The First Word: The LORD

Good morning. My name is Sean. For those of you who are new or don't know me, it's good to see some faces coming back from summer break and traveling.

It's good to see some new faces as well. Please turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 20.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

We've been in a series in the book of Exodus for a while now. If you don't have a Bible, if you raise your hand, we have some people around us who can bring you a Bible that you can use while you're here.

We're in chapter 20, which is where we find the famous Ten Commandments of the Bible.

We're going to do a mini-series within our series in the book of Exodus. We're going to slow way down and take ten weeks to cover the Ten Commandments, one commandment at a time.

I know that's the slower pace than we usually go through the Bible, but I think it will serve us.

So Exodus 20, 1-3, let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's Word.

Heavenly Father,

Your law is perfect.

It is sweeter than honey from the honeycomb.

It refreshes our souls.

And so we incline

our ears and our hearts

to Your Word once again.

May the words of our mouths

and the meditations

of all of our hearts

be pleasing in Your sight,

O Lord, our rock and redeemer.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

If you would please stand with me for the reading of God's Word

from Exodus 20.

I will read just verses 1, 2, 3.

And God spoke all these words,

saying,

I am the Lord,

your God,

who brought you out of the land of Egypt,

out of the house of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me.

This is God's holy and authoritative Word.

Please be seated.

The Ten Commandments are arguably the best known verses

in all of the Old Testament.

You know,

substantive philosophers and legal scholars

from all generations

have wrestled with its meaning

and significance,

including from Philo

to King Alfred,

Thomas Aquinas,

John Calvin,

Thomas Hobbes,

John Locke,

Montesquieu,

Immanuel Kant,

Thomas Jefferson,

Pascal,

Spinoza,

Nietzsche,

and more.

But despite its indisputable influence

and impact on human civilization,

people have also rebelled against

the Ten Commandments in every age.

In fact,

it has become fashionable

in the 20th and 21st century

to devise one's own Ten Commandments,

to replace the original Ten Commandments.

Bertrand Russell,

the British philosopher and mathematician

and a famous atheist,

formulated his own Ten Commandments in 1951.

Michael Schmidt Salomon,

a German philosopher,

devised his own set of Ten Commandments

in his 2005 book,

Manifesto of Evolutionary Humanism.

Richard Dawkins,

the English biologist

and a promulgator of atheism,

wrote his own alternative Ten Commandments

in his book,

The God Delusion,

in 2006.

And his compatriot,

Christopher Hitchens,

the English journalist,

wrote his own version

in a 2010 Vanity Fair article.

And the latest one I'm aware of

is Lex Bair and John Figdors.

John Figdor was formerly

an atheist humanist chaplain

at Stanford University.

And as a publicity stunt,

they crowdsourced a new version

of the Ten Commandments

with submissions by nearly 3,000 or so people.

And then they wrote their own version

of the Ten Commandments

and published it in a book

called Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart,

rewriting the Ten Commandments

for the 21st century.

It's from 2014.

And they cheekily call their Ten Commandments

the Ten Non-Commandments.

And as I read through these

pseudo Ten Commandments,

I noticed some fascinating overlaps.

For example,

they invariably contain a commandment

that is explicitly a rejection

of divine authority

and a reification of human ability

to discern truth for itself.

One of Bertrand Russell's commandment is,

have no respect for the authority of others,

for there are always contrary authorities

to be found.

Michael Schmidt Solomon says,

have no fear of authorities,

but rather the courage to reason for yourself.

Richard Dawkins writes,

form independent opinion

on the basis of your own reason and experience.

Do not allow yourself

to be led blindly by others.

Question everything.

Christopher Hitchens' last commandment is this,

be willing to renounce any God or any faith

if any holy commandments

should contradict any of the above,

meaning any of Christopher Hitchens' Ten Commandments.

Christopher Hitchens baldly claims

to be the final arbiter of truth

in place of God.

The crowdsourced version of Bayer

and Figdor's Ten Commandments says,

God is not necessary to be a good person

or to live a full and meaningful life.

There is no one right way to live.

And their official version says,

there is no God.

There is no universal moral truth.

Our experiences and preferences

shape our sense of how to behave.

Fascinating overlaps.

In summary,

every single one of these

Pseudo-Ten Commandments

remove divine authority

as the foundation for morality

and replaces it with human authority.

