“Into the Wilderness”
A Sermon Series in the Book of Exodus
“The Ten Commandments, Part I”
Exodus 19:1-11
Introduction
In the ancient world worshipping gods was very common. Every local town or village had multiple gods they worshipped so they would fertile, their crops would be prosperous, so they would have good health, good weather, etc. But if you left that town or village, the god stayed there and you would worship the god of the next village, and there was no problem with worshipping multiple gods all at the same time. What made the Hebrew God so unique is that He said He was over all the world (not just a local area), and He was to be worshiped alone (no others gods other than Him was to be worshiped).
In Exodus 20 God has brought his people out of slavery and is about to send them to a promised place. God said to them in Ex. 19:5-6 “you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” This would a place where the world could come and meet the One True God, as God’s priests they would lead the world to worship Him, and as a holy nation they would point the world to God. They have prepared themselves for three days to receive what is about to be given to them from God.
Prayer
The First Commandment; The Exclusivity of God (v. 1-3)
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. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
(v. 1) “And God spoke all these words” – of all the law these are the only ones He spoke out loud, that he wrote on a stone tablet with His own hand, and these words were placed in the ark of the covenant for safe keeping. They are important to God for us to possess, to know, and to obey. These commandments, the moral law, still holds today while much of the ceremonial law has passed away.
The other nine commandments that follow have dos and don’ts, but the first commandment speaks to a relationship. The other nine deal with how to maintain a relationship that is established by the first commandment. “God’s people were constantly tempted to make their faith a both/and religion, when God insisted on worship as an either/or proposition: Either you worship Him alone, or you don’t worship Him at all.”[1]
Today God’s people struggle with the same issue – we want to add the word and to our relationship with God. We says, “I want God in my life, I want to follow Him, I want to have a relationship with Him, and I want success, money, possessions, I want to live my life the way I want, etc.” We put God in a part of our lives, “God goes over here, my job goes over here, my family goes over here” – but God says, “no, If I am in your life, then I am in all of your”
(v. 3) “You shall have no other gods before me.” – could be read, “no other gods before my face.” The theologian John Calvin in his commentary on this passage said, “like a shameless woman who brings in an adulterer before her husband’s very eyes, only to vex his mind the more.” Marriage is a good analogy for this first verse – you cannot have both/and relationship with your spouse.
“Honey, I want to introduce you to someone who means a lot to me. You are special too, but I want to spend time with her, and I love her, tonight I’m going to be with her, so I won’t be home tonight.” How long is that marriage going to last? No, the spouse will say, “It’s me or it’s her, you have to choose.” The wife has every right to be jealous. (v. 5) He even says, “I the LORD your God am a jealous God.”
“Love is at the heart of the first commandment.”[2] If we truly love God, we will have no other gods before Him. Later in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
And if we ever ask, why should I love God? He reminds us, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery,” – They did not escape slavery because of their ingenuity, they were slaves, who even wanted to go back to slavery multiple times. We should love God because He first loved us[3], and saved us from our slavery to sin. No other god did that.
The Second Commandment: No Other Gods (v. 4-6)
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.
If the first commandment is against worshipping the wrong god, the second commandment is against worshipping God the wrong way. It says to have no graven images of a god, which the Bible calls idols. Don’t make an image (of something from heaven, or earth, or from under the sea), and then bow down to it, or serve it.
Notice v. 3 says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” – to have is to possess, and in v. 4 in referencing God it says, “You shall not make for yourself,” – this speaks of manufacturing. We seek to take our comprehension of a god and manufacture him into something we can see, touch, and move around. But an idol doesn’t have to be physical – it just as easily be a false understanding of the biblical God. Why does humanity so easily turn from the One true God and His Word to idolatry?
Here are four reasons why people are attracted to idolatry:
1) It was/is easy. You may have to bring food to your god, or show up to the temple from time to time, or give an offering to the god – but there was very little expectation of an ethical standard. There was no rigorous pursuit of personal holiness. You just showed up, and presented your offering. “This is what Israel fell into time and time again; they would say to themselves “it really doesn’t matter what I do. I just have to show up and go through the religious rituals.”[4]
2) It was/is convenient. God prescribed that worship was to take place in one location, the tabernacle, and later the temple. Ancient worship worked on the franchise model. There were many places you could go to take care of their religious obligations. Why not build high places where you could conveniently go and do your religious stuff.
3) It was/is sensual. Many ancients believed that in order to get blessings from the gods, they needed them to mate together in the heavens. If Baal and Asherah get together then their procreation in the heavens would yield fruitful harvests in earth. But how do we encourage them in the heavens to do that from down here. They would do the act at the various temples themselves, maybe even involving a temple prostitute. Do you think the men were really wanting the crops to grow?
Today this idol is comfort and preference – we have so many places of worship to go to we look for what is convenient, comfortable, makes me feel good – before we look for doctrine, beliefs, or standards. It is such an easy as a temptation as a church to seek to appeal the a person’s convenance and sensuality and to lower the moral standard than to preach the hard truths of Scripture and to hold people to a biblical standard.
4) It was typical. All the other peoples of the earth had their gods (different names, different roles) but they did religion the same way. “The Israelites were unique among the peoples of the ancient Near East. God’s people didn’t just have a few special rules; their conception of the divine and how to worship him was fundamentally different. It’s hard to be a religious minority. 1 John 3:12-13 “We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.”
