As we celebrate National Fatherhood Month, we are in the midst of a 5-week series entitled, Fathers Giving the Moral Foundation to Their Children That the Culture Won’t. Unlike adherents to multi-culturalism, Christians realize that God chose to reveal his moral law to one nation, Israel, in a rather spectacular manner. God descended to Mt Sinai. We read this physical description.
Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up (Exodus 19:17-20).
And there, God himself wrote his summary of his moral law on two stone tablets using his own finger (Dt 5:22). There is no other text of the Bible written directly by the finger of God. The two tablets were called the Ten Words, the decalogue, and kept in the Ark of the Covenant. Foty years later, In Deuteronomy 5, Moses repeated The Ten Commandments for the next generation. This episode examines how to apply the first commandment as the leaders of our homes and provides some thoughts about teaching it to our kids, using the New City Catechism.
Thousands of Americans have been asked the question, “If you were to die tonight and God were to say to you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven,’ what would you say?” Let’s consider several answers: The majority have responded with a variation of, “Well, I try to be good and obey the Ten Commandments—I mean I’m not a murdered or a thief, or adulterer.” But the NT writers make clear that no one is saved by keeping the moral law. A second frequent answer, this from true Christians is, “Well, in the Old Testament, God’s covenant people were under the law. They were saved by keeping the law, but in the NT, we are not under law but saved by grace alone through faith.” It might surprise you to know that this response is also incorrect. The law was never given to Israel so its members could keep it to gain their salvation. This widespread misunderstanding is the result of confusion over the different categories of God’s law; some categories are no longer binding but some categories are.
Besides the moral law, there are two other categories of Biblical law, civil and ceremonial. The civil law regulated the functioning of civil society, e.g. property laws, marriage laws, laws prohibiting theft, murder, rape and manslaughter. This part of Scripture is the source of much of America’s civil and criminal legal system. But Israel was also a theocracy in which the church and state were united such that sorcery, the worship of false God’s, and adultery were capital offenses. Christ’s arrival ends a theocracy for God’s people. Spiritual authority is given to the church leaders, exercised through church discipline. The power of the sword is given to the state to punish society’s evils which directly harm others like, murder, rape, theft, and fraud.
The ceremonial law is revealed most fully in Leviticus. It covers required offerings, feasts, and ceremonial cleanness. The book of Hebrews is written to show us that the ceremonial law is no longer binding because it was fulfilled in Christ. But what is confusing is that in Paul’s day keeping the moral law and ceremonial law had become a matter of pride among the Jews, especially the religious leaders, leading them to trust their own good works—as their ticket to heaven. This is the group Paul criticizes in Galatians where he contrasts “being under the law” with trusting Christ. Paul does not in any way abrogate the moral law; the NT presents the Ten Commandments as thoroughly binding.
Ten Commandments Overview Observations
A. Observation #1. The Ten Commandments are given after Israel is set free from slavery in Egypt. Exodus 20:1-2 And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Yahweh addresses his people as their REDEEMER—the one who has already set them free from bondage in Egypt. Earlier, in chapter 19, he had said, ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. In the Bible, Israel’s slavery in Egypt is typology, signifying human bondage to sin. God did not give the moral law to Israel while they were in Egypt so they could earn his favor by keeping it. He gave it AFTER he had shown them his mercy, grace, and unconditional love by delivering them from bondage in Egypt. Thinking that Israel was saved by keeping the law was a perversion of OT teaching embraced by the proud scribes and Pharisees. Paul goes to great lengths in Galatians and Romans to explain that Abraham and all the OT saints were saved by grace through faith. The historic fact that the moral law was given to Israel after he had already provided their salvation has huge implications for how we view the Ten Commandments:
- Obeying them is not to try to GET God to love us; it’s because he already DOES love us.
- Obeying them is not an attempt to APPEASE an ANGRY God; it is an attempt to PLEASE a MERCIFUL God who loves us unconditionally.
This is a watershed difference that we need to experience and help our loved ones to grasp. Christian Counselors, Henry Cloud and John Townsend note, “When we finally understand that God isn’t mad at us anymore, we become free to concentrate on love and growth instead of trying to appease him” (How People Grow). Steve Brown observes the same truth, “Only those who know God will still love them even if they don’t get better will ever get any better” (DMin class).
B. Observation #2: God’s moral law is the pathway to life. Nearly every time God mentions a moral requirement in Scripture, God tells us that keeping it is the path to life. Consider just one text: Consider just a few verses from Deut 28:1-8.
And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments… Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake.
