Rule for Kingdom Living, Part 1
Rules for Kingdom Living, Part 1 by Rev. L. John Gable
October 13, 2019
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.” So begins the prologue to the Decalogue, the “Ten Words”, the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God on Mt. Sinai nearly 3.5 millennia ago; ten laws given in a particular time to a particular people which have significantly influenced every other social order and ethical system since and have formed the moral underpinnings for the entire Western civilization. What is it about these particular commandments that make them so important and timeless in their application, and perhaps even more importantly, what do these ancient words have to say to us today? During the next several weeks we will look together at the 10 Commandments in a series I am calling, “Rules for Kingdom Living.”
The year is 1290 BCE. A new Pharaoh by the name of Rameses II has ascended to the throne in Egypt and he doesn’t know the story of how an Israelite named Joseph saved his people during a time of drought centuries before. (If you don’t recall that story either read Genesis chapters 37-50, it is a page turner!) During the time of Joseph a small clan of people, the descendants of Abraham, the children of Jacob, entered peacefully in to the land of Egypt, but now, 430 years later they were an enslaved and captive people. The time had come for God to deliver His people from the land of bondage and set them free to journey to the land He had promised to Abraham centuries before, the so called Promised Land of Canaan. So, God raised up a leader by the name of Moses and through the miraculous events recorded in the early chapters of Exodus, the chains of bondage were broken and the Children of Israel were set free. In that dramatic event upwards of 4 million people, plus their flocks, flooded out of Egypt in to the wilderness of Sinai. It is estimated if they walked in a line 50 abreast this mass migration of people would extend 40 miles in to the desert.
God had graciously freed them from the bondage of slavery and delivered them from Pharaoh’s hand through the waters of the Red Sea, but one can only imagine the confusion and chaos of millions of people seeking provisions of food and water for themselves, and their animals, in the midst of the desert wilderness. We have gotten some glimpse of this as we have witnessed refugees around the globe fleeing their native homes in search of relief from war and persecution and oppression; migrants desperate to find the basic necessities of life: food, water, safety as they search for new lands to begin new lives. These people, having known only the restrictions of slavery, were now faced with the responsibilities of freedom.
It was within that setting that God called Moses up to Mt. Sinai and gave him what we call the Ten Commandments. It was there that God established the requirements for Israel’s life as a people and as a nation. Generations before, back to the call of Abraham, Yahweh had bound Himself to this particular people. He had chosen them from among the nations and had made a covenant promise to them that He would be their God and they would be His people. He would bless them in order to use them to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth in His name.
So, God acted on their behalf in two decisive ways: first by miraculously opening a way through the waters of the Red Sea, and second by giving them His Law, rules for living in His way as His people. This Law would give them the order and structure they would need not only to survive in the wilderness but even more importantly to be shaped and transformed from being a mass of migrant refugees in to a holy nation and a royal priesthood, the people of God designed to do the work of God. Mere survival was not enough, God had a purpose for this people.
It is written in the Jewish Midrash that when the first words were uttered, “the whole earth stood still. Not a bird sang, not a leaf stirred. This was an event that would change the whole world.” Legend also has it that the Law was spoken in 70 languages simultaneously, expressing the universal application of its timeless truths. This is not simply a list of rules given to some other people in some other time and place, this is the Law of God given for the benefit of all people in every time and place.
The 10 Commandments deal with both the vertical and the horizontal dimensions of our lives. The first five address our relationship with God; the second five with our relationships with one another. The first five establish our right worship of God, the second the basic social and moral requirements of life in a community. Yet as we look at the 10 Commandments we notice immediately that 8 of the 10 are written in the negative: Thou shalt not. They seem so punitive and restrictive, hardly the affirmative, up-lifting words of encouragement we like to hear today. Why so? Of course we can read the positive affirmation in to each of these “shalt nots”, but given as they are these commandments establish the broadest parameters of faithfulness and obedience to God and life within society. Like the lines on a football field they give clear guidance as to where we “step out of bounds” which then gives great freedom as to what we can do “within the lines.” They were not, and are not, intended to give specific response to every specific situation; rather they establish the foundational principles for all of our attitudes and behaviors. In a similar way, Jesus summed up the entire Law and the prophets by saying: Love God and love your neighbor, all the rest is just commentary. Through the ages and in every given culture situations and circumstances change, but reverence for God and respect for human life remain constant. Within these broad parameters we are given the freedom to decide how we will act in any given situation. In this respect, the 10 Commandments remain timeless as they establish an unchanging attitude toward God and human life; while at the same time allow an infinite flexibility as to how these principles are lived out.
