Remember, You Are His :: Exodus 20:1-17

And God spoke all these words, saying, I [am] YHWH, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery (vv 1-2). 

Let us pray ... Holy God, in your desire that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, you rescued and redeemed Israel from sin, iniquity, and transgression, and gave them the Word of Life. Bring us also to yourself, that as we may remember you and trust in Your promises. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I know you already know this, but it needs to be said again ... There is only One True God, and his name is Yahweh. Maybe you didn’t actually know that that’s his name. But you do now. His name is Yahweh. He is the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth. He is the Creator, the Redeemer, the Sanctifier. He is The God who Saves us from our sin, iniquity, and transgression. And to prove it like no other ... He who was crucified ... He is risen! 

There will not exist for you another god [above / beyond / or even, in addition to him].

Is there ever a day when you trust the Lord, YHWH, your God, in this way ... fully and completely for the whole day? Don’t answer that question too quickly. Is there ever a day when you NEVER rely upon yourself ... when you never make YOURSELF and your FEELINGS more important than Yahweh? Don’t answer that question too quickly, either. As often as we use the word “God” or “the Lord”, we have to admit that the very concept of these titles are far beyond our understanding. As Luther teaches us in the large catechism, Whatever you set your heart on and put your trust in is truly your god. At the top of that list is me, myself, and I. In other words, repent every one of you, in the name of Jesus. Everyone has set up as his special god whatever he looks to for blessings, help, and comfort (LC I 1.3, 10).

The very concept of trusting in the One True God is inconceivable. How do we begin to comprehend the fact that God is eternal? Ageless? Timeless? ... How do we begin to comprehend the fact that God is everywhere at once? That nothing, including the future, is hidden from him? ... How do we begin to comprehend the fact that God, in this unimaginably expansive universe, actually cares about little ol’ you ... interacting with you ... coming to you ... to serve you? And here you thought you came to Trinity today to worship God, as if God needs that from you. 

God is here to serve you. That’s what Exodus is showing us. The One True God is not a hands-off God. He created you. Rescued you. Redeemed you. Sanctified you. Blessed you. He has given you order. He defeats all your enemies. He calls you, gathers you, enlightens you. He feeds and nourishes you with sweet bread (Ex 16:31). He rejuvenates and regenerates you with sweet water (Ex 15:25). He saves you. There is no one else who does these things for you. God is so concerned about you that he willingly involves himself ... deeply and personally in our lives. 

This is what our text today from Exodus chapter 20 reveals. In effect God is saying ...

REMEMBER WHO GOD IS AND WHO YOU ARE

I. There is a great misunderstanding about our reading that the world fails to remember. 

There really aren’t ten commandments here. There really are only two ... and they aren’t what you think they are. The only two commandments in this reading are REMEMBER and HONOR. Remember the Sabbath day to hallow it (v 8). And, Honor your father and your mother because it will prolong your days upon the land that YHWH your God is giving you (v 12). Remember and honor are imperatives. That makes them commandments. All the other important verbs in Exodus 20:1-17 are all imperfect ... not imperatives. As such, these imperfects are promises of God to you ... God spoke these in the past, and he continues to do them for you. As James says, Every good and perfect gift comes down from above (Jas 1:17).

Listen again to our OT reading. There will not exist for you another god above me. You will not make for yourself an idol or any representation that is in the heavens from above, or that is in the earth from below, or that is in the waters from below the earth. You will not bow down to them, and you will not serve them. ... You will not lift the name of YHWH your God in emptiness. ... You will not murder, You will not commit adultery. You will not steal. You will not answer your neighbor [as] a false witness. You will not desire your neighbor’s house. You will not desire your neighbor’s wife, or his servant, or his maiden, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s (vv 3-5a, 7, 13-17).

