Yesterday was Mother’s Day and I spent a good portion of it connecting with family. I got to speak with my parents last night because they were traveling home after being away for almost a month. They went to spend time with my great aunt, Titi, who is 94 years old and now bedridden.

My parents’ sole purpose in going to my aunt was to care for her. They took turns staying up through the night with her. They usually got about 3-4 hours of sleep at a time. I spoke with them several times while they were away and, quite frankly, they sounded exhausted.

During one of our phone calls, I told my mom that I had been contemplating this verse. I shared how whenever I thought of “honor your father and your mother” I thought of them. I thought of how they were honoring Titi, my mom’s second mom, by caring for her, being there for her, listening to her, serving her…by unconditionally loving her in an honorable way. They didn’t go and serve Titi out of guilt or obligation, but to honor her.

Titi is 94 years old. She is a proud, strong-willed woman. I would think that it might be hard for Titi to allow others to care for her in ways that we just don’t like to think about. When I think about my parents caring for her with such humility and unconditional love, it’s easy for me to know what honoring our parents looks like.

This verse in the context of the commandments seems to be a transition point from our relationship with The Divine, to our relationship with each other.  Beginning with our earthly parents, we are guided in what our relationships should look like.  This commandment is not one to recite to my children with the hopes that they will respect our roles as parents. But instead, this commandment is one for me to demonstrate to my children by honoring my parents. This commandment is an opportunity for us “show” our children what honoring our parents might look like, not “tell” them.

It was so good to talk with both of my parents yesterday. They both have shown me what honoring parents looks like. My hope is that my words and actions honor them.

Once a month, I get together with a few friends where we talk about, and spend time with each other as well as spend time with God. Each month, we rotate who will decide what we will do together. Sometimes it’s sharing a meal, sometimes it’s prayer, sometimes it’s just talking about our lives. I have to say that I really appreciate our time together; sometimes, however, I admit that it can be hard for me to get to that time. And last week was one of those times.

It was my turn to take the lead, and while I knew that it was my turn for over a month, when it came to the two weeks prior to our time together, I still didn’t have a clear idea of what to focus on. My time was spent prepping for Easter and when Easter Sunday had passed, I was swamped with work. I had multiple presentations that required my attention that week. Once I got my work done, I spent a whole day in prayer asking God for direction for our upcoming gathering. Even after the day in prayer, I didn’t feel like I knew what I was going to do. With that, I became stressed and felt pressured to ‘come up with something’ because time was running out.

I allowed myself to get so stressed, that before too long, I was seriously considering backing out of the monthly gathering all together. I mean, I didn’t have time for this. I had too much on my plate. I just needed time, I didn’t need the stress. It was in the midst of that panic moment, that I realized what I should’ve known all along…I needed to talk about the sabbath.

Sometimes, I don’t get why I’m so thick-headed. I mean, I’d been contemplating these verses in Exodus for weeks. Why did I allow my daily routine to cloud my thoughts and overwhelm my time?

8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. When I went back to this verse in Exodus, it brought me back to a quiet spot with God. The Sabbath day is not just a day to not do anything, it’s a day set aside with God. While I had spent a day praying for God’s direction, admittedly, the prayer was focused on my needs…God helping me. It wasn’t focused on contemplating and celebrating the awesome nature of our God. I needed to remember that I just needed to be still and quiet so that I could just be with God.

9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. These verses reminded me that our sabbath with God should be a whole day; not just an hour or two, a whole day. It’s not a day to get tasks done. It’s a day for God…a break from the tasks that have a tendency of cluttering up our weeks. Having said that, though, in the New Testament, Jesus warns us about taking this commandment to the extreme.

In Mark 2:27-28, “Jesus said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.‘” In fact, in Mark, (vs 2:23-3:6) Jesus was challenged by the religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees, on what could or couldn’t be done on the Sabbath. The religious leaders didn’t like that the disciples gathered grain to eat on the Sabbath and the Bible goes so far to say that they began conspiring against Jesus when Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath. What they failed to realize, though, was that God gave the Israelites the gift of the sabbath and it’s an opportunity for us to give it back to God, not simply as a strict observance of the law. It seems like the Pharisees lost sight of the intent of the law. And as the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus knew this. To do good on the Sabbath was, and is, good especially when the intent is to reflect the character of God. My understanding is that the Sabbath is about being God focused, rather than task focused.

