The First and Second Commandments

Exodus 20: 1 - 6

I believe we are all familiar with the Ten Commandments of God. I do not know what your impression is when you read these commandments. Sometimes people think that it is just a list of prohibition. And this makes you think that Christian religion is boring because you cannot do this and that. You might think that Christian religion does not give you enough freedom to flourish. However, this is actually typical from an outsider’s perspective. That is why it is important to read from the original word of God (the Bible) rather than to accept public opinion about Christianity.

From the beginning of Exodus 20, we have read the story about God’s redemption / deliverance. In verse 2: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery”. So it is clear that Christianity is about freedom, not bondage. The words “I am the Lord your God” want to emphasize is the existence of a personal relationship between God and His people. Obedience in Christian perspective is always relationally conceived. If there is no relational conception, we just obey because there is a certain rule or instruction but we do not grow in love for God and others. We become increasingly rigid with the rules and eventually we lose the substance of obeying the law. Why did the Lord our God deliver His people out of the land of Egypt? That is because the Lord wants to give us the freedom to love and worship Him. So when we worship God, pray and read the Bible, it is freedom, not slavery / bondage. Bondage was actually like what the Egyptians did to Israel. In our lives today, the bondage is when we are enslaved by the power of sin. Sometimes we misunderstand the concept of freedom, assuming that being free means having some kind of autonomous freedom. I can do whatever I want, no one can forbid me from doing this and that. However, according to the biblical perspective, this is not freedom but precisely slavery. When God delivered the Israelites from the land of Egypt, they often wanted to return to the Egyptian bondage. They remembered the delicious food and comfortable house, and all other conveniences. Yet they did not care whether they were enslaved or not because the most important thing for them was good food. How could they not appreciate the freedom that was given by God? The answer is because they fail to enjoy God. When we fail to enjoy God, then the pleasure of the world will be very attractive for us. There is a famous quotation by Victor Frankl in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning”, he said that if you fail to find the true meaning in your life, then it’ll be replaced by the search for pleasure. Everything is just about pleasure because you cannot find the meaning of life. Indeed, we are not against pleasure, but the warning is that if we fail to understand the meaning of life and enjoy God in worship, then the search for pleasure will be very attractive to us. After the Israelites succeeded in passing through the Red Sea, they rejoiced and praised God. There is nothing wrong with this celebration, but if you read the Bible carefully, you will know that it is only a temporary celebration. So when they walked in the wilderness, they recalled again their life in the land of Egypt, they remembered about the food and drinks there. This story can be a mirror for our lives. Sometimes we want to return to a life full of sin, a life without God. Therefore, it is important for us to understand that after redemption, this law was given to His people not to limit our lives and take away our freedom but to continue God’s story of redemption. Without the law, there is no guide to continuing God’s story of redemption.

If we want to return to a life full of sin, it means we do not understand the purpose of the freedom that God gives us. Israel was liberated because they could not worship God freely in the land of Egypt. After leaving Egypt, they were now free to serve, praise and worship God with all their hearts. They were no longer enslaved by these deceitful gods. Therefore it is written the commandment that you shall have no other gods before Me (Exodus 20:3). Those who see this command as something that gives another bondage are actually paranoid. In fact, this command is good news because we do not need to serve gods who put us into slavery and lead us to sin. By giving us the freedom from sin, he wants us to dedicate ourselves to Him. We must not misunderstand this commandment and think that God is selfish and insecure because He needs our love. Theologically speaking, God is still God with or without your love and worship. He invites us to love and worship Him and this is actually for our sake too. When man loves and serves God, he actually experiences liberation from Him. This command is not another form of bondage. The actual bondage is when we fail to glorify, enjoy and love God and love others. We as humans basically need to love and the greatest object that we can love is no other than the true God Himself. Why? It is because the human soul was created to love God the most, not creations that are lower than God. If we love something more than God, be careful because it can enslave our life and make us disappointed. For example, parents who love their child so much will do anything for him, and without realizing it they make their child an idol. When the child fails they will be disappointed because a child is also a sinful human being. Living in this fallen world, there are so many transactional relationships. When we give something to someone, we also expect something in return. However, there is no transactional relationship with God because before we were able to love Him, He first loved us. Unlike human love that is very conditional and transactional, God’s love is unconditional. If we realize that in the book of Exodus 20: 1-3, we see a pattern of unconditional love. Why can we say that? That is because God redeemed us first and then He gave the law. The salvation from God precedes the invitation to obey God’s commands, not the other way around. So, the obedience to God’s law is not a way to buy God’s love or acceptance, but obedience is the expression of our gratitude to God for all the things He has done for us. So once again, the invitation to love God is a liberating invitation and the obedience to the law is a free and cheerful thanksgiving.

