Coromandel Baptist Church

Sunday 30 August 2009 Ex. 20:7-11; Heb. 4:1-10 and Heb. 6:13-20

God's Ten Words (2)

Last time we were considering the Ten Commandments we noticed that they were a grace gift to Israel (and thus the whole world), in that they were given to a redeemed people. God, who had loved Israel from before the foundation of the world and who had chosen to bring them into existence through Abraham, remembered his covenant with them. The Ten Commandments lie a the heart of God's gracious dealings with Israel, and are the golden kernel of the Mosaic covenant. They are torah, not mere legislation, and represent in written terms the character and glory of God. In this way the commandments are fully congruent with the living image of God which we are. There is no contradiction between being a human being and living under torah, and certainly no burden. The commandments may appear to be hard law, but this is only because they meet the sinful Flesh, and condemn us. In the original creation-as in the final glory of the new heavens and earth-the moral glory of the commandments equate with true human freedom and dignity. In the age in which we now live, redeemed humanity finds the commands to be a delight and sweeter than honeycomb (e.g. Ps. 1, 19, 119). This does not mean we can faultlessly obey them, even if our delight is to do so (witness Rom. 7!), but we stand as God's justified people in Christ, and in him we delight in the Law of God in the inmost depths.

Last time, we considered briefly the first two commandments, where we saw that:

(1) We are to honour God for who he really is (and have no other ‘god' of our own imagining before him) and

(2) We are to honour him by not making any graven images (either of him or of any other so called god). These two commandments mean that we are to love him above all else and worship him in spirit and truth, as he really is-i.e. as he has revealed himself to be. The next two words spoken by God (the third and fourth commandments) are expressive of the way in which we are to honour him as God in two aspects of our lives: honouring his Name and entering his Rest.

The third commandment rules out taking the Name of the Lord in vain. Positively, this command enjoins us to honour the Lord's Name in all that we do. It is the equivalent of the first request in the Lord 's Prayer, ‘Hallowed be your name'. It is the longing for God's will to be done, for his Name to be revealed and glorified. Negatively, this commandment prohibits any use of his Name for our own benefit or glory. While in the strict sense we may say that this commandment is specifically related to the revelation of the Name of Yahweh, it is not primarily to do with the vocalization of the Name (fear of which has caused the original pronunciation of the divine Name to be lost). The name of God stands for his character. He has revealed himself to Moses by the Name ‘Yahweh', which, though not unknown before, has now had its meaning revealed through the events of the exodus. God will later reveal more of the meaning of the Name to Moses (Ex. 33:20-23 cf. 34:5ff.), but the Name and the character of God are one. When we use his Name, we are to respect his character and to honour him by worshiping him as he really is. His Name is to be worshiped (i.e. called upon), praised, adored, feared, etc. (e.g. Gen. 21:33; 26:25; Ps. 5:11; 7:17; 119:132; etc.). By contrast, using the Name of God in vain is to make false prophetic utterances, employing the Name of the Lord to give them some validity (e.g. Jer. 14:14; 23:23ff.; 29:8,. 23; cf. Matt. 7:22); it is to curse and swear falsely in his Name (e.g. Lev. 24:10ff. cf. Peter's denial in Matt. 26:69ff.); or to use the Name superstitiously (cf. Acts 19:13ff.); or to speak about the Lord in a false and malicious way, ascribing to him characteristics and actions that do not belong to his Name (e.g. Ps. 139:21 cf. Ps. 74:18, 22f.; Judg. 1:15; etc.). Moreover, in making oaths (in which we swear by one greater than ourselves) we are not to take the name of the Lord on our lips in any vain way, not meaning what we say. In all these ways we are called to honour the Name of the Lord.

The fourth commandment tells us that the God, the Creator, is the Lord of all time and the providential provider for all our needs. The whole of the societal life of Israel revolved around the Sabbath...weekly, in the sabbatical year, and in the year of Jubilee. The commandment here (in Ex. 20:8-11) is slightly different in its wording from that in Deuteronomy 5:13-15, but together the commands relating to the Sabbath indicate that the Sabbath is both creational and redemptive in its importance. Sabbath rest reminded Israel that Yahweh was the maker of heaven and earth, and so they were to enjoy the rest which belonged to the very fabric of the creation itself. It also reminded them that the Lord was Israel's specific creator, through the great act of redemption. They were to remember their slavery in Egypt and to enjoy Sabbath rest because God the creator was also their redeemer. In their personal dealings with one another and with the land that they were given to occupy they were to be mindful of this great act of mercy. They had come from slavery and had been redeemed into restful joy by God's grace. Thus they were to deal kindly and mercifully with one another, with their livestock and the land itself, that all may yield its increase in due season. The Sabbath was a commanded blessing.

Sabbath was to be a time of delight, and a time of deliberately turning aside from one's own things, to the things of the Lord (Is. 58:13-14). The worship and societal life of Israel, therefore, was not to be ruled by the fleshly thrust for work and increasing one's own wealth, nor for the unceasing activity that idolatry demands, but by the fact that they could rest and trust God for all their needs. The Sabbath set Israel apart from the other nations, and portrayed to the nations the gracious care of God for his people's welfare. We have given some attention to the theme in other places

(e.g. http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=112082152212 or http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=41108241440), and these sermons cover the topic in more detail than we can cover on this occasion.