Tag: Ten commandments

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Exodus

Ten Commandments: Getting to the heart of things

We arrive at the final command of the ten commandments, and it’s unique among the ten because of one thing: It’s the only one that deals with the inner thoughts of the heart. 

With the other nine, it’s dealing with mostly outward actions: Not worshiping other gods.  Not making idols.  Not taking God’s name in vain.  Keeping the Sabbath, and so on.

But in the tenth command, God tells the people, “It’s not enough to just not commit adultery.  You are not to even covet your neighbor’s wife. 

“It’s not enough to just not steal.  You are not to even covet what your neighbor has.”

God is not interested merely that our actions are right, but that our hearts are too. 

Jesus goes into even more detail in the Sermon on the Mount. 

Jesus said, “It’s not enough that you don’t murder someone.  You are not even to hold anger in your hearts toward them. 

“It’s not enough that you don’t commit adultery.  You are not to lust after a woman either.”

Why is this so important to God? 

It’s because more than anything else, he wants our hearts. 

So many times, God got frustrated with Israel because while they did the outward forms of worship, they didn’t give him their hearts. 

Jesus was equally frustrated with the Pharisees, who on the outside were righteous, keeping the letter of the law, but who on the inside were utterly corrupt. 

He told them,

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!

You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.  (Matthew 23:27)

What about us?  Do we act outwardly righteous, while on the inside we are filled with dead men’s bones? 

Do our hearts truly belong to God? 

Or are we only pretending? 

We may deceive others, but we cannot deceive God.

Lord, let my heart truly belong to you.  You know that there are a lot of dead bones in there.  Take them out. 

I don’t want to be a pretender.  I want my heart to be truly yours. 

I struggle so much with that.  Please change me from the inside, by your power and by your grace. In Jesus’ name, amen.

 

Categories
Exodus

Ten Commandments: Words that destroy

We’ve seen so far in the ten commandments two things we are not to do to the people around us. 

We are not to take their lives, and we are not to take their property. 

The third is not to take away their good name, that is to destroy their reputation with false testimony.

This is probably dealing mostly with testimony in a court-type situation. 

When there was a dispute between people or a person was accused of wrongdoing, witnesses were called to give their testimony. 

And God said, “Do not testify falsely against your neighbor.  Don’t ever say they did something when they in fact didn’t.”

We probably won’t have that many opportunities to testify in court, but how often do we tear at a person’s reputation by our words, namely through gossip or slander? 

When we gossip about people or slander them, it can do great damage. 

Marriages, ministries, and lives have all been torn apart by gossip.

So often we disguise our gossip as concern. 

“Did you hear about John?  We need to pray for him.  He…” 

Or “I’m really concerned about Lisa.  Have you heard what she’s been doing recently?”

If you’re really concerned about a person, you shouldn’t be gossiping about them.  You need to be talking to them directly, and make sure that your facts are right. 

So much damage is done because we often times we only have half the facts, if that much. 

Jesus once told the Jews,

Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.  (John 7:24)

But you can’t get all the facts if you’re just gossiping about people. 

If you think they’re doing something wrong, talk to them about it. 

It’s what Jesus taught us to do.  (Matthew 18:15-17)

Do you gossip?  Do you say things that can destroy a person’s reputation? 

Our words should bring life, not tear it apart. 

What do your words do?

Categories
Exodus

Ten Commandments: Stolen property

When I was a kid, our family was a victim of house theft. 

I don’t recall anything of major value being taken from our house.  Someone came through one of our windows, snuck in while we were away, and took some of our possessions. 

I don’t believe the police ever did catch the thief.

In Japan, thieves will sometimes call senior citizens and claim to be their children.  These thieves then say they’re in some kind of trouble, and ask their victims to transfer money into their accounts.

Nowadays, not only do we face theft of property, but we also face identity theft. 

People take our credit card numbers and use them for their own purchases. I had to change my debit card once, because apparently someone had gotten hold of the number and had tried to use it without my permission. 

Thankfully, the bank caught the attempt as it happened, and I didn’t lose anything.

We also see people downloading movies, music, or software illegally, and companies are trying desperately to save their businesses from such theft. 

Some people don’t even give it a second thought.  “Everyone does it,” seems to be the usual excuse. 

