God's Good Law

Has there ever been a rule that really got under your skin? Perhaps it was a rule that your parents had, or a rule that you needed to follow at school. Maybe your company has a policy that you really don’t like, or just maybe you can’t stand some of the laws we have here in Illinois.
As people, we often struggle with keeping the rules. Sometimes we struggle because a rule or law is wrong. But sometimes we struggle because something is wrong in us. Some people dislike the Bible because they think it contains a lot of rules they don’t want to follow. Perhaps that’s one of the ways you think about the Bible.
Well in our passage today, Exodus 20, we find a list of rules that God gives his people. These are commonly called The Ten Commandments. It’s hard to understate this historical significance of The Ten Commandments. They have shaped our laws and social values in many ways. If you ask people, most will say they like the Ten Commandments, but few can name them all. Some people who claim to be fans of the Ten Commandments do a pretty poor job at following them.
As people, we have a complicated relationship with rules in general and God’s rules in particular. This morning, I want to challenge our views about God’s rules. And as we begin this study of the Ten Commandments, I want us to see God’s logic in these rules and see his loving kindness on display to his covenant people.
As we begin, I want to give you a roadmap for the message today. I am going to start by sharing Six Keys to help us decode the Ten Commandments – 6 principles to help us think rightly about what is going on here. Then, I want to walk us through the first four of the Ten Commandments. Next week, Lord willing, Pastor Will is going to lead us through the rest. So, this morning we have 6 keys, and four commandments to explore. Let’s go!
Keys for Decoding the Ten Commandments
A Window into God’s Heart
It would be really sad if we just studied the Ten Commandments clinically as a list of rules. These commands were intended to draw God’s people toward himself, to help them better understand him. I love how one of the commentators I read this week makes this point. He says the Ten Commandments are “God’s nature expressed in moral imperatives”.
This, by the way, is what allows these commands to be useful for us as Christians today. These were given as laws to the Israelites who had a special covenant relationship with God. We are not under that same covenant, but we worship the same God, and his character has not changed. The God who spoke at Sinai is our God and reflecting on his law shows us how we can live in alignment with his heart.
A Summary of the Law
The Ten Commandments are not a comprehensive list of the things God wanted his people to be or do. Not everything is covered here. Later on in Exodus, and in the rest of the books of Moses, there are many more laws given. But at this point, God chose to give them some basic principles to live by. The Ten Commandments are a distillation of God’s principles for life.
But we need to remember that for the Israelites who first received these commands, they were both principles to live by and laws for the structuring of their society. They were civil as well as religious. Something we don’t find in the Ten Commandments are punishments or enforcement mechanisms. Those will come later in the rest of the Law.
Two Categories
The Ten Commandments naturally fit in two categories. We can think of them as “vertical commands” and “horizontal commands”. The first four of these, which we will talk about today, are about how God’s people should relate to him, and the last six are about God’s people should relate to one other. Now these two categories do work together. For instance, the fact that God demands absolute faithfulness in his relationship with his people (Don’t worship other gods) naturally connects with the fact that he wants them to be faithful in their marriage relationships (Don’t commit adultery). God wants to see his character reflected in his people’s relationships.
This vertical/horizontal distinction we see in the Ten Commandments in reflected in how Jesus summarizes the Law in the Gospels. When he is asked what the most important Commandment is, Jesus replies in Matthew 22:37; “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. But he doesn’t stop there. He adds; And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Given for the Good of God’s People
It is really difficult for us to accept the rules that are given to us when we don’t trust those who are giving us the rules. This dynamic has been so prevalent during the Covid Pandemic. Many people lost trust in the governmental and in medical authorities, so they didn’t want to follow the guidelines that were handed down. We don’t want to obey someone when we don’t think they have our best interested in heart.
Brothers and sisters, God’s people can obey him because they are convinced of his love for them. As their Creator, he knows what is best for them. As their redeemer, he knows the path to a fruitful life. The Israelites could trust God because he had rescued them from slavery in Egypt. We can trust him because Jesus came in love and died on our behalf. We can trust God’s laws because we know God’s love.
Made God’s People Distinct
For 400 years God’s people had been held captive by a foreign power. Their culture and identity were, in some way, controlled by their oppressors. But God had brought them out of Egypt to give them a new identity. God’s people needed to break away from the idol worship and sinful lifestyles of the Egyptians. And yet, as we have already seen, God’s people grumbled and said they missed Egypt.
