Ten Promises

Many years ago – about 3500 years ago – the Israelites escaped from Egypt, led by Moses, his brother Aaron, his sister Miriam, and a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night. After three months, they camped in the Sinai desert at the foot of the mountain of Sinai.

And God spoke to Moses. God told Moses to tell the people to stay off of the mountain. Three days later, God spoke to Moses again, a message for this new group of people, people who had been slave just three short months ago, people who had never governed themselves. God began the process of teaching this group of people to govern themselves, to keep order, to become a civilized nation rather than just a bunch of escaped slaves who were only bound by claiming a common ancestor over 400 years before.

God eventually provided Moses with a list of 613 commands – 365 things not to do – the negative commandments - and 248 things to do – the positive commandments.

But God began with these ten commandments, the Big Ten.

Exodus 20:1-17; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; John 2:13-22

So let’s go through these one by one from Exodus 20.

First – You shall have no other gods before me.
We are not to worship anything else. What does it mean to worship another god? It means that we put someone or something else in front of God. Are we addicted to something, something that we will do in preference to worshiping God? Of course not, we say, we would never worship someone or something in preference to God.

Really?

Did you stay up and watch that ball game too late and overslept, missing church the next morning? Did you miss church because there was a volleyball game, a soccer game, a baseball game scheduled for early Sunday afternoon. Everyone knows that our daughter plays volleyball, our son plays basketball, our dog is a champion and had to be at the dog show last weekend.

Did you decide that your drinks, your painkillers, your boyfriend or girlfriend was more important? Did you decide that peace in your family was more important or was God more important? Did you decide that your hurt feelings over what someone said were a reason to avoid listening about the God of the Universe? Had you moved away to college and just didn’t feel comfortable going to another church, a church where God was waiting for you, but your nervousness about attending another church was more important than worshiping God? It isn’t about the church you attend – it is about worshiping God.

“But pastor, I can worship at home. I don’t need to go to church.” That is true. You CAN worship at home. But DID you? Did you read your Bible, did you pray, did you study about God? Some people can worship from home, but did you?

Next, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

The Amish do not put faces on their dolls because they take this image-making very seriously. Yet there are other places where God specifically asks that bulls be cast in bronze for the Temple, that pomegranates be painted. This seems contradictory. And so we look a little deeper for the key principles.

We are not to make pictures to be worshiped. We are not to make images to be worshiped. We are not to make things to be worshiped - some older translations say "idol" instead of "image". And this is why many older, Eastern churches have flat painting of saints - but not statues. This worship is something we have to be very careful of, for paintings and statues and wall hangings and things have a tendency to become holy just because they are in a church.

I knew a church where some ladies made a Chrismon tree – a tree with various Christian symbols as ornaments. Because it was the early 1960’s, the ladies used the latest material to make the ornaments – white Styrofoam. At the time, it was very artistic and advanced. But that tree became holy. It was put up year after year. The Styrofoam gradually deteriorated, the ornaments became dusty, the tree began to look ragged and tacky. Yet year-after-year it was put up and every year it took up storage space in the church. But the women who first made it insisted it must remain, because it had become holy, you see. It was a reminder of when the women had done a great thing, a holy thing, something for the church! For forty years it was put up and finally the last woman who was involved died.

The sanctuary committee was relieved that the tree could finally be sent to the dump. But then the daughter of one of the women said, “We ARE going to put up the Chrismon tree this year, the tree that my mother and her friends made, aren’t we?” And so the tree remains. Talk about "punishing children for the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation!"

Look around you. What décor do we have that is worshiped? What has become holy over the years? Should we really have this print of this man up here – for we all know that it would be a wonderful miracle if Jesus looked like this man whose face was painted sometime back in the 1930's or 1940’s? Would a cross be more appropriate as a reminder of Christ? Or should we have anything here above the altar?

I knew of a church that worshiped first an organ and then a piano. They both became objects of worship and awe in that church. Only special people could touch these holy relics. Choirs can also become holy, as well as pulpits and Communion tables and bishop's chairs.