Until about the time of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century there were only two generally regarded purposes for the Law, God’s Law or any laws: the first being civil restraint, laws are established to keep people from doing what society says they shouldn’t; and second, to convict those who break or disobey them. The law has the authority to convict and punish those who cross the line between good and evil, right and wrong. But it was John Calvin, the father of Presbyterianism, who introduced and stressed a third use of the law, a positive use. Calvin insisted that the law also serves to instruct and train people in righteousness, in the ways of right living with God and neighbor. The purpose of the law then is not only to restrain us or convict us, but it is also given to protect us and mold us in to right behavior, think of lines on the highway or guardrails on an overpass. Those are designed not to limit our freedom or punish us if we cross them, but to protect us from ourselves and one another. Few could argue that life would go better for all of us if all of us “stayed within the lines” laid out in the 10 Commandments, these rules for living as God designed and intends us to live.
This is our intention when establish rules with our children, isn’t it? It is not to give us reasons to punish them, but so that we can help them be respectful children and grow to become responsible adults. This then is the function of the Law for the Children of Israel. Not only was God providing them food and water in the wilderness to sustain them physically, He also gave them the Law in order to shape and mold them as His people for living life in His way, and the same is true for us today. These are God’s rules of Kingdom living, and just as we would be foolish to deny the laws of gravity, so we would be foolish to deny these. As my mother would say, “Just because everyone else is jumping off a cliff doesn’t mean you should, too.” We are God’s people, called to live by God’s Law.
Harsh and demanding though they at times may sound, we must be careful never to take them out of the context in which they are given; just as our children must understand that our rules and disciplines arise out of our love and best desires for them. It is essential that we remember that our relationship with God does not begin with the demands of the Law, but with His grace. Remember, before God gave the Children of Israel these commandments, He delivered them from the bondage of slavery. Before there was instruction there was forgiveness. This is the same sequence we find in our relationship with Christ. Before we hear His instruction of discipleship, “Take up your cross”, we first hear His word of invitation and forgiveness, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest”. God’s grace always comes before His Law.
The 10 Commandments express the will of God for His people; not Israel alone, but all people. They are not given so that we can “earn” God’s love and favor, we have that already; we are His children! The Law is given so that we may freely and faithfully respond to God in gratitude for His goodness and mercy. They give us the structure to be able to say, “We are God’s people, so this is how we are going to live.”
But curiously, some will ask, even some Christians, “Aren’t these Laws obsolete and outdated? Didn’t Jesus come to set us free from the demands of the Law?” The answer to that is both “yes and no”. Yes, Jesus did free us from the Law to the extent that is our relationship with Him is based on faith and trust and love, not our strict adherence to the Law; but, No, He did not say that the Law no longer has any merit for us. This continues to be God’s Word to us today. Matthew records Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount when He says, “I have not come to abolish the Law and the prophets, but to fulfill them…Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” God gave us the 10 Commandments not simply so that we would be blindly obedient to them, but that they might be the means to a higher end. Jesus set us free from the legalistic obedience to the “letter” of the Law, in order that we might be open to the gracious movement of God in the “spirit” of the Law. The Law is the means to a greater end: our right relationship with God and our right relationships with one another, so the end of the Law, the goal and fulfillment of the Law, is Jesus Christ, the One who alone is able to fulfill the Law, so it is to Him we turn in faith.
All of which brings us now to the first commandment. The first Law begins where the whole record of Scripture begins: with God. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God”, Exodus 20 says, “I am Yahweh your God…you shall have no other gods before Me.” This is the starting point of our faith: our relationship with God and our reverence and worship of Him. It is also the ending point and every point in between. We are called to singular devotion. Our relationship with God, the source of all life and living, “the One in whom we live and move and have our being”, takes precedence over every other relationship or allegiance in our lives. So, the first commandment establishes the foundation for all that will follow. Our God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, makes an unconditional and exclusive claim on our lives. “You shall have no other gods before Me.” I am the God who set you free from the bondage of slavery, from the bondage of sin. I am your God and I am going to teach you how to live as My people.” So, by the grace of God, He has given us His Law and are now called to live in grateful obedience to His rules for Kingdom living.