Exodus: Who Is the LORD?

I'm sure you're all groaning to see the word "give" in the title of this evening's sermon. "Not another round of begging for money! It's not PBS fundraiser week again, is it?" Thankfully not. I am indeed going to encourage you to give, but I'm mostly going to do so in terms of ancient history and in light of the God who never changes. Yes, our passage this evening talks about seven different mater...

Israel is in covenant with God now. We're going to look at some of the same territory we covered last week, but speak more about the end of the chapter (which we didn't cover) and notice the three different levels of access to God that the chapter clearly mentions. Above all, we will be looking at this chapter in light of its climactic statement that the glory of Yahweh was on Mt. Sinai like a con...

The invitation to come into God's presence is to be answered in multiple ways. There is a literal fulfillment for Moses and the 73 that involves a fair bit of mountaineering. But the covenant ratification ceremony, bracketed as it is by God's invitation to ascend into His presence, must also be read as a way of ascending to the Divine presence. If you are Joe Israelite, saying "I'm not one of the...

Suddenly we move from laws about life in the land to a description of the journey to the land, a description that focuses closely on the company along the way — the mysterious and awesome figure of the Angel of Yahweh. Also, this section is largely taken up with promises instead of demands. How does it fit in the book of the Covenant, which, as we have posited for several weeks now, is largely con...

We come this evening to look at the holidays listed here in the book of the covenant. Now, in one sense, Christ has fulfilled all of these holidays. No longer are they holy (except for the weekly Sabbath); no longer do these days exist specifically for God. So what is there to learn here? We can still learn about holiness from these days — ritual holiness, as we talked about back in Ch. 13, which...

We continue this evening to work our way through the book of the covenant. Remember, this book contains worked examples of how to apply God's morality in less-than-ideal situations. The passage we're looking at this morning is the core of the book of the covenant, and it begins and ends with the requirements of justice toward sojourners. In fact, this is one of the most important commands in the P...

The book of the covenant shows us the way through its larger commitment to justice and piety. These two values will guide us in interpreting and applying these laws in our personal lives, in our church, and in our politics too. Because our government is impious and does not recognize true worship, it cannot apply the laws against sorcery and idolatry at this point. But we can and should apply them...

We continue this evening to pursue our studies in the Book of the Covenant. As we have seen, this is a short account of how to be the people of God. It centers on the twin themes of justice toward man and piety toward God. Being a people in covenant with God requires both of these, both love for God and love for neighbor. One major way in which you love your neighbor is by having and enforcing a u...

The passage before us sounds by turns archaic, barbaric, and spot-on. Some of the scenarios described in these verses seem rather far-fetched; others radically violate our own moral sensibilities; as one commentator said (I paraphrase from memory), "It seems that the Bible would not be missing anything if vv. 20-21 had been omitted." What on earth do we take away from this miscellany of laws? We t...

The first set of laws that God gives to His people, once the preliminary matters of worship and the Mediator have been addressed, are laws about slaves. We have here two sets of five judgments regarding slaves — the first five addressing the male slave and the second five addressing the female slave. This is not a complete code of law addressing every aspect of Israel's life; as we posited last we...

We are about to move into what many Christians consider to be the worst, or second-worst, part of the Pentateuch. It's a whole bunch of laws and regulations, elaborate cases ("When so-and-so does such-and-such…"), and cryptic pronouncements ("You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk"). What possible value could there be in such a miscellaneous listing of stuff? The answer is that these...

We finished our seven-month odyssey in the Ten Commandments last week. This week, we look at the epilogue in which Moses records the people's response to the law, and the revelation which God gave immediately following that response. We see the two responses to the law encapsulated in v. 21, where the people stand back but Moses draws near. Standing back and drawing near — these are the responses...

It was 25 sermons and some seven months ago that we began working our way systematically through the ten words given by God on Mt. Sinai. We have seen the depth and power and beauty, the utter rightness, of this law. We have seen how it reflects the Logos who wrote it with His finger and spoke it to His people. We have seen how God's act of redemption is the law's first word, just as "neighbor" is...

The Ten Commandments begin with God and end with neighbor. That is intentional. When you have been brought out of the land of Egypt, that not only sets you right with Yahweh your God; it ends up putting things right between you and your neighbor as well. This final commandment sums up the rest by addressing the thoughts and motivations of the heart. In forbidding covetousness, it requires contentm...

Dearly beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the ninth commandment covers a lot of territory relating to our own and our neighbor's good name, especially in witness-bearing. Literally translated, it says "You shall not answer against your neighbor as a false witness." But though the commandment contains many directions in which we could go, and says much about the right way to speak and f...

Dearly beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come this morning to discuss what is verboten according to the eighth commandment. "Thou shalt not steal," as we saw last time, requires us to get, keep, dispose of, and grow our property in a lawful and godly way. Property is not absolutely ours, but only relatively so. That is where the obligation to use it lawfully comes from. Today we ar...

We come this morning to the sermon you've all been waiting for: What is forbidden in the seventh commandment. All you have to do to see an instance of something forbidden in the seventh commandment is to walk around town, or turn on the television. We are surrounded by the breach of this one; we ourselves, and our fellow Americans, truly have eyes full of adultery and cannot cease from sin. In Hel...

The commandments are arranged in order of importance, and this one is less crucial than honoring others, than preserving their lives, and than preserving their families and relational happiness. That much is clear. But though this commandment is less important, it is still important — important enough to be listed in the ten commandments. Our culture has many things right about this commandment; b...

Chastity means contentment with your sex and with the expression of it that God has providentially allowed you. Married men, your genitals are there not only to please God but also to pleasure your wife. Married women, your figure is there not only to please God but also to pleasure your husband. Chastity means that you don't use your sexuality on yourself, but for God and for your spouse. Because...

What we'll see is that the seventh commandment requires chastity, and that chastity means making right use of your sexuality. We're going to talk about that in terms of what men and women are called to do, at the most basic level. Both sexes are called to take dominion, love God and neighbor, and make disciples. Men are particularly called to work and guard, while women are particularly called to...

We come this morning to discuss what is forbidden in the sixth commandment. We saw last week that, positively speaking, the commandment requires us to exert all lawful endeavors to preserve our own lives and the lives of others. Negatively speaking, though, this commandment forbids us from taking away human life unjustly — and it also forbids anything that tends that direction. Again, this is a la...

Right now, the world around us is obsessed with safety, obsessed with preserving life, and in general keeps one side of this commandment to excess. That is matched, of course, by a defective observance of other parts of the commandment. Lockdowns are necessary to save lives, say the same people who are in favor of assisted suicide, abortion, and abortifacient birth control methods.

We saw last time the duty of honor that the fifth commandment requires. We saw that this commandment is echoed in the New Testament with the broader command "Honor all men." And we saw that honor as a category applies not just to superiors (such as father and mother), but to all persons whatsoever, whether your superiors, inferiors, or equals. So today we are going to look at the sins forbidden in...

This commandment does not just refer to one relationship in your life, the relationship to your parents. It refers to every relationship in your life. How can I say that? Well, for one thing, we posited at the outset that every commandment names the worst instance of that particular kind of sin. In this case, then, the particular kind of sin is the sin of dishonoring others, and the worst instance...

If I say that in order to keep the eighth commandment you must measure property boundaries to the nearest millionth of a meter, I am going beyond Scripture. I am erring in excess. If I say that to keep the sixth, you must adopt my exact diet and exercise regimen, again I am erring in excess. So don't let me or anyone else tell you "The way I keep the Sabbath is the only way." Only one person can t...