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GOD REVEALS HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS : AS SOVEREIGN REDEEMEREXODUS 20:1-2INTRODUCTION As many of you know God awakened me to my sinful condition and revealed Christ to me as the only one who could save me from the just penalty due me for my sins at the end of my junior year of college. I was living in a resident hall at the time and continued to live in that same hall my senior year. During the summer between my junior and senior years I grew as a Christian and prayed for the courage to share the gospel with the men whom I would live with the next year, many whom I had known prior to my conversion. The first night back in the dorm my senior year I had the opportunity to talk with a couple of the guys on the floor about Christ and by the next day everyone on the floor knew that I had become a religious freak. A couple of weeks later a bunch of us were sitting around a guy's dorm room and the topic turned to sex. It wasn’t long before I was being asked what I thought about the topic. I didn’t know much but I did know that God commanded that sexual intimacy be reserved for a man and a woman who were married and that every other expression of sexual intimacy was sin. I expressed that and the guys in the room were shocked that I would be suggesting that they only have sexual relations with one woman to whom they were married for life. They were incredulous that I believed that God would require that they wait to have sex until they were married. They wanted to know why they should wait. What possible reason could I give them for not doing what they and the women they dated so clearly wanted to do? I told them that it seemed to me that if God made men and women and he made sex then he would be the one who would know best how we ought to express our sexual desires. I also told them that if God loved me so much that he was willing to suffer and die for me then I could trust that what he wanted for me was the best thing, even if I didn’t always feel like it was the best thing. My answer to them that day was not very sophisticated, nor clearly expressed, yet I was expressing the beginnings of the biblical answer to the question, why should a human being obey God’s commands? What they were asking is the question that God is answering by his appearance on Mt. Sinai and by what he says in Exodus 20:1-2. Let me remind you of how Israel has come to Mt. Sinai. God told Abraham that he was going to make him into a great nation and that all the nations of the world would be blessed through his descendants. He promised him that he was going to give to him and his descendants the land of Canaan. He repeated these promises to Isaac and to Jacob. Then, through a sovereignly ordained series of events Jacob and his twelve sons and their wives and children ended up living in Egypt. For hundreds of years they lived in Egypt as slaves while they multiplied until they became a mass of people, over a million strong. God chose Moses, who had been raised as an adopted grandson of Pharaoh to be the one who would lead the captive people of Israel out of their captivity and into the Promised Land, the land of Canaan. Through 10 mighty miracles and through the opening of the Red Sea and providing the people with water from a rock and manna on the desert floor each morning, God delivered Israel from their slave masters and brought them through the desert to himself on Mt. Sinai, just as he had promised Moses he would do. During the three days prior to the event described in Exodus 20 he has spoken with Moses and given him directions to prepare the people for this meeting. Moses has cleansed the people and led them into God’s presence at the foot of Mt. Sinai. God has given visible evidence that he is present on Mt. Sinai by causing a black cloud with lightning and thunder to appear on the top of the mountain. The mountaintop was ablaze with fire that sent columns of dense smoke into the air. The mountain trembled violently and then God spoke to Moses so that the entire people heard the Lord command Moses to come up the mountain. Moses ascends the mountain for the third time ( 19:20) to receive instructions from the Lord for the people. At the beginning of chapter 20, he has come back down the mountain to the massed people and has reinforced God’s earlier command that no one was to touch the mountain on the pain of death. So Moses and all the people are gathered before the Lord, at the foot of this blazing mountain, which they are forbidden to touch and then God speaks to all the people out of this terrifying display of his majesty. What are all these words that God speaks? The words that God speaks directly to all the people, including Moses, with no intermediary are the words of the 10 Commandments. This is the only occasion in the entire OT when God speaks to all of his people directly and publicly. God gave all of his words throughout the rest of the OT to individual prophets who then declared God’s word to the people. On many other occasions he manifests his presence in powerful and public displays but he does not again speak publicly to all until he does so at the baptism of Jesus. Additionally, we discover later in Exodus that God himself writes these “10 words” on two tablets of stone. Thus these words become the first written word of God. Exodus 20:1-17 is the first part of the Bible to be written and God himself wrote these words down. These two things, God spoke directly and publicly to all the people and he wrote these words down himself point to the fact that these commandments stand at the head of all God’s commands. They are the supreme expression of his righteousness and his will for human beings. Every other command that God gives is directly related to and logically derived from one or more of these commands. In fact, John Calvin, in his commentary on Exodus 20 discusses all the other commands found in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy under each of these