The First Word
- Brian Ballinger
- Jun 20, 2010
- Series: The Ten Words
First Word: Father (The Ten Words)
Reconnect – June 20, 2010
Text: Exodus 20:1-3; I John 3:1-3
Key Thought: God loves us so much that He refuses to share us with anyone or anything else.
Then God gave the people all these instructions: “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. You must not have any other god but me.” Exodus 20:1-3, NLT
Intro: “rules”
Q: What are all the different types of “rules” that we live under? Who or what governs our lives?
(i.e. levels of government, social conventions, traditions, our upbringing, our limited opportunities, etc.)
- If we’re starting a series on the Ten Commandments, then we have to talk about rules just about right from the start
- When people think about the Ten Commandments, a lot of times they think America, the courts, law and order, no room for error, harsh penalties
- And they think, because they’re generally fairly short, that they completely know and understand them, whether they choose to live by them or not
Q: What are the Ten Commandments? (name them)
- But if we don’t know the context behind them – the story that they came out of – then we’ll never know why they matter – because we won’t really know what they mean
- Listen to what writer and pastor Rob Bell says about the Ten Words:
“Many people are familiar with the Ten Commandments, which are often portrayed as strict rules given by a fire-breathing God to keep people in line. But when they’re seen in their original context, the commandments take on all sorts of new meanings. Remember, these people have been living, up until very recently, as slaves. Slavery is a fundamentally inhumane condition. Being owned and treated as property robs people of the dignity and honour of being a human. This has deeply affected how these Israelites see themselves and the world around them. What God begins here at Sinai with the Ten Commandments is the long process of teaching them how to be human again. These commands are vital truths about what it means to live in authentic human community. (Rob Bell, Jesus Wants To Save Christians, p.33)
“The First Word” - ??? (context of passage)
- This morning, then, we’re looking at the first “word” that God gives to this group of people – confused, newly assembled, called out of everything they’ve ever known – Egypt – a place of spiritual and physical darkness and suffering and confusion – into a brand new situation with a brand new God
- Who is this God, and what does He want with us? He claims to be the God of our ancestors – but what does that MEAN, anyway?
- Coming out of Egypt – this is the place where God had first appeared to Moses in the burning bush – it’s been three months since the people came out of Egypt, and they’ve been following Moses ever since, back to the mountain that God had promised to bring them back to – Sinai, the mountain of God – for them to worship Him
- In other words, this is a guide for worship – but more on that later
Read Text: Exodus 20:1-3, NLT
Then God gave the people all these instructions:
- God is speaking directly to the people at the foot of the mountain
- What would THAT sound like?
- Ill. – this year’s World Cup – all the vuvuzelas droning – was it loud like that? - people were scared out of their wits, that’s for sure – nothing like this had ever happened in Egypt, and remember, what do you know about this God? Yes, He brought you out of Egypt... but all you’ve ever really see Him do is kick Egyptian butt...
“I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.
- “your”, “you”, “your” – many translators have remarked over the centuries how God is addressing the nation using a singular “you”, rather than a plural – the tu rather than the vous
“Why were the Ten Commandments proclaimed in the singular? To tell you that every Israelite has to feel that the Torah was given to him and that he personally has to observe it” (Leqah Tov – an 11th century Jewish commentary on the Pentateuch, out of Spain)
- These “laws” are coming out of grace, not demand – the people don’t have to earn their place with God – He has already done that for them by rescuing them from Egypt – this is how they can live out their relationship with Him – if they want to continue to be with Him, this is what He’s like, this is where He is, this is where they need to be – but it’s not conditions for His love
You must not have any other god but me.”
