. What sensory events unfolded on the first Pentecost after Jesus’ ascension? As his disciples were gathered in a house in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit descended on them in what looked like tongues of…fire, and enabled them to speak God’s Word in...foreign languages! This same Holy Spirit still inspires us, or could we say that he “infires” us to make God’s Word tangible with our actions of love towards others that should translate across any language.
Whether or not the Israelites at Mt. Sinai saw God’s Words as actual fiery speech bubbles, we know that they heard God himself speak, and it scared them. They cried out to Moses, “…we will die if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer. 26 For what mortal man has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived?” (Deuteronomy 5:25b-26)
“We will die if we keep hearing the voice of God!” the Israelites exclaimed. Some Jewish rabbis say that the Israelites actually did die—twice!—while listening to God at Mt. Sinai. Supposedly their souls “popped” out of their bodies after each of the first two commandments were spoken so that angels had to corral the souls and stuff them back into the bodies like sleeping bags back into their carry pouches (sefaira.org). That speculation is a bit harder for me to believe, but it does illustrate the main purpose of the Commandments. Many think that God gave the Ten Commandments to show people how to get to heaven. Actually, they show us how far away from heaven we really are. The Apostle Paul put it like this: “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone [the Ten Commandments], came with glory… will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!” (2 Cor. 3:6-9)
How exactly do the Ten Commandments kill us? Perhaps Paul puts it more succinctly when he wrote to the Roman Christians: “…no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” (Romans 3:20) When I was in college, I served as an assistant high school basketball coach. Every season started with tryouts. And every year there were some kids I thought would be good basketball players. They looked the part: tall and walked with a swager. But when we coaches directed them to do various drills, like lay ups from both sides of the basket, there was no hiding for the pretenders. Some looked like basketball players but if they couldn’t even make layups from both sides of the basket, they certainly weren’t basketball players, at least not ones that would get much playing time.
Like a coach yelling out drills to his players, God calls out through the Ten Commandments: “Honor your father and your mother!” “Speak well of your neighbor!” “Don’t covet what others have, be content!” And we quickly realize that we are pretenders when it comes to thinking we deserve a place in God’s family. For every failure to keep God’s commands is a sin. And every sin deserves death at the hands of a holy God that scared the Israelites simply by speaking to them! That’s what Paul meant when he said that the law kills.
With that truth in mind, isn’t it great to hear the writer to the Hebrews contrast what we New Testament believers experience? “You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20 because they could not bear what was commanded… 22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God... You have come to…Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (Heb. 12:18-20a, 22-24)
No, you and I can’t keep God’s commands, but Jesus did. Therefore God’s holy voice does not frighten us. It beckons us to come closer to him since we have been washed clean in the blood of Jesus. We are God’s segula, his treasured possession. And we are also his kohanim, his priests to declare God’s praises to the rest of the world. How? By living the Ten Commandments—all of them. We want to respond as did the Israelites who said to Moses: “Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then tell us whatever the LORD our God tells you. We will listen and obey.” (Dt. 5:27) And note the response: “The LORD heard you when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me, ‘I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good. 29 Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!’” (Dt. 5:28-29)
Every one of God’s commands is important and is meant to bless not burden. To ignore what God says about honoring our parents, to ignore what he says about marriage and human sexuality, to ignore what he says about greed or gossip and any other of the commands, is like ignoring the rules of a game. Would you like to participate in a basketball game where there is no penalty for fouling another player? How about soccer where there are no yellow or red cards for dangerous tackles? What you would end up with are not fun games but bruising melees!
Because God loves and wants to protect us, he gives us the Ten Commandments. Actually, in the original Hebrew, Moses tells us that God gave us the Ten “Words” or “Sayings” rather than the Ten “Commandments.” Sure, most of the statements are commands, but not the very first statement God made. He said: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Ex. 20:2) Accordingly, Jewish rabbis count this as the First “Commandment.” I like that. Before hearing any of God’s “rules,” which my sinful nature rebels against, I need to be reminded that what God wants me to know about him before anything else is that he is a God of love who has already rescued me from the slavery of sin. That should lead you and me to all the more want to fear, love, and trust in him above all things as we put into practice every one of his commands demonstrating that we are indeed his treasured possession and priests. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
(pre-service warm up) Due to the length of the sermon text, Pastor will not read it in its entirety during the service. Do so now from the bulletin. Underline any detail regarding the giving of the Ten Commandments that you find interesting.
(pre-service warm up) Finish this sentence: Freedom means…
Before God gave the Israelites any of his commandments why did he remind them that he had rescued them from slavery in Egypt?
God said that the Israelites were his segula. What does that mean?
Many people think that only if we obey God first, will he then be kind to us. How does the way God treated the Israelites show that this isn’t true?
(two questions) The Israelites were also God’s kohanim. What does that mean, and what significance would it have in the daily lives of the Israelites?
The Apostle Peter wrote to us New Testament-era believers: “…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10) Underline the words and phrases that bring you comfort and also motivate you in your life as a Christian.
How was the Ten Commandment-reveal-event more impressive than even the glitziest product launches today?
When the Israelites heard God speak, they thought they would die. In what way was that God’s purpose in giving the Ten Commandments?
Underline the words and phrases that bring you comfort from these verses. “You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20 because they could not bear what was commanded… 22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. …You have come to…Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (Hebrews 12:18-20a, 22-24)
Many see God’s commands as burdensome (as does our own sinful nature!). How can you explain to a friend how God’s commands are actually a blessing?
(two questions) In the original Hebrew, Moses says that God gave us the Ten “Words” or “Sayings” rather than the Ten “Commandments.” With this truth in mind, what then is actually the First “Commandment”? Why is this worth keeping in mind as we encourage each other to keep all of God’s commands?
