Bible Reading 1 (Exodus 20:1-4,7-10,12-21)

‘10 Ways’

Moses was always listening for God’s messages, so that he could teach about God’s loving ways. Moses was leading the people of Israel away from Egypt, where they had been made slaves by the pharaoh, toward a new country and freedom. It was a long journey. It was a hot journey. They were thirsty and tired. Soon they forgot God’s loving ways; they quarreled with one another and they complained about Moses. It was a hard time for the people; it was a hard time for Moses. When Moses and the people arrived at a mountain called Sinai, God asked Moses to come up the mountain. Moses went up the mountain; it seemed as if he went right up into the clouds. There God gave Moses some important things for the people to remember. When Moses came back down, he told the people what God had said. “Remember how I brought you out of Egypt, out of slavery,” God said. “Remember also the promises I made to your ancestors; I promised that you would be a great nation and that people will be blessed by you. Life should be changed for people who are my followers, and other people should notice that you are different. Here are some ways that you shall live. 

“You will have no other gods or idols that you consider are more important than me. You will not make idols that look like creatures in heaven or earth. You will say God’s name with love. Remember the day when you worship me and keep it specifically for prayer, rest, and study. You have six other days when you can do your work. Look after your parents. You will need their advice when you reach the new land that will be yours. Respect all living things. Be faithful in your relationships. Respect what belongs to others. Do not tell lies about anyone. Be content with what you have, and not worry about what your neighbours have.”

After God had spoken, the people heard thunder and trumpets playing loudly. They saw streaks of lightning and smoke coming from the mountains. They screamed and ran away from the mountain and were scared to look back. Moses called the people back to their assembly point. The people said that they would listen to Moses, but they were afraid of God. Moses said, “Don’t be afraid. Be glad that we know how to live in God’s way.”

Bible Reading 2 “Ten Commandments”

1.      Thou shalt have no other gods before me

2. Thou shalt not worship any graven image
3. Thou shalt not take God’s name in vain
4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
5. Honour thy father and mother
6. Thou shalt not kill
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery
8. Thou shalt not steal
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness
10. Thou shalt not covet

 

Bible Reading 3

The Paradoxical  Commandments By Kent M. Keith

1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
9. People really need help but may attack you if you do not help them. Help people anyway.
10. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.

The Paradoxical Commandments are reprinted with the permission of the author.  © Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968, renewed in 2001. www.paradoxicalchristians.com.

Teaching

The main message of the early Hebrew Testament is that God’s people were to be different to all the other people in the world. They had been rescued from slavery in Egypt but now they needed to learn how to change into people that reflected Yahweh. And so here we have the story in Exodus of the rules God wanted them to abide by – known to many of us as the Ten Commandments. (This is just the short version. If you want a really long and detailed list of God’s expectations read the book of Leviticus)

We, who have been brought up knowing the original Ten Commandments, (that you heard in the second reading) may wonder how they were an agent for change. All those “Thou shalt not’s” seem so harsh. And that’s one reason why I used another version for the full bible reading from Exodus that is much more positive. But we also have to realise that we view these commandments in the light of our own lives, which are pretty comfortable, and we think they are terribly conservative. In fact, in comparison to the world around them, these ten laws were amazingly progressive.

Remember these Israelites had just spent years being slaves in Egypt. To be asked to worship only one god after the 1500 or so gods of Egypt was mind-boggling. No more placating a myriad of godly expectations. No more fear you may have forgotten one who would then punish you and your family.

And to then hear that this new god didn’t want any physical representation was just mind boggling. Even if gods were not carved out of stone or wood they had always been seen in the river or hill, tree or rocks around. A god who couldn’t be seen except as wind or thunder, cloud or fire was strange. Stranger still was a god who didn’t want to. (This “invisibility” has been something of a problem ever since. Jews and Christians have found it very easy to find something they can see and touch as a substitute god – a building, a human representative of God, and so on.)