And often times in these cases, it seems as though people feel like they have a right to these things. 

They say, “Why should I have to pay for this?  The company doesn’t need the money.  Why shouldn’t I just download it for free?”

But in God’s eyes, it’s theft.  And it’s wrong.

But there’s an even greater kind of theft. 

How often have you heard people say, “It’s my life,” or “It’s my body?” 

It’s not true.  When people say this, they fail to recognize that we are stolen property.  What do I mean?

God created all of us.  And because he created all of us, we rightfully belong to him. 

When an author writes a book, it’s his to do with as he pleases. 

He can publish it and try to earn money from it.  He might throw it away.  Or he might just share it with people in his family.  It’s his.

When an artist creates a painting, it’s his to do with as he pleases.  He can put it up in his art gallery.  He can sell it.  He can just keep it in his home.

When someone creates something, it belongs to him. 

And for someone to take possession of it and say “It’s mine” without their permission is theft.

So when we tell God, “It’s my life.  I will do with it as I please,” that’s theft. 

We are taking what belongs to him, and making it our own.

This is even more true for the Christian.  Not only do we belong to him because he created us, but we belong to him because we are bought with the blood of Jesus.

It’s like a person who has his property stolen, and he finds it on the black market.  He then pays to get it back.

That’s what God did with us. 

We were stolen away by the great thief, Satan, and we were his slaves. 

But God bought us back through Christ’s death on the cross.  And now we belong to him once again.

Now Paul writes,

You are not your own; you were bought at a price.

Therefore honor God with your bodies.  (1 Corinthians 6:19-20.)

So no Christian has the right to say, “It’s my life.  It’s my body.” 

Or even “It’s my money.  It’s my time.” 

Everything we have, everything we are, belongs to God.

And so the question we need to ask ourselves is not “What do I want to do with my life?  What do I want to do with my money?  What do I want to do with my time?”

The question we need to ask is, “God, how do you want to use the things you have given me?  Lord, I’m yours.  All that I have is yours.  What do you want me to do?”

I wish I had asked that question a lot earlier in my life. 

Looking back, for a long time, while I asked God what I should do with my life, I ignored what he wanted me to do:  come to Japan. 

In fact, I basically told him “No.  It’s my life.  I don’t want to go to Japan.” 

When I went to university, I could’ve focused on studying Japanese, or teaching English as a second language, things that would be very useful here. 

Instead I focused on what I wanted to do.  I studied computers and business.  I don’t really use either of them right now.

Looking back, I can see other ways I have wasted time in my life, doing my own thing instead of doing what God would have me do, focusing on temporary things rather than things that are eternal. 

I was stealing from God, using for my own purposes what really belonged to him.  Namely, my life, my time, my money.  

I don’t want to do that anymore.

How about you?  Are you stolen property?  Are you taking from God what rightfully belongs to him? 

Your time?  Your money?  Your life? 

These things are not really yours.  You were bought with a price. 

Therefore, honor God with all of these things.

Categories
Exodus

Ten Commandments: Breaking what shouldn’t be broken

God loathes adultery.

We live in a world where it’s almost taken as a matter of course. 

We see it on TV dramas.  We see it in movies.  We read about it in books.  We see it in gossip magazines and even read about it in the newspaper. 

But God loathes adultery.

Why?  Because it breaks down the foundation of something that should never be broken: oneness between husband and wife. 

A oneness not only in flesh, but in spirit and mind as well. 

A oneness that should only be shared between husband and wife, is now shared with someone else. 

Adultery breaks down the trust between husband and wife, and almost always breaks up the relationship. 

God loathes that.

Most people think of adultery as merely the sexual act.  But it usually doesn’t start there.  It starts in the heart. 

It starts with pornography.  Or with fantasizing being with another person.

It starts with a woman sharing her marital problems with a male friend she’s attracted to. 

Or a man sharing his marital problems with a female friend he’s attracted to.

There was a famous Christian singer that got divorced several years ago.  But even before she got divorced, there were rumors flying around that she was seeing another man. 

She eventually divorced her husband and married that man. 

She would say later that before the divorce, she and that man never did anything inappropriate, probably meaning that they never slept together. I believe her.

But considering how quickly she married the man after her divorce, not to mention the rumors that were flying around before the divorce, it’s hard to believe that she hadn’t been committing adultery in her heart long before.

