Week 1: Working Preacher’s Narrative Commentary for June 15, 2014

Week 1: Working Preacher’s Narrative Commentary for June 15, 2014
Scriptures:
Exodus 19:1 In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. 2 When they had departed from Rephidim, and had come to the wilderness of Sinai, they encamped in the wilderness; and there Israel encamped before the mountain. 3 Moses went up to God, and Yahweh called to him out of the mountain, saying, “This is what you shall tell the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: 4 ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”
20 God[a] spoke all these words, saying,
Footnotes:
a. Exodus 20:1 After “God”, the Hebrew has the two letters “Aleph Tav” (the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet), not as a word, but as a grammatical marker.
Matthew 22: 34 But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, gathered themselves together. 35 One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him. 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Footnotes:
a. Matthew 22:37 Deuteronomy 6:5
b. Matthew 22:39 Leviticus 19:18
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Preaching texts: Exodus 19:1-6; 20:1-1; accompanying text: Matthew 22:34-40
Nineteen comes before Twenty
My friend David Lose likes to describe the relationship between “law”and “gospel”in the Ten Commandments by saying, “Nineteen comes before Twenty.”The point is that the relationship God establishes with the chosen people comes first -- it is literally primary. The law, with its ethical demands on our behavior, comes second -- it is literally secondary. In Exodus 19 God says, “I bore you on eagles’wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples … you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation”(19:3b-6a).
The start of Exodus 20, verses 1-2 -- what most Christians refer to as the “prologue”to the Ten Commandments, but which Jews consider the “First Word” -- scores the same point: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery”(verse 2).
God first establishes the relationship with us. Only then does God make a claim on our behavior.
There are two crucial points here -- two things about the law that are good to know.
The first is that God does not give the law as a means to salvation. To use the law to earn salvation, to win your soul’s way into heaven, is like trying to build a faster-than-the-speed-of-light spaceship or a time-travel machine out of plywood. It’s not possible. And neither is it possible to earn salvation through the law. God does not give the law as a way to establish relationship with the people. God establishes the relationship and then gives the law.
That leads to the second point about the law. It isn’t about “us,”per se. God does not give you and me the law in order to perfect us or even to make us a better “you”or a better “me.”The law is not about us -- it is about our neighbors. God gives you the law, not so that you can get more spiritual or have your best life now, but so that your neighbor can have her best life now.
Notice how many times God made this point in the Ten Commandments: Do not bear false witness against your neighbor. Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s spouse. When it is the day of rest, make sure that all of your neighbors -- from yours sons and daughters right down to your sheep and oxen -- get to rest just like you do. And, oh yes, the elderly -- “your father and your mother” -- are still your neighbors as well.
Paul makes the same point in Galatians: “The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”Paul isn’t saying that if you have warm cozy feelings about your neighbor, then you’ve done all that you have to do. Rather, the word that is translated here as “summed up”is similar to the modern economic metaphor of the bottom line, and that can help us understand Paul’s message. Paul is saying: The bottom line of the entire law is that it is about loving the neighbor.
And that is good news. Good news for my neighbor. God loves them so much that God tells me not to kill, steal, commit adultery, and so on. And good news for me. God loves me so much that God tells my neighbor not to kill, steal, and so on.
One last point: The Ten Commandments are for free people, for people whom God has freed:“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”“I bore you on eagles’wings.”These commandments are not meant to limit our freedom by telling us what things we are not free to do (although these laws do precisely that). These commandments are what lives freed in Christ look like. In order to love God’s law, we must always remember that through Christ’s death and resurrection we have been freed from the power of sin. And now that we are free, the law shows us what that free life looks like.
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John Wesley’s Notes-Commentary:
Exodus 19:1-6; 20:1-1;
Verse 1
[1] In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
In the third month after they came out of Egypt. It is computed that the law was given just fifty days after their coming out of Egypt, in remembrance of which the feast of Pentecost was observed the fiftieth day after the passover, and in compliance with which the spirit was poured out upon the apostles, at the feast of Pentecost, fifty days after the death of Christ. Mount Sinai was a place which nature, not art, had made conspicuous, for it was the highest in all that range of mountains. Thus God put contempt upon cities and palaces, setting up his pavilion on the top of a mountain, in a barren desert. It is called Sinai, from the multitude of thorny bushes that over-spread it.
Verse 3
[3] And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and the children of Israel — The people are called by the names both of Jacob and Israel, to mind them that they who had lately been as low as Jacob when he went to Padan-aram, were now grown as great as God made him when he came from thence, and was called Israel.
Verse 4
[4] Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.
Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on Eagle's wings — An high expression of the wonderful tenderness God shewed for them. It notes great speed; God not only came upon the wing for their deliverance, but he hastened them out, as it were upon the wing. Also that he did it with great ease, with the strength as well as with the swiftness of an eagle. They that faint not, nor are weary, are said to mount up with wings as eagles, Isaiah 40:31. Especially it notes God's particular care of them, and affection to them. Even Egypt was the nest in which these young ones were first formed as the embryo of a nation: when by the increase of their numbers they grew to some maturity, they were carried out of that nest.
I brought you unto myself — They were brought not only into a state of liberty, but into covenant and communion with God. This, God aims at in all the gracious methods of his providence and grace, to bring us back to himself, from whom we have revolted, and to bring us home to himself, in whom alone we can be happy.
Verse 5
[5] Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure to me — He doth not instance in any one particular favour, but expresseth it in that which was inclusive of all happiness, that he would be to them a God in covenant, and they should be to him a people. Nay you shall be a peculiar treasure: not that God was enriched by them, as a man is by his treasure, but he was pleased to value and esteem them as a man doth his treasure; they were precious in his sight. He took them under his special care and protection, as a treasure that is kept under lock and key. He distinguished them from, and dignified them above all people, as a people devoted to him, and to his service.
Verse 6
[6] And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
A kingdom of priests, a holy nation - All the Israelites, if compared with other people, were priests unto God, so near were they to him, so much employed in his immediate service, and such intimate communion they had with him. The tendency of the laws given them was to distinguish them from others, and engage them for God as a holy nation. Thus all believers are, through Christ, made to our God kings and priests, Revelation 1:6, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, 1 Peter 2:9.
Verse 1
[1] And God spake all these words, saying,
God spake all these words - The law of the ten commandments is a law of God's making; a law of his own speaking. God has many ways of speaking to the children of men by his spirit, conscience, providences; his voice in all which we ought carefully to attend to: but he never spake at any time upon any occasion so as he spake the ten commandments, which therefore we ought to hear with the more earnest heed. This law God had given to man before, it was written in his heart by nature; but sin had so defaced that writing, that it was necessary to revive the knowledge of it.
Matthew 22:34-40
Verse 34
[34] But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.
Mark 12:28; Luke 10:25.
Verse 35
[35] Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
A scribe asking him a question, trying him — Not, as it seems, with any ill design: but barely to make a farther trial of that wisdom, which he had shown in silencing the Sadducees.
Verse 37
[37] Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Deuteronomy 6:5.
Verse 39
[39] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Leviticus 19:18.
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