A Study of the Life of Moses
Sermon # 14
Ten Commandments - Part 2
Exodus 20:1-11
By the time of Jesus the Ten Commandments had been expanded into a list of 618 rules of conduct. It was an impossible burden of confusing and frustrating rules. One day a lawyer came to Jesus and ask the question, “Which is the greatest commandment in the law.” (Matt. 22:36). Jesus responded by saying, “… You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (40) On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Jesus pointed out very clearly that the law concerns our relationship with God and our relationship with other men.
Last week we noted that the Ten Commandments are divided into two parts – the first four commandments regard man’s relationship to God. First, we must get our relationship with God right, this will be the subject of study for today. Next we will look at the last six commandments, which regard man’s relationship to man, to discover how people are supposed to relate to one another.
In the first four commandments God tells us four things about relating to Him.
“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 bondage. (3) “You shall have no other gods before
Me.”
The children of Israel were headed for the land of Canaan, but the Promised Land was populated by a pagan people who had a god to solve every problem they had. God knew that it would be easy for His people to be seduced by these physical, earthly representations of Canaanite deities and the depraved worship that companied them. He did not want to see the people whom He had delivered enslave themselves again.
For us today when we think of idols we think of someone worshipping a fat smiling Budda or a woman in Nepal worshipping at the image of Kali, the bloodthirsty Hindu goddess. Today we are in little danger of actually worshipping an idol made of stone or gold. But socialists tells that something is a god, is an object of worship, when it becomes the source of our self-worth and the ultimate consideration in our decision -making. We can put only one thing in the top slot of our priority system. Whatever is in that position dominates everything else in your life.
God is the only one who deserves the number one position in your life. He deserves first place not only by right of creation but by right of redemption.
While Moses is
on the Mount receiving the Ten Commandments the people who had grown weary in waiting for
Moses to come down off the Mount turned to Aaron and said according to Exodus 32:1, “…. Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for
this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has
become of him.” So Araron
gathered the gold, melted it down and made a statue of a calf. Then he said in verse four,
“… Then they said, “This is your god, O
Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
But don’t be confused it wasn’t that they wanted a
different God, it’s just that they wanted to worship God in a different form. They would have been horrified if someone thought
they meant to worship someone other than Jehovah.
“There is an old story told about a man who was walking along a steep cliff
one day when he accidentally got too close to the edge and fell. As he slid down the
cliff, he reached out and grabbed a branch that was sticking out and hung on for dear
life. He looked below him and saw the chasm stretching down hundreds of feet. He looked up
and saw no footholds with which to climb back up. So he hung there, absolutely terrified,
and began yelling for help. “Help! Help! Is anyone up there?” He heard his own
voice echo for hours, but nobody responded.
Then finally he heard a voice. “Jack! Jack! Can you hear me?”
Jack was thrilled and his heart swelled with hope. “Yes! I can hear you! I’m
down here, clinging on to this branch” “I
can see you, Jack. Are you alright?” “Yes, but…who are you? Where are you?
I can’t see you?” “I’m God, Jack. I’m everywhere.”
“What? You mean the God?” “Yes, Jack. That’s me.” “Okay.
Well, Lord, please help me out here. I promise that if you get me out of this one,
I’ll never sin again. I’ll be the nicest person in the whole world. I’ll go
be a missionary in Africa or something. Just get me out of here.” Hey, take it easy on the promises, Jack. Let me
get you out of there, and then we can have a long talk. Now, here’s what I want you
to do. Listen to me carefully.” Jack shouted excitedly, “I’ll do anything
you say! Just tell me what to do.” “Okay, Jack. Let go of the branch.”
There was a long pause. “What?!” “I said to let go of the branch, Jack. Trust
me. Just let go.” Another long pause.
“Um… Is there anyone else up there?!” And
that’s how many of us respond to God. We want him, but we want him on our terms.
“One of my favorite stories is one about Alexander the Great. Alexander was a brilliant strategist and a mighty conqueror. He was not only a leader of men, but he was fearless in battle. Often times, he would charge forth leading his men, riding his mighty horse, Busephalis. He would hurl himself headlong into the fray and be standing when everyone else had fallen. He was a courageous man. There was not a cowardly bone in his body. He conquered the known world of his day. And it is said of him that he wept when there were no more lands to conquer.
The story is told of him sitting in
judgment on the battlefield. There he was judge and jury. His word was law. When he had
spoken, it would be done. There on the battlefield, he would take his seat, flanked on
either side by his most trusted officers. Before him would be brought all of those with
charges against them. Many times his judgment could be extremely harsh, especially in
those situations of desertion.
Before him one day was brought a young lad. He was a
fair-haired youth and very young. Alexander asked what the boy’s name was. The
officer presenting him said, "Alexander, sir." At once, the great general’s
countenance softened. It was as if he was flattered that the boy had his name. His men
breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps there would be some leniency for this young man,
whatever his crime. Alexander inquired as to the nature of the charge against the young
lad. His officer replied, "Cowardice, sir. He fled in the heat of battle." The
once soft countenance of the great general was suddenly transformed into an intense,
tight-jawed grimace. Looking the boy squarely in the eye, he said to him deliberately,
"Son, what did you say was your name?" The lad replied, "Why, Alexander,
sir." Speaking again to the boy, this time in a louder tone he said, "Young man,
what did you say was your name?" The young man answered in a stutter, "Why,
uh-uh Alexander, sir." To that answer, the emperor bolted off his throne and grabbed
the terrified young soldier and said to him, "Young man, change your behavior or
change your name!"
Is it possible for us to take the name
of the Lord in vain? Might the Lord be saying to us, "Christian, change your behavior
or change your name?" [J. David Hoke. “Honoring God With Your Lips
and Lives.” Sermon Central]
“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 the Sabbath of the LORD
your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor
your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is
within your gates. (11) For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth,
the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD
blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”
This must be a very important principle, I want you to notice that God said
more about the Fourth Commandment that any of the other nine. God uses only four words for
telling man not to kill. “You shall not kill.” But
here he used ninety-four words for telling man that is necessary to keep a day of rest.
That should help us to understand that the Fourth Commandment is very important.
I would like to suggest three simple things that you can do that will add meaning to your life!
1. Make Sunday A Day Of Rest.
Many seem to take it for granted that the fourth commandment is all about worship. That to keep the Sabbath was to worship, which meant going to church. But in reality the subject of this commandment is not worship, but about work and leisure, their place in God’s plan and keeping them in proper balance. Literally the Hebrew “Sabbath” means “rest”, and keeping the Sabbath is about balancing work and rest. Even though Christians are not bound by the Law, the principles of work and rest and leisure still need to be applied to our lives.
Paul is saying that we go to work for the same reason that we go to church, as an act of worship. We have the really misguided notion that the only work for God that counts is by going into the full time ministry. A story I recently read about William Wilberforce really helped me to see this more clearly.
“Think what would have happened had William Wilberforce, the man
credited for almost single-handedly stopping the British slave trade, had left politics
for the ‘ministry.’ When Wilberforce made a serious commitment to Christ he went
to John Newton to discuss whether he should leave Parliament and enroll in seminary.
Newton, a pastor, wisely reminded Wilberforce, ‘Maybe God has you there for a
purpose.’ Because Wilberforce remained
in his ‘secular’ calling, he not only became one of the strongest forces for
Christ in his generation, but slavery was ended in the British Empire. Largely because of
his personal crusade – something that would have been impossible from the
pulpit.” [Bill and Kathy Peel. Where is Moses When We Need Him?
(Nashville: Broadman Press, 1995) p. 110.]