In every conceivable way, God says, you will be blessed if you keep these commandments. They are life. We need to help our children see that Satan lied to Eve, saying God’s command forbidding them to eat of the tree was denying them happiness, and that Satan has been repeating that lie to every human ever since. But the fact was that LIFE was in obedience to God. Most scholars believe that had Adam and Eve resisted the temptation over a probationary period of time—they would have been confirmed in righteousness, a condition where there would be no tears, or death, or suffering, or pain. Obedience is always the path to life. The wage that sin pays is always death.
C. Observation #3: Far from being minimized in the NT as some mistakenly think when they hear the Christians are “not under law but grace,” God’s moral law portrays the way human beings were designed to live. In Matthew 6:33, Jesus says our top priority is to spread Jesus’ kingdom of righteousness over earth—the restoration of everything broken by sin. In Tim Keller’s words, “the kingdom is the renewal of the whole world through the entrance of supernatural forces. As things are brought back under Christ’s rule and authority, they are restored to health, beauty, and freedom” (Ministries of Mercy). The first four core heart attitudes for kingdom living are about overcoming sinful hearts to pursue righteousness: 1) poor in spirit--repenting over our sinful desire for independence, 2) those who mourn—grieving over the harm and all sin brings about, 3) the meek—surrendering in full allegiance to King Jesus, 4) those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Hungering to obey God’s moral law is not legalism; it is seeking first the kingdom of God and fulfilling the 4th beatitude.
The First Commandment: You shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3)
The first and most foundational commandment, says God, is, keep me first in your life. This commandment recognizes the tendency of the sinful human heart to find or manufacture false Gods to serve. Calvin called the human heart an idol factory. When most people think of “idols” they think of literal statues or perhaps Ryan Seacrest anointing the next popstar on American Idol. Yet, while traditional idol worship still occurs in some places of the world, internal idol worship within the heart is universal. Tim Keller in his book, writes:
What is an idol? It is:
- Anything more important to you than God
- Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God
- Anything you seek to give you what only God can give.
So, in this command, God is saying, “Don’t worship the sun, moon, or stars. Don’t worship Baal or Molech. Don’t worship Allah, or Budha, or Marx or Mao.” He is also saying, “Don’t worship YOURSELF,” the biggest idol of today’s culture. “Don’t worship material goods, pleasure, success, fame, or money. Don’t worship fashion, position, ease, or men’s applause. Biblically speaking, a false god is whatever you subtly trust in, instead of God, to get you what your heart secretly craves.
Through tears a young husband said to me, “I don’t know why my porn craving has so much control over me.” I said, “Let’s talk about that. Growing in sexual purity is more the result of changing what your heart loves than changing what your hands do.” Real, lasting change, which is what you said you are wanting is heart transformation, not just temporary behavior modification. The reason the struggle takes so long is that heart change is much tougher than behavioral change.”
“Your heart was created to find its greatest pleasure in an intimate love relationship with God, in which your heart feasts on the pleasure of knowing his delight in you and derives great pleasure in pleasing him. But another god has found its way into your heart—the God of Sexual Pleasure, who regularly usurps your heart’s throne from God. When you are feeling down on yourself, alone, bored, angry, lack of affection from your wife, or distant to God, the God of Sexual Pleasure whispers, “Want to feel better? You know I can make you feel really good.” You are letting the false God of Pleasure control you. Steve Childers, one of my RTS professors pointed out that Paul says in Ephesians 5:5 that idolatry is behind sexual impurity as well as behind covetousness. His words:
“To Paul, mankind’s root problem is not merely an external, behavior problem—it is the internal problem of the heart. Paul believed that one of the primary reasons human hearts aren’t more transformed is because the affections of people’s hearts have been captured by idols that grip them and steal their heart’s affection away from God (Lecture Notes).
New City Catechism Help with Commandment #1
Question 9: What does God require in the first, second, and third commandments?
First, that we know God is the only true God. In today’s pluralistic culture, where multiculturalism’s ideology has great power, it is important that from an early age, we teach this catechism question. The Leader’s Notes explain why:
Leaders Notes: “Children will likely be aware of the relativistic and pluralistic air of the twenty-first century. They will be conscious that there are people of different religions—and no religion—in their schools, towns, and cities. The media will particularly be training them to be skeptical about absolute truth. As a result, they may be reluctant to acknowledge that there is only one true God.”
