TUESDAY 22nd
Exodus 20:1-21
NIV (v1) ‘And God spoke all these words: . . .’
ESV (v1) ‘And God spoke all these words, saying, . . .’
We come to the chapter today in which God gives to the people what we call the ‘Ten Commandments’. It would be easy to look at one commandment a day over the next ten days, but that can be a subject for another occasion. The first thing the verses tell us that God said is, ‘I am the LORD your God, . . .’ and then follows the commands, the first, ‘You shall have no other gods before me’, followed by the command that ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, . . . you shall not bow before them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, . . .’ The next eight commands follow, followed by the verses that tell us that there was thunder and lightning and the sound of a trumpet and the mountain smoked, causing the people to be afraid and they trembled with fear and stood afar off. (vv18-19). Moses told the people not to fear (be afraid) of all that they were seeing and hearing, for God had come so that any fear they had would be the fear of God and that this fear may be before them that they may not sin.
What is the fear of God? It is not a fear that is like we may have of going to the dentist or something similar, but it is that which causes us to give God the due respect he deserves because of who he is. It is what causes us to come and to stand in awe of him, it is shown by our willing submission to him, the fear of God is linked to our willing obedience toward him and his will in our lives, and our humility toward him, it is our fear of God that drives us to want to live lives of purity and holiness, knowing that God abhors sin and will punish it. It is our fear of God that causes us to know what and who we are as we stand before him, a holy God.
It was only when the people of Israel came to fully recognise and understand who God was and to understand what it means to fear him that they could even begin to try and attempt to obey the commands. And although we have been saved by grace, the law, the commands are still both a spiritual and moral compass for us as we seek to navigate our lives in a fallen society. They have a spiritual application in that they cause us to come before the true and living God, knowing that of ourselves we are nothing, as the song says, simply to the Cross I cling, our hope is not in ourselves but in a holy God who made himself known at another mountain, not with tablets of stone but with a Saviour on a Cross and as we come to the Cross we stand back in awe, but then we fall in repentance, as we are coming to a holy God who has offered to make us holy by his blood. And after we have known his saving grace we seek to live with integrity and by his grace we seek to live according to his righteousness and with his rule in our lives, which means that his moral standards as we see in the commandments should also be the standard in our lives.
Our opening text was ‘And God spoke all these words, saying, . . .’ God had the right to speak and to administer his rule, and today he still speaks, he has spoken to us by or through his Son, but he still speaks through his written rule, the Word of God and I will close this devotion with a few Scriptures.
Deuteronomy 10:12 – ‘And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, . . .’
Proverbs 9:10 – ‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.’
Ecclesiastes 12:13 – ‘The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.’
Daniel 6:26 – ‘I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end.’
1 Peter 2:17 – ‘Honour everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the emperor.’