11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. For me, this verse resonates with such profound beauty. The Sabbath is a gift from God that goes back to the beginning…back to creation. In the book, Interpretation: Exodus, Terence Fretheim writes that the sabbath is

a religious act with cosmic implications…The divine rest in creation is not a picturesque way of speaking of the end of God’s creating; rather, the divine rest “finished” creation. God’s resting is a divine act that builds into the very created order of things a working/resting rhythm. Only when that rhythm is honored by all is the creation what God intended it to be. The sabbath is thus a divinely given means for all creatures to be in tune with the created order of things. Even more, sabbath-keeping is an act of creation-keeping. To keep the sabbath is to participate in God’s intention for the rhythm of creation. Not keeping the sabbath is a violation of the created order…

I love Fretheim’s observation of this verse. It reminded me of the why behind the sabbath. I was also reminded that the gift in the sabbath is that God has given it to us as part of creation and our own life cycle…God set aside this time for our well being because the best thing for us is resting with God.

There was a lot of text allotted  to ensure that the context of the sabbath was understood.  It begins and ends with the sabbath as holy. Keeping a sabbath day–all 24 hours of it–set aside to rest with God is an essential part of living out our faith. God blessed the sabbath, it’s our gift back to God to keep it holy.

When I got caught up with work and all of the tasks that were before me, I found relief only when I remembered the sabbath. Just like physiologically, we can not live without the recuperation that comes with sleep…we can not live a spiritual life that is without the sabbath. We need the sabbath to live in the spirit; it’s the time spent with God that restores our spirit.

Greek: sabbaton, ta sabbata

The root, shabhath in Hebrew means “to desist,” “cease,” “rest.” –ISBE Bible Dictionary

I’ve been thinking about this verse for months…yes, really…this verse.
With the first part of the verse, “No using the name of God your God, in curses or silly banter,” how we refer to God’s name is important, more so than we think about on a daily basis. One commentary states:

The third commandment is directed not toward Yahweh’s protection but toward Israel’s. Yahweh’s name, specifically the tetragrammaton but in principle all Yahweh’s names and titles, must be honored, blessed, praised, celebrated, invoked, pronounced, and so shared. To treat Yahweh’s name with disrespect is to treat his gift lightly, to underestimate his power, to scorn his Presence, and to misrepresent to the family of humankind his very nature as “The One Who Always Is.” –John I. Durham, World Biblical Commentary: Exodus

How many times in our day-to-day conversations do we hear “God” used? In the context of that question, how many times is “God” referred to in terms of the divine nature of who God is? How many times is God brought down in the context of our conversations as a simple exclamation? In the past several days, I heard “God” in many contexts on tv…some of which were bleeped out. And then there were the movies…where it wasn’t bleeped out.

I realize that we live in a culture where anything goes. Virtually anything is game insofar as freedom of expression is concerned; and I appreciate my own freedom of expression. The more I’ve meditated on this verse, however, the more I’ve thought about God’s power and presence…”The One Who Always Is.” I can’t help but think about what I say, with my words or actions, has the potential to treat God’s gift of grace and love lightly.

No carved gods of any size, shape, or form of anything whatever, whether of things that fly or walk or swim. Don’t bow down to them and don’t serve them because I am GOD your God, and I’m a most jealous God, punishing the children for any sins their parents pass on to them to the third, and yes, even to the fourth generation of those who hate me. But I’m unswervingly loyal to the thousands who love me and keep my commandments.”

I’ve been thinking about this for quite sometime now. The thing that I’ve been thinking about most is the why…why is it so important to establish that there be ‘no carved gods?’ First, some scholars believe that this was an important part of the law as it set the Israelites apart from their contemporaries. Terrence Fretheim in his biblical commentary of Exodus goes on to say:

“Yahweh is above and beyond everything in all creation. But it seems more likely that this prohibition arises more out of a concern to protect God’s relatedness than trancendence.”

This again reminds me that the commandments are more than a ‘do and don’t’ list, the commandments are intended to protect our relationship with God and are God’s gift to give us direction on how to live with each other.