It takes God out of the center of life

and puts man at the center of it

and that is the biblical definition

of sin and pride.

These man-made Ten Commandments

not surprisingly lack a foundation

and are full of contradictions.

Several of them include the golden rule

which is taken from Matthew 7, 12.

Whatever you wish that others would do to you,

do also to them.

They also include,

they include that from the Bible

without any sense of irony.

And then several of them propound moral relativism.

They say there is no moral truth.

But then immediately, side by side,

they make absolute moral claims

that people have to obey.

I mean, if there is no one right way to live,

how can you even have Ten Commandments?

As renowned Yale law professor

Arthur Allen Leff once noted in his article,

in the presumed absence of God,

the only available evaluators are people.

Then only a determinate and reasonably small number

of kinds of ethical and legal systems

can be generated.

Each such system will be strongly differentiated

by the axiomatic answer it chooses to give

to one key question.

Who among us ought to be able to declare law

that ought to be obeyed?

Stated that baldly,

the question is so intellectually unsettling

that one would expect to find

a noticeable number of legal and ethical thinkers

trying not to come to grips with it.

Either God exists or he does not.

But if he does not,

nothing and no one else can take his place.

So we're back to square zero.

And we come to appreciate the wisdom

of Exodus 20 verse 1.

Exodus 20:1

And God spoke all these words.

The foundation of human morality

is not man, but God.

Only God can speak into law

what ought to be obeyed by all of humanity.

Human reason is woefully inadequate foundation

for human life.

We need divine revelation.

Verse 1 emphasizes that these are the words

of God himself,

twice using the Hebrew word for word,

once in the noun form,

all these words,

and then once in the verbal form,

God said, saying.

So this is why what we know

the Ten Commandments,

what we know as the Ten Commandments

are called traditionally the Ten Words.

That's what it means in Hebrew,

the Ten Words of God.

That's what it's called in Exodus 34, 28,

Deuteronomy 4, 13.

And that's why sometimes the Ten Commandments

are called the Decalogue.

You've probably heard that before.

That's from the Greek words,

to make up ten words.

That's what it means.

And these are not ten impersonal laws

or abstract commandments or principles

that are derived from some rationality

or human culture.

They are not laws devised by men

in order to control the masses.

No, they are ten words that God spoke.

And therefore they carry divine authority.

This is the first striking insight

from this passage.

The Lord is a speaking God.

Scripture repeatedly makes the point

that while the idols of the world

cannot speak,

the Lord, the true God, speaks.

Jeremiah 10, 5 mocks the idols of this world

precisely at this point.

It says their idols are like scarecrows

in a cucumber field

and they cannot speak.

A God that does not speak

can be manipulated to our liking.

We can speak for that God.

We can put words in his mouth.

And this is precisely what sinful human beings

want to do.

We want to call the shots.

We want to be in the driver's seat.

As Peter Jensen, an Australian bishop

and theologian, writes in his book

at the heart of the universe,

we would prefer a dumb, dark thing,

a non-relational, far away God

to be approached on our own terms

and worshipped as we see fit.

We want a God that we can approach

on our own terms.

We want a God that we can worship

when it's convenient

and when we feel like it.

We want a God that helps us

fit in with the culture

and makes us popular with the world.

We want a God who will comfort us

and make us feel better about ourselves

without making any uncomfortable

or difficult demands of us.

We want a God who conforms

to our agendas and sensibilities,

not a God who demands

our allegiance and submission.

But approaching God on our own terms

and worshipping him as we see fit

is not possible

when it comes to Yahweh

because he speaks.

The Lord defines himself.

We cannot define him to our liking.

The Lord speaks the words

to which we, you and I,

are held accountable.

We cannot put our own words

in his mouth.

And the first thing

that the Lord speaks in verse 2

is his name, his identity.

I am the Lord.

When the word Lord appears

in all caps in the Bible,

as I've mentioned before,

it's a rendering of

the four consonant name of God.

In English, Y-H-W-H,

Yahweh or Yehovah.

Earlier in chapter 3,

the Lord revealed the meaning

of his name to Moses

saying, I am who I am.

That means the Lord, Yahweh,

is self-existent.

He is sovereign.

He is sovereign.