The Pharisees once asked Jesus about divorce. 

Jesus told them,

at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ 

‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,and the two will become one flesh.’ 

So they are no longer two, but one. 

Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate. (Mark 10:5-9)

Later when his disciples asked him to explain more, he said,

Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 

And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery. (Mark 10:11-12)

People have different ideas on exactly what Jesus meant by divorce, remarriage, and adultery. 

But one thing I can say with absolute conviction is this: if you already have in mind the person you’re going to marry when you divorce your spouse, it doesn’t matter whether you slept with that person or not. 

In the eyes of God, you have committed adultery.

Maybe I’m wrong about this singer.  I will say that her husband has had drug problems throughout this life and she stuck with him a long time despite that. 

From all I’ve heard, they tried hard to save their marriage over the years.  There may have been legitimate reasons for the divorce. 

But the rumors before the marriage coupled with her actions afterwards makes me very skeptical about the condition of her heart at the time of the divorce.

According to her husband, he was very surprised when she filed for divorced.

But at any rate, my question is this:  Do we loathe the idea of adultery as much as God does? 

Or do we just kind of say, “That’s how it is these days?” 

Do we allow even the slightest hint of adultery in our hearts? 

Or do we banish it the moment it comes into our hearts?

As Paul wrote,

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity…because these are improper for God’s holy people.  (Ephesians 5:3)

Categories
Exodus

Ten Commandments: The value of human life

You shall not murder.

Probably the most well-known of the ten commandments.  Even among non-Christians. 

If you were to poll non-Christians and Christians about the ten commandments, I’d guess this would be the one that would rank number one as the commandment most remembered.

Why? 

I suppose it’s because we consider murder the worst possible crime that can be committed against another person. 

I believe God considers it the same way.  Why do I think so?  Because of what God said. 

After the flood, he told Noah,

And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting…from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. 

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.  (Genesis 9:5-6)

The first time God ever mentions capital punishment is in the context of murder. 

The reason?  Because when we murder someone, we murder the very image of God. 

No other creature was made in God’s image.  Only humans. 

And so God places a very high value on us.

The question is, do we? 

The reason murder is so bad is that we have completely devalued human life to the point that we destroy it. 

But how often do we devalue the lives of the people around us?

Recently, I heard a story of a high school student who stabbed her teacher’s arm with an exacto knife.  Not exactly a sign of valuing her teacher’s life. 

But she came from a family where her parents apparently didn’t value each other very much either.  They are now separated. 

Could it be that she learned her attitude from her parents?

When Osama bin Ladin was killed, one of my students asked me why the Americans were so jubilant that someone had died. 

What’s more, he asked this in light of the fact that most Americans claim to be Christian. His unspoken question was, “Is that how a Christian thinks?”

Even God doesn’t rejoice in the death of the wicked.  (Ezekiel 33:11). 

Their sins must be punished, but God isn’t dancing on their graves. 

He weeps for them, because these were people who were originally created in his image, and they went horribly wrong.

That said, I’m relieved that Osama bin Ladin won’t be hurting anyone else. 

But I can’t find it in myself to dance on his grave.  Because God doesn’t.  He values human life too much to do so.

But on a more practical level, how much do we value the people around us? 

What thoughts do you hold in your heart, especially to people who hurt you? 

Jesus said that if you hold anger in your heart towards another, it’s like murdering them (Matthew 5:21-22).

Why?  How often can you hold anger and bitterness in your heart towards a person, and still see God’s image in them?  It’s basically impossible.  You almost inevitably devalue them as a person. 

You start assigning labels to them:  Stupid.  Selfish.  Inconsiderate.  Cruel.  And worst of all, worthless. 

And by holding these attitudes, you’ve effectively murdered them in your heart. 

You may not do it physically, but how often have you cut off people in your life because of unresolved anger and unforgiveness in your heart?

I’m not saying that there are not times when we need to cut off people from our lives, particularly when we’re in physical danger from them. 

But to cut them off because of anger and hatred is tantamount to murder.

Do you value people as God does? 

That’s the key issue in this command. 

If we value people as God does, we would never murder them, either physically, or in our hearts. 

Instead, we would see them as people created in God’s image, and who are to be valued because of it. 

Jesus valued them enough to die on a cross for them. 