Did you hear all the Gospel there? To be sure, they do show us who God is, what we are not, and still who we will become. This word of God is filled with verbs of action that are continuing to be done for you. Because he is your God, you get to do the very good things God prepared beforehand in order that we may walk in them (Eph 2:10). You get to live this way because the Lord, YHWH, your God is not merely a god, but Our Savior God. 

Contextually, God is addressing the people who have been liberated and gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai. He is calling them to be different. It’s been about 50 days since the night God passed over the sins of his people in Egypt who, living in faith, marked their houses with the blood of the Lamb. Through the feast, God liberated his Chosen people. He didn’t do this so that they could write our own rules ... follow their own hearts, do their own thing in their own way in their own time. Nor were they not liberated to establish their own rules for worship with what they perceived to be their family and church. Yahweh is our God. We have NOT been given freedom to impose the will of the majority on the congregation. 

Instead, YHWH, our God, has claimed us, redeemed us, and begun feeding us the sweet bread of heaven. He has led you through the sweet waters of baptism to his holy mountain. 

Can you imagine what it must have been like for a million or so sons and daughters of Israel to pass through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on their right and left, and then see tyranny drowned in unbelief? They needed that. It demonstrated that God was with them. Can you imagine waking up six days a week to find on the ground a thin, flakey thing, which tasted like wafers with honey ... enough for everyone to eat every day? They needed that. Can you imagine how they always had water in a desert for forty years? They needed that. And yet, the people constantly forgot how God cared for them. Learn the lesson God is providing you: You are his, and he cares for you.

As he said just before our reading, Now if you will indeed hear my voice and keep my covenant, you will be a treasure to me (Ex 19:5). 

II. Remember God has made you one with his family and his church. 

The book of Exodus ... and even our reading ... is not just a story about Israel. ... It is also about us. You are his chosen ones (1 Pt 2:9). He has given you ... 1) freedom from bondage ... and 2) freedom for life in his name.

This is why our Lord Jesus, whose name means the God who Saves, summarizes the Law with just two commands ... love God and love each other (Mt 22:37-40). You can also say remember him and honor each other. The Hebrew word for remembering is an intimate loving word. It shows us an action, like Love. As Paul says in Romans 13:8, Love is the fulfillment of the Law. Love does something. It is not a feeling. In Love, God remembers you. Through Love, we are then enabled to honor one other instead of showing contempt.

When Jesus and Paul summarize the Law in this way, we learn that they also are not talking about feelings. God doesn’t call us to love through feeling. We love because Christ first loved us (1 Jn 4:19) ... that is, he acted for us ... giving us forgiveness ... declaring us innocent on account of his life, his death, his Sabbath rest, his resurrection, his ascension, and his promise to never forsake us. He did this most prominently by being born without sin, living without sin, and dying on a cross for our sin. And he continues to give his life to us. We need that! 

III. Now we should be able to remember why God spoke all of these words. 

 I am YHWH, your God, he says, who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. There will not exist for you another god [above / before / in addition] to me ... because I, YHWH, your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity ... [that is immorality, deceit, lack of justice] ... of the fathers upon the third and fourth generation of those hating me, but producing [steadfast, faithful, covenantal love] to thousands of those loving me and [keeping / retaining / holding fast] my commandments (vv 2-6). 

God’s law is very good. And there is no good reason you should ignore it ... acting like you don’t need to heed the Word of Our Lord Jesus. You are his very own. His Word and sacraments proclaim the cross of Christ where God makes us his own. He feeds us the bread of heaven, his body, and gives us the cup of salvation, his blood. There is salvation in no one else (Acts 4:12).

Brothers and sisters in Christ, don’t ever forget this. YHWH, your God is the God who saves through baptism and the Lord’s Supper, both of which proclaim the cross and the resurrection. As Paul teaches us, Now if we died with Christ ... and you have ... we believe that we also will be raised in him, knowing that Christ has been raised from the dead. We will no longer die. Death no longer will lord over him (Rm 6:8-9).

So you see, you are indeed his. Remember that ... in Jesus’ name.