Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 20:18-19

18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.

19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

Today’s verses seem to go back before Moses ascended the mountain and received the ten commandments, the first moment the noise and power of the Lord was made manifest upon the mountain. These verses seem to take place in-between, or just after, Exodus 19:19 and Exodus 19:25.

In this account it is apparent how great of a fear came upon the people, and how they desired not to draw near to or speak with the Lord, for fear that they would die under the power of His word. To be clear, we have not heard of any threatening word or action from the Lord in this moment, His power has been restricted to the mountain, not invading into their camp. So the Israelites fear of God is not based on any malice, but because His glory and power is too great for them to bear.

There are those today who make light of God, openly mocking Him and portraying Him as a bumbling fool. It is safe that no one who does this has actually glimpsed the true Lord of Heaven and Earth. No one would dare to speak irreverently if they had seen and known the terrible majesty of His purifying glory. One day, all of us will witness that tremendous glory, and when we do it is said that even the kings and the mighty will beg the “mountains and rocks, to fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne!” (Revelations 6:16). Like the Israelites, we will be in terrible fear, and we would then desire a representative, even a mediator, to be able to stand before God in our place.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 20:7

7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Here we have the third commandment, not to take the name of the Lord in vain. When I was a child, I was told this meant not to use religious profanity. For example, spitting out the name of “Jesus Christ” to express anger or shock. And while I still do believe it is particularly wrong to curse in ways that desecrate the divine, I don’t believe that this is the practice specifically being called out in this verse.

The “taking of the name of the Lord,” calls to mind how Christians “take upon themselves the name of Christ.” Taking the Lord’s name means taking His covenant, calling yourself one of His people, declaring your intention to live as He would have you do.

And that should most definitely not be a commitment made in vain. It is to be a most serious promise. If you are making the commitment to follow Christ lightheartedly, or abandoning him soon thereafter, or trying to twist his words to match your preferences, then you are taking his name in vain. You are saying that you are a follower of the Lord, when you’re really not at all.

Sadly, in our Western civilization where most of us were born under the umbrella of Christianity, I believe that “taking of his name in vain” is one of our most common sins. We take our status as “Christians” for granted, assuming that since we were born with that title it belongs to us no matter what we say, think, or do. Our lighthearted approach to our faith cheapens the name of Christendom to the rest of the world, and makes a mockery of our God. The message from God in today’s verse is, “if you’re going to take my name, mean it!”

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 20:4-6

4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Yesterday we spoke about the commandment to not have any false gods, and now the second commandment is not to have any graven images or idols. Obviously, the graven images and idols that Israel would find themselves bowing down to were representations of false gods, so there is a connection between the two, but they aren’t quite the same thing.

The false gods were only conceptual. They were a name and an idea, but no one saw the gods or had them in their home. The idols were the physical representation of the gods. The idol was the actual statuette that you might have in your home, that you would see and hold and bow down to. In the first two commandments God is telling the Israelites both to not worship the false idea, and to not worship the false symbol.

Today, wealth might be considered a false god, as it is merely a concept, whereas fast cars and fancy clothes are the idols that are physical representations of that wealth. We both lust for wealth as a concept, and we love to be seen with expensive accoutrements, resulting in both false god worship and idolatry.

There are all manner of other worldly, physical things that we idolize as well: phones, watches, jewelry, computers, collectibles, homes, trophies, and certifications. These all become idols when we pursue them over and beyond our pursuit of God. And why are they false idols? Because each of these physical things is based on a worship of a conceptual false god such as status, vanity, entertainment, or fun. Those all become false gods when we depend on them for our happiness rather than God.

God wants us to worship Him both in concept, adopting His principles and priorities as our own, and in practice, dedicating our physical time and effort to securing the things that He has chosen for us. If we do these things in our mind, our heart, and our behavior, then we are keeping the first two commandments.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 20:3

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

I mentioned yesterday that the divide between commandments one and two can be easily missed. Today we will look at just the first commandment, and tomorrow the second, and we will seek to understand the difference between them.