But their Divine Rescuer wanted something better for them. In giving them his Law, the Lord was laying the foundation for a new culture that was different from their old culture. They needed clear reminders that things were different now. They needed to think; “We can’t live like we used to live anymore” The Ten Commandments, and the rest of the Law that followed, gave them a new way of living set them apart. This was their Declaration of Independence.
Do Not Provide Salvation
Some Christians have the mistaken idea that God has two different ways of saving people in the Bible. They think in the Old Testament people were saved by following God’s Law, and in the New Testament people were saved by putting their faith in Jesus. This just isn’t true. The Apostle Paul clearly says in Galatians 2:16 that; “…by works of the law no one will be justified.”
As Pastor Will clearly showed us two weeks ago, God showed his people grace, he rescued them, before he gave them the Law. The Ten Commandments were not the way people could win God’s favor. They were given to help God’s people live for him after they had already received his favor. Obedience is a response to Salvation, not a means of salvation.
Additionally, if anyone thinks they can keep the Ten Commandments, they don’t really understand the Ten Commandments. All of us fail to keep them. Part of what God’s rules are intended to do is make us long for someone who can actually obey them. And that is exactly what Jesus and only Jesus perfectly did. The Law can’t save anyone, but Jesus can.
Now that you have those six keys; we are ready to explore Exodus 20. Beginning in verse 1 we read; And God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. This introduction to the Ten Commandments is an essential part of this text. God introduces himself here by describing his relationship with them. He reminds them of how he historically intervened on their behalf. He speaks, not as some obscure deity requesting their allegiance. He has personally fought for them and won their freedom. This is his starting point.
Because God has won them and redeemed them, he has the responsibility to guide their lives. When a good parent has a baby, they don’t just leave the baby to fend for itself. That would be irresponsible. When God gives a child to a parent, that parent has the responsibility to raise that child in a way that allows them to thrive. That is exactly what God is doing here for his children.
The referenced to their previous slavery is also very important here. He rescued them from slavery because he had a purpose for their freedom. And back in 8:1, the Lord makes this purpose very clear. “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go into Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.” They were set free from slavery to Pharaoh so they could serve the Lord.
Pharoah had his laws, and the Lord is about to give them a new set of laws, but the purpose of these laws couldn’t be more different. Remember the things Pharaoh commanded them; “throw your male babies in the river”, and “make your own bricks without straw”. These laws were designed to cause suffering and bring death. But God’s Law does just the opposite. Those who submit to the Lord will experience freedom and life. Pharoah’s rules enslave. God’s rules set free.
This brings us to the first of the Ten Commandments, which is found in verse three; “You shall have no other gods before me.” This relationship that God was establishing with his people was to be exclusive. And as I understand it, the language used here has marriage overtones. In the time of the Exodus, sometimes men would marry multiple women. They would add a wife “before” their other wife. But the Lord was not going to have a relationship like that with his people. This wasn’t going to be some open relationship. As their rescuer, he had every right to demand their faithfulness.
And it’s not like God was somehow being selfish here. Serving him was best for them. He had just freed his people from their abusive Egyptian boyfriend, and he didn’t want them to go back to that creep. As their Creator and Redeemer God knew what was best for them, and he could provide for them like no one else could.
For the Israelites, following another god would be something like saying; “Gas prices are high right now, and I found these jugs of corn syrup in my garage, so I am gonna add those to my gas tank.” Brothers and sisters, worshiping false Gods is that stupid. Idolatry rots people from the inside out. The most loving thing the Lord can say to his people is “Don’t worship anything else”. God’s second commandment is related to the first and we read it beginning in verse 4.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Not only are God’s people told not to worship any other gods, but they are also told not to make any carved images for worship, - even if they intend to use them to worship the Lord. Why would God say this? Here are a couple of thoughts. First, a God who can shake Sinai could never be accurately represented by some image. Any attempt to picture God will fall short. Second, as people we tend to think that if we carve something we control it. And God will never be someone we can control. The Newsboys got it right when they sang; “I’m not following a God I can lead around, I can’t tame this Deity...”
Now, if we worship a God who is jealous for our good and his glory, how can we avoid idolatry? We may not struggle with the temptation to worship Baal or the Egyptian gods, but our sinful hearts are just as good at making idols. We are more likely to worship success, wealth, and sex, but like sugar in our gas tank, these things will rot us from the inside out if we worship them.
