“The Ten Commandments” Exodus 19:1-6; 20:1-2

  If I had to describe Moses in one word it would be “reluctant”. Moses was a reluctant servant of God, even when he had this profound experience of God showing up and speaking to him through the burning bush. Even when God gave him this awesome responsibility to go and tell Pharaoh that he is to let the people of God go. Even when he was tapped by God to be the one to lead the chosen people into the Promised Land. 

But then again, Moses was the reluctant leader set apart to lead a reluctant people. 

The people of Israel have already been on this journey to the Promise Land for three months when they arrived at Mount Sinai. Originally they had set out for Rephidim, which was known as a place where human need came face-to-face with the awesome power of God’s provision. 

Now the people may not have been aware, but Moses certainly was, that this Mountain stood as a sign of God’s faithfulness towards the people. And here, God again spoke to Moses, telling him that when people look back on this moment generations from now, they will continue to tell the story that Moses and the people are to pass on to their decendants. That it was the Lord Almighty who brought them out of Egypt.

But their story does not end with being rescued from Egypt, or even arriving at the Promised Land. They are now to obey God and keep the covenant that they are given as a sign that they are God’s treasured position. 

And what is the first part of that particular covenant? I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

It would be so easy to think that this is a text of something that happened long ago that has little bearing on our lives. But nothing is farther from the truth. For the next few weeks we are going to journey together through this covenant that God gave the people of Israel, which we still teach today. It’s called the Ten Commandments. 

Movies and books have been made about the Ten Commandments. People of faith may think that they know them, claiming that they have never broken them, only to realize that they may understand the letter of the law, but have forsaken the spirit in which it was given. And so, we return to them again, these thousand upon thousands of years later. 

This covenant that God gave to the people, even before they reached the Promised Land, was to guide them in how to live in a distinct way that reflected the God who loved them. Yes, they were the chosen people, saved by God, but they weren’t saved to sit by and judge other people. They were saved to be holy servants of God, Most High. 

Near the beginning of today’s scripture passaged we find that God gave them a job and a mission - saying “you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” They were to live in a way that reflected the glory of God even, and perhaps most especially, to the nations that did not yet known about Yahweh, the God who saves. 

But they couldn’t live into this calling on their own. Left to their own devices they would certainly fall back into the habits and patterns of other nations, even with knowing and loving God. So God also gave them this covenant not just as a way to live in community and reflect the light of Salvation, but also to give them something to obey. Something to guide their own lives and act as guardrails that kept them from falling into patterns of distraction. 

But what exactly did God mean when he gave the Israelites this unique calling? Remember what it meant to be a priest. Amongst the tribes of Jacob, there was a very particular tribe that was set apart - the Levites. This tribe had religious duties, as well as communal duties that helped shape the people of Israel as a whole. They performed the religious ceremonies of the temple, they sang and played music, and they served as guards. But even with this very particular call, they didn’t have a land to call their own. Even after the Israelites settle in the Promised Land, the Levites continue to not have a place of their own, being told "the Lord the God of Israel Himself is their inheritance”. Instead, they were dependent upon the generosity of the other tribes.

So is God saying that if Israel is a Kingdom of priests that they no longer need the gifts and calling of the Levites? No. Instead, God is saying, yes, like the Levites you have a particular blessing that rests upon you. However, with that comes much responsibility - chiefly to be holy as I am holy. In other words, you are live not for your own selves, but for the sake of the name of God.

I wonder what this could mean for us today. Especially in a day and time where the wider world tells us to look out for ourselves and those we care about first and foremost. How could this understanding of what came before the Ten Commandments that undergirded its very being help us to live as a people of faith today?

Perhaps it is a reminder that we all have a part of play in the work of the Kingdom. That we are all called to be people who share in the work of spreading the Good News and living in a way that reflects not our own ways, which are often selfish, but rather the way of the God of Salvation. 

I think we need this reminder today, just as much as the people of Israel long ago, because without it, we can be all about the blessing and not about the responsibility.  We can get so caught up in living our own lives that we forget who we are living for in the first place. 

We need places to gather where we are reminded who we are and whose we are. Places to listen together for the voice of God, even when it is hard to hear. I’m sure that they last thing that the Israelites wanted to do on the way to the Promised Land was to stop and receive the rule of God that would govern them. By three months in, they would have been eager to stop traveling and start being rooted where they were to be planted. But that wasn’t God’s way or plan for them. They needed a guidepost that served as reminder that it was God who had brought them this far and it was God who would lead them on. 

In a day and time, when each person seems to do what they think is best in their own eyes, we need God to give us eyes and hearts of faith. Not faith in ourselves, but faith in the God who started this good work in us. We need places to hear the stories of ancient faith and translate them into what it means to us today. 

So we have come today to be reminded - of the God who loves us and the message that has claimed us. But we also have come to be sent out, as the Israelites were sent out long ago, to live our daily lives in a way that reflect God’s way, truth, and life in the world. Now here’s the thing, friends. The Israelite couldn’t show up with their commandments that set them apart and force nations that hadn’t even heard about God to abide by them. Instead, they demonstrated by the way that they lived that their God was different.

We need that reminder today, as well. All too often we bemoan when people who don’t know about God won’t listen to us, but I wonder if we are really living in a way that leads them to respect our voice? Are we truly obeying God or has that just become a thin coverup for our own heart and ways? What would it look like to truly be people who live out our faith in life-changing ways, here and now today? Amen.