Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had befallen them on the journey, and how the LORD had delivered them. Jethro rejoiced over all the goodness which the LORD had done to Israel, in delivering them from the hand of the Egyptians. So Jethro said, “Blessed be the LORD who delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh, and who delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. “Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods; indeed, it was proven when they dealt proudly against the people.” Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law before God.”
Exodus 18:8–12 NASB
Jethro had word by word of mouth of how God had delivered Israel from the Egyptians. Jethro noted what God had done to the Egyptians, but Moses tells Jethro how God had blessed Israel. Jethro had been awed by God’s power but Moses was in awe of God’s tender care for His people.
When they set out from Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness; and there Israel camped in front of the mountain.
Exodus 19:2 NASB
The Hebrew switches between pronouns in this text, which is not noticeable in the English. The people and God were traveling of one accord and the people were desiring holiness.
Whom are these laws for?
“Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel:”
Exodus 19:3 NASB
The House of Jacob included the women, servants and children, but when you see God address the Sons of Israel, the men are the ones who are being addressed. There are certain rules that are for only men, and other commandments are for all the people.
This exchange between Moses and God sounds quite familiar. Does Sinai remind you of anything? It should remind you of when God met with Moses in the burning bush. Sinai is not the first time Moses led a flock, owed by the father, to Rephidim. Only the first flock was owned by his earthly father in law, the second flock owned by his Heavenly Father.
1st Commandment
God is no longer merely the God of their forefathers, but their God as well. He calls to Israel that since He is their God, they are not to leave Him for any other “gods.”
4th Commandment
At the burning bush, God gave Moses signs showing that He represented one who had control of life and death and could create and recreate life. At Sinai, God gives them the Shabbat as a sign of His power over life and death.
5th Commandment
When we are told to honor our mother and father, we are to accept how they created us.
For example, at the burning bush, Moses tells God that he can’t speak to Pharaoh because he isn’t a skillful orator. God tells him that He created Moses’ mouth and he has what he needs to do the job God gave him to do.
We are not to blame our parents for our physical or spiritual shortcomings but honor them in the same way we honor our creator:
- We don’t address them by their personal name.
- We don’t presume to correct them publicly.
- We don’t do anything that will embarrass them.
If we can’t honor the parents who we can see and experience with our five senses, how can we honor the Parent who we can’t see.
Honoring one’s earthly parents will make it easier to honor God.
Spirit of the 6th–10th commandments
The rest of the commandments seem more straightforward: Don’t commit murder, adultery, steal, lie or covet your neighbors stuff.
However, the spiritual level of the 10 Commandments are harder to keep than the are in the literal. On the spiritual level, we aren’t to commit murder by ignoring or “killing” God in our lives.
On a spiritual level, we aren’t to commit adultery against Him. We aren’t to break our promises to Him and make promises to someone else. Don’t compromise your love relationships just to get physical benefits.
When someone steals something, they devalue it making it something less than what it was.
For example, someone broke into my aunt’s house and stole her camera. That camera had meaning to her because it had a bunch of photos of her family playing at Disneyland. There were a lot of irreplaceable memories on that camera that meant far more to her than the camera itself. All the thieves saw was a camera to be sold for a few bucks. They devalued the camera by stealing it and the memories on it. That is what we do when we misuse God’s name.
When we don’t keep the Shabbat, we are bearing false witness against God as the Creator of the Sabbath.
We are not to over reach our bounds, we are not to covet our parent’s authority or reach over us.
Speaker: Jarrod. Summary: Tammy.
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