Exodus 20:1-17
Wow! You could spend a lifetime on each one of the commandments and not cover them. The Jews added 613 more to make it more difficult -- or should I say they spent much time figuring out how to get around some of the commands.
The one on the sabbath day has to be analyzed. What if the Seventh-Day Adventists are right and we should be celebrating it on Saturday? When does the sabbath day begin and end? Does it end right after Sunday service when the NFL is playing? Some have said back in the Puritan era that it was wrong to even look out the window on the sabbath because then your mind might wander to all the things you could be doing out there. The Jews defined a sabbath day’s journey as the time it took to go from one meal to the next. Then they would pack a lunch and stop to eat before going on to another sabbath’s day journey! We need them in Congress!
When I was a kid no businesses were open on Sunday; now almost none are closed! Do we sin by shopping or going to a movie or eating in a restaurant on Sunday, or even watching TV?
Couldn’t we obey the commandments about our neighbor by loving him, and not by having to memorize them? Then we wouldn’t have to worry about borrowing something from our neighbor and not getting it back when he wanted it. What about taking a pen from the bank? All silly little things, but again, if we can be more concerned about the other person than ourselves that may take care of it.
Coveting is a hard one since it is only or mainly in the mind. Don’t we often envy the 1% who (it seems) can do whatever they want?
The definition of murder seems so simple, but every day in the paper we read about someone justifying killing someone because they were just protecting themselves (as when the policeman or one in authority shoots a prospective criminal). What of a war, where we drop bombs on innocent people or shoot anyone wearing the wrong uniform -- who is maybe even unarmed?
In seminary, I met one former World War II soldier who looked over the top of his trench and saw someone on the wrong side. He pulled the trigger without thinking, and watched as the bullet hit a young teenager between the eyes and saw him sink into his trench. It had been years before, but he still suffered with guilt over that incident. Very few bullets fired in any war actually go to kill anyone.
Do you ever hear, even a good Christian, misuse the name of our Lord? Thank God for forgiveness!
Every reading of the commandments plants in my mind the knowledge that we are all sinners who need forgiveness!
Bob O.
Exodus 20:1-17
G. Fredrick Owen writes about strong spiritual faith in his book Abraham Lincoln: The Man and His Faith. Owen writes that prior to their marriage, Tom Lincoln and Nancy Hawks attended a camp meeting near Elizabethtown, Kentucky. He writes that the camp meeting had been in progress for several days and the people were waiting with an awed intensity, “when suddenly the camp was spiritually stirred and the kneeling multitude sprang to their feet and broke into a chorus of shouts which rang through the woods of the campground.” Tom Lincoln at one end of the altar and Nancy Hawks at another point came to shout praise to God. Tom began to leap and shout to heaven, and Nancy sprang forward and fixed her eyes heavenwards as her lips began to sing a song of praise: “Her joy increased until, grasping the hand of the young man, they blended their voices in ecstatic melody.” One week later they were married on June 12, 1806 by Rev. Jesse Head, a Methodist minister. As time passed three children were born to the young couple: Abraham was the first, a second male child lived only a few days, and then Sarah.
The Bible was one of the few books that the couple possessed, and it was the Bible stories and verses that Abe Lincoln memorized which helped form the moral code of his life. According to Owen the Lincolns were a churchgoing family, being active members of the Little Mount Baptist Church, and Abe received a healthy dose of morals not only from the pastor but from Methodist circuit riders and evangelists as well.
At age 35 Nancy Lincoln died, and it was a tremendous blow to the family. Abraham Lincoln never forgot his mother’s influence for Christ on his life. Owen writes that Abraham said, “All that I am my angel mother made me.” Owen continues: “The memory that lingered longest was the thought of her as she sat in the old log cabin teaching him the Ten Commandments. Many a time afterwards when he was asked how he found courage to decline some tempting bribe, or resist some wrong suggestion, he said that in the critical hour he heard his mother’s voice once more repeating the old, old words: ‘I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt have no other gods before me’ ” (Abraham Lincoln: The Man and His Faith, pp. 2-6).
