Then God spoke all these words: 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. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it. Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.”
(Exodus 20:1-20)
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It's fascinating to reflect on the influence that Hollywood has had on how we think about the Ten Commandments. Cecil B. DeMille - who, in 1956, made the iconic movie about the event - perhaps didn't realize (or care) that most people would have his movie and its images in their minds far more than the biblical text from the Book of Exodus when they thought about these Commandments, but they have taken over. Let's think about the movie for a moment. Moses (played by Charlton Heston) went up Mount Sinai and while he was there God chiseled the words of the Ten Commandments on to two stone tablets with a divine finger that acts something like a laser beam and then he gives them to Moses to carry down. When Moses appears at the foot of the mountain, he discovers that the people are running amok (the golden calf story) and he throws the two tablets down among them, where they explode and get the people's attention. It's all very dramatic and well done from the perspective of cinematography. From a biblical perspective? Well ... DeMille actually ignored Chapter 20 (he just skipped right over it) when the Commandments were first given and he dove into Chapter 34 - which is a lot more fun in some ways. In Chapter 20, though, there's no divine finger chiselling the Commandments on to stone and Moses did not go up the mountain to receive the Commandments. (Neither were they thrown into the mob in Chapter 34 to explode among the people - that's classic Hollywood silliness.) What actually happened in Chapter 20 - where the Ten Commandments make their first appearance - is that God speaks the Commandments directly to the people. That's how the story of the Commandments starts: "Then God spoke all these words ..." And, in fact, a lot of biblical scholars today refer to them not as "The Ten Commandments," but as "The Ten Words," because they were first spoken by God to the people.
To me, that gives the Commandments a different feel. When we think of the Commandments we tend to think immediately of consequences and punishment. "If you break them you're in trouble," seems to be the message. When they're "written in stone" - quite literally - then you better be really careful. The image you get from the movie is of a God of great power who has a very distant relationship to the people and who's an object mostly of fear. God is hidden in the mountain, inaccessible and only wanting to deal with the people through Moses. Otherwise - well - it's probably best to just say it again: God is very distant. But the story of Exodus 20, with the movie and its images chipped away, seems to give us a different feel of God and "The Ten Words." Here, God is with the people, God speaks directly to the people. The Bible still portrays a dramatic scene. There's "... thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking ..." and all that does cause the people to be afraid - but I kind of get the impression that causing fear isn't God's goal, although it may be a natural response when you're confronted by such things. God wants a relationship with the people, and "The Ten Words" are the basis of the covenant God wants to call into being. This is all about God reaching out and saying "Come to me. Walk with me. I'm here." A lot of Christians today have started to use "The Ten Words" (and the wider law that the Commandments introduce that give more specific rules for daily living and worship) as a weapon of sorts. They get used to exclude people. "You're doing what you're not supposed to do, so - you're out." We use them as an excuse to cast people away rather than to draw people in; as a reason to hate rather than to love; to offer judgement rather than grace. I don't believe that was ever what God intended. God intended these ten commandments - a number than can be easily counted on the fingers of both hands and that can be easily remembered - as a gift to the people and not as a threat. They remind God's people of their covenant with God, of their identity as the people of God, of their commitment to God - and maybe even more importantly, of God's commitment to them. The commandments lay a foundation by which the people can pursue a right relationship with God by living in right relationship with one another.
As Christians, we think of ourselves as a people defined by grace and not by law. And that's proper. Jesus was, after all, the grace of God who came into the world. So we are not to be slavishly legalistic, trying to outdo each other with obedience to rules and thinking ourselves better than those who don't follow the commandments as well as we do. That's the antithesis of what God wanted. I have a t-shirt that was given to me as a gift by a friend. It says on the front "God didn't call them the ten suggestions." That's true enough - but God also didn't call them the "Ten Commandments." God spoke words to the people, and in those words the people gained insight into what God wanted of them. And, centuries later, Jesus - who understood the nature of the law and the commandments - summarized them as love. Love for God and love for neighbours, he said. That's really all you need to know. Not the details - but the principle; not slavish obedience to a set of rules God had carved in stone and a threat to punish those who broke them, but humble gratitude for a relationship that God established with those God loved and a promise of grace to us all. Sarah Koontz - who describes herself as a Christian storyteller - sums this up so well: "God's law is not restrictive, it is restorative; God's law is not antiquated, it is innovative; God's law is not perplexing, it is straightforward." I might add to what she wrote that God's law is not frightening, it is loving; and God's law was not given with clenched fists waiting to strike out, but with open arms welcoming us to enter in.
Last week, we celebrated Holy Communion, and it occurred to me that God's invitation to share in the covenant symbolized by the open table is very similar to God's invitation to share in the covenant symbolized by the commandments, in that both are gifts of God given for the people of God. Jesus doesn't demand obedience as a precondition to enter into the new covenant; neither did God demand obedience as a precondition to enter into the old covenant. Obedience is not a condition for being a part of the covenant; it's a response to being a part of the covenant. We're not on some sort of waiting list, hoping to be let in to the covenant - we're already in. And that's a huge difference.
God's law is a gift. God's law is not something we should be worried and fearful about breaking - it's something we should be giving thanks for because it's the sign that God has accepted us and welcomed us. God isn't going to use the law to hurt us as the famus movie depicts when the tablets explode among the people. God will use the law to constantly work at transforming us into what the law asks for: as Jesus said - that we would be people of love, who offer that love without reservation or condition to all whom we encounter.
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