Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 20:13

13 Thou shalt not kill.

A very brief and succinct commandment, one that speaks to the sanctity of life, and the immense evil when one takes it from another. Of course, though the words here are simple, there is some nuance that applies to this commandment. For while the Israelites had been ordered not to kill, they were also going to be commanded to go to war with the Canaanites, and thus would kill tens of thousands of their enemies. And they were also commanded to kill animals at the altar as an offering to the Lord. How can these commandments coexist with one another?

The confusion goes away when we consider the original Greek word that has been translated to our English word “kill.” In fact, there are two Greek words that get turned into “kill” or other variations of that word in the English translation.

One of them is שָׁחַט (shachat), which is used elsewhere in Leviticus 14:13 as it describes how the priest will kill the offering that is being made in the temple.

The other one is רָצַח (ratsach), which is used elsewhere in Numbers 35:16 as it describes how a man who kills another with an iron weapon is a murderer.

So there is a word for “to kill,” and another word for “to murder.” And the word used here in the 10 commandments is the second one: רָצַח (ratsach), which is “to murder.” We could consider the English translation of this verse to be more accurate if we rendered it as, “Thou shalt not murder.” And now we see how the Israelites could be commanded to go to war against the Lord’s enemies, and to slay animals in their offerings, because both of those would be examples of “killing,” but not of “murdering.” If the distinction between those two does not matter to some, it does apparently matter to God.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 20:12

12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

The fifth commandment describes the attitude that children should have towards their parents. One may wonder why there isn’t a commandment pointing the other direction, telling parents how they ought to feel towards their children. Having been both a child and a parent, I would say that the nature of the parent is already to love the child and seek what is best for him. Though the parents may give unwanted advice, they generally only do so with a sincere desire to help. The nature of the child, however, is often one of defiance, with an impulse to disobey for the sole purpose to be contrary. That is the tendency that needs to be reigned in, and so a commandment to spell that out.

It is interesting how this commandment links honoring one’s parents and living long upon the land. It seems to suggest that to not honor one’s parents is likely to result in a premature death. Why is that? One explanation could be that it is a divine promise, an assurance from God that He will intervene in the cause of the honorable child to preserve life. Another explanation might be that it is an observation of the natural trends in humanity. Perhaps when a generation as a whole decides to dishonor the generations that came before they are carving their own foundation out from under themselves, and will inevitably fall back to a more barbaric and violent lifestyle, and that will certainly result in their days being shorter upon the land.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 20:8-11

8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

The fourth commandment is one of only two that begin with something other than “thou shalt not.” Instead, the primary injunction with this commandment is to “remember.” God’s command to remember the sabbath shows that it already is the sabbath day whether we adhere to it or not. The sabbath’s existence is not contingent upon our observation of it, our choice is simply whether we “keep it holy,” or ignore it.

God then goes into greater detail, making clear that “work” is the primary thing that would desecrate the sabbath. That is, in fact, the only thing that he prohibits on that day. With that in mind, we can see how the pharisees building up a hedge around the law, adding rules such as a maximum number of steps that an Israelite could walk in a day, would necessarily prohibit things that the Lord never intended to prohibit. From the words here in Exodus, there would be no crime in traveling a long distance on the sabbath to see a new city, or to walk along a coast, or to visit a distant relation, or for any reason at all, except for travel as part of labor or work.

I personally grew up with many behaviors being prohibited on the sabbath, such as playing games or watching movies. While there can certainly be an argument for having a day disconnected from worldly influences in order to more fully sanctify the day, it would be inappropriate to give as a reason “because God said so in the fourth commandment.” The only time that the fourth commandment would be violated is if our activity caused anyone to work.

And God’s words are very explicit that our responsibility goes beyond keeping just ourselves from work: “neither thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.” Not only are we not to do any labor ourselves, but also we are not to cause anyone else to labor either. Even to the “strangers” who aren’t converted to our beliefs and will be violating the sabbath day anyway, we are not justified in making them additionally work for us.

On the seventh day God rested. This was both rest for Him, and also for the world which He ceased imposing commands upon for that day. Apparently there was something in that experience that the Lord saw was good, that He saw was right, and He decided to extend that season of work and season of rest outward across the whole of humanity. The sabbath day is established in our creation and remains a constant part of us. It is there for us to take refuge in, if we only remember to do so.

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

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 19:14-15

14 And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.

15 And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.

Moses relates God’s instructions for the Israelites to prepare themselves to witness His presence and hear His voice. Specifically we are told that they are to wash their clothes, and to refrain from any sexual activity.

There has, of course, been a history of sexual shame in certain sects of Christianity. Not just immoral acts of sexuality outside of the marriage covenant, but even suggesting that every child is born in sin because of the act that brought them into existence. However, it is worth noting that this passage is not at all evidence that any such view is appropriate.

Let us consider the other imperative given to the Israelites: that they wash their clothes. Certainly we can all appreciate how nice and fresh it feels to be clean, and how we want to present our best to those we respect and admire, yet would we say that we are sinful if we come home dirty from a long day of manual labor? Certainly not. Could we not have the same nuanced view towards sexuality within the marriage covenant?

Also, the command for husbands and wives to keep their distance calls to mind the practice of fasting, whereby we forego food and/or drink for a period of time. No one thinks that we are sinful because we have to eat food, but we appreciate that a period of self-denial can help to cultivate the spirit within. Could it not be the same with sexuality within the marriage covenant?

Therefore it is logical to assume that the instruction given to the Israelites for temporary sexual abstinence between husbands and wives was one of preparing themselves spiritually, an act of self-denial that would focus their energy inwards. That is not at all the same as saying that any sexual activity, even in a committed marriage between a man and a woman, is sinful.