EXODUS 20 Lesson # 17
TEN COMMANDMENTS: LOVING GOD
I. Greetings.
II. Introduction:
Note: Today we are going to study the famous Ten Commandments.
Q Do you know another name for the “The Ten Commandments”?
An = They are often called by the name: the Decalogue. Decalogue of course, means the “ten laws”. Actually, in Hebrew it is called the “Ten Words”. It is not too hard to imagine why the Lord put the laws in a group of ten: (hold up your hands) for we have ten fingers. (By the way the Decalogue is repeated in Deuteronomy 5:6 ff.)
Q The Ten Commandments are neatly divided into two categories do you know what they are?
An = The two divisions are laws that govern our relationship to God and laws that govern our relationship with other humans beings. The first four have to do with “how do I deal with God”. The last six have to do with “how do I deal with my fellow man”. In other words the Ten Commandments have two components: vertical and horizontal.
Q What do you think is the purpose of the Ten Commandments?
An = The Ten Commandments are concerned with how to deal with relationships with persons. First of all, the Person of God and secondly, the other humans in our lives. The Ten Commandments are the revelation of God’s will. They are the revelation of what is most important to Him. How we treat persons is of utmost importance to God. If you would like to be right with God without treating His person correctly or people correctly then the Bible cannot help you.
Let me explain further…
>>>> Turn with me to Matthew 22:34-40 and lets read together:
Q What are the two greatest commandments?
An = They are a summary of the Ten Commandments. They are a summary of the two great categories found within the Ten Commandments themselves. Simply put, the two great commandments are: to love God and to love your fellow human beings. Love is the key to both of commandments, and loving persons, not things.
Q Is it more important to love your church, religion, singing Christian songs, theology, doctrine, even the Bible or to love persons?
An = The key to the heart of God is in loving other persons. It is loving persons: the person of God and the people. It is when you love God or love persons that you and I are doing His will.
Note: Since there are two types of commandments to love: to love God and to love man, we will first focus on how to love God and next time we will focus on how to love other people.
III. The First Two Commandments: Exodus 20:1-6.
A. The Prologue to the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:1-2.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 20:1-2.
Q What is the first thing God says to them before He gives commandments?
An = The Lord is not just any God, He is their God. Before He gave them commandments He first saved them from Egypt. Before He gave them law He first brought them out of the house of slavery. Deliverance must precede the Commandments.
Q What happens if Christian rules precede an experience of salvation?
An = The Law always follows deliverance. God acts first. We cannot earn our salvation by our obedience, that only leads to arrogance and legalism. We cannot earn His love. If God has not saved us then the Law “becomes a burden”.
Q How many of you know kids who knew the rules before they experienced Christ as savior? What are they like?
Q Why are Christians to live differently? Why do we obey the commandments?
An = We obey because we are grateful for what He has done. It is not because we are “goodie-goodies” but because we are being loyal, we are in love with God and grateful. Our obedience to the Laws of God is response to salvation.
>>>> Have everyone turn to Ephesians 2:3-10 read this to the group. Then read 4:1.
Q How many chapters does the book of Ephesians have?
An = In the book of Ephesians there are six chapters: 1-3 speak of God’s salvation, 4-6 speak of how do we live now that we are saved. Philippians is the same way. It has four chapters: 1-2 speak of salvation, 3-4 speak of how do we live not that we are saved. The same is true of Romans, Colossians and I Timothy. Most of Paul’s books can be divided into two parts: salvation and response. Paul understood the nature of the Old Testament.
B. The First Two Commandments: Exodus 20:3-4.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 20:3-4.
Q What is the first commandment?
An = The first commandment in verse 3 simply means that God must be number one. He is almighty God and there can be no other gods before Him. To be love with God means nothing can be in competition with Him.
Q Does this sound oppressive? Does it sound too demanding? Does it sound too stifling?
An = It is stifling, if God has not delivered you first. Putting Him first must be a response in gratitude. If He has not saved you then why put Him first? If He has then He has a right to your love, and to love Him you must put Him first.
RQ If you love your fiance or your husband or wife, is it stifling to be exclusively loyal to them only and put no other man or woman before them?
Q Is this demand for exclusive love different than the New Testament?
An = Lets turn to just one example: >>>> Have someone read Luke 14:26-27. You see Jesus understood being rightly related to Him demanded that we put Him first over all other gods and indeed all other things in life.
Q What does the second commandment, Exodus 20:4, mean?
An = This is often called the “Prohibition against Images”. A pesel was a carved or chiseled image, where as masseha was an image made from pouring metal into a mold. The Israelites were surrounded by people on all sides who worshipped with the use of carved or poured images. They were forbidden to do so.
Q Why was Israel forbidden to worship with idols? This seems so strange.
An = 1) Most scholars agree that this was not to produce a “Higher Spirituality”. It is not an O.T. concept to place a “spiritual” understanding over a “material” form of worship.
2) The Lord of all heaven and earth cannot be captured in any representation. He is beyond all our comprehension. He was greater than any one concept, picture, or image. He is the Almighty, the one who says: “I am that, I am”, “I will be, what I will be”. He is the Lord.
