Deuteronomy 5: The Ten Commandments

God gives these commandments to Israel as instruction on how to live as his covenant people. "I saved you from slavery and desire relationship with you as my child. This, then is how you are to look in the world..." Many of these commandments are a criticism of the cultures that surrounded Israel--the worship of idols, murder in the name of religion (wow how that seems to contradict the very thing God was doing three chapters ago!), polygomy, etc.-- Israel was not only to worshp a different god than their neighbors, but were to reflect that gods image into the world. They were to look different. Look and be and feel somewhat alien in a world gone wrong.

Often times the people of God look no different than the world that surrounds them, and when they do look different it is often times in these focused ways that people have come up with-- a few theological, or political differences that always revolve around sexual morality or not supporting abortion or something-- and though these issues are surely important, the way the people of God are to look different than the world must be more than this--it must be holistic, ultimately different in every way including how we view war, the treatment of the poor, how we work against de-humanization and de-humanzing economic structures, how we view and treat the environemtn, etc.

The Ten Commandments were about the subversion of empires that surrounded Israel--YHWH wanted Israel's devotion and obedience to his character--this is what this decalogue is about. So, how do the people of God today look, act and think differently than the empires that surround us? This week Ted Haggard, a really influential evangelical leader, with five children, a phone to the white house, and a church of thousands of people in Colorado, admitted that the accusations were true: for three years he has been paying a man to have sex with him while doing crystal meth. My heart breaks as the church finds itself stuggling with the sins of the world--to look different and act different is a difficult thing? Israel found it difficult as well. Following the giving of these commandments Israel doesn't straighten out and just go on living faithfully--this list is a list of sins that Israel breaks over and over again (so much so that many people believe that Deut--2 Kings is one book, which is trying to explain why Israel went into exile into Babylon--Deut sets out the reasons God will send them into exile and the rest is the story of them, and their kings, breaking all the things He sets out for them and thus exile)--maybe. But the point of reflecting on the commandments in the context of exile and disobedience is to remind them what exactly breaks the heart of God. And at the forefront of their dosobedience is their idolatry (read Exodus 32--Moses is comig down the mountain with the law, after an extended stay and at the bottom Israel is worshipping a golden calf!)...but as we saw in Deut. 4 there is always room for restoration. For Israel, for Ted Haggard and for us as individuals (interestingly enough though the commandments are for the covenant community all the "You shall not..." statements are in the singular--this is personal as well as communal). The commandments are not constructed to bring guilt into our lives, conviction maybe, but not guilt. They are constructed to bring focus to our obedience though, and our understanding of what it means to truly be a human being. To truly be alive.

What is on offer in the shopping malls, internet, and corporate structres of our world is not life it is a cheap parlor trick to make us think that we are truly alive. But we partake and partake and partake and it makes us feel as though the life being promised must be just around the corner--in the next pair of shoes, in the next corporate take over, in the next job promotion...but sadly it comes and we still feel empty. Deut, indeed all of Scriptures, tells the story of God's offer of truly human life and the commandments are part of what that looks like. It is important to read all of Deuteronomy with the end of the book in our minds--because that is what the whole book is about:

Deut 30. 15-19: See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live