Activity: Give each child a big picture of a heart with a smaller heart (the inner most heart) inside. “The children should write God in the center heart to remind them that God alone must be worshipped. Ask them to search the magazines and cut out pictures of things people might be tempted to love above God. Encourage them to paste in the outer heart things they’ve cut out that are good things (pictures of family, animals, food, toys.) It is right to love these good things God has created, but we should never put them in the center place of God.”
Three Reasons to Make God First in Our Lives
A. No other being or thing can satisfy the thirst of your soul. David wrote, As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God (Ps 42:1-2). The whole gospel story is that our sin has separated us from the God who made us for himself and who is the answer to our deepest longings. But Christ came to remove that barrier. God uses the two richest experiences of loving intimacy—that of a father with his son and that of a bridegroom with his bride to describe the intimacy he wants with us. In John 7 we read, On the last day of the feast Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Then Jesus explains how that thirst is quenched. The Holy Spirit mediates Christ’s presence to us. Jesus continues, Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. As Jesus would explain later in John 15, the Holy Spirit indwells our heart giving us a real and constant sense of Jesus’ presence with us. It is Christ’s presence with us that satisfies the deepest thirst of our hearts.
When Paul writes to the new Christians in Corinth, a city notorious for its sexual sin, Paul does not simply say, “Stop it!” Remarkably he pointed to the desires beneath their sexual temptation—the soul’s need for love, belonging, and pleasure, writing, “Don’t you realize that you were made for God and God is the answer to our deepest longings.” I never tire of John Piper’s analysis of sexual lust.
“One reason lust reigns in so many is that Christ has so little appeal. You were created to treasure Christ with all your heart—more than you treasure sex or sugar. If you have little taste for Jesus, competing pleasures will triumph. Plead with God for the satisfaction you don’t have. Quote Psalm 90:14, ‘Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we might rejoice and be glad all our days.’ Then look, look, LOOK at the most magnificent person in the universe until you see him as he really is” (Desiring God).
We need to keep God first because our deepest need is a love relationship with him and second, because:
B. No counterfeit God can be trusted to produce for you. Psalm 115 says,
Our God is in the heavens he does all that he pleases. But their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them. O Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
You and I need a god who can speak—words of encouragement, guidance, wisdom. We need a god who can see—who has the discernment to see things as they really are, who knows us. Do you want a blind god? We need a god who can hear—our cry for help. Every human will face life challenges too big for him or her. If you haven’t yet, you will. And when you face trouble, crisis, tragedy, if you call out to the wrong God, you will be in deep weeds. If you make money your god, it can be lost overnight. If you make success your God, a year after you’ve left your office, they will barely remember your name. If you make being liked your god, you’ll exhaust yourself trying to please everyone and fail those who most need you but don’t scream as loudly for your attention. In short, counterfeit gods are liars; they won’t come through for you in the long run.
C. The third reason to make God first in our affections is that no other being deserves our worship. First, because God is our redeemer. It is noteworthy that both versions of the ten commandments, Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, begin
the same way, “I Am the Lord Your God, WHO BROUGHT YOU OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, OUT OF THE HOUSE OF SLAVERY. You shall have no other gods before me. God is saying, “Before I lay down these laws for you, I want to remind you who I am. Just a short time ago, you were getting beat up in Egypt. You were oppressed slaves who cried out to me. Who sent you Moses? Who sent the ten plagues? Who parted the Red Sea? Who drowned the Egyptian army? Who sustained you in the desert for forty years? I DID THAT. WHY WOULDN’T YOU WANT TO WORSHIP ME? Molech didn’t free you from slavery. Baal didn’t save you from the Egyptians. You didn’t escape bondage by YOUR MIGHTY HAND but MINE.”
The second reason to give God our worship is that he alone is worthy of it. Our English word worship is derived from the word for “worthiness.” No one I know has captured this truth better than Steve Green in his song, “God Alone.”
“God and God alone created all these things we call our own. From the mighty to the small, the glory in them all is God’s and God’s alone.
God and God alone, reveals the truth of all we call unknown. All the best and worst of man can’t change the master’s plan. It’s God’s and God alone.
God and God alone, is fit to take the universe’s throne. Let everything that lives reserve its truest praise for God and God alone.
Gdd and God alone will be the joy of our eternal home. He will be our one desire; our hearts will never tire of God and God alone.”
For Further Prayerful Thought:
- In the opening overview observations, which one stood out most to you?
- Why do spiritual leaders have to fight a lifelong battle to keep reminding those under their care that God’s word is the path of life? Why is that so hard for us to remember, in moments of temptation?
- What do you find most helpful in Tim Keller’s definition of an idol as: “anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.” Which potential idols do you need to be wary of?