All other beings

are derivative

and dependent.

But God is self-existent

and independent,

not dependent on anything else.

It also means that

he is unchanging

and timeless.

He is not different

from who he was.

And who he was

is not different

from who he will be.

He is the same yesterday,

today,

and forever.

He was and is

and will be.

That is what it means

to be the I am who I am.

And that means

God is faithful.

He is always true to himself,

faithful to his character.

You and I,

because we're fallible

and sinful,

we can fold under pressure

and act out of character

in a manner

that is inconsistent

with our own convictions.

But God never does that

because he is the I am who I am.

The words of man

fall to the ground,

but the word of the Lord

never falls to the ground.

Human checks bounce.

Human deals fall through.

Human guarantees fail.

But the promises of the Lord

always prove true.

So when God made his promise

to deliver Israel

from their slavery in Egypt,

he was signing on the dotted line

when he declared his name,

Yahweh.

He was putting his glory

and reputation on the line.

And here in Exodus 20,

Exodus 20:2

verse 2,

we are reminded of the fact

that Yahweh has made good

on his promises.

I am the Lord your God

who brought you out

of the land of Egypt,

out of the house of slavery.

He has done it.

He has redeemed Israel

from their slavery in Egypt.

And this is very important.

Note well here

that the Lord gives the law,

the Ten Commandments,

to the Israelites

after he has already

delivered them

out of Egypt.

God is not saying

to his people,

if you obey

all these commandments,

then I will bring you

out of the land of Egypt.

God has already

brought them out.

The law of God

is not the condition

that Israel must meet

or a cost that they must pay

in order to be delivered.

The law sets Israel apart

as God's people

because God has already

chosen them

and because he has already

delivered them.

It's because the Lord

has already rescued Israel

from their servitude

Pharaoh

in order to serve him,

in order that they might

serve him,

that he now gives them

this law.

It's the same for us

as Christians.

All of the imperatives

of Scripture,

what we must do,

are based on the indicatives

of Scripture,

what God has already

done in Christ.

Christianity is the only

religion in the world

that flips this around.

Every other religion

in the world

is merit-based,

is what you do

that earns God's favor,

the favor of the deity,

but in Christianity

you have the unmerited

favor of God,

that is the grace of God,

and then he sets us apart

with his law.

In Egypt,

the Lord delivered Israel

with the sacrifice

of the Passover lamb,

and here,

the Lord delivers

God's people,

he delivers us

with the blood

of Jesus Christ,

the Passover lamb.

And it's because

we have been saved

and not belong to him

that we now live

a holy life of obedience.

This is a pattern

that's consistent

throughout Scripture.

Look at what Ephesians 4,

Ephesians 4:1

verse 1 says,

walk in a manner

worthy of the calling

to which you have been called.

In other words,

you have already

been called

to belong to God.

You are his,

and therefore,

live like it.

Walk in a manner

worthy of it.

1 Corinthians 6, 20 says,

for you were bought

with a price,

so glorify God

in your body.

We don't glorify God

with our bodies.

in order to earn

God's favor

and gain our standing

with God.

No, we glorify him

because we have already

been bought

with a price

by the blood

of Jesus Christ.

When you feel guilty

and ashamed

due to sin

in your life,

do you feel like

you cannot approach

God in prayer

or worship?

Do you feel like

you cannot serve him

because of how sinful

you are?

When you sin,

do you beat yourself up,

wallow in guilt,

and try with all your might

to conjure up

feelings of sincere remorse

and squeeze out

some tears

in order to feel like

you've done enough penance?

When you have not read

your Bible for the day,

do you feel like God

is not going to bless

your day

or answer your prayers?

If you've answered yes

to any of those questions,

then you are living

as if the basis

for your right standing

with God

is not what Christ

has accomplished for you,

but what you do,

your performance.

The good news

of Jesus Christ

comes for our good works.

And it's only when

we rightly understand

the gospel

that we can rightly

understand the law.

The law is given

not to enslave us,

but to protect us

from being enslaved again.

The law is not a cage

to keep us in,

but a fence

to keep evil out.

The law is an expression

of God's grace

for those whom he has

already saved

by his grace.

God's grace

is not a curse.

And it's not a curse.

It's not a curse.

This now brings us

to the actual commandment.

