Exodus 20:7-11

Transcript

Clint Loveall
00:00
We did not make it very far. We only made it through two commandments. I don’t know how many will get through today but we continue. To look at these expectations that god has for the people, we’re in verse 7 today. You will not make wrongful use of the name of the lord. Your god for the lord will not acquit. Anyone who misses his name. Um, you know, michael you and i just recently did a series on the 10 commandments with the other podcasts. We’re doing the Westminster catechism. And, I think most of the commandments but certainly this one are are often bigger than people think they are we here wrongful use and we think of swearing we think of you know gd we think of you know god this and god that um Misusing god’s name, which that certainly is. But there is a, there is a bigger context here. The idea of wrongful use, um, Of commonizing. God’s name of misrepresenting god’s name of not honoring god’s name and it has i think more to do with the relationship to god that it does with the name itself and i think that that can be easily missed. There’s a sense in which all of these commandments have uh A superficial checklist that we might say, well i don’t do that but if you really understand them, i think they’re likely to convict you in your likely to think. Oh no, that does speak to me as well. That’s 100%
Michael Gewecke
01:33
fair and i think that one of the temptations with this commanded particular is to relegate it to a list of common everyday sins that we just say grace over for ourselves. We say well yeah, i’ve got a salty tongue and i’ve always have or my mom did or whatever. And then That becomes this sort of escape hatch and Clint that is in many ways to take a very sacred identifying type. Command a thing that roots, you within a family establishes. A relationship between you and god and essentially commodifies it and says, well, you know, be nice and don’t be disrespectful. And i think that’s the the frame that many of us bring you. This is the idea that this command is telling us, don’t disrespect god. Just like, don’t disrespect your parents and functionally how we often treat. That clint, i think is we say don’t get caught, don’t get caught by people. Using God’s name in vain, but that That i don’t even think that’s really barely touching this command and some of that is a misunderstanding of history and culture, you know, in our modern present day. Where atheism is a thing that we kind of take for grant that there are people who don’t believe in god. We come to a text like this and As we look at it, we we can’t envision the day in which everyone believed that there was a god. And in fact, the really debate was who’s got is bigger, who’s got his better? Who’s god is victorious. And clint, i think one thing that we miss is misusing, the name of a god is tantamount to try to use that god’s power for yourself, or using that god’s power against another person or, in some way, trying to bend that god to your own This is and if we know anything in x’s, exodus about the god of israel, we know god will not be used. God god’s name will not be abused because god is greatest. God is highest gathers, most powerful. Yeah
Clint Loveall
03:35
i think there’s also a sense in which Michael, this has to do with Treating something sacred as if it is common. To take the name of god. And simply. Use that as one would use any other. Non-sacred or even profane thing. In fact, it literally some translations read to profane the name of God and profane means to take something which is good and treat it as something as bad. So to call down, curses On god’s behalf or to to literally dam others in god’s name. I mean, there are myriads of ways we could talk about what this commandment does and doesn’t mean but it means more than we often think that it does and it has to do with our relationship with the holy one.
Michael Gewecke
04:24
Yeah. Maybe if you’re going to summarize this command for yourself, i just point out that exact wording that we have here in the NIV make wrongful use of the name. I think both of those matter wrongful A way that is inappropriate a way that is non-relational a way that our calls to oneself. And then the use of a name is to try to bend it to your own purposes. To try to find a way to missuse. God’s name is a tan amount to finding a way to use God, for yourself, the name of god, and the action of god, here are linked in a really deep theological way, and so we’re not gonna spend the whole session here on just for seven by, i won’t make it Clear that there is some deep spiritual wisdom, in the call to treat our relationship with god with honor and respect. And that’s not just in the simple, casual one-off stuff that you might say. In a day, if that’s been your understanding of this commandment, i would encourage you take a listen to the Westminster catechism talk because the even that catechism, which is designed for children. Can lead us into a much deeper, understanding of what was intended here. Yeah.
Clint Loveall
05:37
And given that, this is a thing. We might even fuss at kids for doing at least doing part of I i think it is worth. Pointing out the end of this verse is scary, the lord will not acquit. Anyone who missed uses his name? If there’s if there’s any thought that this isn’t a real commandment or that this isn’t serious business. This is how god feels about it. The lord will not acquit someone who misses the name. That that is a significant threat. That’s a significant evidence of how serious the the one giving these commandments feels this one is, yeah.
