Living Well: Keep the Sabbath Day Holy-Exodus 20

February 15, 2022 Exodus, Old Testament, Sermons

* If you want to live well, you need some non–negotiable rules to live by. Why? Because human nature is fraught with impulses that must be resisted.

* It‘s not that the Jews kept the Sabbath [Passover] but that the Sabbath [Passover] kept the Jews. [It’s not that I kept up daily Bible reading (the Ten Commandments), but that daily Bible reading (the Ten Commandments) has kept me. It’s not that I love God, but that God has loved me (1 Jn 3:19). Unless you faithfully do something for God, you won’t realize what God has done for you. Unless you keep the Law because of God’s grace (Jn 14:15), you won’t realize how God–through the Law–has kept you.]

Why is it critically important that it is God Who spoke these words [devarim] (Exo 20:1; 34:28)? What does Decalogue mean [Greek: deca, logos]? Who is this God (Exo 3:14; 14:13-14; 16:4; 19:18; 1 Tim 6:16)?
What is intended by the first statement/words (Exo 20:2, 22; Gen 1:1; Ps 33:6)? What should the Israelites remember about their past? About what God did for them and who deserves credit (Dt 9:5-6)? Contrast these first words with the last (Exo 20:17).
Why might you need revealed commandments to obey? Why not just live by your own reason and feelings?
What defines a false god (Exo 20:3; Dt 6:4)? [False gods of education, art, love, reason, religion and faith, money.]
Why is the invisibility and incorporeality [no bodily form] of God an essential characteristic of God (Exo 20:4; Jn 4:24; 1 Jn 2:15-17)?
Will God tolerate rivals in the hearts of His people? How is God’s jealousy (Exo 20:5) different from man’s? Can love exist without the possibility of jealousy?
Is it troubling that God punishes/rewards the chidren of those who hate/love God to the 4th generation/for 1,000 generations (Exo 20:5-6)? Is this meant literally?
How do you misuse God‘s name? Is this unforgivable [and thus the “worst” sin] (Exo 20:7)?
How do you keep the Sabbath day holy (Exo 20:8-11)? How does this observance commemorate or reenact God’s creation of the world (Exo 20:11) and their liberation from slave labor (Exo 20:10; 23:12)?

A well lived life. The central event in the story of Israel’s national founding is the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai. This has had the widest significance, not only for Israel but for the entire history of the West. Such a comprehensive teaching regarding all aspects of human existence is a guide for Israel’s communal life in the Promised Land, which became a permanent source of guidance for all peoples regarding how human beings are to live everywhere.

The creative tension between reason and revelation. A life lived according to human reason looks up to nature or to man’s powers to alter it, while a life lived in obedience to the revealed commandments that God [truth] has offered in part to correct for the limitations of the life lived according to reason [and “feeling“]. Is this necessary? Is obedience to the law necessary for a flourishing life?

The Ten Commandments [words/statements] (Exo 20:1-17; 34:28; Dt 5:1-21) or Decalogue [deka logoi Gk for ten words] pronounced by God to the newly liberated Israelites are the most famous teaching of Exodus, if not the entire OT. Known as the Judeo–Christian ethic, it prescribes proper conduct toward God and man, which embodies the core principles of a life well lived, even in our secular age, and even if it is not always acknowledged or welcomed.

Observations:

The Ten Commandments is often interpreted in isolation from the narrative of Exodus 1-19. But they are given after God delivered, forgave, redeemed and invited the Israelites into a special relationship as a “kingdom of priests” for the world (Exo 19:5-6), which they accepted.
Statements or words [speech, utterance] (Exo 20:1; 34:28) not commandments. Traditional exegetes [Jewish and Christian] have derived as many as 13 injunctions from God’s speech in Exodus 20.
The 1st group touches mainly on the relation between God and the individual Israelite. The first words spoken are “I Y-H-V-H [am] your God” (Exo 20:2), with “Y-H-V-H your God” repeated 4 more times.
The 2nd group begins with “You shall not murder” (Exo 20:13) touches primarily on conduct between and among human beings. In this section neither ‘elohim [God] nor Y-H-V-H [Lord] is mentioned.
The Decalogue begins with highlighting the special exclusive relationship Israel has with the Lord, Who tolerates “no other gods” (Exo 20:3), and ends with “You shall not covet” (Exo 2:17), which implicitly addresses our true desires.
Though the last word “your neighbor” (Exo 20:17) is a far distance from the opening 1st words “I Y-H-V-H” (Exo 20:2), yet coveting is ultimately a form of idolatry, an offense against both God and neighbor.
Nearly all the statements are formulated in the negative: wrong ways of relating to God, while the last 6 begin with “not” [lo]. Human beings, it seems, are more in need of restraint than encouragement.
2 positive exhortations stand out (Exo 20:8, 12): Remember/keep the Sabbath. Honor your father and mother.
The Sabbath commandment is the only ritual commandment in the 10 Commandments. Therefore, it is the most important ritual in the Torah.
In effect, the 10 Commandments tell us to do only 2 things.
The context of the Decalogue is the people–forming covenant proposed by God through His prophet Moses to Israel (Exo 19:5-6). With the offer of a divine covenant, it is only here that this motley multitude of ex-slaves 1st learn that they can become a people with a great purpose, a treasure unto the Lord, as a special people among all the other peoples of the earth. They are invited to become “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exo 19:6).
The Decalogue is less a founding legal code and more an aspirational guide for every Israelite–and every human–heart and mind. It is a prologue or preamble to the bulk of the Torah’s people-forming legislation. Like the preamble to the Constitution of the U.S., it enunciates the general principles on which the new covenant will be founded, principles that touch upon–and connect–the relation between man and God and between man and man, making clear in advance what it means to belong to this new people. All the laws specifying proper conduct and ritual observance comes later:
1. the ordinances immediately following the giving of the Decalogue,
2. the laws regarding the building of the Tabernacle, and then
3. in Leviticus, the law governing sacrifices in the so-called holiness code.

Principles, teachings, and obligations. Despite its renown, the Decalogue is only superficially known by practicing Jews and Christians, partly because its very familiarity inhibits a deeper understanding of its teachings, but mainly because the teachings themselves are not easily understood.

So what is the rational content of these famous words?
What do they mean and intend?
Why do they matter?
How unexpected and stunning is its content?

To this point we have witnessed:

God’s concern for His enslaved people (Exo 2:23-25),
His recruitment of Moses (Exo 3:2,4),
His successful contest with Pharaoh (Exo 5-15),
His victory over Egypt at the Sea of Reeds (Exo 14:21-31),
His attention to the people’s needs (Exo 15:24-25; 16:2-8; 17:2-6), and
His offer of a national covenant to the Israelite masses (Exo 19:4-6).

Nothing prepares us for an avalanche of intrusive and demanding principles, teachings, and obligations that will touch every aspect of human life. These principles, teachings, and obligations erupt into the world exactly as they erupt into the reader’s consciousness. Neither the world nor we will ever be the same.

Y–H–V–H, Your God is the God of your [recent] deliverance from [Egyptian] bondage (Exo 20:1-2). This formal announcement identifies the sovereign whose authority underwrites what follows. This declaration suggests that for Israel [and unnamed others], there are 2 great alternatives: either live freely in relation to God, or to be a slave to Pharaoh, a human king who rules as if he were divine. Egypt–identified as “the house of bondage” (Exo 20:2) is not one alternative among many, but as the ONLY alternative to living as men and women whose identity and freedom depend on embracing the covenant with the Lord.

The covenant to the patriarchs [made to a select few] was for

fertility,
multiplicity, and
a promised land.

This covenant [with the comprehensive many and addressed to each person in Israel/world] concerns

peoplehood,
self-rule, and
the goals of righteousness and holiness.

I. God is claiming an exclusive, intimate I–thou relationship (Exo 20:3) like that of a marriage, requiring unqualified fidelity and permitting no other to come between the partners. Only God is fit for a relationship with beings made in His image, the One Whose being they resemble and Whose likeness they embody. Cf. Greek’s anthropomorphic gods–Poseidon, earth-shaker; Aphrodite, source of erotic love; Demeter, source of crops; warlike Ares.

