Living the Ten Commandments: A Divine Framework

"First finger, one finger up, that means God comes first. So the first commandment is, you shall have no other gods before me. And then we hold two fingers up, two fingers, two gods is too many gods. If you have two gods, gods, one of them must be an idol. So the second commandment is do not worship idols. Three fingers, it looks like a W a little bit, so you hold it in front of your mouth, and it reminds us that God's name is holy, and we should only use it when we are talking to him or about him. And so the third commandment is do not take the Lord's name in vain. And then four fingers. Now what is the thumb doing right here? He's resting. And so the fourth commandment is to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy." [00:00:47]

"As I said on Saturday, they are a summary of the entire Old Testament law. And so it's very important to remember that behind the Ten Commandments, there is a story, the story of God's deliverance. And the introduction to the Ten Commandments makes that clear. Verse 1 says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. And so the story is that God has rescued slaves from bondage and led them to a land in which they can flourish." [00:03:14]

"The first one being you shall have no other gods before me. Now, the phrase no other gods before me doesn't mean that God merely wants us to organize our gods so that he's on top. It doesn't mean that at all. It doesn't mean as long as we worship God first, then we are free to have as many other gods in our life that we won't. It means that there to be no other gods in our life, but the one true God. That word that's translated before in this verse doesn't have to do with time or ranking. It's saying we are to have no other gods in sight." [00:05:17]

"Whatever we put before God is a God by virtue of being put before God. Making gods isn't restricted to manufacturing or buying or bowing down to a physical object. It's about positioning and prioritizing. Whatever we position and prioritize with our passion and practice before God is our God or God's. The third commandment is to not take the Lord your God in vain. And he goes on to say for those, he will not hold those guiltless who take his name in vain. And the point of that commandment is the name of God is to be treated with respect, not only in our speech, but also in the way that we live our lives." [00:06:25]

"This commandment is as broad as life itself. It's, you know, don't take up God's name wrongly. Doesn't only speak to, you know, whether we write God's wrongly or we use God's name wrongly. You know, sometimes we think of it only in respect to cussing or perhaps using some sort of euphemism for the word God. But it says, what it means is don't claim his name unless you treat it with reverence and respect. I mean, it's really sobering to think of all the horrible things that have been done and still done in the name of God, from the Crusades to the Holocaust to racism, all kinds of abuses." [00:07:11]

"The first three commandments definitely inform the fourth one. Unless we have God and God's proper place in our lives, the idea of Sabbath is kind of meaningless. This is why observing a Sabbath is not simply taking time off. Otherwise, you know, anyone who takes a day off each week to do whatever they want to do on the Sabbath, that would be keeping the Sabbath. But keeping it holy is the important part of that. God commanded this radical idea that humans should rest." [00:08:25]

"Walter Brueggemann is someone you've heard me quote from time to time in my sermons. He is a highly respected teacher and theologian who taught for years down in Decatur at Columbia Seminary, and he's written a very compelling book called The Sabbath as Resistance. And in the book, he writes that the Sabbath is not simply about keeping rules, but rather about becoming a whole person and restoring a whole society. And he talks about our 24 -7 society." [00:09:27]

"Society of consumption, a society in which we live to achieve, to accomplish, to perform, and to possess. And we want more. We want to own more. We want to eat more. We want to drink more. And he says that keeping the Sabbath allows us to break this restless cycle and focus on what is truly important, loving God and loving others. And that God has given us the Sabbath to remind us that we don't have to do it all. Indeed, we can't even do it all. And no one asks us to do it all. It'd be unhealthy if we did." [00:09:57]

"Sabbath reminds us to say enough. I am enough. I have enough. God is enough. And so that's a good thought, I think, for us to end today on. So we'll be back on Thursday and we'll look at the other six of the Ten Commandments. Until then." [00:10:28]

"Five fingers, hold up like this, looks like we're making a vow or a promise. And so the fifth commandment is to honor your parents, six fingers, okay, kind of looks like a gun, so the gun is shooting the hand, so the sixth commandment is do not murder, seventh finger, so kind of have to use your imagination for this one, but this kind of looks like a couple here getting married, right, and so when people get married, they make promises, and so the seventh commandment is do not commit adultery, eight, hold up, eight fingers, kind of looks like bars to a jail cell, and so the eighth commandment is to remember do not steal, nine, when someone takes a witness stand, they raise their hand, and they put their fingers down, four fingers down the Bible, and they say," [00:01:36]

"what they're about to say is the whole truth and the nothing but the truth. And so the ninth is do not bear false witness. And then 10, you know, 10 fingers, hold them up and wiggle them. It's like we're saying, give me that, give me this. And that's what we're doing when we're coveting. So the 10th commandment is do not covet. So there they are, 10 fingers, 10 commandments. And they are familiar territory for most of us as Christians. And even though this is kind of an exercise someone would use to teach children, I think that's okay because it helps." [00:02:30]

"us to remember, you know, the Ten Fingers and the Ten Commandments. And the way that they're ordered is very important. As I said on Saturday, they are a summary of the entire Old Testament law. And so it's very important to remember that behind the Ten Commandments, there is a story, the story of God's deliverance. And the introduction to the Ten Commandments makes that clear. Verse 1 says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. And so the story is that God has rescued slaves from bondage and led them to a land in which they can flourish." [00:03:14]