3) In the ancient world the “deity did not equal the image”, but rather the deity would take possession of the idol. They made the idol and then the divine power would inhabit it. In many ways the “prohibition against images” is a commandment against magic. If we can make an image and the deity enters then maybe can compel God to do our bidding. God was beyond all magical manipulation. You could be loyal to Him and treat other human beings right but you could do no religious rituals or rites with an idol that would matter to Him. It is relationship, not religion that governs the understanding of the Old Testament and the New Testament.
C. God Gives Further Reasons For Putting Him First. Exodus 20:5-6.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 20:5-6.
Q Does it bother you that God is said to be “jealous”?
Q Why could this bother someone?
An = In English our word “jealousy” implies a pettiness or small mindedness. When a guy is too jealous the girl often feels the guy is possessive in a dangerous, stiffling way. It does not seem to exalt God’s reputation for Him to call Himself jealous.
What might help you is the Hebrew word that underlies our English word jealousy is kenah. This same word is often translated “zeal” and you will find it 67 times through the Old Testament. As you look at all these examples I believe the better way to translate this word is “intensity” rather than our English word “jealousy”. Let me show you what I mean.
Note: Lets say a young man was dating a gal and he was planning to marry her. He had given her a ring, and then he found out that she was kissing another guy. His response to this when he finds out is: “Oh, that’s OK”
Q Would you think he was really in love?
Q What if a man would not get jealous any more even when he saw the girl be disloyal? Is he still in love?
An = When one is no longer jealous there is no longer intense love. God is “intensely” in love with you if you are His child.
Q How many generations does the Lord’s punishment goes through?
An = Four generations.
Q How many generations does His blessings extend towards those who love Him and keep His commandments?
An = It goes through thousands. His grace is greater than His wrath.
Q Do you think it is fair that a man or woman can sin and their children and grandchildren suffer?
Q From your own experience, is not true, that when a man or woman sins they bring havoc on their families?
An = If a man works hard to provide security and love for his family, will this not result in a strength and blessing for his children and wife? Is it fair that we are allowed to influence one another? Whether it is fair or not, it happens. The key way we are to bless our children and future generations is to be loyal to God, to put no other gods before Him and to worship Him, truly worship Him, not just be religious (idols).
Q How many of you know parents who are religious but it is not a blessing to their children or their neighbors?
An = Being heavily involved in church can sometimes be seen by God as an idol. The person thinks because they are religious they can manipulate God. Appearing righteous, being judgmental, being hateful against those who disagree with their theology, etc. is not what loving God is all about. Such behavior could actually be idolatrous. Some people love their doctrine more than they love God or other humans.
D. The Third Commandment. Exodus 20:7.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 20:7.
Q What does this command mean?
An = This commandment is often understood to mean not to cuss using God’s Name. That we should not do that is clear in other parts of the Old Testament. However, the main issue here is probably more along the lines of when you speak and back it up with an oath using God’s Name, then if you break the oath God will hold you responsible. Jesus does an interesting take off on this in Matthew 5:33-37.
E. The Fourth Commandment. Exodus 20:8-11.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 20:8-11.
Q Is God trying to make our lives miserable by taking away a day?
An = I was riding in an airline and looked at the magazine in the little pocket on the seat before me and I began to read about top executive burn out. Major corporations had begun to see that if their top men were “work-a-holics” then they eventually lost them. It was even something they began to look into before they promoted them up too high. Good executives took breaks, took vacations.
EX When I finished the dissertation…I was so burned I could not create new material for months… I had never taken a Sabbath. Provide an example here from your own life that illustrates the need to take a Sabbath.
Q Do any of you have an illustration of the need to take a Sabbath?
Note: There are many applications to this Law that reveal God’s love for us, but let me give you just one: God wants us to be healthy. If we get so busy that we never slow down, no matter how much we earn for our family, no matter how much we accomplish for our ministry, then we do not really live life as it should be.
RQ It is amazing, is it not, that loving God is being healthy? This says a lot about the God who gave us this commandment.
Q When we take a Sabbath do we do a better job?
An = I think we do. The rest gives us perspective and often helps us get a better hold of how to see the work that we are doing. We often so continually busy that we cannot see the forest from the trees. The quiet and change of pace can give us renewal and a clearer ability to view our work situations.
When we take a Sabbath it gives us chance to slow down and actually contemplate life. What a tragedy is would be to work hard all of our lives and then never see the key issues in life: family, friends, what God really wants.
Q Is the Bible against hard work?
An = It is against hard work destroying our inner lives because we get no break. We are to work six days. Good believers are hard workers. Hard workers need sabbaths.
Q Does anyone know what “sabbath” means?
An = The word can signify two concepts: “rest” and seventh”. Those who believe a sabbath has to Sunday or Saturday might be missing the point. Every seventh day, take a rest. The reason Christians take Sunday as their Sabbath instead of the Jewish Saturday is to honor the day the Lord rose from the dead.
>>>> You re-read Exodus 20:11.
Note: The key motivation to obey the Sabbath law is because our Lord Himself rests. If we wish to honor Him we need to be like Him. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.