commands. As we recognize that these are the first laws, both chronologically and in importance that God gives then we can understand the function of v. 2. In v. 2 God is giving to Israel and to us the reason we ought to take these laws, and all of God’s laws, seriously. He is answering the question those young men asked me so many years ago. Why should we obey God’s commands? The answer is because “I am Yahweh, your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.” The reason we ought to obey the 10 Commandments is because of who God is, not because of what they are. Moses wrote Genesis and the first 19 chapters of Exodus after hearing verse 2 and receiving the 10 commandments. The God who gives these commands is the God who is revealed in the story that begins with, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” Verse 2 is the summation of all we have discovered about God through the story that has been told in Genesis and Exodus 1-19 or to say it the other way, Genesis and Exodus 1-19 fills in the details of what v. 2 says. It’s like when you go to the doctor and he tells you what you need to do in order to get well. Why do you listen to the doctor? The reason you listen to him is because of those two initials following his name, “M.D.” He is a medical doctor and therefore you know you should obey him. You don’t listen to him because he has a title but because the title stands for a certain set of skills and knowledge that he has gained. The title summarizes who he is. In a similar way v. 2 is the statement of God’s titles that stands for who he is, which has been expressed in the work he has done beginning with creation. If you are taking notes you will notice that I have stated my main point in the negative. “Disobedience to any of the 10 Commandments is a terrible crime because…” I could have made the main point, “Obedience to the 10 Commandments is the only sensible way to live because…” I decided on expressing the point negatively because it is the way the 10 Commandments are primarily used throughout the entire Bible. You can even see it in the response of the people of Israel in vv. 18-19. They are terrified by God’s declaration of his holy will because they fear his judgment. They do not break out into joyful song as they are confronted with this consuming fire and these words of command. They are not giddy with anticipation of obedience but filled with terror over God’s fearsome judgment on their disobedience. It is what I didn’t tell those friends those many years ago. Disobedience to any of God’s commands is a terrible crime and as we all know, criminals deserve to suffer for their crimes. Having sex with people to whom you are not married is a horrific crime because of who has given the command and is therefore subject to the most dreadful penalty, hell. These commands do not stand before us first as an encouragement but first as condemnation. Anyone who knows the history of Israel that follows the giving of these commandments knows that the point of God telling them who he is, is so that they will understand disobedience to any of God’s commands is a terrible crime and therefore subject to the most awful penalty. Let’s consider together who God is so that we can feel the “sinfulness of our sin.” MAIN POINT Disobedience to any of the 10 Commandments is a terrible crime because…I. The one who gives them is the Sovereign Lord God begins his declaration of his identity by declaring his name, Yahweh. In our English OT, whenever you see "LORD" in all capital letters, you can know that the Hebrew word it is translating is God's personal name, Yahweh. This is the name he told to Moses in Exodus 3, in response to Moses asking him for his name. Yahweh is the Hebrew word for “I AM.” God is the eternally existing one. He has always existed and he will always exist. As he says of himself in Isaiah, "No god was created before me nor will there be one after me." He is distinct from all other existence in that he is the only eternal and infinite being. He has always been. He precedes creation and exists outside of creation. All that we observe is dependent upon him who is the source of all existence. That is the fundamental story of the Bible. In the beginning God, whose name is Yahweh, created the heavens and the earth. He is the Creator. We are the creatures. He is utterly different from us. The distance between us and God is infinitely greater than the distance between us and the lowest single celled organism that exists in our world. We, compared to God, are but dust, as the prophets and psalmists repeatedly tell us. The apostle Paul, in his speech to the residents of Athens on Mar’s Hill, masterfully summarizes what the title “Lord” means. He says this, “The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth and he does not live in temples built by hands and he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything for he himself gives all men, life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live… in him we live and move and have our being…” This God who speaks all these words of command made the world and everything in it. Everything that exists from the millions of galaxies with their billions of stars to the quarks and other subatomic particles that make up all of existence, God made. The God who made your eyes so you can see the beauty he created and who made you with the ability to enjoy beauty is the God who gives these commands. This God is not merely the creator of all things but he is the Lord of all things. He is the owner and master of this creation. When he acts who can resist him? He sent the flood that destroyed all of humanity, except for Noah and his family. He enabled Abraham at 100 and Sarah when she was 90 to conceive and bear the son of promise, Isaac. He sent Joseph to Egypt by the evil actions of his brothers and brought him to the highest position of authority in Egypt at just the right time through the wicked betrayal of Potiphar's wife and the negligence of Pharaoh's cupbearer. He hardened