We know that God is the source of all happiness. This fact cannot be separated from the loving and compassionate nature of God. However in modern life, we often think that life would be happier if we didn’t have to share or sacrifice for others. There is a quote from the book The Brothers Karamazov written by Fyodor Dostoevsky: “What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love." If not sharing feels like heaven, well, it is actually hell. If Dostoevsky describes hell in such a way, it means that the foretaste of heaven is the opposite, namely the happiness of being loved, to love God and our neighbors. In the Bible there is a story of the rich man and Lazarus, where this rich man enjoyed so much luxury in his life and enjoyed it for himself. Strangely, in hell this rich man is depicted as having “love” for the other members of his family. He asked Abraham to send people to his family so that they would change and not suffer in hell. Abraham answered that they had the testimony of God’s Word, if they did not believe it then they would not believe anyone who came back from the dead (Luke 16: 19-31). There is a kind of love that this rich man wants to express, but unfortunately his opportunity to express love to his family who is still in the world is no longer there.

The next command is “You shall not make for yourself a carved image…" (Exodus 20:4). We have read stories where Israel once made carved images. What is the difference between a carved image and the true God? The description in the Bible is very simple, namely that the carved image is static, dead, deaf, unable to speak and think. Meanwhile, the true God can speak, think and communicate, rejoice and be grieved. In short, there is a dynamic relationship between us and the true God. The question is, how can these plastic and static images be interesting for us as human beings? Have you ever thought about why this dead and dumb carved image is more attractive than a living God? Because when we have a relationship with living beings, there is always reciprocity and often this reciprocity is unpredictable and uncontrollable. For example, when you are angry with a lower creature (e.g. a dog), the animal will respond in the form of sad eyes and a pitiful face. It is a different matter if you get angry with an equal creation, namely humans. The response could be to get furious back at you and this is not pleasant for you. We enjoy the response from lower creation more because we can control it. This makes it very difficult for us to receive a response from God, because it is impossible for God to obey us. There is a story in the Bible where Simon the Pharisee invited Jesus to eat at his house. Then Jesus allowed a prostitute to come in too, instead of Simon. Indeed, Jesus was invited as a guest, but He did not come as a guest but instead positioned himself as host. This understanding is often unpleasant for humans because humans have to step down and cannot reign. Yet remember that He was never only a guest because He would take over and be the host.

Back then in the 90s, there was a game called Tamagotchi. We know that games are dead objects. Interestingly, even though this Tamagotchi is a dead object, it has to be fed to keep the game going, so we become enslaved by this game. We want a relationship that responds, but we want to limit the response we receive. We can not feed this game for weeks, months or forever, and it will not be a problem. We can control when we feed this game. This is different from pets or plants which are living creatures and can actually die if they are not fed for weeks. Moreover, with our own children, we cannot possibly only feed them once every few days. We definitely cannot just limit the responses they give in our relationships with them. What is the point of speaking this illustration, from a game, to animals or plants, to children and finally to God? The point is we know that deep down in our heart we need a relationship with God, but our sinfulness wants to limit the relationship. We want to treat our relationship with God like our relationship with animals. We only want to have a relationship with God once a week or just if we want to respond. This kind of idea is actually a carved image of God. So once again, what does it mean “You shall not make for yourself a carved image”? It means God wants to say please relate to Me. God is not your self projected image. If we grow in the knowledge of God, we will be continuously corrected and this will actually liberate us from wrong understanding.

We also read that God is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5). Jealousy can have both negative and positive meanings. However, if we understand God correctly, the term jealousy in this verse has a positive meaning. What does it mean? The meaning of this jealousy is that God loves us so much that he does not want to let our lives be destroyed by idols. This does not mean that God is obsessive and possessive of His people. But God knows that when His people do not obey and are loyal to God, they will destroy their own lives. God is expressing His steadfast love to His chosen people. If God is no longer jealous, that means God has let us go. Remember, children who are loved will be disciplined and jealous, but everything is based on love. We should not be annoyed if God is jealous, because God actually loves us. Even if it sounds like there is a threat in Exodus 20:5 “…visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me…”, but in verse 6 God shows His steadfast love to thousands of those who love Him and keep His commandments. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation cannot be compared with steadfast love for thousands of generations. If so, why doesn’t God just talk about steadfast love with thousands of generations? The answer is simple, because this is not in the sense of a threat. God wants to remind us that when people refuse to have a relationship with God, there will be disaster for themselves. If we don’t worship God, we will start to worship something else and the first thing that will go up first is worshiping ourselves because we naturally never stop worshiping. God wants to free us from false God and carved images (our own idea of ​​God). Then He invites us to relate with Him. Indeed, in a love relationship there may be things that do not meet our expectations, but we should not only look at the negative aspects. We should also look at the positive side, namely that we can share and live together. In our relationship with God, do not just look at prohibitions, but also see the happiness in being able to serve and love God as the highest object. If we fail to find the peak of happiness that is God, we will try to look for other happiness and pleasure. The question is, where do we find happiness? The answer is you shall have no other gods before Me and you shall not make for yourself a carved image. (G.N.S.)