Drew Boswell

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“The Ten Commandments, Part 2” Exodus 20:12-14

“Into the Wilderness”

A Sermon Series in the Book of Exodus

“The Ten Commandments, Part 2”

Exodus 20:12-14

 Introduction

God has called His people a Exodus 19:6 “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” This promised land inhabited by God’s people would point the world to God. God was creating a society and culture that would reflect who He was, and how He wanted people to interact with each other. When the lost world would come to find God there – their lives and how they treated each other would point them to God and His Word. So, in order to have and maintain this society, or this new kingdom of God on earth, He gave them commandments (laws, statutes, etc.)

The First Commandment; The Exclusivity of God (v. 1-3)  If/Then not And

The Second Commandment: No Other Gods (v. 4-6) No idols

The Third Commandment; Honor the Lord’s Name (v. 7)

The Fourth Commandment; Keep the Sabbath (v. 8-11)

Prayer

The Fifth Commandment; Honor Your Father and Mother (v. 12)

12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

The Ten Commandments can be divided into two sections. The first section deals with how we relate to God and the second sections deals with how we relate to other human beings. “The first four commandments teach us to love God, while the last six teach us to love our neighbor.”[1] Both are built on a love relationship – the first section is built and establish on our relationship with God, and then the other commandments flow from the first.

1 John 4:20-21 “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot1 love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

In this section there is a relationship established (your parents) and then all the other commandments flow from that. For example, if you don’t love God then you more than likely will worship other gods, and you will not carry His name is a way that is honoring to Him. If you do not love your parents, then it is unlikely that you will treat others (your spouse, your neighbors, etc.) as God requires you to.

Our parents have authority over us. How we treat them has a direct influence into how we treat others who have authority in our lives. Ephesians 6:1-3 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Paul is saying, if you want to do well in this life, then honor your parents. (v. 12) “that your days may be long in the land . . .” If you will honor your parents, there is a promise from God that life will go well, and your days in the land will be long – there is a consequence of children who respect their parents – their lives go better, and they live longer.

“. . . the reference to length of stay in the land is a warning to the Israelites as a whole (Duet. 4:40; 5:32-33), a fact that underscores just how important this command is. By breaking God’s commands, the people will jeopardize their possession of the land God has given to them. This “promise” is not a personal blessing, but a blessing for a people to possess a land under God’s rule and thus become a light to the nations.”[2] Later in Ezekiel 22[3] the people violate all of the ten commandments and God responds by saying, “I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries.” Their stay in the promised land ends.

It is in the home that people learn how to interact with the world around them, and how to treat other people. Honoring those who are preparing you for the world is foundationally important (and commanded by God).

If parents are not present children have to figure out life on their own.

 Parents teach consequences, and children must learn that their actions and how they treat others, have consequences for their lives. It is far better to hear parents say, “don’t go beyond our backyard and they do, and then they lose a treat while they are young, then to never learn this law of life and end up in prison. But the consequences of one boy affects the nation as a whole.

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, 20 and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.”

The home (specifically parents) maintains a society of people who respect authority, understand consequences of behavior, and the home is where they learn how to be productive citizens. The consequences of a home where children are not taught these foundational things is disastrous to that society. Remember they are coming from one land (slavery in Egypt) and that culture was horrible. Now they are going to another land (the promised land). They have a choice what this land would be like – if they followed God’s law then this new promised land would be a place of freedom, order, and security – a godly place.

If we look at Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, imagine the scandal of having a son like him in that society. He had demanded his inheritance, (he greatly dishonored his father,) he then wasted the inheritance on wayward living. But, instead of presenting the son to the elders to be stoned, look how the father reacts. Luke 15:20-22 “And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.” You have to establish the sin and horror of what the boy did, before you can understand the magnificence of grace the father showed.

The Sixth Commandment; Do Not Murder (v. 13)

13 “You shall not murder.”

This is the shortest of all the commandments; it is literally two words “lo ratzach,” or “Don’t kill.” In the Hebrew language there are eight words used for kill, so the one word given here was very specific.[4] It’s not used in relation to military service, or executing a death sentence, self-defense or hunting of animals. What the commandment specifically forbids is the unlawful killing of a human being (murder) – which does include euthanasia, abortion, and suicide. “It applies to ‘murder in cold blood, manslaughter with passionate rage, [and] negligent homicide resulting from recklessness or carelessness.”[5]

Every human is made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27). Every person is His creation, they bear His image, and you don’t have a right to destroy something that has His signature.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN-C5N60u_M

God Alone is Sovereign Over Life.