- “do not have” = “keep from having a relationship with” – phrase used is like getting married – God has this intimate relationship with His people – and He says that it has to be exclusive if it’s going to work
- “but me” = “besides me” = “in my face”, “before my face”, “in my sight”
- “any other god” – every nation around them is polytheistic – they believe in many gods, not just one great god – Egypt was polytheistic, and God had defeated all of their gods
- Look at my handout on the gods of Egypt
- God’s not saying that in reality He had a whole lot of rivals – but it was all about perception – and people’s choices to reject the one true God for other gods that had been created by people
**When God takes the Hebrews out of Egypt, he defeats all of the Egyptian gods (see my old powerpoint for my course) – that’s huge – “no other gods before me” – these are the ones that the Israelites know, and they have no reason to go back to them after the whuppin they just received - but there are more gods out there, and they will start to encounter them momentarily, as well as make up new ones of their own (i.e. golden calf, when they break commandments one, two and maybe even three all at once
Marriage metaphor: Polygamy along with “in my face” / “married to me” – polygamy says “you can’t meet all my needs” or “I’m too great to be exclusive with you” – both of which modern society has rejected – but what is it like in our relationship with God?
- the Israelites were to worship no other god but YHWH – they were to have an exclusive relationship
- In a time where they were surrounded by other nations and their gods, they were to be monotheistic – to have one God
- He had exclusive claim on them, because He had brought them out of Egypt
- “other gods” – where does tolerance come in? Where does respecting our differences come in? When disaster strikes, we have interfaith prayer services – in the light of this commandment, what does that mean? Why is God so intolerant?
- God doesn’t want to share us with anyone – He couldn’t let his people, this fledgling, baby nation, be distracted by other gods and the cultural excesses and identities that went with them – He defeated the gods of Egypt to demonstrate to them and to Israel that there was no-one like Him, that none of their gods could measure up in any way, including their “god-king”, Pharaoh, who would ultimately lose his son in the final plague
“worship”
Q: What does worship mean? What does it mean to “worship” someone or something? How is that word used today? (i.e. What do we worship?) (passion, devotion, sacrifice, intensity, commitment)
- We are surrounded today by objects of worship in our Canadian culture – not just the many different religions that call Canada home, but much more – secularism, materialism, government intervention, our careers, our children, our futures, our wallets and chequebooks
- And yet, too often we are more bored than ever
- To what end is our worship? Has it ever delivered us from anything? Or do we just wind up with more of the same that we had before? The same problems, the same situations – there’s no power to transform there, no power to change
Application: What do you worship, and why?
Because once you know the true God, to go back to anything else is reverting, undoing all the work that God has done – if you’ve been to the edge of the mountain, why go anywhere else ever again? If there is really only one God, and that’s the Lord, God in three persons – then part of what we do is talk about Him in ways that seek to bring clarity and light to who He is, as much as we can
Jesus: “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’”
- Over time, this nation and the world lost sight of the great love of God for them – and so ultimately, God sends His Son, His very own self, to tell the world once more about the great love of God
- Jesus comes and radiates the love and compassion of God to people who are hungry to know Him and who He is and what He wants
- And He pulls out a metaphor that hadn’t been used very much – but that was exactly how He wanted to describe God – “Father”
- Father’s day – Jesus comes and talks about God as Father – a whole new spin on things – a new, personal dynamic in the relationship, and he says “your father and my father” – John 20 – just after He rose from the dead – “My Father and your Father – My God and Your God”
- And He dies and comes back from the dead to make a way for us to be able to be near God – to keep these commandments, not out of how great we are but out of how great He is – God dies for us to help us become who we need to be in order to be near Him – He not only buys us a ticket but He flies the plane, too
Key Thought:
God loves us so much that He refuses to share us with anyone or anything else.
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. I John 3:1-3
Conclusion: “The LORD” (YHWH)
- “big shoes” – yesterday we saw a pair of size 22 shoes at Goodwill
- Tetragrammaton – sacred name of God – His covenant name – the name He would use in relationship
- Treated with so much reverence by Jewish people that they won’t say it, for fear of breaking the fourth commandment
- YHWH – I am that which I am – I will be that which I will be
- Yahweh – God’s name – I am all you need me to be
- He will be true to His name