Do you?

Categories
Exodus

Ten Commandments: A vital relationship

It’s interesting to me which human relationship God chose to address first and foremost in the ten commandments: the relationship between parents and their children. 

He said, “Honor your father and your mother.” 

And as Paul mentioned in Ephesians 6:2-3, it’s the first commandment that comes with a promise,

that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.

(Paul paraphrased a bit God’s repetition of this command in Deuteronomy 5:16.)

Why is this relationship so important in the eyes of God? 

Because it shapes all of our other relationships as well. 

A child’s first relationships are with his or her parents.  If children relate well with their parents, there’s a good chance that they’ll relate well with the people around them.

A child learns how to honor other people, especially their elders, by honoring their parents. 

If they don’t learn to honor their parents early in life, it becomes difficult for them to honor other people. 

When I was working with elementary school and high school students here in Japan, I saw students with an utter lack of respect for their teachers. 

The teacher would be talking, and the students would be talking in loud voices, totally ignoring the teacher. 

Other students would sit in their own corner doing their own thing while the rest of the students did their schoolwork.

Why?  Most obviously, they never learned to honor others. 

Many of these kids probably come from dysfunctional families, where they never learned to honor their parents.  And so they have no clue what it means to honor the people in authority in their lives. 

But if they never learn that, it will cause problems as they try to live in society, dealing not only with teachers, but with other authority figures in society, bosses, the police, etc.

Our relationship with our parents also affects our other relationships too, including our marriage relationships. 

One thing I desired in a marriage partner was a woman who honored her father. 

Unfortunately, there are too many women who don’t respect or honor their fathers, and as a result, they have little respect for the husbands they marry. 

I suppose the same goes with men who don’t know how to respect their mothers.  If they don’t know how to honor their mothers, how in the world are they going to know how to honor their wives. 

If you’re considering marrying someone, I recommend you take a close look at the relationships they have with their parents. 

If they do not respect or honor their parents, it may be a big warning sign on how they may treat you. 

I consider myself very fortunate to have found a woman who respects both her mother and father.

But our relationship with our parents also shapes our relationship with God. 

How we relate with our parents, and especially with our fathers, can have a strong bearing on our relationship with God. 

Children who do not honor their parents, who have never learned to trust their parents, to love them, or to obey them, often have problems doing so with God, who is our true Father.

But when children honor their parents, it bodes well for their future relationships with others, for their lives in society, and most of all for their relationship with God. 

That’s why God could say that if you honor your parents, your life will go well, and you will enjoy a long life on this earth.

Do you honor your parents? 

As children, honoring includes the idea of obedience.  As long as you live under their house, you live under their rules. 

But although you are no longer bound to obey them after your leave to start your own life, you are to honor them. 

Respect their feelings.   Respect their opinions. 

You don’t have to always agree with them.  But let them know that you value them as people.  As your parents.

Maybe you have parents that you don’t feel are worthy of respect.  They may not be. 

But God did not say, “Honor your parents only if they are deserving of it.” 

God just said, “Honor your parents.” 

Part of that means praying for them.  Praying that God would touch them and bring change to their lives. 

But also praying that God would show you what things you need to do to honor them in your life.

Do you honor your parents in your life?  And as a parent yourself, are you teaching your children to honor you? 

Are you a parent that is easy to honor and respect? 

If we honor our parents and teach our children to honor us, we and our children will find the life that God desires for us to have here on this earth.

Categories
Exodus

Ten Commandments: A true Sabbath

A couple of weeks ago, a friend asked me why Christians still follow most of the ten commandments, but don’t follow the fourth, to keep the Sabbath day.

There are a couple of answers to this. 

One is that in terms of a seventh-day Sabbath, it’s true that most Christians don’t set apart Saturday as a day to rest and worship God. 

However, ever since the early church began, Christians began worshiping God on Sundays. 

You see this in Acts 20:7 as well as 1 Corinthians 16:2. 

So Christians have effectively changed the Sabbath day from the seventh day to the first, probably as a weekly celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

But the second is that the seventh-day Sabbath is the only one of the ten commandments that was specifically lifted in the New Testament. 

In Colossians 2:16-17, Paul wrote,

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 

These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

Two key phrases stand out.

The first is, “Do not let anyone judge you…with regard to a Sabbath day.” 

