Hear the devo: https://bit.ly/4rz0tKU
20:1 And God spoke all these words: 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before 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.” 18 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance 19 and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” (Exodus 20:1-20 NIV)
Happy and Blessed Tuesday to you, dear Friend. May our time together be a powerful and spiritual time of great rejoicing and praise to He Who blesses us all! May we continue to lift our prayers for the Gabbert family and the Hisey family during their time of grief. As I shared with you in a prayer update, last night at 10:30 pm (Monday), Gerald was received home to the arms of our Lord Jesus after his fall and subsequent time in hospice care. May God grant all who mourn peace. Prayers for this old man as I travel Saturday to Corpus Christi to share a word at the memorial service of The Rev. Dr. Harold Onwiler, a dear friend, colleague and servant of the Lord, who passed away some time ago. Due to a medical need in the life of his son, the service was delayed until Saturday. May the Lord grant me a word of comfort and peace.
When our firstborn baby was learning to crawl, we placed a large blanket on the living room floor. She was just beginning to master her movements and what she needed was the room on which to explore what she could and could not do. As she lay on her stomach she lifted herself up on all fours and turned to see if we were still in the room. We were. She smiled and then made her move towards the end of the blanket. Every inch she covered meant her turning back to see us; she'd smile again with that beautiful smile of hers, and then back to her determined destination. When she reaced the end of the blanket, she wondered, "Is it safe to leave the blanket? What lies beyond this protective covering of the floor? Will the floor be safe? Or will I fall down whatever void it really is?" Again, a look back towards Mom and then Dad. Another smile and then with her hands touched the floor and giggling she made the move off the carpet and onto the floor. That speaks of God introducing the Law to His people. He had lef them form into a nation while wandering in the desert; away from slavery and towards freedom, and helping them shape their behavior. What does it mean to sin? What acts are allowed? Which are forbidden? What does it all mean? And as we study the 10 Commandments may we be reminded of the responsiblity we have to look always toward God and receive His look of approval or warning. There's no telling what our daily "floor" may hold or not hold for us!
Before we talk about the Ten Commandments — and we are going to talk about them — let's notice the very first thing God says, because it's easy to skip past it in the rush to get to the thou-shalt-nots. He doesn't open with a rule. He opens with a relationship: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." Before He says do this or don't do that, He says who He is and what He's already done. The commandments are not the terms of a transaction designed to earn His favor. They are the shape of a life that reflects the character of a God who has already shown up, already rescued, already carried His people through the sea on eagles' wings. The law comes after the grace. It has always come after the grace. Anyone who tells you that the Old Testament God was about rules and the New Testament God was about relationship has not read the beginning of Exodus 20 carefully enough.
Now, the commandments themselves. There are ten of them, which is a manageable number, and Jesus will eventually summarize them into two, which is even more manageable, but for now let's appreciate that God gave us ten rather than, say, six hundred and thirteen — which is the number the rabbinic tradition eventually counted in the full Torah, so ten is already a significant act of mercy in terms of memorization alone. The first four deal with the vertical relationship — with God, and how we relate to Him. No other gods. No idols. Don't misuse His name. Keep the Sabbath. The last six deal with the horizontal — with each other. Honor your parents. Don't murder. Don't commit adultery. Don't steal. Don't lie. Don't covet. Together they form a picture of what a community looks like when it's oriented toward God and toward each other in the right way.
The no-other-gods commandment is first, and it is first because everything else depends on it. The question of who or what holds the highest place in your life is not a religious question reserved for Sunday mornings — it is the organizing question of every hour of every day, because whatever is actually first shapes everything else. Money in the first position produces a certain kind of life. Reputation in the first position produces another kind. Security. Status. The approval of the people around you. Each of these, when elevated to the throne that only God belongs on, becomes an idol — not necessarily a statue, but a functional god, a thing that controls your decisions the way only the Lord is supposed to. The commandment is not a restriction designed to make life smaller. It is a liberation designed to make life coherent — to free you from the exhausting and ultimately futile project of serving masters who will eventually let you down.
The Sabbath commandment is perhaps the most countercultural thing God says in the whole list, and it was radical when He said it and it is somehow even more radical now. One day in seven — stop. Not because there isn't more to do. There is always more to do. But because you are not a productivity machine, and the God who rested on the seventh day was not tired. He was modeling for the people He made that rest is not a reward you earn when the work is done. It is a rhythm built into the fabric of creation, a weekly declaration that your value does not come from what you produce, and a reminder that the world will continue to turn on the day you take off from managing it. We have largely decided as a culture that we know better than the Sabbath commandment. The evidence suggests we were wrong.
The last commandment — do not covet — is fascinating because it's the only one that deals entirely with the interior life, with what's happening in the mind and heart before it ever shows up in behavior. You can avoid murdering someone while coveting everything they have. You can avoid stealing while spending significant mental energy wishing you had what belongs to your neighbor. The commandment against coveting is God saying: the inside matters. What you rehearse in your imagination shapes what you eventually do with your hands. The war against sin begins not at the action but at the appetite, which is exactly what Jesus will say on the Sermon on the Mount when He takes each of these commandments and drives them deeper into the interior.
When the thunder and lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the smoke on the mountain send the Israelites backing away in fear, Moses says something that is both reassuring and clarifying: do not be afraid — God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning. The fear God is after is not the terror of a slave before an unpredictable master. It is the reverence of a people who have seen who He is and take Him seriously enough to live accordingly. There is a difference between being afraid of God and fearing God, and Moses is pointing at the second one. The first produces distance. The second produces alignment.
Jesus will take all of this — every commandment, every regulation, every layer of the law — and fulfill it. Not abolish it. Fulfill it. And the Spirit He sends at Pentecost is the Spirit who writes the law not on stone tablets but on human hearts — who makes the alignment that the commandments describe something that flows from the inside rather than being imposed from the outside. The ten words carved in stone at Sinai become, through Christ, the character being formed by the Spirit in the life of the believer. Same direction. Different power source.
PRAYER: Loving Lord, write Your law on our hearts by Your Spirit, so that what You command becomes what we desire and what we desire begins to look more and more like You. This we pray in Christ Jesus' strong name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! OUR CALL TO ACTION: Take one commandment today — just one — and spend five minutes asking God honestly whether it is fully and freely honored in your life right now, and what one step toward deeper alignment might look like.
I love you and I thank God for you! You matter to God and you matter to me! Keep on keeping on in loving all people to win them over to abundant life!
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