The first commandment is actually very brief, captured entirely in a single verse. In my Western civilization, which was founded upon Judeo-Christian theology, the idea of other gods is strange and bizarre. From my youth I have understood there to only be one God, and so devotion to any others sounds totally illogical.

For the Israelites fresh out of the land of Egypt, though, it was a different matter. They had been surrounded by the likes of Horus and Ra, and they were on their way to Canaan where they would encounter the likes of Baal and Ashtaroth. The people would be tempted, and too-often fully seduced, by these false gods. They would abandon the God who had created, called, and redeemed them.

Today we might not so clearly personify our false gods, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have them. If we think a false god as the supreme authority in our life, the thing whose demands trump all other contradictory voices, then I would say today we have false gods of The Self, Science, and Ideology. The Self when we abandon all principles and virtues simply because we want to satisfy our own selfish interests. Science when we treat it as an opinionated entity that has dethroned God. Ideology when we are more dedicated to the rules of our chosen group than to fundamental truth.

It’s not as if there isn’t value in the self, or in science, or in some ideologies, but to have anything that is our supreme authority, our god that we defer to, even above the Lord who created the heavens and the earth, is an exercise of evil.

We also worship a false god when we worship a misconstrued idea of who God is. When we see God as the punishing oppressor who has unrealistic expectations for our spiritual growth, that is not really God. When we see Him as the over-indulgent, permissive grandfather who doesn’t care whatever we do, that is not really God. In both of these cases, and any other gross misrepresentation of the Lord, we are worshipping a false god.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 20:1-2

1 And God spake all these words, saying,

2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

We now come to one of the most famous passages in all of the Bible: the laying down of the ten commandments. Interestingly, God does not Himself refer to these as “the Ten Commandments.” That title is not spoken out loud by either God or Moses, but was written out by a scribe in Exodus 34:28. As such, in the following verses we will see that the commandments are not explicitly numbered, they don’t all receive equal explanation, and the point where the first commandment ends and the second begins can sometimes be confusing to detect. Regardless, I will proceed through them one at a time, giving each a discussion on their meaning, significance, and application.

Before that, though, we have this introduction from the Lord. He prefaces these core commandments with the declaration that “I am the Lord thy God.” These aren’t the words of Moses, they aren’t the opinions of any man, they are the mandate of the divine.

God continues with His introduction, reminding the Israelites that He is the one that “brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” They were prisoners and He freed them when no one else could. He hadn’t come only to free them from the Egyptians, though, but also from their own vices and frailties. These commandments would be a continuation of His freeing, ensuring that the weak and the naive would not be left to the mercy of the murderer, the thief, or the false accuser.

In short, the Israelites had been freed for a purpose, and it was so that they could submit themselves to their true and benevolent Master, whose commandments these were.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Rights and Materialism: Part Three

Thus Far)

Over the past two postsI have discussed God as a basis for our fundamental human rights, and also the natural biology of our species for a basis as well. I have explained that I believe in both foundations, but unlike a materialist/humanist, I am convinced that having the natural biology of our species as the only foundation for our rights is insufficient. In my last post I explained why, showing how from the materialist/humanist view, rights would only be an illusion invented by the species that benefits from them. We would say that humans should have a right to life, simply because if they don’t they would cease to exist, so murder is a self-destroying principle.

So long as our rights are tied only to the biology of our race, it is possible to create logical exceptions to them. I gave two examples:

  1. We could say that we are not the same race as other humans, and we only need to observe the rights of our own race, and not of others.
  2. We could say that even if the rights should be enforced by society at large, if we violate them and conceal it from society, there is no other authority that we must answer to.

Today we will consider how having our rights also based in God resolves these issues.

A New Equation)

In my previous post I gave an equation that showed the cyclical, self-contained logic of rights when based upon the natural biology of our species. I said that if we call humanity “X,” and the basic human rights “Y,” then we can say:

Y is essential for X
So X must secure Y

Now let us consider how that equation changes if we assume that God has given us our rights. We will represent God in our equation as “Z.”