The first of the ten words

in verse three,

you shall have

no other gods

before me.

Before getting

to the substance

of the command,

we need to note

that this command

is addressed

personally

and individually.

The second person pronoun,

you,

is singular

in the Hebrew.

Early in verse two,

when the Lord said,

I am the Lord,

your God,

who brought you

out of the land of Egypt,

the second person pronouns

there were also singular,

and that's unusual.

The phrase,

I am the Lord,

your God,

occurs frequently

in the Old Testament,

and usually it is addressed

collectively

to Israelites

as a nation.

So the you

and the your

is plural,

usually.

But this is one

of those rare instances

when the you

is singular.

So then verse two

is highly personal.

I am the Lord,

your God.

The Lord is not

speaking to you all.

He is not speaking

to the Israelites

collectively.

No,

he is addressing

his ten words,

eyeball to eyeball,

to every individual

Israelite.

He is pointing

his finger

and saying,

I am the Lord,

your God.

And you have to remember

the context

in which this command

is being given.

Matt preached

an excellent sermon

for us this past Sunday

from chapter 19.

Remember some of the details

from that.

We're here

on Mount Sinai,

and the mountain

is literally on fire

because the Lord

has descended on it

in fire.

Thick cloud

and smoke

is swirling

all around it.

There are thunders

and lightnings.

We had a pretty

spectacular thunderstorm

on Friday.

Was it Friday?

It was awe-inspiring.

Imagine being outside

in the middle of that

and imagine that happening

all right in front of you,

right around the mountain.

And there's a very loud

trumpet blast,

so loud in fact

that it says

it makes the people

physically tremble.

You've all seen

like souped up cars

pull up next to you

with the bass

all the way turned up

and the volume

turned all the way up

and it's so loud.

It's not shaking

just their car,

it's shaking your car

and you're in it.

So imagine that

except enough

to shake

a throng

of hundreds

of thousands

of people.

And not only

the people

are trembling,

it says

the whole mountain

trembled greatly.

So it's an earthquake,

a thunderstorm,

and a conflagration,

a forest fire.

Maybe it's,

maybe it looks a lot

like a volcanic eruption.

It's all wrapped up

in one.

It's an apocalyptic scene.

And not only that,

you have to take

three whole days

to prepare

and to purify yourself

for this encounter

with God.

And even after

purifying yourself

for three whole days,

if you are not

Moses or Aaron

or the priest,

you could not even

touch the edge

of the mountain.

So imagine,

in modern day,

this is anachronistic,

but imagine

hazard tapes,

the bright yellow

and black hazard tapes

all around the mountain

with do not enter signs

or rather,

if you enter,

you will die signs.

That's the context.

Everything about

the situation

screams

the Lord is

holy.

The Lord is

mighty.

The Lord is

awesome.

Not

awesome

in the trite

sense that we

use the word

awesome,

like everything

that is remotely

positive is

awesome.

No,

awesome

in the sense

that he makes you

fall prostrate

with your face

down to the ground

in utter

submission.

Awesome.

Terrifyingly,

breathtakingly

awesome.

And it's in that

environment

that Yahweh

finally speaks

and as you listen

with bated breath,

you cannot believe

your ears.

This immense

and awesome

God

singles you out

and says,

I am

the Lord

your God.

God.

Do you get

what an

unspeakable

privilege

this is?

Sure,

you're the God

of all creation.

Yeah.

Well,

of course,

you're the God

of the nation

of Israel.

But wait a minute.

You're telling me

that you

are my

God.

You,

the great

I am,

the ancient

of days,

the rock

of ages,

the Lord

almighty,

you

are my

God.

Yes,

that is

exactly

what he

is saying.

If you

are a

Christian,

God

chose

you

specifically

and

individually

from before

the foundation

of the world.

He

knew

you

specifically

and individually

when you

were still

in your

mother's

womb.

And this

morning,

he declares

over you,

you are

mine

and I

am

yours.

I

am

the

Lord

your

God.

And it's

precisely

because the

Lord is

your God

that the

first commandment

is absolutely

necessary.

You shall

have no

other gods

before me.

The command,

you shall

have no

other gods

is intentionally

general

in order

to be

comprehensive.

It

encompasses

all the

other

commands

in

scripture

about

idolatry.

