God’s instructions teach us how to experience a good, full life. We find the greatest joy when we love God and love people.
God’s instructions teach us how to experience a good, full life. We find the greatest joy when we love God and love people.
Advent Day 10, The 10 Commandments.
God gives his people a covenantal text that describes and prescribes how the people are to live in relation to him.
The text is the 10 Commandments.
While the commandments often are read as a code of conduct, their meaning far surpasses that.
The covenantal text reminds the people of God's faithfulness to them.
If the people desire to remain in covenant with God, they ought to be faithful to him.
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.
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.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I the Lord your God, I'm a jealous God.
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.
Exodus 20:1-7.
With the first four commandments, God proclaims who he is.
God is eternal, I am the Lord your God.
God works in history, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
And God exists outside history.
He is the God of the cosmos.
Why do you think the first four commandments concern who God is?
(gentle music) Exodus 20, verse eight says, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy."
This command bridges so many things.
It's incredible.
One thing it bridges are the commands.
If the first four commandments concern each person's relationship with God, the second set of commandments concern people's relationships with other people.
How might observing Sabbath help you to connect with God and other people?
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house or anything that is your neighbor's.
Exodus 20:12-17.
The second set of commands flow from the first.
If we live in right relationship with God, that rightness will flow out to people around us.
We honor God by how we honor our mothers and fathers, our friends and neighbors.
God gives the commandments, but he knows how forgetful people are.
So God instructs them to remember him and his ways.
Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise.
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, Deuteronomy 6:4-9.
What gets forgotten in the day-to-day business and busyness of life?
What gets forgotten during Advent and the Christmas season?
God's instruction in Deuteronomy starts with the abstract and moves toward the specific.
You shall love the Lord, your God.
These words that I command you shall be on your heart, he says.
How?
By relying on the habits of teaching, talking, binding and writing.
These habits aren't a daily or monthly checklist but a way of life.
Teach God's words to your children.
Talk about God's words when you sit and when you rise, when you walk and when you lie down.
Talk about God's words always.
Keep God's words around you and take them with you wherever you go.
If we were required to keep God's commandments perfectly, we would despair.
Not one of us can faithfully love and delight in God at all times and in all places.
But that's where the good news comes in.
God sends his son, Jesus, to be our deliverer.
Jesus is born and he does what we never could and never can.
Jesus perfectly keeps the law.
More than that, he fulfills it.
And in fulfilling it, he invites us into a different way to live.
One in which we experience the good, holy and satisfying life found in faithfully loving God and others.
Matthew 22 tells us, Jesus said to them, "You shall love the Lord, your God, "with all your heart and with all your soul "and with all your mind.
"This is the great and first commandment "and a second is like it.
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
"On these two commandments depend all the law "and the prophets.
"You shall love the Lord, your God "and you shall love your neighbor.
"How do these two commands relate to the 10 commandments?"
How do these two commands invite us into a different way to live?
Consider your daily routine.
Where does your time go?
On what do you spend it?
What would you like to be different about your daily routine, especially in relation to God and people?
What happens will help you change. Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, you have made us for yourself.
Our hearts will not rest easy until they are set on you.
Our minds will not cease churning thoughts unless we set our minds on you.
Teach us the goodness of living by your way rather than what we perceive as good or desirable.
Remind us that freedom comes as we surrender our lives to you and live for you and others.
Thank you for the gift of your son, Jesus, who was born, lived, died and rose again.
Amen.