Z states that Y is essential for X
So Z must secure Y for X

The rights (Y) are tethered to man (X) by God (Z). It may not seem like much of a difference, but this small alteration has massive ramifications. Introducing Z now makes X and Y reside in Z, not in each other. We no longer have a circular, isolated interdependency. The relationship between X and Y no longer collapses once we are outside of their context. Y is no longer a relative need of X, which nothing outside of X is obligated to fulfill.

Through this God-centric view, human rights are now just as universal and unchanging as mathematical truths. Just as how the Pythagorean Theorem will always be a true mathematical expression, the statement that “life and liberty are necessities for all people” will always be a true, moral principle. Even if there were no people around to observe it, the Pythagorean Theorem would still be a universal maxim between the sides of right-triangles, maintained in God, independent of man. In just the same way, even if humanity were to go extinct, it would still be a maxim in God that life and liberty are good for people and nothing would change that.

The Answer to the Problems)

Now, even if a group of people declared themselves to be a different race they would still have to answer to God if they violated the rights of other races. If individuals violated the rights of one another, and concealed it from the larger species, they would still have to answer to God. They would have to answer to God because it is He, not merely “other people,” who demand these rights for all. He demands them, and He enacts His will to see that they are secured.

And from the Christian perspective, that is exactly what has transpired throughout history. Yes, there have been long periods of various rights being violated by entire nations and individual souls, but over the years the idea of basic human rights has emerged, and in more developed countries has been applied to all, and of it has been done under the justification that “it is God’s will.”

Conclusion)

There is nothing wrong in observing the ways that our biological nature compels us to seek what is best for one another, to enshrine rules of conduct between all people, to sacrifice our own interests for the greater good. Recognizing these logical, natural realities can certainly be further evidence to help convince all people to live in moral, ethical ways.

The problem is when we try to weaponize the existence of this biological nature against the divine basis for our rights. There are those that use a new moral perspective to beat away at the very foundation that all our moral principles rest upon! How strange, when it was the perspective that God was the author of our morals that led us to implement the freedoms and rights that we have in the first place. Trying to remove that perspective is a regression, one likely to take us back to the darkest epochs humanity has ever seen, with the vast majority of the population living under all manner of oppression and suffering.

If we destroy the one, best moral grounding we have ever had, and give the next generations a flawed moral grounding instead, they will carry it to conclusions that we would never dare. And when they do, who will the sufferers take their appeal to then? The God that we abandoned?

Posted on by Abe Austin

Rights and Materialism: Part One

The Origin of Our Rights)

A society and a government often define morals based off of the “rights” of its citizens. If an action violates another person’s rights, then that action is considered immoral and faces legal or social repercussions. If something has no rights, then nothing that you inflict upon it can be immoral. Throwing a rock off a ship into the ocean is not immoral, because the rock had no rights, but throwing a person off the ship into the ocean is immoral, because the person has a right to life and bodily autonomy!

This, of course, raises the question of where do our rights come from, and how do we know what they are? In our western civilization, rights have traditionally been seen as endowed by our Creator. It was understood that God made man, and gave commandments that spelled out the rights that God gave to man. Man has a right to life, because God said “thou shalt not kill.” Man has a right to his property, because God said “thou shalt not steal.” And so on.

Alternative Basis for Rights)

Of course, not everyone believes in God, and not everyone agrees with the rights described in scripture. They therefore have the burden of providing another basis for our rights, and another method for knowing what those rights would be.

A person with a materialist, humanist worldview might argue that we do not need the dictates of God to identify basic human rights. They might observe that certain behaviors and states are necessary for the survival and flourishing of the species. Since we are members of this species, we should consider those behaviors and states to be natural rights, as to do otherwise would be paradoxical to our being.

And I would not disagree with such an observation. There are, indeed, certain biological realities that suggest the proper sort of behaviors between people. Members of the same species killing one another is obviously detrimental to the whole, so that leads us to the same “thou shalt not kill” that was also given on Mount Sinai. Furthermore, the historical record has shown that the greatest advancement and achievement of the human race has been motivated by people who had a claim to their own property and labor, and so we can again arrive at “thou shalt not steal.”

More Than One Basis)

But I, as a Christian, do not see this as an either/or situation. The fact that we can arrive at many of the same core human rights by biological examination and intelligent reasoning does not mean that God and His dictates do not also exist. Indeed, I see these as two parts of one testimony, supporting and reinforcing one another.

