|
The Big Ten
 How many gods do you have? Seriously. Those things that you hold up like kites in the air, strange gods which fly around giving you delight when it soars or sadness when it crashes to the ground. And where are our gods when we need them?
Having gone through the remembrance of Moses and his war with the Pharaoh, like everyone has shaken off the sand and dust and water and pain, and have arisen with a clean heart and soul to walk them to the promised promise land, God began to speak to his worn out people. He doesn’t “show up” so much since He gave us His Son Jesus to die for us, to set us straight on the path of how to be better children of God. I don’t feel God speaks out loud to me. I’m just a minute spot in his grand world, but he passes on what He wants me to know through people God puts in our lives to pull us one way or the other when we might not be doing the right thing, or are sloppy or lazy, or forgetting who is our Savior.
We learn at an early age about the 10 Commandments, almost as soon as we learn the Lord’s Prayer. It Is the intention to put the fear of God in us when we really, at such an early age, don’t understand who is this non-visual God (we learn through the stories of Jesus) although Moses is a visible character whose story can be told even in a children’ book style. But in Exodus, after all the mess and victory Moses had suffered with his people moaning and groaning behind him, never satisfied with Moses, nor with what was going on around them, finally God stood up, and I imagine He stomped his foot and said, “ Listen! Here what I’m about to say. And it makes a difference in your lives.” God’s words are specifically for Israel’s covenant obligations to Him and to each other. He gives the commandments in as broad a language as possible, so as not to be mis-understood or for anyone to get it wrong. This seems to me to be why we can learn the 10 Cs when we are still young and wondering how to form our goodness or badness.
If you were sitting under a tree and there appeared a powerful spirit that has no identification but somehow spoke to one’s heart and soul, and said “I am the Lord your God” and He pointed out, which should be proof enough, that He is the one who rescued you, brought you out of Egypt, out of the land where you had been slaves, that He had set you free after various efforts to, it seemed, wake up Pharaoh’s behavior and cruelty, I would suspect you would stand up and bow down. But since Pharaoh would not respond nor change his ways with each new plague, God had to get serious and eliminate all the bad, so He could teach his people the good. And with the good, God needed to set up rules so his people, the Israelites, the beginning of his new creation, would know which pathway to choose anytime there was a question, a challenge, or a doubt.
“I am the Lord your God,” He started. One cannot get more exact than that. And God pointed out that He brought each one of them out of Egypt, that exercise where they were slaves and had no freedom to be who they are. Therefore, God declared, “You shall have no other gods before me.” It would have been useful if God explained word by word what kind of god was he talking about. I don’t think the Israelites understood “God”. They were accustomed to Moses and they often complained about him, because they didn’t understand what was happening, and they were tired of being slaves, yet, it seemed they still didn’t get “God.” This seems to be the first time that God had shown himself to anyone.
The Lord here is in the person or Israel’s great king, whose action in saving the Israelites now requires some sort of gratitude and allegiance which no one anywhere could offer, and only his people could respond to in the proper way. And, God said firmly, there shall be no other god anywhere, anytime, anyplace, not any deity, not any idolatrous object associated with the Lord or not. And about this we need to re-think in our modern times when there are so many objects that we possess, worship, depend on, that seems to me to be the opposite of what the Lord Our God declared in not worshiping any deity or anything but Him. Now that may be difficult because we humans think human - a man speaking has a man to speak it. And though they did not see God, I believe, and Moses was the translator, maybe they saw God as He ordered his commandments. Yet it’s hard to have an image of someone if they are not physically present.
God continued that no one could use the name of the Lord, or misuse His name, nor curse with His name, which my dad would do when he was super mad. And how many of us say “God damn it,” or something horrible and insulting to include God in one’s sin or action by throwing out His name? It offends me so much on television and in the movies, where slur and violent and dirty words are tossed around like a ball in a tennis match. That is not right. We are told “you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” Period. I remember when I was in my twenties - one thought it “cool” to throw out the “G damn it.” Or something similar. Finally, I realized that was not impressing any guy or person. It was only degrading my own spirit. and respect. Yet, my father would throw it out whenever he was mad.
Then God brought up respecting the Sabbath day which has somehow been put aside by the Catholic, Anglican, Episcopal faiths. It, however, has been respected by the Jewish faith. They do honor the Sabbath. We don’t. We think of it as a free day when the workweek has a break, get out the tennis racquet, the golf course, or the basketball or fishing pole and clean up the house. It’s doing work and things on a day that should be holy. We tend to toss the holy day over to Sunday. And that is because of the crucifixion of Jesus, which would come in another time and place much later in the future than when Moses existed and God spoke his commandments. But are we doing it right?
Honor your father and mother, God orders, somehow we must be taught to honor them by their behaviors, their goodness, not their bad days. But what does this mean to the children who have abusive, horrible parents who want power over their children, who whip them, lock them up, giving them up to abuse and to cruelty and crime and the children never know about love and goodness nor God the Father. After this comes some of the abuses that parents will set out for their growing children or fail to remember themselves as they survive in a violent society: Do not murder, nor commit adultery, do not steal, to not give false testimony against neighbors or people you don’t particularly like or get along with - they, like us, might have obnoxious dogs that bark all night.
And of course, do not covet anything that your neighbor has. Envy is a sin, and whatever one next door has, has nothing to do with what you have, and copying doesn’t work. If a neighbor has beautiful gardenia shrubs, you can ask for a cutting, but you do not steal it or damage it when they are not looking. And if you see your neighbor sinning, having an affair, abusing a child, throwing garbage in the streets, using dogs to fight each other, it is your decision to step in and help or calm a situation. Evil things are not good. Coveting is one thing, but reporting abuse is another.
Just to let His people know, this was not a joke or a Sunday afternoon chat, God let loose thunder and lightning and the sound of a loud trumpet, and there was smoke covering the mountain, so much so, the Israelites, every one, trembled in fear. So frightened they were, that they asked Moses to speak for God because God was so tough and frightening in His voice, they feared they would die. Moses explained that, for sure, God was testing each of his people, so that they will see He is serious and strict, but that He will also be with them and teach them how to refrain from sinning. Then Moses went into a dark place where God was not so brilliant and frightening, and God spoke directly to Moses so that he would tell his people to beware that they don’t make any kind of crazy or extra or gold or special gods. All God wanted was a simple altar of the earth where they could sacrifice sheep and goats and cattle in honor or for Him. Stay simple and believe, is about what God wants for us to be and do in the end.
~ Rev
---------------------------------
audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
www.audreytaylorgonzalez.com
|