But we would never do this, would we? We do not have angel trinkets at home, paintings at home, statues that we care about a bit too much, do we? And then, we do not worship this building too much, do we, that we couldn’t change the carpet, remove the pews, put in movable, comfortable chairs that could be rearranged for different meetings, even rebuild the entire sanctuary to make it more flexible and useful for meetings. Why do we even need to hold all of our meetings and bible studies in this building?

Yes, it is easy for things to become holy, to become the idols in our midst.

Next: “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."

In our English Bibles, you may have noticed that sometimes the word Lord is spelled capital L, small o-r-d, and other times all four letters are capitalized. LORD. When all four are capitalized, the original manuscripts have YHWH, Yahweh, the personal name of God. “I am that I am”, as God said to Moses at the burning bush.

The observant Orthodox Jews are very careful with the name of God. They will actually write g-d instead of spelling out God because they feel they might drop the document onto the ground and that would be disrespectful of the holy name. Our ancestors of four hundred years ago who adopted the LORD spelling convention also were respectful to this idea, probably because some of the experts who translated the Old Testament from Hebrew to English had Jewish friends or were Jewish. This is likely overkill – several new, but very conservative translations today use the word "Yahweh" instead of LORD. It makes the reading more intimate, and brings God closer to us, particularly in a time when other gods are talked about in America. This is good and not misuse of God's name.

But the principle concept here is to not use the name of God as a cussword, or swear lightly by God’s name. And this applies equally to the name Jesus – and in modern emails and texting. Have you considered what "OMG" actually means?

On the other side of this, there are certain words which are generally banned from usage on the radio which are mostly related to bodily functions – you know which words I mean. Usage of these words does not violate this third commandments – but simply brands the user as low-class, uneducated, and having a lack of self-control. These four-letter-words are certainly not the name of God.

And context is critical. My early training as a child had taught me that some words were never said. They were "bad words".  I remember, as a teen, I had a difficult time reciting the Apostle’s Creed during the few times I went to church, because it used the word “Hell”, as in “He descended into Hell”.  But there is a proper place for most words. That’s why the commandment says, “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God…” 

The fourth commandment:

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." 

First of all, let’s recognize that the Biblical Sabbath is not Sunday. TheBiblical Sabbath runs from sunset on Friday evening to sundown on Saturday evening. So we are not talking about Sunday activities – we are talking about Friday evening and Saturdays. It is during this time that we are not to work – and our families and our servants are not to work.

This was taken to the extreme by the ancient Pharisees, who even prohibited good, volunteer work. But Jesus pointed out that you can do good on any day because He healed people on the Sabbath. His disciples were allowed by Him to walk through a field and eat the ripe wheat seeds – which the Pharisees would have prohibited because it was supposedly “work” – harvesting grain. As Jesus pointed out – "the Sabbath was made for man." Man was not made for the Sabbath. We were not to be harmed by the Sabbath, but blessed by it.

But do we violate this regularly? Do you have servants work for you on the Sabbath? Did you eat out Saturday or Friday evening? Did the people at the restaurant serve you? Did you cook a meal at home? Did someone fix dinner? Did you have a pizza delivered?

Many observant Orthodox Jews even today require food that will be eaten during the Sabbath be prepared before sunset on Friday. That’s one reason why we have timers built-into our stoves – and why stoves can keep food warm for hours. Some Orthodox even live in special buildings with elevators that use battery power during the Sabbath, so no one will need to work making the electricity for those elevators on the Sabbath.  

This interpretation of Sabbath-keeping grew so detailed over the centuries that it was said that since drawing water from a well is woman’s work, men could draw water on the Sabbath, but women couldn’t.

But this is where Christians following Jesus differ from the Orthodox. Jesus put a different interpretation on this which we should mostly follow: The Sabbath is a day to grow closer to God. Take a day off once a week. Relax, ready scripture, play with your children. Do a hobby. If you must work occasionally, that’s not a deadly sin, but arrange your life so you have a day off almost every week. Don't plan your life around seven days of work. It’s better for each of us and better for the community as a whole. Look at the big picture rather than the little details. This is God's grace in action.

