"The Law and The Way"

3^rd in series of 10

Sermon by Pastor David Layman

June 17, 2007

Exodus 20:1-17

Hebrews 11:23-29

In week one of our "The Bible in 10 Weeks" series, we focused on God as creator. In week two, we considered how God called a particular people through Abraham, to bring his blessings to all the world. The children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob wound up impoverished as slaves in Egypt. Not only were times hard. The Egyptians feared the growing minority population within their midst, and Pharaoh commanded that boys born to the Hebrews be thrown into the Nile. But God chose to redeem the infant boy Moses, and through him, all of the children of Israel.

The book of Exodus tells of Moses' mother hiding him in the bulrushes from the wrath of Pharaoh, his being raised by a daughter of Pharaoh's, realizing his identity as a Hebrew, being exiled into the wilderness, and meeting God at a burning bush. After significant hesitation, Moses follows God's call to go back to Egypt and say to Pharaoh "Thus says the Lord God: Let my people go!" We also read of the plagues following Pharaoh's refusal to give up his slave labor, of the eventual exodus, the deliverance of God's people through the Red Sea or Sea of Reeds, the giving of the law at Sinai.

Moses, like Abraham, chose to leave an advanced civilization, to pursue God's call. Abraham lived in prosperous Mesopotamia. Moses was raised in Pharaoh's court in Egypt, and had the best the ancient world had to offer. As Hebrews 11:24-26 tells us, "By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called a son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered abuse suffered for the Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to the reward..." While Abraham and Sarah began the journey of following the One true God, it was the mighty acts of the exodus from slavery in Egypt, the giving of the Law in the wilderness, and the later entry into the promised land that prepared God's people to fulfill the promise given to Abraham.

A covenant in the ancient world is a binding of two parties into a special relationship. We have covenants yet today: marriage covenants, (people do still occasionally decide to get married!) and loan agreements, for example! At Sinai, the covenant rested upon God's mighty acts of deliverance, and the children of Israel were to respond with grateful obedience by keeping the law. As we see in Exodus 20, "Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; [therefore,] you shall have no other gods before me...You shall not make for yourself an idol....you shall not take the Lord's name in vain, Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy," etc. etc. The 10 Commandments and the Law God gave were not just a gift, but part of a covenant agreement. Israel was elected to privilege, obedience, and service as God's covenant people, a people set apart for the task of communicating God's ways and will to all the peoples of the world.

Human nature doesn't necessarily enjoy having laws and rules. Adam and Eve decided they'd rather make their own rules, with some assistance from a snake in the grass, instead of following God's! In America, we pride ourselves as being "the land of the free". We didn't like being ruled by a king across the sea in England, a Stamp Act and taxation without representation. So we had the Revolutionary War! After the Revolutionary War, America didn't decide to try to live without any laws or rules. Our constitution was drawn up. Rules and laws are a necessary part of life. A grade school teacher wouldn't be able to teach much if he or she didn't have class room rules; there would soon be chaos! Would our streets be safe to drive if there were no traffic laws and enforcement? People would be driving 55 mph on East Main past Glen Miller Park! Having traffic laws and enforcing them makes for safer roads.

There is always the danger of excessive rules and legalism, which we tend to chafe under. The Hebrew word for "Law", torah, carries the meaning of instruction. God's law was never meant to be law for the sake of legalism. Wise instruction is teaching us how to live a good life. Before we get a driver's license, there is driver's education. Before one plays a sport, there is instruction from a coach, or an older brother or sister, in how to play. There's a rule book or independent authority that players on each side covenant to play by. Most of my ball playing as a kid was not little league with parents and paid umpires. It was a group of neighborhood kids that got together; yet, we still had rules! Three strikes, and you're out. Little kids just learning to play baseball have the ball rolled to them instead of thrown so they have a better chance to hit it. If someone hits the ball in the neighbor's vegetable garden, everyone comes to help look for it. If you break a window, everyone runs! Those were the rules!

We need laws, instructions, rules, as guides. The Apostle Paul saw that the law given to Moses, while a blessing, was not the ultimate blessing. The RSV translation of Galatians 3:24 puts it this way "The law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian." Here we see the law as a temporary but needed guardian, a custodian. The Greek word translated "custodian" is paidagogos, from which we get pedagogy, instruction. Perhaps an illustration from life can help.

Pam and I were blessed with two fine children in Andrea and Rachel. I know of parents that have been very conscientious and good parents, but for some reason they had a child that got into trouble. We were blessed. Of course, we had rules and clear expectations for Andrea and Rachel when they were young. Basic things like "Don't eat dirt, don't flush Mommy's hairpins down the toilet, don't drop crayons down the old furnace grates, because they melt and stink up the whole house, don't pull down Daddy's ties from the tie rack." But we found that when they got to be high school age, they had matured to the point where as parents we didn't have to be legalistic and "lay down the law", so to speak. We didn't have to say before they went out "You must be in by this specific time, or dire consequences will result." They had demonstrated good judgment and lived responsibly to the point that we could trust them. And they didn't abuse that trust. Laws and rules play a role in life, to guide those who need to know where the lines are drawn. Paul said the law, the Old Testament law, was our custodian. An immature people needed lots of rules and specific guidelines. Then Jesus came, saying he didn't come to abolish the law, but fulfill it. Jesus meant that the intent and purpose of God's law communicated through Moses: to guide us into Godly living, continued in force. But when God became flesh in the person of Jesus, we could step aside from living with our noses stuck in a rule book. We didn't need to be like Barney Fife, citing rule 9.73 as he ran out to arrest a jaywalker. Instead of being caught up in legalism as the end-all, Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life." We can come to know the law giver personally, and in understanding and knowing God personally, we can follow a person more than a rule book. When Jesus' disciples plucked grains of wheat from a field when hungry on the sabbath, and Pharisees cried out "That's breaking the sabbath", Jesus replied that He was the "Lord of the Sabbath"!

Our daughters reached a level of maturity in high school where they no longer needed a heavy rule book as custodian. It wasn't just that they knew what their parents wanted. They had a relationship with their Heavenly Father, so that as they matured, the guiding authority of their lives was transferring from an earthly parent to a Heavenly Father.

God's giving of the Law through Moses to the children of Israel was a key point in the Biblical story. But it was a key point not because legalism is central in life. Through the law, one can come to know something about God and what God desires from us. When we grow up with the law as a custodian into a personal relationship with the giver of the law, that's when we know we are arriving at what God's deepest desire for us is!

I've mentioned Sam Harris' book, "Letter to a Christian Nation." Harris, who does not believe in God, naturally objects to the first 4 of the 10 Commandments, because they relate to faith in God. Then he downplays the rest of the commandments by saying almost all societies tell people not to murder or steal, so what's so special about that? Sam Harris, like many humanists, is optimistic in believing he and other humans can come up with more wisdom and justice than God can provide. The Bible presents a pessimistic view of human nature, and I've lived long enough to believe that pessimism is appropriate. Human beings, even the best of them, will sin and mess up. But there is hope, because God is reaching out to a fallen world with his instruction, and better than that, through His Son!

Jesus summed up the law and the prophets by saying "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law the prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40)

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