Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. About seven weeks after leaving Egypt, the Israelites finally make it to the wilderness of Sinai, at the base of Mount Sinai. We've seen this mountain referred to earlier in Scripture as the Mountain of God, and it's probably also the same place as Mount Horeb. It seems to be one of God's favorite places. Here, God calls to Moses from out of the mountain, and Moses passes his words along to the people.
These people who, as far as we can tell, seem to complain more than they praise, promise to do everything God commands of them. We'll see. God says he's going to meet the people at Mount Sinai, so they need to consecrate themselves. This is the same thing he called them to do for the firstborns, and it basically means set them apart and prepare them to encounter God. It usually involves a bath and some clean clothes.
And Moses also tells them to abstain from sex during this time, not because women are evil, but because things like seminal fluids and blood are symbols of life and death. As far as their laws for cleanliness are concerned, to be depleted of either of those things points to the depletion of life, which wasn't considered an appropriate way to honor the presence of the giver of life.
When the people come to meet God, they cannot touch the mountain or they'll die. And if someone does touch it, no one is allowed to touch that person. That would mean the transfer of both the death sentence that person was carrying and the transfer of the power of God. It's kind of like grabbing somebody who's being electrocuted. God's power is not hypothetical. Being in contact with it has verifiable dramatic effects.
You may have noticed that he says they have to kill anyone who touches the mountain. It doesn't say they'll die from touching it. This is interesting here because it shows us that God regards killing as a different thing than murder. We see this again in 21.12 when he says, "'Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death.'" I'm not making any kind of political statements about the death penalty here. I'm just pointing out that Scripture makes a distinction between murdering someone and killing someone as a penalty or even as an accident.
The reason I'm pointing this out is because some people say God contradicts himself here by telling them to kill someone, then issuing the Ten Commandments only a few verses later. But the Hebrew phrase in the Ten Commandments is best translated as, you shall not murder. Murder specifically is different than killing in general. The Hebrew word for murder is never used in the Old Testament when referring to war or capital punishment.
So here they are at the mountain of God, and on the third day, there's a big storm and a loud trumpet blast. God descended on the mountain in fire, and it was covered in smoke. Oh, there's also an earthquake. Then in the midst of the storm, a fire, smoke, an earthquake, and an ever-increasing ear-piercing trumpet noise, God tells Moses, come closer. Climb the mountain, the mountain that no one else is allowed to touch. And Moses does. God has a few things to tell him.
Then we hit a section lots of you are familiar with, the Ten Commandments. So I'm only going to hover on a few points. In this section, it appears God is talking to Moses and the people are overhearing the whole thing. God opens by using his personal name with them. I am Yahweh, your God. He reminds them who he is to them and how he demonstrated his commitment to them. He says, I brought you out of slavery.
By the way, we address slavery later and repeatedly when we can give it more time and attention, so stick with us. This is important. If you want more info now, scroll back in your feed to where we posted the February Reflections and Corrections episode from last year. We'll also link to that in the show notes. But if you can wait, we'll be posting that episode again this year at the end of the month. Okay, back to today's text.
Here, in his words to Moses and the people, God starts by talking about who he is and who they are to him before telling them his laws. He opens with relationship.
Then he gives these 10 words. That's what they're called in Hebrew. But just because they're called words and not commandments doesn't give them any less weight. They're still the words of God, which is why the translators often call them commandments instead. The first five words are vertical. They show us how to honor God. The second five words are horizontal. They show us how to honor others. The fifth word, which is about how to honor parents, acts as a kind of hinge which swings in both of these directions.
The second word, the one about idols and graven images, it points out our natural inclination to worship things. Everyone worships something. Mostly, we worship what we see regularly. The challenge for our idolatrous hearts is that Yahweh has no physical form. So in order to worship Him, we have to set aside our human nature, which means setting aside the created things we can see with our eyes. You may wonder about theophanies here.
Even though God has no physical form, He does appropriate one from time to time, but He shouldn't be thought of as attached to or confined to that form. Some people even believe this commandment prohibits having images of Jesus or crosses. And it's definitely true that those things can be worshipped or idolized or treated as though they have magical powers. I've seen it. Honestly, I'm all for getting rid of pictures of Jesus, especially because most of them are Renaissance Jesus, all blonde-haired and blue-eyed and European.