Later

in

Exodus

23,

13,

it says,

make no

mention

of the

names

of other

gods.

Many

places

in

scripture

say,

you shall

not go

after

other

gods

or serve

other

gods

or turn

to other

gods.

Other

verses

say,

more

specifically,

you shall

not fear

other

gods.

You

shall

not bow

yourselves

to other

gods

or sacrifice

to other

gods.

But the

second command

encompasses

them all.

You

shall

have

no

other

gods.

You

can't

even

have

them.

In

light of

its

cultural

context,

this command

is all

the more

remarkable

because

every

surrounding

nation

in the

ancient

Near

East

was

polytheistic.

Yahweh's

demand

for

total

exclusive

allegiance

and

worship

is

unique,

literally

unique

in the

history

of

religion.

Some

scholars

argue

that

the

first

commandment

does

not

actually

teach

monotheism,

which

teaches

that there

is only

one

God.

Some

scholars

argue

that

the

first

commandment

reflects

henotheism,

which

is

believing

that

there

are

many

gods

but

believing

that

there

is

one

god

among

them

all

that

is

supreme.

But

that's

not

true.

Henotheistic

nations,

when they

fought against

other nations

and they

were victorious,

they would

pillage

their

belongings,

including

the other

nations'

idols,

and then

they would

take

those

idols

and

place

them

in

their

temple

of

their

god

as

a

symbol

to

represent

the

fact

that

their

god

is

superior.

Their

god

has

subjugated

these

gods.

That's

what

henotheistic

nations

do.

But

far from

placing

the foreign

idols

within

their

temple,

the

Israelites

were

commanded

in

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 7:5

7

verse 5

to break

down

their

altars

and dash

in pieces

their

pillars

and chop

down

their

ashram

and burn

their

carved

images

with

fire.

So in

1 Chronicles

1 Chronicles 14:12

14

verse 12

after defeating

the

Philistines

it says

that the

Israelites

left

their

gods

there

and

David

gave

command

and

they

were

burned.

This is

not

a

henotheistic

practice.

It's a

strict

monotheistic

practice

because there's

only one

God.

Still others

argue that

Israel

practiced

monolatry

rather than

monotheism.

Monolatry is

where you

acknowledge that

there are

other gods

exist but

you choose

to worship

only one

God.

God.

This is

not quite

accurate

either

because

Jeremiah

2

11

states

clearly

that

these

other

nations

gods

are

no

gods

at

all.

They

are

not

lesser

deities

or other

people's

deities

they are

no

gods

at

all.

In

Isaiah

41

29

the

Lord

says

that

the

idols

are

all

a

delusion

their

works

are

nothing

their

metal

images

are

empty

wind.