Pharaoh's heart and then overcame that hardness through the 10 plagues he sent upon Egypt. He alone is the sovereign ruler over all of creation directing all things to fulfill the purposes for which he has created all things. There is nothing in this universe over which he does not exercise perfect, sovereign control. He is alone in his sufficiency. He does not need you or I for anything. He did not create because he was lonely. His creating and ruling the universe is the free expression of his own glory and purpose. We cannot give to him anything that he needs. There is nothing we can offer to him that will gain his favor or attract his attention. We do not impress him. Our medical technology, our Ipods and computers and bombs and missiles and airplanes and satellites are like blocks of salt compared to the complexities of the most basic single celled organism. You are not the center of the universe--he is. He has freely, out of his infinite love, given to you life. You did not decide to be born. You did nothing to contribute to your existence. You didn't help out in any way. You exist because God decided that you should exist and then he formed you in your mother's womb and brought you into his world. Since the day you arrived in his world he has given you every breath you have taken. He it is that has kept you alive, each moment of every day. This God who gives these commands is the same one who right now is deciding that you should take your next breath. If he should decide that you should no longer breathe, you will stop breathing. He gives you everything else that you have. Family, job, home, clothes, food, the ability to enjoy movies and video games, mothers and fathers and teachers and a stable government, sun and rain and snow--all of the good things of this life are a gift from this one who is the LORD. He it is who fills your hearts with joy. He is also the one who has ordered the nations, not just individuals. Every nation that exists, God brought into existence. He is the one who assigned each nation its place on the earth and he determines how long each nation shall exist. All the nations of the world exist by his command and continue to exist by his good pleasure. When he decides that the U.S. should no longer exist, that is when we will cease to be a nation. Can you see how horrible it is to disobey the commands of this majestic Lord upon whom you depend for all things? It is a great evil to violate even the least of his commands, deserving of the most awful punishment for we are dependent upon him for all things. He is infinitely superior to us and the only one worthy of our trust and obedience. Disobedience to any of the 10 Commandments is a terrible crime because… I.The one who gives them is the Sovereign Lord II. The one who gives them is the covenant making God The second part of God's title in v. 2 is that he is "your God." The God who gives the commands is the God who enters into a personal relationship with individual human beings. He is not merely a God who is awesome in his power and royal in his majesty. He is the God who enters into loyal relationships with individual human beings. The "your" is singular, not plural. In fact, one of the unique features of all of the 10 Commandments is that all the "you" and "your" pronouns are singular. Over a million people are gathered before the Lord at Mt. Sinai and he says that he is the God of each individual and he addresses each of his commands to each one. God, by using this pronoun is saying something about himself that is the most comforting of all realities. When God says to each individual Israelite "I am your God" he is declaring his decision to enter into a loyal relationship with that individual. He is not entering into that relationship because of anything that the individual did or decided. He chose Israel out of all the nations of the earth. He chose to enter into this relationship. They did not choose to enter into this relationship. "I am your God because I have chosen you to be my child." God freely made a promise to Abraham and his descendants to be their God out of all the nations of the earth. What we know now, with the coming of Christ is that when God says to a person "I am your God", he says it to those who are the descendants of Abraham through Jesus Christ. Those who are the descendants of Abraham are not those who are physically descended from Abraham but all those who are the "children of the promise," like Isaac and Jacob. The promise was made to Abraham and his Seed, that is, to Christ. Therefore it is only to those who are "in Christ" that the sovereign Lord says, "I am your God." Or to say it another way, all those who have the same faith as Abraham, are the ones to whom God says, "I am your God." God is the God of all those who trust in Christ, the one who is the "Seed of Abraham" to whom all the promises were made. Here is this infinitely high God who is beyond our comprehension in his majesty who condescends to enter into a loving relationship with individual human beings by his own free choice. He is not a God who is merely transcendent and therefore unapproachable but he is a God who pledges himself in faithfulness to individual people, through Christ. