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First Baptist Church Burlington & South New Berlin NY

February 5 2012

Pastor Barry Davis

New Commands and a New Covenant

The Story Chapter 5

          We are into week 5 of The Story, and we have been talking about Moses.  Last week we observed how God miraculously brought the people out of Egypt, across the Red Sea on dry ground and to the desert in Shur.   Here they rested but there was no good drinking water so they continued traveling until they came to the Dessert of Sin near Horeb. Here they camped.

          Now we look at the continuing story and the Israelites are now camped at the foot of Mount Sinai.  One day, God told Moses to come up onto the mountain. God again reminded Moses that he was a God that wanted to be with His people and He wanted the people to know that He was the one true God.  God gave Moses a list of three things that he needed from the people in order to live in harmony together:

          1) There must be rules to guide how people relate to God and to each other.

          2) God will need a place to stay.

          3) Sin must be atoned for.

          So for #1 on this list, rules to guide how people relate to God and to each other, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments.  We all remember the story that the Ten Commandments were written on two tablets of stone in God’s own handwriting.  These Ten Commandments were given to the people.  The first four related to our relationship with God, and five thru ten related to our relationship among the people.

          The Ten Commandments are found in the book of Exodus, chapter 20, verses 3 - 17:  

³ “You shall have no other gods before^[a] me.

 ⁴ “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. ⁵ 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, ⁶ but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

 ⁷ “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

 ⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. ¹¹ 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.

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

 ¹³ “You shall not murder.

 ¹⁴ “You shall not commit adultery.

 ¹⁵ “You shall not steal.

 ¹⁶ “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

 ¹⁷ “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.”[1]

          “The Ten Commandments move faith from the abstract to the actual by specifying behavior.

If you were to do a nationwide survey and ask people, "Do you believe in God?" I’ll bet the numbers would surprise you. A huge percentage would say, "Yes, absolutely, I believe in God." But then if you examined their lives you’d find that what they profess to believe and how they live show very little correspondence.   I can say :, "I love you." But if I never act out that love in specific, concrete behavior, my words are empty.

Faith, like love, is too easily kept in the realm of theory. The Ten Commandments don’t allow us to claim belief in God without demonstrating that belief in concrete actions and behaviors. They require us to affirm our faith in the daily grind of living…

The power of the Ten Commandments lies not in the fact that they are laws, but in that they are descriptions of how people live in relationship with God. It is true that they are laws of the Old Testament. But more than that, they are words that describe a relationship…

That’s why, in part, the Ten Commandments don’t work with people who don’t have a relationship with God. Why should a person avoid stealing if he or she doesn’t acknowledge the God who said, "Thou shalt not steal.”? Why should a person honor their marriage commitments if they haven’t already made a commitment to the God who said, "Thou shalt not commit adultery.”?...

These are not arbitrary laws that require blind obedience to an invisible authoritarian. Exodus 19, vs.5 says, "If you keep my covenant." A covenant is a sacred promise between two parties. You can have a contract without having a relationship. But you can’t have a covenant without one. The Ten Commandments are like a wedding vow in many ways.

God pledges his power and love and promises and presence to Israel. In turn, God expects Israel’s loyalty to himself and compassion toward others. God didn’t jot down the Ten Commandments then answer Israel’s question, "Why should we do this?" by saying, "Because I told you so." Often, God does tell his people to obey because, "I am the Lord." But even then his commands are predicated on this relationship. The Ten Commandments are built on responsibility. God is as bound by them as we are.”[2]

          Moses understood that God wanted a close relationship with the people that He had chosen.  After all God had rescued the people from their bondage of the Egyptians. 

(Pause)

          #2 on God’s list – God will need a place to stay. 

Now God gave very specific instructions and directions on where he would stay.  He told them how to build a Tabernacle.  This Tabernacle, or portable tent, was made of a specific wood and covered in layers of gold.  There were certain people that were assigned to carry and transport the tabernacle and certain people that were allowed to worship there.  This was God’s plan for a physical place where God would live among the people. If you read in Exodus 25-27, it reveals to us how the tabernacle was to be built.

(Pause)

          #3 on God’s list - our sin nature had to be atoned for.  So God laid out a certain plan of sacrifice and offerings that would be pleasing to Him.

          The Israelite people had received instructions from God that would promise a right relationship with each other, but the people refused to follow the commands of God and many died for disobeying Our Creator.  And the journey continues even to today.

Do you know about the movie, Godfather III?  There’s an illustration, “at the beginning of Chapter 24 of the DVD, Pacino goes to the bishop and they have a chat outside by the fountain. The bishop references the smooth stones, and how the water has not permeated them for all these years.  He then makes a telling comment about how society follows Christ but is not changed on the inside. 

          Did you hear what he said?  After he noted the submerged stone was perfectly dry on the inside, he said, “For centuries, men have been surrounded by Christianity, but Christ has not penetrated.  Christ does not live within them.”

          If there was ever an appropriate object lesson for our study today, it’s this one.  Consider what has just happened to God’s children:

          They have been miraculously delivered from physical bondage in Egypt.  They have camped at the base of Mt. Sinai, and through lightning, thunder, thick clouds, trumpets and dense smoke, God has made it clear he is there as well.

          He gives Moses the Ten Commandments, precepts to guide them to holiness, to take up residence with a holy God.  In fact, God promises to reside with them in a newly constructed Tabernacle, so that his holiness may dwell with them. 

          But, as Moses receives God’s instruction on the mountain, Israel becomes impatient…  God’s anger burns against this rejection, because his people refuse to be unlike everyone else.  Moses intercedes for the people and begs God’s mercy.  And while punishment still comes through death and plague, God’s presence is still with the people, in the form of a cloud over the Tabernacle, or “tent of meeting,” where Moses and God speak…

          God promises to lead his people…  He makes a covenant with Moses and the people, creating the rituals of sacrifice that would set apart, or make holy, God’s people before his sight.  From then on, the Tabernacle was not just a place of atonement for the people’s sins, but a clear signal of God’s presence in Israel’s journey toward the Promised Land.

          The story of chapter five is truly astonishing.  God had proven faithful to preserve his people and keep his promises, despite a series of dysfunctional families, inter-generational battles, years of famine, and now foreign captivity.  The message of Chapter 5 is this:  You are different – act like it.

          You have been rescued!  Great miracles accompanied your salvation to ensure you knew this was of God.  The cost to your captors was enormous, and the price paid for your freedom was staggering.  Now, the God who delivered you calls you to a higher purpose.  You have been chosen to be the vehicles of his revelation.  Upon you rests an honor and a responsibility no one else holds.  What a commission!

          Are they up to it?  Will they pick up this mantle of privilege and carry it forth?

          No, they will not.  In fact, not only will they deny this trust, they will set a precedent.  They will inaugurate a cycle – a pattern – a three-stage template that will be repeated again and again throughout the history of God’s chosen people:  first Israel, and then the Church”. [3]

          The upper story in Chapter five is that God still wants to live with us.  When we have accepted Jesus into our lives we are holding Jesus IN US to live with us each and every day.

          The lower story is that we need to love God, to love Jesus, as well as our neighbors.  Jesus gave us two more Commandments as recorded in Mark 12:29-31: “…Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this; Love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no commandment greater than these”.

          Our story is to be lived each and every day of our lives in our dedication to God, our personal relationship with Jesus and our actions in reaching out to those around us, our spouse, our family, our friends, our neighbors and even those we do not know.

As we continue…Finding our Story in God’s Story!