In other words, we are not to judge any Christian who keeps a seventh-day Sabbath, and they are not to judge us for not doing so. 

Paul could hardly say this if the laws concerning keeping the seventh-day Sabbath were still in force.

The second phrase gives the reason why keeping the seventh day Sabbath is no longer considered important. 

Paul writes,

These (dietary laws, festivals, and special days) are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

In other words, these things were a foreshadowing of Christ. 

Now that Christ has come, we shouldn’t focus on the shadows.  We should focus on the reality, that is, Christ.

The writer of Hebrews expands on this idea in chapters 3-4, but particularly in Hebrews 4:9-11 where he writes,

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 

Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

The point that the writer of Hebrews is making is that there is a Sabbath-rest for the people of God. 

He says, “anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work.” 

There are two possible interpretations of this passage. 

One is that when we go to heaven, our work will be at an end.  As it says, in Revelation 14:13,

Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”    

“Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”

The other is that when we become Christians, we enter God’s rest in that we no longer have to work in order to receive salvation.  Rather, we put our trust in the work of Christ.

Considering the context of Hebrews 3-4, I think the latter one is what the writer of Hebrews was referring to. 

In the passage, he says that the people of Israel were unable to enter God’s rest because of their unbelief.  Their unbelief then translated into disobedience. 

So the writer of Hebrews says in 4:1-3,

Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 

For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.  Now we who have believed enter that rest… (Hebrews 4:1-3)

In other words, the true Sabbath is not the seventh day of the week, nor is it the first day of the week. 

Rather, the true Sabbath is when we put aside our efforts to earn God’s love and acceptance and simply believe and rest in the work of Christ on the cross.

When the Jews asked Jesus what works God required of them, he replied,

The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.  (John 6:29)

In other words, Jesus was saying, “Rest from all your efforts to earn God’s acceptance and put your faith in me instead.”

So the key question is not whether we worship God on the first day or the seventh day. 

These Sabbath days are just a shadow of the true Sabbath God desires for us.

The key question is, “Have you entered God’s rest?” 

Have you put aside your own efforts to earn God’s love and acceptance. 

Have you put your faith in Christ and his work on the cross? 

That’s the rest we should we be seeking. 

So as the writer of Hebrews writes,

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.  (Hebrews 4:7)

Rather, put your faith in Christ and enter the rest he has for you.

Categories
Exodus

Ten Commandments: A God who is to be honored

Here in Japan, one phrase that many Japanese seem to know, even the high school students who barely speak a word of English, is “Oh my God.” 

They almost never say it in the right context or with the right intonation, however, and as a result, they almost never sound natural trying to say it.

But the thing that bothers me the most about it, is that they’re simply imitating a cultural practice that is dishonoring to God. 

They’re not praying to God.  They’re not talking about him in an honoring way. 

They’re simply using his name with no thought as to what they’re saying. 

But it’s not only Japanese people who do this, most native English speakers do this as well.

God is a lot more merciful than I am, but if I were God, and I were dealing with those kinds of people, when they actually did call me for help, I’d probably ignore them for a while before finally turning and saying, “Oh, were you really talking to me this time?  I couldn’t tell.”

When God said, “You shall not misuse my name,” he was basically saying, “I am a God who is to be honored.  I am a God who is to be respected.”

But how often do you see people use the name of God and Jesus Christ, not in a respectful way, but as a curse word? 

Or they use it just as a way to express their surprise or shock? 

That’s not how we are to treat the name of the God who created us.  That is not how we are to treat the name of the Savior who redeemed us.

But there are other ways to misuse the name of God as well.

One way to misuse God’s name is to condemn people groundlessly using the name of God. 

I mentioned a couple of blogs ago that there are those who say, “If you have enough faith, you can ask God for anything, and he has to give it to you.” 

But when they face a person, for example, who has prayed for healing, and that person is not healed, they say “Well, you must not have enough faith in God.  If you did, God would heal you.”

Job’s friends did something similar.  When Job was suffering terrible tragedy in his life, they told him, “God must be punishing you for some sin in your life.”

God will not hold guiltless for those who groundlessly condemn others using his name.

Another way to misuse God’s name is to try to manipulate people. 

I recall a popular TV preacher in the States once saying, “God told me that unless we raise 8 million dollars by March, he’ll call me home.” 