For example, because of my job, I can’t take off Sundays – and, using the bible Sabbath interpretation, I often have to visit the hospital or an event on Friday evenings or Saturdays. So I try to take off Mondays, or if emergencies hit me also on a Monday, most of Thursdays. 

 What do we do if we break these commandments?

“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you."

This is the teenage commandment. Notice the second part of the commandment: “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land…” The advice your parents give you is critical. You may not see the bus coming that will destroy you - but your parents do and tell you about it. That's why they keep you from running into the road, when all you see is your ball rolling along that nice, flat pavement. And this principle also applies to all those curfews and restrictions that loving parents give 16- and 17-year olds. They can see the bus - you can't!

“You shall not murder."

Notice that modern versions of this commandment use the word “murder” rather than “kill”. That’s because murder is closer to the original meaning of the Hebrew than the more general word “kill”, which has broadened it's meaning over the four hundred years since the King James Bible. And that’s why it is not a contradiction that God has a death penalty for some crimes, and orders warfare in places in the Bible.

“You shall not commit adultery." 

Think about how much better our world would be if everyone followed this commandment. The #Metoo movement wouldn’t need to exist.

“You shall not steal."

This includes cable television, pirating music and software, and even pencils from work.

“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." 

Simply put, don’t lie about your friends, neighbors, or family. Don’t spread gossip that you aren’t a hundred percent certain is true, especially on Facebook. Don’t fake emails, don’t fake texts, don’t fake videos.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Now this one is getting personal. To covet means "to want to have". How many of us would love the house of a neighbor? How many would love to have our neighbor’s nice new shiny pickup? (I suspect that few of us covet oxen or donkey’s anymore.

Notice that this commandment doesn’t even require action for us to be guilty. It is the desire that is wrong – not the taking - that's covered under other commandments. And this Tenth Commandment prevents us moving into the actions of theft or adultery, if we recognize the beginning of coveting. The very desire is wrong, and so we need to immediately tell ourselves, “Don’t do that”. And then ask forgiveness from God.

And there is the question: What do we do if we break these commandments? 

We go to God and ask forgiveness. We try to change things so we don’t break the commandments again.

And we find this is impossible by ourselves. We repeat our sins over and over again. And so we need help.

And two thousand years ago, God sent Jesus, part of God Himself, to earth to teach us that even thinking about killing someone else was murder, that even looking at another with lust was adultery, and so Jesus made it even more difficult for us to tell ourselves that we never broke these commandments.

And then, He died for us as a sacrifice on the cross to pay our penalties for these sins - and then He came back to life.

Jesus said that if we believe that He is truly the Son of God and we follow Him, asking forgiveness, we will be forgiven and receive eternal life with God.

And when we do this, something really amazing happens.

The Ten Commandments, these ten orders about what NOT to do – they become Ten Promises, because if you are truly following Jesus,

• “You shall have no other gods before [God]. 
• “You shall not make for yourself an image… 
• “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God… 
• “[You shall] Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 
• “[You shall] Honor your father and your mother… 
• “You shall not murder. 
• “You shall not commit adultery. 
• “You shall not steal. 
• “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. 
• “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. 

Following the Ten Commandments which become the Ten Promises becomes easy, because your heart has been changed by the love of God and Christ for you, as shown in the Crucifixion and the Resurrection – and by the arrival of the Holy Spirit during your baptism.

If you want to truly follow Jesus, consider whether or not you’ve been baptized. If you were baptized while you are young, and you’ve now turned at least twelve years old – or if you are an adult and want to really understand this church and join – we are having a confirmation and new members class at 2 pm starting next Sunday. If you have unbaptized children or you want to be baptized, see me – I’m hoping to do a round of baptisms and confirmations and memberships in May. And this includes OLD people!