Idolatry makes religion easy, convenient, its focused on how you feel, and it is accepted by the world. The God of the Bible demands that your worship of Him be genuine, obedient to His commands, focused on Him and not what you get out of it. Because there is an expected higher moral standard than the world, then you more than likely will stand out and will different than the world around you.
If a person does walk in idolatry God gives this curse, “visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,” it does not mean that in future generations that if there is a righteous person that he will be punished for the sins of his fathers (see Ez. 18:20). “This warning is about God’s judgement on those who walk in the wicked ways of their parents, and grandparents, and great-grandparents.
Exodus is saying if you keep on sinning as your father did, you will not escape your father’s punishment. You can’t say, “I’m only doing what parents taught me.” You need to pay attention and break the cycle of generational sin. Idolatry is going to keep you from breaking that cycle. But there is also a blessing, “showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments” – you can at any point begin to follow the One True God and receive his blessing – you are not tied to your parents.
The Third Commandment; Honor the Lord’s Name (v. 7)
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.
How big of a deal is taking the Lord’s name in vain? Leviticus 24:16 “Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.”
All of the verses that I am about to give to help us understand this idea of “using the Lord’s Name” are rooted in our idea of a relationship. He is our God, and He allows us to be called His people – He allows us to use His name (and all the privileges that goes along with it). I am a child of the King of Eternity – that attachment has privileges but it also has responsibility and a need to guard it.
(v. 7) “in vain,” means “empty,” “nothing,” “worthless,” or “to no good purpose.” We are forbidden, therefore from taking the name of God (or taking up the name, or bearing the name) in a manner that is wicked, worthless, or for wrong purposes. The most obvious way of doing this is to blaspheme or curse the name of God.
It also forbids false or empty oaths, Leviticus 19:12 “You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.” When you make promise and invoke God’s name, it is wrong if you have no intention of keeping the promise because the Lord’s name and reputation is attached.
Later in Jeremiah 23:25 “You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.” If they offered their children this way, they were to be stoned. God did not want His name associated with this way of living. You can’t live and be associated with the One True God and call yourself His people, while sacrificing your children to a another (false) god.
Malachi 1:10-14 tells a story of those that represented God, the priests were cutting corners in their duties to God, “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. 11 For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts. 12 But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. 13 But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the LORD of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the LORD. 14 Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.”
God is saying “I wish there was just one of the priests who would just shut the doors than to represent Him in such a bad way.” They snort at their duties, they allow the people to offer their blemished animals, instead of the unblemished. God’s name among the nations should be lifted up, and that happens when His people live their lives before Him according to His ways. When you carry the Lord’s name (when you attach yourself to Him) – then how you live your life, has God’s reputation associated with it.
Later in Exodus 34:6-7 Moses asks to see God’s glory “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” God shows Himself by speaking His name. When Moses asks in Exodus 3 at the burning bush, “Who shall I say is sending me?” and God says, his name “I Am.” God’s name represents who He is – and He allows His children to carry that name, to be associated with it – do not use the Lord’s name in vain. The consequences of thinking God to be something He is not is eternally devastating. If you, his child, curse His name, then how will the world ever understand who God truly is?
The Fourth Commandment; Keep the Sabbath (v. 8-11)
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.
Earlier in Ex. 16 the Lord heard the people’s grumbling and gave them manna and meat to eat – everyday. In the morning the manna would form on the ground, and they were to gather what they needed. In the evening, quail would come and they would gather them and eat. This happened for six days, but on the seventh day of the week there was neither manna nor quail that day. They were told on the sixth day they were to gather twice as much on that day to cover the next day. Go ahead and make the bread and cook the meat for the next day.
The miracle that the people experienced was God’s provision Mon-Sat. but the there were rules (you were to only gather enough for that day). If you gathered some for the next day (Mon-Sat) any extra would rot, it would stink, and maggots would be there. Except on Sat-Sun – this would not happen. What they gathered would not rot on Sunday (while they rested).
(v. 11) At the beginning of time God, Genesis 2:3 “So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” It never says later that God changed it back to not being a special day, and it is still holy (a day set apart from the others). God sets the example for His creation to rest on the this holy day.
In the NT on the sabbath day Jesus and His disciples were hungry, so they plucked grain and were eating, so they were criticized by some religious leaders. In response, Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” In Exodus 20 it is a command to rest from work on the sabbath, but it is also a gift from God. You need one day out of every seven to rest.
Today, thousands of years removed from the law giving on the mountain of God, we still are commanded to have an exclusive relationship with God, to guard our hearts from worshipping God incorrectly, to carry His name appropriately, and to rest on the seventh day – God’s Word is eternal. Today those who have placed their faith in the name of Jesus, are “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” We still are called to point the world to the One True God, and are expected to live before Him. 1 Thessalonians 2:12 “we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.”
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[1] Kevin DeYoung, The 10 Commandments, What They Mean, Why They Matter, and Why We Should Obey Them (Wheaton, Illinois; Crossway Publishing, 2018) 32.
[2] DeYoung, 33.
[3] 1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.”
[4] DeYoung, 35.