The commandments also told the people that despite this lack of substance, this was a god worthy of just as much respect as those Egyptian gods and so the emphasis was on keeping the name of God holy. Jews have been so careful with this law that the Old/Hebrew Testament constantly refers to God as “the Lord”. The word ‘Yahweh’ or ‘Jehovah’ (as it is sometimes pronounced) was never used. The name of the great ‘I Am’ was too precious to risk using.

I’m sure too that the people thought that setting aside a day of rest for former slaves was incredible. They were used to working for as long and as hard as their masters wanted to them to. A day every seven days to solely worship this god Yahweh was beyond understanding. And yet that was what they were being told to do.

I was recently reminded of the strict Sabbath-keeping of some of our Presbyterian forbears. Many spent Saturday ensuring that on Sunday no food was cooked, no work was done. Many remember a boring day with no games being permitted, with only bible reading and church going being allowed. But we forget, even for non-slaves, for many of our hard-working ancestors this was the only day they got a rest. Consider the women having a day off cooking, the men and children freed from chores on farm and garden.

There is a call in our modern day to revive sabbath-keeping. To take a day away from our gadgets and usual pursuits to spend time with friends and family, in nature, in doing nothing. To reste our busy-busyness.

Next in the list we move on to relationships with people. First the people are told to respect their parents. Those of us who have read the earlier stories of Abraham and Isaac may wonder why this was needed because clearly honouring your parents, or your father at least, was part of their culture. But again remember they had been slaves for many years. And slaves, when they become old and weak become a liability, and are certainly not valued by their owner. I suspect this thinking had infected the Israelites too and God needed to correct this so that the elders of the tribe would again be cared for and listened to.

 

We may not be slaves anymore, but have you noticed the increasing disregard for those who are not contributing to our money-obsessed society. Honouring our fathers and mothers may need to be expanded to include all who are considered “less-than.”

The experience of slavery may again be behind God’s warning to respect all living things. When you are just surviving and your life has no value it is easy to devalue everyone and everything else. As the creator of all life God wanted this attitude to be reversed.

In this season of Creation this admonition to care and value all God has made is highlighted. This is a command but also a warning, as the extinction of species and destruction of habitats, even our own, becomes more and more evident.

The rest of the commandments; “Be faithful in your relationships. Respect what belongs to others. Do not tell lies about anyone. Be content with what you have, and not worry about what your neighbours have” are a continuation of this theme of valuing all things. And this new way of relating to others was not just necessary because of the experience of slavery but also because of the brutality of the world around them.

People in the time of Exodus had no hesitation in killing entire tribes when they lost battles or because they were in the way of a powerful nation, or they did not believe in the right god. And the Israelites needed retraining just as much as the other nations. Yes they had been the victims of Egypt but there are a few nasty incidents recorded in Genesis that reveal their ancestors were no better.

One of them goes like this; Dinah, daughter of Jacob and sister of his twelve sons (who were the ancestors of the twelve tribes here) was raped, or seduced (depending on your translation), by a villager near where they were camping. The man offered to marry her. Jacob agreed, but her brothers demanded all the villagers be circumcised first. The men agreed. While they were recovering from the procedure the brothers arrived and killed them all. While I will never condone rape, or sexual coercion, I do question whether massacring the entire male population of a village was a little over the top.

This was the world that Moses introduced the Ten Commandments into, a world where life was cheap, might was right, and the gods fickle and demanding. No wonder the people of Israel struggled to follow these few rules for the forty years they spent learning to be the nation of Israel in the wilderness. In fact the rest of the bible shows how often they needed to be reminded by prophets and finally Jesus.

And let’s be honest Christians since have not been much better. Yes, they may have been key memory verses for centuries but how many times have we seen actual evidence of people living by these rules. How often have we seen them abused instead.

In Exodus we have recorded a time when God devised a list of ten radical new ways to behave that would make the nation of Israel stand out amongst the nations of its time and place. As Christians we are called by Jesus to do the same. As society and its attitude to Christianity changes so dramatically around us perhaps it is time to take these old Commandments and develop life-changing rules from them ourselves so that people will look at us and say ‘what is so different about them?’