God’s name certainly wasn’t honored by any of the non-Christians who heard that.

Or a husband who demands his wife submits to him because “God said you have to do so.” 

It’s true that God calls wives to submit to the leadership of their husbands. 

But God’s name is not to be used to browbeat people into doing what you want.

One last way to misuse God’s name is to use it in order to do your will. 

A woman recently asked me about what I thought about all the wars in history involving Christianity. 

My reply was that some people were probably truly well-intentioned, but also truly wrong. 

Others, though, were simply using God’s name to follow their own agenda. And God will hold them accountable for that.

I heard the story of a minister that at the beginning of his ministry tried very hard to imitate the other ministers around him, but he wasn’t finding any success. 

Finally, he cried out, “God what are you doing wrong?” 

And God answered, “It’s not me, it’s you.” 

The minister said, “But God, I thought I was doing your will.” 

But God replied, “No, you’re not doing my will.  You’re doing your own will in my name.”

Was he misusing the name of God?  Probably not.  I believe he was honestly trying to seek God’s will.  He simply was mistaken about how he was to do it. 

But how many other people use God’s name to try to accomplish their own will, and in so doing, bring discredit to his name.

How about you?  Do you honor the name of God in your life?  Is he to you, a God who is to be honored?

Categories
Exodus

Ten Commandments: The God who cannot be shaped

In the first command God gave, he revealed himself as the God who stands alone.  There is no God besides him, and he will not accept people worshiping any “gods” besides him.

In the second command, God reveals something else about himself:  He is a God that cannot be shaped. 

He commanded the Israelites,

You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 

You shall not bow down to them or worship them. (Exodus 20:4-5)

The idea is two-fold. 

Number one, we are to worship the Creator, not created things. 

In Isaiah 44, God mocks those who would worship created things, especially things they created with their own hands. 

They cut down a tree, and with half of the wood they heat their houses and cook their food, and with the other half, they make an idol and fall down and worship it, praying “Save me.  You’re my god.” 

In verse 19, God says,

No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,

“Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate.  Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?  Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” (Isaiah 44:19)

In Romans 1, Paul talks about how people stopped worshiping the true God and started worshiping images made to look like humans, animals, or reptiles. 

In doing so, Paul said,

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.  (Romans 1:25)

So God makes it very clear.  Don’t worship created things.  Only one person deserves our worship, our Creator. 

In the old days, worshiping created things often meant worshiping the sun, or moon, or idols. 

These days it might mean worshiping money, or our car, or our possessions. 

What dominates your thought life?  What do you think about as soon as you wake up?  What do you think about as you go to sleep? 

Whatever dominates your thoughts, that’s your god.

But the other idea God is trying to get across in this second command is, “I am not a God that you can shape.” 

Of course this means that we shouldn’t make idols and worship them as if they were gods. 

But I think it goes beyond that. 

God demands that we recognize him as he is, not as we want him to be.

What does that mean practically? 

Well, for example, a lot of people like to think of God as a God of love. 

“Oh yes, God loves me.  He accepts me.  He loves everyone.”

That’s true.  But how many people like to think of God as a God of justice? 

How many people like to think of God as a holy God who must punish evil? 

How many people like to accept the fact that there are people who will go to hell because they won’t put their faith in Jesus Christ? 

Most people don’t. 

Honestly, I don’t like the idea of hell.  I’d like to think that everyone would go to heaven. 

But I can’t just shape God to make him as I wish.  He is holy.  He cannot tolerate sin. 

And because of that, there are people who will go to hell. 

Not because God isn’t love.  But because God is holy and cannot just let sin go unpunished.

Other people try to shape God in other ways. 

They almost see God as their personal servant.  They believe if they just have enough faith, God has to give them whatever they wish.  Money.  A Mercedez Benz.  A mansion.  Whatever. 

Or they believe that if they’re sick, but they have enough faith, God has to heal them. 

But God cannot be coerced.  He is sovereign.  We are not. 

And yet, so many people don’t want to see God that way.  Instead, they try to control him. 

They try to bend God to their will, instead of bending themselves to God’s will.  

But in trying to control God, they’re not worshiping God; they’re making themselves God.   And God won’t accept that.

How do you see God? 