I do think we need to guard ourselves against more traditional forms of idolatry though. Our culture is very open to “spiritualism”. We are not half as scientific as we like to think. Christians should have nothing to do seances or occultic practices of any kind. And we shouldn’t look to astrological signs or horoscopes for guidance. We should look to God and his Word to show us how to live.
Before we move on, I want to focus on something you may have noticed in verse 5. It says; “I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.” When I read that passage some of you may have wondered; “If my parents rejected God, does that mean that God is against me?” Well, the sins of our parents and grandparents harm us. We do suffer because of their rebellion against God. There is generational sin and there are generational consequences.
But brothers and sisters, if you love God and follow him, he is not out to get you. In this passage, the bigger number is the most important point. The Lord shows; “steadfast love to thousands of those who love [him] and keep [his] commandments” If you are following him, steadfast love is what he longs to show you.
In verse 7 we encounter the third commandment. 7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. When we think about taking the name of the Lord in vain, probably the first thing that comes to mind is using the name of God or Jesus in a thoughtless exclamation or a curse. I cringe, it bothers me when I hear someone use my God’s name as a curse. This is definitely something Christians should avoid. If we love God, we shouldn’t use his name thoughtlessly or disrespectfully.
But I want to push us to reflect more deeply on the implications of this commandment. What does it mean to bear a name? Some of us come from families where our last name is a source of pride. We value the heritage it represents. But when we say we are Christians, we are always bearing the name of Christ.
If God has put his name on us, like he put his name on his Old Testament people, our whole lives should reflect his character. We take his name in vain when we misrepresent God by how we live. I want to suggest that God is more dishonored when someone says they are a Christian and lives like a hypocrite than when a nonbeliever uses God’s name as a curse word. Our fourth and final commandment for today has to do with the Sabbath.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Here God instructs his people to cease all work on Saturday, the Sabbath. This was to be one of the most significant ways the Israelites were told to worship the Lord. As we will see later in the book of Exodus, God took the Sabbath so seriously that he instituted the death penalty for those who flaunted the Sabbath rules. Why was the Sabbath so important for God’s people? What was God seeking to accomplish here? Let me share a few thoughts.
The Sabbath is a call to remember the Lord’s work in creation. It helped God’s people remember that he was the Creator, and they were the creatures. In stopping their work, they could experience and celebrate the wonderful things God has made.
The Sabbath reminded God’s people of their need for rest. God did not design us to us work endlessly. Humans are limited by nature. People need to rest, and the Sabbath was God’s way of securing rest for his people.
The Sabbath is also an act of trust. Those who observed the Sabbath were saying, God, I trust you to provide for me, even when I am not working. God’s people could demonstrate their trusting dependance on Him.
I mentioned earlier that one of the goals of the law was to make God’s people distinct from other peoples. Well, when your neighbors are working and you are not, people notice. The sabbath was a way of helping God’s people remain different.
Did you notice that the Sabbath was given for visitors, servants and even livestock? God created the Sabbath to be a blessing to all these. God’s people were prohibited from becoming cruel masters like they had in Egypt. They couldn’t work their servants and livestock into the ground. They were forced to let them rest.
There are so many good things the Sabbath accomplished for God’s people. And in part because of these good things, some Christians believe that we should treat Sunday like the Israelites were told to treat Saturday. (For instance, the founders of Chick-fil-a seem to believe this.) I am not theologically convinced that we should copy and paste all the Old Testament Sabbath regulations onto the church today. I don’t believe the New Testament clearly calls us to do this.
But at the same time, I am deeply concerned about the frantic, unhealthy pace that so many of us constantly run at. If God’s heart is reflected in his institution of the Sabbath, we need to ask how our lives might need to change. We should regularly set aside time to rest and celebrate God’s work of creation. We need to experience a form of Sabbath just as much as the Israelites did. Perhaps you can spend some time this week evaluating your family’s schedule and praying that God would show you what might need to change.
As people, we have a complicated relationship with rules. But whether you are a rebel or a rule keeper (I think I have a bit of both in me), I hope your understanding of God and his laws has been deepened this morning. His laws are loving and given for the good of his people, and because we know his heart, we can follow his lead.
I hope you will join us again next week as we continue our study of the Ten Commandments.
Let’s Pray.