Derl K.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Paul is right about how foolish faith in the cross seems. A quotation that appeared in the 1990s in U.S. News & World Report is still timely: “In previous eras [it may have been different].... [But] now, when months and years seem clogged with the pursuit of condos, cars, and college tuitions [perhaps we should add retirement fund woes, Facebook encounters, and the constant barrage of e-mails], the presumption that life is a spiritual quest has faded.”
It is good for the world that faith seems absurd. As Martin Luther put it: “Christ helps the world by confounding the world’s wisdom...” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 22, p. 342). Karl Barth, the famed Reformed theologian of the last century, helps further explain why faith is absurd and why that is good for us: “The Bible may seem absurd to us because it is not about us but about God” (Word of God & Word of Man, p. 43).
The cross makes us a little less concerned about ourselves and more concerned about God.
Mark E.
John 2:13-22
I remember being angry at a synod meeting when some seemed more concerned about the punctuation in the constitution than about violating the words of scripture! Some churches would not allow me to sell my book about mission work in Nepal because of this text, even though all the profit from my book was going back to the mission field. We have trouble with righteous anger in the church. The problem we have is: Is it righteous or is it just annoyances? Do we take a vote to decide? Jesus never asked for a vote. He just went in and made a mess! Who determines what is right or wrong? It is not based on a committee vote.
It seems to me that a close analysis of scripture shows that democracy was a disaster in the whole Bible. If the majority is always right, we would be worshiping that golden calf that the Israelites made when they didn’t want to wait for Moses any longer. In almost every case in the Bible, the majority vote was wrong. They voted to kill the prophets, and the majority voted to crucify our Lord!
The majority has not always been wrong in our day, or we would all be lost!
How then do we find out who has the authority? According to our faith, we are in a heavenly dictatorship. One problem with that is that our heavenly dictator “suggested” that we give 10% of our income to the Lord’s offering. If that were the rule and law, then why would the church ever be short of money? Why don’t we just send every member a bill rather than ask for a pledge, leaving it up to them if they want to give more?
Is Jesus’ action a symbol of disobedience -- of losing His temple? We have to be careful how we interpret His actions so that we don’t justify all our angry responses to things that we don’t approve of. Could we raid the IRS if they misuse some of our money, or take it from the poor so the rich don’t have to give more?
Are we sinning if we sell mission products at church or charge for a church supper? What if our church uses the offering to put in air-conditioning instead of giving to the desperately poor brothers at home and in the mission field?
We must be careful how we justify our anger, and where forgiveness might be a better answer. This passage can make for some interesting discussions! Let it begin in our hearts!
Bob O.
John 2:13-22
Jesus was full of the Spirit of God. His mission on earth was to do the Father’s will, even if it meant his own death. During his life he continually battled with the twin viewpoints of human and divine will. Chuck Swindoll refers to them as “horizontal perspective and vertical perspective.” In this passage of scripture Jesus focuses on God’s will for the Temple... a place of prayer and spiritual experience. The moneychangers and religious leaders made it a marketplace of materialism... so far from God’s intention for his house of worship.
The horizontal influence for the moneychangers was the financial gain, security, and self-importance they received by selling sacrificial animals to the worshipers. Jesus enters the scene and gives the vertical influence... God wants the hearts of the worshipers. Their attention should be on Him, not the animals.
Often we are more often influenced by the horizontal than the vertical. We prefer a tangible way out of dilemmas rather than waiting or trusting God to show us the way through His Word, His voice, His people, or His direction. The truth is that so often we choose the option of manipulating and massaging a quick, painless way of getting to the end of the problem.
Taking a cue from Jesus during this Lent season, let’s wait upon the Lord and then act with focus, understanding, and spiritual fervor!
Derl K.