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." "The Lord is my light and my salvation, I shall not be afraid." "The Lord is with me, he is my helper. I will not be afraid, what can man do to me?" " My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress, I will never be shaken." What greater and sweeter thing can a human being hear than the God who made him or her say, "I am your God?" It is a great offense to break the commands of the one who created the universe and made you and sustains you and gives you all things. But it is a far greater offense to disobey the one who is willing to become your God. It is this very personal God, who has come near in the person of his own Son, Jesus Christ who gives these commands. These commands do not come from some despotic, cruel dictator, like Saddam Hussein but from a promise making and promise keeping God who rules all things for the benefit of his people. It is one thing to shoplift. It is another thing to steal your grandmother's Social Security check. It is one thing to curse the driver who cuts you off in traffic. It is another thing to curse the woman who gave you birth and has provided your food for 18 years. It is a horrible crime to break the commands of this God who enters into personal friendship with we who are but dust. Disobedience to any of the 10 Commandments is a terrible crime because… I.The one who gives them is the Sovereign Lord II.The one who gives them is the covenant making God III. The one who gives them is the God who saves The third thing that the Lord tells the people about himself is that he is the one who "brought them out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery." He did this by means of a chosen savior, Moses. The people of Israel were helpless slaves who could not free themselves. So God sent his prophet Moses at great risk to himself to command the tyrant, Pharaoh to "let my people go so that they might worship me." Then through 10 mighty miracles, ending in the death of all the firstborn sons of Egypt, God delivered Israel from out of their slavery. Israel escaped that final destruction of their firstborn by covering their homes with the blood of a year old, unblemished, male lamb who lived with them for three days prior to their slaughtering it. He delivered them from thirst in the desert by giving them water out of a rock. He delivered them from starvation in the desert by giving them bread from heaven. God is not merely the creator and sustainer of all. He is not merely a God who freely enters into loyal relationships with individual people but he is a Savior for helpless slaves. His deliverance of Israel from their physical slavery is but a picture of that greater and more costly deliverance that he has accomplished through the sending of his own Son to rescue his captive people from sin, Satan, death and hell. The God who gives these commandments is the God who laid aside his right to be treated as God and took on human flesh. He lived among us and was treated as a nothing and a nobody. He manifested his divinity for three years through mighty miracles and through authoritative teaching. Then he offered himself up to the betrayal of one of his closest friends and subjected himself to the mockery of a trial and the brutal torture of cruel men. Then he stretched out his arms and permitted himself to be nailed to the cross in order to suffer hell for his captive people. He died, was buried and then rose from the dead on the third day. He now sits at the right hand of the Father, with the scars of his suffering bearing witness to his saving power until that day when he will return and punish all those who have disobeyed his commands. It is this scarred Savior who gives these commands. He, who offered himself for our sins will be the one to whom every human must give an account. He is the judge of the living and the dead. It is one thing to disobey the one who gives you life. It is another thing to disobey the infinitely high God who is willing to be called "your God." It is entirely a different thing to break the commands of one who has shown such love by coming and dying for his enemies, in order to reward them as if they were obedient sons and daughters. This one who gives these commands is "the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." He is the rock from whom a fountain of living water flows. He is the bread of life that comes down from heaven. This God who gives these commands is the God who has displayed love that is beyond understanding by suffering to rescue his captive people from their misery. What illustration can I give you to help us understand how monstrous it is to disobey this God? It's like a fireman rescuing a child out of a burning building and when he returns the child to the mother she spits in his face. It's like when someone freely donates one of his kidneys to save the life of another then being mocked and ridiculed by the one who received the kidney. It's like when a couple spends $20,000 to adopt a child out of an impoverished and disease ridden orphanage in another country and then lovingly raises her, sacrificing to provide the child with the best of everything that can be had in America and when the child is grown she lives in the same town but in a manner contrary to everything the parents value and maligns them and accuses them of the grossest forms of abuse at every opportunity, thus destroying their reputation in town. Disobedience to the God who saves through Christ is the most horrendous of crimes in the universe. It is no wonder that the coming of Christ in judgment is described with such fierce language in the book of Revelation. "When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountain, calling to the mountains and rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?'" The great and personal and suffering God of love gives to each of us commands to be obeyed. These commands are the perfect expression of his perfect nature and of his will for us. He made us and offers himself to us and for us so that we would obey them. It is no trifling, inconsequential thing to disobey these commands. You cannot afford to be indifferent to your disobedience. How we must strive to feel the horridness of our disobedience to these commands by seeking to understand who it is that has given them to us. During these next weeks as we consider these commands we will continually return to consider how horrible it is when we disobey these commands because of whom has given them to us. Disobedience to any of the 10 Commandments is a terrible crime because… I. The one who gives them is the Sovereign Lord II. The one who gives them is the covenant making God III. The one who gives them is the God who saves © Copyright
2005 John Swanson.
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