II. Any being [anything] that can be represented in visible images is not divine [and leads to sin/iniquity] (Exo 20:4-6). Neither the worship of dumb nature nor the celebration of human artfulness teaches anything about righteousness, holiness, or basic human decency. God is not indifferent to the conduct of human beings. God punishes [remembers or visits {poqed}] the sin [iniquity {‘avon}] of the fathers (Exo 20:5). Our choices ALWAYS have consequences. But the blessings that follow from worthy and God-loving conduct are more far-reaching (Exo 20:6) than the miseries caused by iniquitous and God-spurning conduct (Exo 20:5). Our choice is [always] between

living in relation to God or worshiping idols [that always leads to sin/iniquity], or
keeping His commandments and living iniquitously.

An iniquity [‘avon] in the Bible differs from a sin [chet]. To sin is to miss the mark, as an arrow misses the target. To commit an iniquity is to do something twisted or crooked, to be perverse. Either God inflicts the father’s twisted deeds on the sons, or He lets those deeds linger in the fabric of the world, contaminating the lives of the sons until there is repentance or cleansing. Either way [perhaps they amount to the same thing], the perversity of the father’s deeds will reverberate through the generations. The fathers [and mothers] are put on notice: how they stand with respect to God/divinity will affect their children and their children’s children. People will perpetuate our iniquities. IMPLICATIONS are clear. My children and grandchildren are at risk from any sin/iniquity I commit, but endless generations will benefit from the good I may do. Yet redemption is always possible. Even if I fail, there will still be chesed. To walk with hope in the light of chesed offers the best chance for a worthy life.

III. Don‘t take God‘s name in vain (Exo 20:7). This embraces not only speaking falsely but also speaking emptily, frivolously, insincerely, contemptuously (Lev 24:10-16). But the real target may be to live in the world assuming that “God is on my side,” to summon God in support of my own purposes. It is to treat God as if He were sitting by the phone waiting to do my bidding. In the guise of beseeching God in His majesty and grace, I behave as if I am His lord and master. I behave, in other words, like Pharaoh.

God‘s name: ‘ehyeh ‘ashe ‘ehyeh, “I Will Be What I Will Be” is a profoundly mysterious non-answer to Moses’ request for what God’s name is (Exo 3:13-14). The Name was a rebuke in that God is not to be known or captured in any simple act of naming. The right relation to God is not through naming or knowing His nature but through hearkening to His words. The right approach is not through philosophy or theology, not through speaking about God [theo-logos], but through heeding His speech/word.

IV. The most far–reaching and most significant of all the statements in the Decalogue (Exo 20:8-11). It addresses:

time [reconfiguring our perception of time: 6 days of work point toward and are completed by the 7th day and its hallowing; work is for the sake of a livelihood, but staying alive has a purpose beyond itself; 6 days is “for yourself and your own” and the 7th day is a Sabbath “to the Lord your God” (Exo 20:8), on which “labor [‘avodah] for oneself” is replaced by “service” [‘avodah] for God],
work and rest,
man’s relation to God, the world, and his fellow men,
hallowing and holiness [qaddesh, to make holy, to set apart (toward an object of dedication)] explicitly–the special goal for Israel in the covenant. Be moved by wonder and gratitude
for the existence of something rather than nothing,
for order rather than chaos, and
for our unmerited presence in the story.

The passage opens with a general statement, specifying 2 obligations: 1) to remember and 2) to sanctify, comprising a teaching for 6 days and a contrasting teaching for the 7th. At the end, the reason given refers to God’s 6-day Creation of the world, His rest on the 7th day, and His consequent doings regarding that day. Each week, going forward, Israel not only will be recalled to God’s creation of the world but also will be invited symbolically to relive it.

Reflect and contemplate with wonder and gratitude. When God said, “behold, very good” (Gen 1:31), He was expressing His appreciation and gratitude for how well it all turned out. Similarly by being given Sabbath rest, we human beings can stand back from our everyday work to express wonder and gratitude at the miracle of our life and our creative powers. Although mobile creatures ourselves, we alone–godlike among the creatures–are capable of contemplating the world and feeling gratitude for its goodness and for our place in it. In this respect, Sabbath remembrance and sanctification permit us to be like God.

Disobeying to be like God (Gen 3:5) stems from our prideful penchant for independence, self–sufficiency, and the rule of autonomous reason led us ironically, to be nasty, brutish, and short. But with obedience to Sabbath desisting, we are not only permitted but also obliged to pause our life of toil, sorrow, and loss and accept instead the godlike possibility of quiet, rest, wholeness, and peace of mind.

