The Ten(der) Commandments: Context Is Everything!
Exodus 19:1-6
Today, in spite of what the purists say, I’m willing to go along with most of society and say, “Welcome to
a new decade (and good riddance to the last)!” This new decade promises - as all do, I suppose - some great
changes in our lives. For our family, the next decade will see all of our children graduate from college - at
least, I hope so. It may see someone getting married (although I don’t like thinking about that.) No matter
what happens, this new decade promises to bring with it great changes in our lives.
As we face an uncertain future together, it may seem strange but I suggest that we look to our past - our distant past - for guidance.
This morning I want to begin a sermon series in which we are going to look closely at the Ten Commandments, one of the oldest documents
in our possession, to find guidance for our lives today. While we are used to thinking about them as the foundation of a legal and moral
system, in fact they can also be seen as words of love from a God who knows the blessing and strength they can provide for our lives.
In this sense they could be called the tender commandments!
Next week we’ll start looking at the commandments themselves, but this morning I want to begin by simply looking at the context. After
all, the commandments, first found in Exodus 20, weren’t given in a vacuum. As an assignment for this week, I encourage you to read
the first nineteen chapters of Exodus. This morning, let me simple give you a quick sketch. The book of Exodus begins after the
Israelites have been in Egypt for over 400 years. Genesis tells us that at first they had been welcomed, but as they grew more numerous,
the Egyptians came to resent them, eventually enslaving them. For years they had cried out to God. God heard their cry and answered.
Through a series of events God, through Moses, both showed his power over all earthly rulers and his love for his people, and they were
freed. For months God protected them from the Egyptians, from hunger and thirst, and from their enemies.
Moses, not sure of where he was going or what he would do next, led the people to Mt. Sinai, where God had first spoken to him.
As he had hoped, while there God spoke powerfully again. After a period in which the people ritually cleansed themselves,
"“Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, ‘This is what you are to say to the house of
Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagle’s
wings and brought you to myself...’” (Ex.19:3-4)."
Interesting. Before God gave Moses the famed tablets, before God told the people anything about how he want them to live, he reminded
them how much he cared for them. “Moses, remind them of all those times when they thought they would never make it. Remind them how I
have carried them as if on eagle’s wings.”
That is the context of the ten commandments. You may never have thought of it like that before. God wasn’t trying to come across as
a stern, legalistic, demanding God, one to be obeyed and feared at all cost. True, God was strong, God was holy, God was powerful, yes! - but
God was also loving and protecting and caring. God wrote these commandments to their world - and to ours - out of love.
Imagine that you are a parent about to send your beloved child to college. For years you have protected him, encouraged her, watched
over them. Now it is time for them to enter the world on their own to find their own path in life. You know that this is a good thing
and you are excited for them, but you also know that the world can be a dangerous place, with many things that could harm their lives.
To try one more time to protect them, you do what parents have always done: you write them a letter and share your love for them, how
you care for them, and your best advice for them. Knowing some of what lies ahead for them, you remind them again of what you know they
should avoid and what they should do, knowing that they will have to decide for themselves. Your words are not meant to be legalistic,
but loving, from a parent who has proven your care. It is a letter of love.
So, too, the Ten Commandments are a letter of love to God’s people. God knew that there would be some things in this sin-damaged world
of ours that could shatter and devastate our brief human lives. God knew that our sinful nature itself would constantly strive to lead
us astray. God, like a loving parent, yearned for his people to avoid destructive paths and patterns through life, so out of love he
gave the Ten Commandments. Yes, there would be many more laws to come, many of which we no longer believe apply to us, but
these laws,
these commandments would stand above the rest.
These laws could be written into stone, immovable, unchanging, providing a foundation
for all the moral laws that were to come.
The Ten Commandments are timeless truths, as important as ever. After all, we still get confused about what is right
and what is wrong, about what we should and shouldn’t do. It is true that these commandments don’t speak to every
issue or inform every situation we will face (indeed, they never did; that is why there were so many other laws).
However, as we will see over the next few weeks, they are still principles that can both protect and guide us well.
I still remember how years ago a young woman sat in my office in tears over how her once promising future had been destroyed by an addictions to drugs. At one point I asked her, “If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently? Would you change anything?” “Yeah,” she said, looking at me. “I’d pay more attention to God. I came to a place in my life where I stopped listening to God and I made a wrong choice. It was like I cam to a fork in the road and I clearly say a sign that said, “Danger! Dead end ahead”...but I went down there anyway. It’s not hard to see where I went wrong. I should have paid more attention to God.”
So should we all. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”
(Jer.29:11). This week, remember the context. Remember that before God gave the commandments to Moses or Moses gave them to the people, they needed to remember how much God loved them and cared for them. They could trust the God who had delivered and protected them in the past.
“Remember how I carried you as if on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself...”
That is something we need to remember as well. Remember the times in your past when God took care of you, met your needs, comforted you, and gave you needed strength and courage. Remember how God would one day show his great love for us not by giving tablets of stone but by giving himself. Remember how God came to the earth, lived among, us and died on a cross to pay for our sins. Remember how God has forgiven you, called you into his family, and offered you life with him forever. Remember how God has carried you as if on eagle’s wings. Remember...
Friends, God gave us these Ten(der) Commandments out of a heart of love in order to spare us from the ravages of sin and to help us find our destiny as his sons and daughters.
“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations you will be my treasured possessions. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites”
(Ex.3:5-6). And to us. Our Heavenly Father does know best.