I have to admit, the more I contemplated these verses, the more I realized the importance of the words. No carved gods. This makes sense to me because, nothing that I could create, nothing that I could carve, mold, assemble or otherwise, could take the place of worshipping God, Our Creator. I mean, how could I with my finite experience with life, my limited abilities, my short time here on this earth…how could I create an image or a statue that could be compared to the Infinite? We’re talking about “The Alpha and the Omega…who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” How could I think that I could create something that could compare with the One God?

And if…if I thought I could create something, to what end? To worship a thing? An object?

“Don’t bow down to them and don’t serve them because I am GOD your God.”

Our Infinite God cannot be contained in an object or be captured in one of our own creations. We are God’s own creations, created to live a life with God and for God…created in God own image…not the other way around.

You shall have no other gods before {3 Or besides} me.’”

After my last post, I felt that I needed to talk more about the commandments one at a time…it just seemed to me like I wasn’t quite finished. So here goes…

If I maintain that the commandments are about relationships, then the first commandment is the most important as it focuses on the most important relationship, our relationship with God. God doesn’t want anything to come between us and God; God doesn’t want to compete for our attention. We are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. (Mark 12) As I stated in an earlier post, relating to God was a difficult idea to get my head around. How do we relate to God? How do we have a relationship with God? This commandment gives us the most important clue…love God, The Alpha and Omega, first and last. I love the way that John Wesley, in his explanatory notes for this chapter, gives us some practical things to look at when it comes to loving God according to this first commandment:

The sin against this commandment, which we are most in danger of, is giving that glory to any creature which is due to God only. Pride makes a God of ourselves, covetousness makes a God of money, sensuality makes a God of the belly. Whatever is loved, feared, delighted in, or depended on, more than God, that we make a God of. This prohibition includes a precept which is the foundation of the whole law, that we take the Lord for our God, accept him for ours, adore him with humble reverence, and set our affections entirely upon him.

In this world of self-actualization, self-enlightenment, self-improvement, if I’m going to live a life that is beyond me and my abilities, I need to start and end with God. Jesus tells us, “love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.’ And “Love others as well as you love yourself.’ There is no other commandment that ranks with these.” (Mark 12: 28-31, The Message)

I guess what I’m thinking is that God’s love is the source of my capacity to love and if I”m living my life for God, the love should flow through my ‘self,’ and out to others as an expression of God’s own love.

As I thought more about God’s love, and how I can really love God, I found myself in Paul’s letter to Corinth in 1 Corinthians 13 (italicized words are my thoughts based on all of the above):

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have (and give God’s) love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have (and give God’s) love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have (and give God’s) love, it profits me nothing. (God’s expression of…) Love is patient, (God’s expression of…) love is kind and is not jealous; (God’s expression of…) love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (God’s) Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.

When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man (an adult), I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

How am I loving God with all that I am? How am I allowing God’s love to be expressed through my ‘self’ and continue the journey to be expressed to others? What, if anything, am I doing to hinder God’s love? Is there anything else before or taking the place of God in my life?

21 The people kept their distance while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.

22 GOD said to Moses, “Give this Message to the People of Israel: “You’ve experienced firsthand how I spoke with you from Heaven. (Exodus 20: 20-22, The Message)

This chapter of Exodus focuses on God giving Moses the Law for the Israelites to live by.

• No other gods, only me.
• No carved gods of any size, shape, or form of anything whatever…
• No using the name of GOD your God, in curses or silly banter; GOD won’t put up with the irreverant use of his name.
• Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
• Honor your father and mother so that you’ll live a long time in the land that GOD your God, is giving you.
• No murder.
• No adultery.
• No stealing.
• No lies about your neighbor.
• No lusting after your neighbor’s house…Don’t set your heart on anything that is your neighbor’s.

I remember when I first heard the Ten Commandments as a child, I remember thinking about it as a “do” and “don’t do” list. Do this…don’t do that. I didn’t understand the first two, knew that I wasn’t supposed to curse in the third, and I didn’t really understand the fourth. I interpreted the fifth as listening to my parents, and then read the rest as kind of rules that would keep me out of trouble.

To be honest, I didn’t really think much about the commandments for many years, and when I did, I still just saw them as the ‘do’ and ‘don’t’ list…that is, until I read…

28One of the religion scholars came up. Hearing the lively exchanges of question and answer and seeing how sharp Jesus was in his answers, he put in his question: “Which is most important of all the commandments?”