And, we do need both. The materialist-humanist may think that since we have the biological basis we do not need another basis in God, but this could not be further from the truth. I will explain why this is the case in tomorrow’s post.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 19:20-25

20 And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the Lord called Moses up to the atop of the mount; and Moses went up.

21 And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish.

22 And let the priests also, which come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them.

23 And Moses said unto the Lord, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.

24 And the Lord said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon them.

25 So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them.

This is a very unusual set of verses. Moses had already ascended into the mountain, but the Lord told him to go back down and tell the people not to come up or they would perish. Moses replied that he had already told the people not to come up, as God had already communicated that requirement in the first place. God insisted, though, “Away, get thee down,” and so Moses went down to repeat the instructions to the people.

What was the point of this back-and-forth? Was God not aware that Moses has already given those instructions to the Israelites? Was there going to be a breach of protocol in spite of the original instructions, and God knew it, but Moses wasn’t expecting it? Was God simply making a point through repetition? Why weren’t Moses and God already on the same page on this matter?

Quite frankly, we aren’t given a clear explanation. In the record that we have, God never makes clear why this repeated instruction was deemed necessary. One thing that might be worth considering, though, is that the next time Moses was called up into the mountain we are not told that he went back down to remind the Israelites of their commitments, and that is the time that they actively defy the Lord and construct the golden calf.

So perhaps the Lord sent Moses down to interrupt them before they could go astray this time, but after they had received His law and more fully committed themselves, He would not stop them if they kept tending towards future infractions. Having made their bed, He would allow them to lie in it.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 19:16-19

16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.

17 And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.

18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.

19 And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.

All of Israel had been prepared, and now the miracle rolled down from heaven to the earth. Thunder, lightning, thick clouds, and the sounding of an unseen trumpet! Then, as the people gathered at the foot of the mountain, smoke, fire, quaking, an even louder trumpet. And finally, after all of that, the voice of God!

There is another passage of scripture that sounds very similar to this, which is when we are given the account of Elijah hearing the voice of the Lord in 1 Kings 19:11-12:

And a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

Wind, and earthquake, and fire, and finally a voice. However that later account is both similar and dissimilar to the one here in Exodus. While the 1 Kings account mentions a parade of dramatic forces of nature, it says God is not in any of them, while the elements presented here in Exodus seem to be directly heralding the Lord. Also, the account in 1 Kings describes a “still small voice,” whereas one would think the voice in Exodus was booming and loud, much like the trumpets that had sounded, so that all the camp would hear it.

I believe that both accounts give us half the picture of God. The fact that God lives in our hearts and is able to speak to us in a still, small voice does not mean He isn’t also the master of heaven and earth, appearing in great glory. There is both an outer manifestation and an inner manifestation of the Lord, but they are both one and the same God. Probably most of us are far more acquainted with the quiet, inner Lord who lives in our hearts, but we look forward to the day when we can meet (and survive!) an encounter with the outer Lord in all His majesty!

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 19:12-13

12 And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death:

13 There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.

In addition to their steps of purification, the Israelites were instructed that they not come too close to the mountain when the glory of the Lord was upon it. They would be permitted to hear His voice, but that did not mean that they could abide touching His presence directly.

This is an interesting notion, one that is visited again later when Uzzah, the Israelite, reaches out to steady the ark and is immediately struck dead (2 Samuel 6:6-7). What is it about the Lord’s presence that people must not come too near, on pain of death?

I see in this a lesson that total godliness is too great for us to endure. It is too bright, it is too pure, it is too glorious, such that it condemns our perverse, fallen flesh. We are like particles of dust that immolate from the heat around the fire, even before we touch the flame. That buffer of disintegrating heat ensures that nothing impure ever touches that perfect light.

This is why each of us must be purified in our hearts before we meet the Father, why we must have our corruptible flesh replaced by an immortal body, why Moses had to be transfigured for his own up-close encounter with the Lord. We require a divine intermediary between us to interact with God, because His glory is literally too much for us to handle!