Do you see God as how you want to see him? 

Do you try to shape him into the image you want? 

Or do you worship him as he has revealed himself?  Do you worship him as he truly is? 

God won’t accept anything else.

Categories
Exodus

Ten Commandments: A God who stands alone

Who is this God?

Back when Moses asked Pharaoh to let the people go to worship God in the desert, Pharaoh asked “Who is this Yahweh?  Why should I listen to him?”

Though thousands of years have passed since Pharaoh first posed that question, people still ask the very same question today. 

“Who is this God?  Why should I listen to him?”

God’s answer to them is the same one he gave to Moses at the burning bush, when he said, “I am that I am.  Tell the Israelites ‘I AM’ has sent me to you.” 

Even the name “Yahweh” is essentially a derivation of the Hebrew word “to be.”

As I’ve mentioned before, God was basically saying, “I’m the eternal one.  I always have been, and always will be.” 

Another way to put is, “I am the only one,” because God is the only one who can make the claim that he has always been and will always be. 

So the answer to the question, “Who is this God?” is essentially, “He is the only one.  There is no other because he has existed from all eternity, and there is no other that can make that claim.”

And so when God gave the ten commandments to Moses, the very first one was, “You shall have no other gods before me.” 

Another way to translate that is, “You shall have no other gods besides me.”

The reason being that God is the only one that exists, and there is no other.  Any other “gods” are not gods at all. 

So don’t seek after them as if they can provide for you what God can provide. 

Namely, don’t seek meaning in your life from them because only God can provide that. 

He is the source of everything in life.  He is the one who created you, and he is the one who provides meaning to your life.

So often as people seek the meaning of life, they look everywhere but at God. 

Many look to money, power, or pleasure. 

Some look to family for meaning in their lives. 

Others look to their career. 

But only God can provide meaning in your life because he is the very source of life.

What are you seeking in life?  What gods are your pursuing, hoping it will give meaning to your life? 

Money? 

Pleasure? 

A career? 

A family? 

They’re all good things, but they won’t provide the meaning to life that you’re seeking. 

So stop pursuing them as if they can.  Don’t set them up as gods in your life. 

Instead, seek God. 

He stands alone as God, because he’s the only one who has existed from all eternity. 

And he is the only one who can bring true meaning to your life.

Categories
Exodus

Ten Commandments: Not arbitrary

And so we start one of the most famous passages in the Bible:  The ten commandments. 

I kind of flirted with the idea of just giving a brief overview of them but decided they were important enough to give a lot more attention to them.  So I’ll be covering them over the next week or so.

God starts the passage by reminding the people of who he is.  That he was the one who rescued them from slavery in Egypt. 

Why did God start by saying this? 

I think he wanted the Israelites to remember that he really loved them and wanted the best for them.

So many times, people look at God’s laws and commands, and they think that God is just trying to keep them from having fun. 

Or sometimes they think that his ways are purely arbitrary. 

“Why can’t I just sleep with my girlfriend before I get married?  I love her, right?” 

Or in the context of the Israelites, “Why do we have all these dietary laws?  Why can I eat a cow, but I can’t eat a pig?”

But God’s laws and commands are never arbitrary. 

He always has a reason, and when he gave these laws to the Israelites, he did it because of his love for them. 

He loved them so much that he heard their cries in Egypt and worked wonders in order to set them free from a life of slavery. 

And now he wanted them to have a life where they could enjoy a relationship with him and with the people around them. 

But if they were to have a good relationship with God and others, they couldn’t keep doing things their own way. 

By doing things their own way, they ended up hurting God and hurting the people around them. 

And so God gave them these laws and commands.

So as we look at the basis of these ten commandments, the thing we need to remember is that they were not given in order to make us miserable. 

They were not given just because God had the power to give them and make us obey. 

They were given because God loves us and wants the best for us. 

Just as God showed his love for the Israelites by setting them free from slavery to the Egyptians and making them his people, God has set us free from slavery to Satan’s kingdom, and has now adopted us as his children. 

And if we truly know the love of God in our lives, as John wrote, “his commands are not burdensome.”

Do you find the commands of God burdensome in your life? 

Then go back to the cross.  Remember all that Jesus did for you.  Remember his love for you. 

And remember that his commands are never arbitrary. 

They’re all based on his love for you.