Reference:

Leon R. Kass. Founding God’s Nation. Reading Exodus. 2021.
James K. Bruckner. Exodus. New International Bible Commentary. 2008.
John Goldingay. Exodus & Leviticus for Everyone. 2010.
Robert Alter. The Hebrew Bible. A translation with commentary. The Five Books of Moses. 2019.
Dennis Prager. Exodus. God, Slavery, and Freedom. The Rational Bible. 2018.

613 commandments.
God’s name “I Will Be What I Will Be” is not necessarily a name of who God is [Hi, I’m Ben], but God is saying, “Watch what I say. Watch what I do.”
Apotheosis [noun]. From the Gk apotheoun, to make a god or to deify. Apotheosis implies a polytheistic conception of gods while some individuals straddle the boundary between gods and men. It is the glorification of a subject to divine levels and commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity. The term has meanings in theology, where it refers to a belief, and in art, where it refers to a genre. The highest point in the development of something; culmination or climax.
Dionysian:relating to the Greek god Dionysus, known for the sensual, spontaneous, and emotional aspects of human nature [Canaan].
Apollonian: relating to the god Apollo, relating to the rational, ordered, and self-disciplined aspects of human nature [Egypt].
Technocracy: The government or control of society or industry by an elite of technical experts.
Exodus shows, “No God, no Law. No Law, no Children of God/Israel. Conversely, no Children of Israel as led by Moses, no knowledge of God.” Culture and theology are upstream from politics.
Halachic: the body of Jewish law supplementing the scriptural law and forming especially the legal part of the Talmud.
Solicitude: care or concern for someone or something. “I was touched by his solicitude”
Mensch [noun]: a person of integrity and honor. The word “Mensch”, in Yiddish, is “someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character. Sentence exampleHe was a real mensch : a decent and responsible person, a particularly good man of integrity and honor.
To read philosophically–the pursuit and love of wisdom, to living well, and for human flourishing. Let the book inhabit you, sympathize with the characters, let the experience work on you. Gen 1-11 is human life unrestricted, in the absence of instruction, we take pride in human reason and freedom. Genesis teaches the need for a new way and through the patriarchs, God has gotten a toe hold into the world.
Tabernacle, Hebrew Mishkan, (“dwelling”), in Jewish history, the portable sanctuary constructed by Moses as a place of worship for the Hebrew tribes during the period of wandering that preceded their arrival in the Promised Land.
Egypt: Techno-despotism, preoccupation with long life, absence of decay, immortality. The essence of Egypt is a recurrent human possibility. What is Egypt? It is a fertile place, the gift of the river not dependent on the rain, a paradise that worships the sun and where all kinds of natural powers are revered, while the human animal does not have special or dignified standing (cf. Gen 1:26-27). While they worship natural deities, inside the palace Pharaoh has his sorcerers/magicians do things to nature to make it even more hospitable. While they revere the river and the sun, they are obsessed with mortality and decay [everything from their hieroglyph to shaving their bodies to embalming their dead, they want to make time stand still]. You have the rule of 1 man as a god who rules in his own interest, and with Joseph you have a technological and administrative state bent on conquering mortality and making nature more hospitable to human needs, while human dignity is not well respected and moral practices are out the window.
Canaanites: earth worshippers given over to the pleasures of the flesh. Eat, drink, tomorrow we die. Exuberant. Dionysiac culture. We see both Egypt and Canaan in our broader culture.
So can you rely on technological progress [Silicon valley] and administration and prosperity on the one hand, or can you rely on I’m OK, you’re OK, and let’s let it all hang out and get over our repressions and enjoy life? Can we build the universal city of man [Mesopotamians/ the U.N.]? Can these produce a people that is well governed and long lasting.
bedraggled adjective dirty and disheveled. “we got there, tired and bedraggled” disheveled, disordered, untidy, unkempt, tousled, disarranged.
Moses’ shining face: “I will be with you” is now stamped on his face.
A haggadah is a collection of Jewish prayers and readings written to accompany the Passover ‘seder’, a ritual meal eaten on the eve of the Passover festival.
It‘s not that the Jews kept the Sabbath but that the Sabbath kept the Jews.
“More than the Jews have kept the Shabbat, the Shabbat has kept the Jews.” Ahad Ha’am (1856-1927).
Not only did the Jews keep the Passover, but the Passover has kept the Jews alive.

Benjamin Toh

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