 Before this command was given Genesis 9:6 says, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” The reason that a person would lose their life because they took someone else’s life is because the person was “made in the His own image” (God’s image).

God loves the people he has created. While they may have rebelled against Him, He has a plan for their redemption – God is sovereign over all of life, and He cares deeply for everyone. Murder was reprehensible since the beginning going back to Cain and Abel. When Cain had killed his brother, God said to Cain, “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground” (Gen 4:10).

In response to Cain murdering his brother God has two punishments, “And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” “Because the earth had been compelled to drink innocent blood, it rebels against the murderer, and when he tills it, withdraws its strength, so that the soil yields no produce.”[6] The punishment meant he had to constantly be on the move to follow something that will give him strength. In response, “Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.” He fears for his life, others will know he is a murderer and will take revenge.

Calvin says, “[In Genesis 4] God first shows that he knows the deeds of men, even though no one complains or accuses; then, that the lives of men are more dear to him than to allow innocent blood to be shed with impunity; thirdly, to take care of the pious, not only while they live, but also after death.”[7]

Matthew 5:21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother3 will be liable to judgment;”

The Seventh Commandment; Do Not Commit Adultery (v. 14)

“You shall not commit adultery.”

Someone once said, “Marriage is when you agree to spend the rest of your life sleeping in a room that’s too warm, beside someone who’s sleeping in a room that’s too cold.” In order to understand adultery let’s look at the first marriage, Genesis 2:18-25 “Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

The helper that God gave to Adam was not another animal, or another man, but another created human distinctly different but still “bone of my bone,” called woman. How she was made, complemented how he was made – they were made to complete each other. Without her, he was incomplete, (v. 20) “there was not found a helper fit for him.”

Genesis 1:28 gives the mandate for this couple “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, . . .” Only a man and a woman can be fruitful and multiply. The result of men and women being fruitful is that children (who are commanded to honor their parents) are brought into the world. It is this husband and wife’s responsibility to “but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

“So the primary purpose of this commandment is to protect marriage. Adultery is the greatest sexual sin because it violates the trust between a husband and a wife. It breaks the marriage covenant, a promise made before God.”[8]

Ephesians 5:22-24, 31 “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. . . 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

God has arranged an order for His creation. Husband and wives, men and women, in the context of marriage and the home, bring life into the world, and then take responsibility for that child. But adultery is wrong, not because sex is bad, “but because it is designed to be such a powerful force for good.”[9] Sex is like superglue. When used properly it seals the bond of matrimony. It is the glue that holds a couple together. Since sex is like superglue, it cements and connects things together and if it is placed in the wrong places it makes a huge mess. If used incorrectly it puts things together that should not be.

Adultery is a corruption of the created order of the home.

Adultery is more than a man cheating on his wife, or a woman cheating on her husband. Adultery, sex before marriage, fornication, bestiality, homosexuality, pornography and prostitution are all violations of this created order – all of these are corruptions of the home. When you go away from this created order you rebel against your Creator and adulterate what He has created.

Sexual violence, rape, pedophilia, incest, or any form of sexual abuse is a violation of this commandment. The seventh commandment is a command to hold to the created order of the universe, specifically the home and don’t substitute it with something else.

Jesus clarifies adultery even further, “You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” The command goes further than physical acts, but to the desires of the heart.

Later when Jesus was teaching a crowd brought a woman caught in the act of adultery, and were carrying stones to carry out the law, John 8:9-11 “But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” (Go and sin no more).

_____________________

[1] Philip Graham Ryken, Preaching the Word, Exodus (Wheaton, Illinois; Crossway Publishing, 2015) 562.

[2] Peter Enns, The NIV Application Commentary, Exodus (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan Publishing House, 2000) 421.

[3] Ezekiel 22: 6-12 “Behold, the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. 7 Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you. 8 You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths. 9 There are men in you who slander to shed blood, and people in you who eat on the mountains; they commit lewdness in your midst. 10 In you men uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women who are unclean in their menstrual impurity. 11 One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you violates his sister, his father’s daughter. 12 In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but me you have forgotten, declares the Lord GOD.”

[4] Ryken, 575.

[5] Ryken, 576.

[6] C. E. Keil & F. Delitzch, Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes, Volume 1 (Grand Rapids, Michigan; William B. Eerdsmans Publishing Company, 1985) 114.

[7] C. E. Keil & F. Delitzch, 113. (translated from Latin to English).

[8] Ryken, 589.

[9] Ryken, 590.

“The Ten Commandments, Part I” Exodus 19:1-11

“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.”

______________________

[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.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith." Ephesians 2:8

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