29Jesus said, “The first in importance is, “Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; 30so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.’ 31And here is the second: “Love others as well as you love yourself.’ There is no other commandment that ranks with these.” Mark 12: 28-31, The Message

The Commandments that God handed to the people of Israel weren’t so much about ‘do’s’ and ‘dont’s’ as they were about a relationship between God and God’s people. The first three were about loving God with everything we’ve got. The fourth was about setting a day aside so that we could make sure we spend time with God. I now read the fifth as for both, my parents here on earth as well as the Parent of All, God, in heaven. And then, six through ten I see as ways we can demonstrate our love for others as well as our love for ourselves.

Jesus gave life to what many had understood as only laws. Jesus helped me to understand that I had taken what was was meant to be about relationships and turned into something that it was never intended to be. What had been in my head as a ‘do and don’t do list’, made the move to my heart as a way way to show my love for God and for the people in my life.

With this move from my head to my heart Exodus 20:20, “Don’t be afraid. God has come to test you and instill a deep and reverent awe within you so that you won’t sin” has a much deeper meaning. I understand it to mean…

Don’t worry. God has come to show you how to love God deeply and show you how to love one another.

I’m still here…at the foot of Mount Sinai. I can’t seem to move beyond this chapter yet. I keep thinking about the Israelites encamped at the base of the mountain anticipating an encounter with God.

And this reminded me of the journey that we’re on.

A journey anticipating real encounters with God.

A journey where we prepare for our encounters with God.

A journey where we feel God’s presence.

A journey where we see God’s glory,
With the birth of a Child,
In the midst of a starry night.

And so we walk.

And anticipate an encounter with God.

© 2005 ginny rogers

As I’ve blogged before, when I read through the Bible, I reread text over and over again.

When I first read this passage I paused on God’s words for the Israelites to not only listen to God’s voice, but agree to follow God’s direction. I paused on the Israelite’s quick response basically saying, “sure thing, absolutely.” Did they realize what they were agreeing to? Did they realize the level of their commitment? When we decide to follow God’s direction by following Jesus’ lead, do we realize what we’re agreeing to?

Then today, I paused again and focused on what God was saying through Moses, “if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

If one believes that the earth, and everything in it, belongs to God; we are here to take care of it. God has lovingly placed it in our care to take care of. Often when we read the Bible and the verse where humans are to have dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:28), it’s interpreted that the earth is ours. The Jewish Study Bible in the sidenotes of Genesis 1:28, states

“Some have seen in that commission a license for ecological irresponsibility. The fact is, however, that the Tanakh presents humanity not as the owner of nature but as its steward, strictly accountable to its true Owner (see Leviticus 25:23-24).

So, too, does this verse in Exodus remind us that the earth is God’s possession, just as the Israelites were God’s people, and just as through the love of Jesus, we are God’s own possession. And not only are we called to be God’s own possession, but we are invited to be a ‘kingdom of priests…a holy nation.’

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. ~~ 1 Peter 2:9-10 (NIV)

Finally, I just want to briefly cover the term ‘priests’ and what Fausset’s Bible Dictionary, calls the four characteristics of the priest (Hebrew: koheen; Greek: hiereus)

(1) chosen of God; (2) the property of God; (3) holy to God; (4) offered gifts to God, and took back gifts from God

Could it be that when we enter into a covenant, or relationship, with God we’re acknowledging that we are God’s possession? When we agree to follow Jesus’ Way, we agree to care for what’s important to God–God’s own possessions? When we worship God in the wilderness are we acknowledging that we are standing in the midst of God’s own creation…God’s gift to us? Could it be that our stewardship and care for the earth, including those that live in it, can be part of our spiritual act of worship…our offering to God?

© 2005 ginny rogers

God rescued the Israelites from their life of slavery and oppression under the Egyptians. They left Egypt and are now camped at the base of Mount Sinai in the wilderness.

As the Israelites are going about their daily needs, God called Moses and told him what needed to be said to the people…Exodus 19:5-6

In verse 8, the reply of the Israelites to what God had said and stated in unison was, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do!”

This has me thinking and wondering…what are we doing?