Saturday, July 22, 2017

Day 7

Day 7: Exodus 20


Today’s reading brings us to the Ten Commandments. These straightforward, seemingly simple rules have formed the basis of moral codes for countless societies, both pagan and religious. But before we gloss over today’s reading, let us consider the context and its implications.

Some pretty amazing things had happened in the lives of the Israelites. God used Moses to speak powerfully to Pharaoh for the release of His people. When Pharaoh refused, God sent ten plagues on Egypt in order that his people might be freed (Exodus 7-11). The Passover feast was established, showing that the blood of a lamb would save the people (Ex. 12), and the Israelites left Egypt with Pharaoh’s permission. But then, Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued the Israelites to the Red Sea, where God miraculously parted the waters and destroyed the oncoming enemy army. After praising the Lord and rejoicing in his great wonders for them, Moses and the Israelites came to Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments here in Exodus 20.

The second verse of this chapter sets up the rest of it in its rightful place: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” God has just performed a great series of miracles in order to bring his people out of bondage. He rescued them, he redeemed them, and he called them into a community that would follow him. These commandments, then, are to govern the way that this community lives.

Note that God did not set up these commandments so that the people could earn his favor and therefore be rescued or somehow reach God. No, the people already had God’s favor, he had already rescued them – through no merit of their own – and now they were to live accordingly. Moreover, these commands were for the good of the Israelites, and subsequently for us. Imagine a society that completely operated according to these standards. That was the goal for God’s people as he set up the structure of what his kingdom’s life would look like.

But these Ten Commandments reveal something uncomfortable in the midst of this. No matter how “good” of a person we are or strive to be, or how obedient we are to a loving God, we have all broken something in these commandments. On the average day, we can’t even make it past the first one: “You shall have no other gods before me” (v. 3). How many things and people do we place in front of God? The Ten Commandments were set forth as a covenant between God and his people, instructing them how to act now that they were redeemed. And the reality is, we have all broken that covenant.

These external rules and regulations show us the way to live, but we can’t do it on our own. We need an internal change in order to fulfill these commandments and to love God the way we so desire to. We to be fixed at a level so deep that we can’t even reach it.

But God knows that. And once again, He takes it upon himself to fulfill our part of the covenant. (Look back to Day 3 for yet another time he did this.) In Ezekiel 36:26-27, God promises, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

The Ten Commandments are good. And they are a response to what God has already done. But even then, when we cannot follow them completely, we have a Savior who transforms our hearts and lives, giving us the power to walk in his ways, to serve him, to know him, and to love him.

Questions for reflection and discussion: How does the order of God’s redemptive events in Exodus change our relation to his commandments and laws? How does the story of the exodus and of Moses’ role as mediator mirror that of Jesus? How are our lives being transformed, or not transformed, in obedience to the laws of God?

Next Steps

Next Steps The past 40 days have taken you through 40 key passages in the Bible. You have experienced God’s overarching storyline of cre...