Michael Gewecke
06:15
Right. And it’s so easy to relativize it or based upon, you know, sort of the assumptions we made about it. But i think you just make the point to emphasize If you find yourself, downplaying, this, as opposed to the commandments that follow, you said, in yesterday’s study, i think it’s helpful that in many ways this commandment begins with the direct relationship with god. And then it makes its way down into the communal relationships. And make no mistake, god is first on the list and so the fact that we’re only three in and this one is there, we should not be relegating this to the bottom of our own list. This this matters and i hope that we see it as such. Yeah,
Clint Loveall
06:54
no, other commandment. Includes words like this that you will not be acquitted. That that says something and we should take that seriously then we move on. Remember the sabbath day, keep it holy. Six days, you shall labor and do your work. The seventh is a sabbath day to the lord, your god. You shall not do work. You your son, your daughter, your mail, your female slave, your livestock, your alien resident, in your towns for in six days. The lord may heaven and earth the sea and all that is in them, but rested on the seventh, therefore, the lord blessed the sabbath and consecrated it. We’ve seen that word consecrated before make holy or set apart. Um, The same could be said and i thought westminster actually did a very nice job with this commandment michael. The same thing could be said about this. This means more than don’t mow your yard on sunday. You know, whether or not you go out to eat this. That whenever we’re tempted to reduce these things to kind of legalistic rules and do’s and don’ts. We’ve missed the point. This is about a cycle of living a way. Of living that regularly and consistent. Consistently reflects god’s own work. God worked and god rested. And therefore we are invited to take a day and as people who live in a place of leisure and who live in a time of leisure, Michael maybe this doesn’t Maybe this doesn’t carry the same force, but in its day, It was to say to people, trust god with a god, a day of no work, trust god. And with a day of no, gathering of, no, planting of no Preparation that every week that once every seven days the people took their hands off the wheel and said we trust god to provide and we are going to back off. And allow god to be god in these moments without thinking we need to do something. And again it’s easy to read this and say well you know keep taking it, easy on sundays, go play golf or fish or whatever but that that’s not what this is about.
Michael Gewecke
09:12
Yeah, in fact, remember we’ve had the sabbath instituted before this command god has already with the mana and with this command, you know, you will pick up only enough for the day for the first six days of the week. And then on that last day, you’ll gather a double portion and then that will be enough for the next day. So the people have already been functionally doing this. Now, we see the commandment given to the people as a pattern for their entire lives and you make a really important point. Clint we Make this assumption as people who have netflix at, literally the edge of our fingertips. If you want to go and entertain yourselves, you can do that without any work. These folks are subsistence living in the midst of the wilderness. It is exactly. The work that they put in each day, which will determine whether or not that day. They have the food, the water, the shelter, the care that they need, that day’s work defines that day’s output and Clint was being said here is that the servants not greater than the master that the master created everything in six days? This is a tie back to genesis. We did a study of that. So that’d be interesting for you jump back there and look at Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2. But definitely, we want to Guys that here, god is saying it’s enough for god to rest on the sixth day and if you trust god, then you can trust that God will provide what you need for the seventh day. When you practice living, like the god who made in six days. So this is a relationational command that this is to say you should pattern your life in this way because this is how god has patterned god’s own work. And so, if you’re gonna have work, your work should look like god’s work and if you see It that way bear with me, if you see it that way, then there’s a sense of this commandment where you’re invited to be like someone who you look up to or you respect, it’s more than that but it’s like a like a child might look to a parent and say this is a thing that they do. I i’m gonna do that myself except the difference. Here is the one who created all things and says you’re invited into relationship. With me, that god is saying to the people. If you’re going to be like me, you’re going to To structure your life so that it by definition has to trust me. And if we’re honest Clint this sabbath rule i think we We quite frankly minimize it when we say you shouldn’t go mow your lawn on sunday because in making that statement we make it about the lawn mowing and not about the pattern of our life and the lawn mowing is something that you can easily see and judge someone else for patterning. Patterning your life. After God, is an entirely different matter. And i think that this commandment calls us to a higher order of living that reflects God’s way and god’s plan and We find ourselves a foul of it far more often than i think just sunday,
Clint Loveall
12:14
i think it matters Michael that the commandments starts with the word. Remember the idea is, we are called to be people of of work. We we are called To be people who give effort to our life, but there is to be a season of rest. There is to be a time of Holding back there is to be a time of renewal and of relationship. And if all we do is produce Then we’ve missed that pattern, we’ve missed that. God initiated pattern in life, which is to say there’s a time to nurture the things That aren’t effort there, there’s a time to step back from that and to grow and to rest, and to recover and to renew. And and that is a vital pattern, not only of life, which we kind of get, but of faith. And, and it really makes a difference of matters. Yeah,
Michael Gewecke
13:11
and we should just quickly point out. This isn’t just about our own personal benefit or entertainment look here in verse 10. Clint Uh, your son, your daughter. We might get that your male or female slave your livestock, the alien resident in your towns. I mean, the clear point here is everybody and, you know, a country that has stores open 24 7 days a week, maybe this is a little different after, you know, the last couple years, but as a place that’s generally valued everything being available at all times. There’s some Universality here, which i think should challenge us because the whole idea is that the israelite society will make space for this, not just for you and your family, but as a people, they will recognize the importance that they are resident alien. They’re not even part of the people. They’re not even in the family circle, but you should make Accommodation and possibility, so that they will not work on the seventh day either. This is a, it has a kind of dangerous generosity in it, to be honest with you because it, it demands that the people look for sabbath even beyond their own household and circle to the lives of those around them.
Clint Loveall
14:24
Yeah, it’s communal. I again, sometimes we we can easily read the ten commandments and forget that they weren’t given as just individual rules. But to govern a community that had a relationship with god. And so, Um, sabbath the idea of rest is not just something that we do individually. It is a commandment that up offers an opportunity to families to churches to communities. There is a bigger picture there. I think that’s well said michael, thank
Michael Gewecke
14:58
you for being with us our friends. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. If you’re in the area, i definitely stay warm. If we do get snow again, and we will see you all next week. Mondays, we continue on with the next Of our commandments. Thanks everybody.