Paul

also

confirms

this

in

1 Corinthians

8

4-6

Therefore

as to

the eating

of food

offered

to idols

we know

that an

idol

has no

real

existence

and that

there is

no

God

but

one

for

although

there

may

be

so-called

gods

in heaven

or on

earth

as indeed

there are

many

gods

and many

lords

yet for

us

there is

one

God

the

Father

from

whom

are

all

things

and

for

whom

we

exist

and

one

Lord

Jesus

Christ

through

whom

are

all

things

and

through

whom

we

exist

God's

people

do not

acknowledge

other

gods

while

worshipping

one

God

we

acknowledge

that

there

is

only

one

God

and

that's

what

the

first

commandment

demands

you

shall

have

no

other

gods

before

me

when

it

says

you

shall

have

no

other

gods

before

me

that

could

be

a

little

ambiguous

in

English

but

that's

not

speaking

of

priority

or

order

that

you

can't

have

any

other

gods

before

or

ahead

of

Yahweh

no

in

speaking

of

having

no

other

gods

period

the

phrase

before

me

is a

Hebrew

idiom

that

literally

means

before

my

face

it

means

it

means

in

God's

presence

everywhere

Psalm

139

where

shall

I

go

from

your

spirit

or

where

shall

I

flee

from

your

presence

if

I

send

to

heaven

you

are

there

if

I

make

my

bed

in

Sheol

you

are

there

God

is

everywhere

he

says

have

no

god

before

my

face

there's

no

exception

to

choose

Yahweh

is to

forsake

all

other

gods

that's

why

prophet

Elijah

challenges

the

Israelites

in

1 Kings

18

21

and

he

says

to

them

how

long

will

you

go

limping

between

two

different

opinions

if

the

Lord

is

God

follow

him

but

if

Baal

is

then

follow

him

this

is

an

either

or

not

a

both

and

proposition

that's

why

Joshua

says

in

Joshua

24

15

choose

this

day

whom

you

will

serve

whether

the

gods

your

father

served

in

the

region

beyond

the

river

or

the

gods

of

the

Amorites

in

whose

land

you

dwell

but

ask

for

me

and

my

house

we

will

serve

the

Lord

Yahweh

will

countenance

no

rival

or

peer

in

1st

Samuel

5

2

to

7

Philistines

actually

defeat

the

Israelites

in

battle

because

the

Lord

is

no

longer

fighting

on

their

behalf

because

of

their

sin

and

tragically

Philistines

capture

the

Ark

of

the

Covenant

which

represents

the

footstool

of

God

and

they

being

good

polytheists

and

henotheists

place

the

Ark

of

the

Covenant

inside

the

temple

of

Dagon

and

exactly

what you

would

expect

happens

the

next

day

they're

going

to

the

temple

of

Dagon

and

the

idol

of

Dagon

is

decapitated

falling

before

the Ark

of the

Covenant

before

the

feet

of

the

Lord

God

they

quickly

fix it

up

and dress

it up

and then

they go

to bed

and the

next day

they come

back

again

it is

decapitated

and this

time

his hands

are cut

off

too

and it's

lying

on the

ground

they realize

okay

we cannot

keep

the God

of the

Israelites

with us

he's too

hard

on us

and on

our

God

so they

send

the Ark

of the

Covenant

back to

the Israelites

with offerings

and sacrifices

that's what

a God

is like

we've been

witnessing

God's

radical

intolerance

of other

gods

so far

throughout

the book

of Exodus

when the

Lord was

delivering

Israel

out of

the land

of Egypt

remember

what he

said

in Exodus

12

12

on all

the gods

of Egypt

I will

execute

judgments

I am

the Lord

the Lord

systematically

demonstrated

that the

gods

of Egypt

are no

gods

at all

through the

signs and

wonders

that he

brought

there

turned

the Nile

into

blood

exposed

the god

of the

Nile

Hopi

as nothing

the Lord

brought

a plague

of frogs

upon the

land of

Egypt

exposing

the Egyptian

goddess

of fertility

Hecate

or Hecate

who takes

the form

of frog

as nothing

the Lord

strikes

the dust

of the

earth

and turns

them

into

gnats

exposing

the

Egyptian

god

of the

earth

Geb

to be

nothing

the Lord

kills

the

livestock

of Egypt

with the

plague

exposing

the

Egyptian

god

Hathor

who is

depicted

as a

cow

to be

nothing

the Lord

sends

a destructive

thunderstorm

upon Egypt

exposing

both the

Egyptian

god

of the

sky

Horus

and the

god

of the

storm

set

as

nothing

the Lord

destroyed

the

remaining

crop

of their

crops

with locusts

exposing

the

Egyptian

god

of

fertility

and

agriculture

Osiris

as

nothing

the Lord

brought

utter

darkness

upon

Egypt

exposing

the

Egyptian

sun

god

Ra

as

nothing

and

finally

he

kills

the

firstborn

son

of

the

heir

the

heir

parent

of

Pharaoh

himself

because

Pharaoh

styled

himself

to be

god

thereby

exposing

him

to be

no god

at

all

and

all

of

this

serves

this

one

purpose

Exodus

9

14

that

he

might

show

that

there

is

no

there's

none

like

me

in

all

the

earth

the

Lord

is

not

content

to be

one

of

many

gods

or

even

to

be

the

top

god

in

your

pantheon

of

gods

he

insists

that

he

is

the

only

god

and

demands

worship

to the

exclusion

of all

other

gods

are there

gods

other than

Yahweh

in your

life

Jabulon

Buddha

Allah

Shia

an

ancestral

spirit

it's

not

only

these

false

gods

that

are

objects

of

idolatry

Habakkuk

Habakkuk 1:11

chapter 1

verse 11

speaks of

guilty

men

might

is

their

god

some

people

worship

their

strength

their

might