The Israelites experienced God's miraculous deliverance from bondage in Egypt. God deconstructed the illusion of power and permanence of the Egyptian Empire. God had called out a people that would give witness to God in the world.
At Mount Sinai, God spoke to Moses and gave him the foundational moral and ethical framework for the people. The Ten Commandments were not spoken into a vacuum. They were spoken to a people surrounded by cultures that were enemies of God. These commandments pointed away from fallen humanity and toward an ultimate ethic grounded in God's character.
Ex 20:1-17 NRSV
1 Then God spoke all these words:
2 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3 you shall have no other gods before me.
4 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. 5 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, 6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 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.
8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10 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. 11 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.
12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
13 You shall not murder.
14 You shall not commit adultery.
15 You shall not steal.
16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 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.
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will spotts said...
The Sabbath command is interesting in that it not only applies to you -- but also says you can't make someone else work on that day. This gives the commandment a much more humanitarian spin than it at first appears to have.
July 27, 2005 10:54 AM
Posted by: Michael Kruse | Aug 01, 2005 at 10:41 AM