Anyway, the Israelites would not make any images of humans or animals because of this word. They know the human heart's propensity to worship things. So the only kind of art allowed in Jewish homes or synagogues is geometric art. It's a far cry from the cathedrals we see today. Not long ago, when an artist erected a statue of David in Jerusalem, some of the locals who love David broke its nose off because they take the second commandment seriously.
I want to say a bit about the word jealous here because in this passage, God says, I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God. God's jealousy here is not like our jealousy. Not at all. The Hebrew word used to describe God's jealousy here is only used in reference to God. The meaning it carries is more like protective or zealous. God is protective of and zealous for his relationship with us.
God's jealousy is entirely different than the kind of jealousy you and I feel. The word used to describe that kind of jealousy carries more of a connotation of envy, like Joseph's brothers felt toward him.
In the third word, we see how seriously God takes His name. There are lots of layers to this word, but I want to point out three in particular. The original use of the phrase, "'take the Lord's name' hints at carrying His name. Like, we take His name with us wherever we go. We're marked by it. So He calls us to live lives that align with His name."
Second, this word prohibits any kind of insincere or frivolous use of His name because it suggests we're not taking it seriously. Personally, I don't even like to use the acronym OMG because of what it represents. God takes personal offense to anything that diminishes His character or personhood, which is the next thing I want to point to. As we've talked about before, God's names represent His character and His actions, but
So taking the name of God in vain could also correspond to doubting that He is who He says He is, disbelieving His character. Many of us may have never misused God's name in our speech, but if we've doubted God's character in our hearts, this verse calls us out.
After God finished these 10 words, 2018 tells us the people saw the storm and the trumpet and the smoke and they were afraid. Then Moses responds with something that sounds completely contradictory. He says, So which is it, Moses? Should we be afraid or not? You're sending mixed messages.
The first use of fear in Moses' statement, do not fear, carries the meaning of dread. It's the same word used in Genesis 3.10 where Adam sinned and he was afraid, so he hid from God. That kind of fear drives us away from God. In Scripture, this kind of fear is sin adjacent. It's either a response to sin or it leads to sin or both. That is the kind of fear Moses is telling them not to do. Then he says...
This is a different word for fear in Hebrew. It carries the meaning of reverence and awe, and it's joy adjacent. It has the effect of drawing us to God.
The fear of God is comprised primarily of delight and awe. It moves us toward Him. It's the way we feel about the Grand Canyon. We take long trips to get to it, to stand on the edge of it with our eyes and mouths open wide, taking it all in while simultaneously being fully aware that it has the power to kill us. Awe and delight and respect.
That's the kind of fear we're supposed to have toward God. And as Moses said, that kind of fear keeps us from sinning against Him. It produces righteousness in us. We have to reframe the way we think of the fear of the Lord because most of us picture it as Him throwing out lightning bolts on any sinners who dare to darken the door of a church. That's not what it is. And when we think of it in that way, we malign His character, which is, as we just talked about, a kind of taking His name in vain.
We hit a section in Chapter 21 that is just a general outline of how to live in society with civility and respect for each other. It's aiming to establish ideas of justice and morality that will promote a culture that thrives.
In general, it seems to be less about how to treat people and more about how to handle those who mistreat people. It reveals God's desire to protect and respect life, including life in the womb, because all life points to the giver of life, and especially humans who are made in God's image. Speaking of which, what was your God shot today? I loved in 19, five through six, where he called Israel his treasured possession. And he told them they were a kingdom of priests,
Priests are mediators. So if the Hebrew nation is a kingdom of priests, that means there has to be someone else on the other side of them that needs to be connected with God through them. This is all a part of God's plan to use the Israelites and Jesus specifically as a way to connect Himself to the other nations of the world who are not Israelites. God chose the Israelites as His people in order to make a way for the people of the disinherited nations to be adopted into His family.
He's not exclusive. He's just specific. He's drawing people from all nations to him through Christ. And he's where the joy is.
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