Title: God Who Commands
God who commands
Exodus 20:1-11, Fourth Sunday of Creation, September 25, 2011
Among the passages of the Old Testament, it is difficult to find anything as famous as the ‘Ten Commandments’. The essence of the law that Moses received from God on Mount Sinai is contained in the Ten Commandments. It has ten contents. The first four are relationships with God, and the last six are relationships with people. On the other hand, in the Roman Catholic Ten Commandments, there are three articles dealing with the relationship with God and seven articles on the relationship with man. This is because the Protestant Church followed the order of the Ten Commandments of Judaism, and the Catholic Church followed the order of Augustine. Polish film director Kieslowski made a 10-part film in 1988 under the name Decalog, which refers to the Ten Commandments. In the film, he deeply touched the human life contained in the Ten Commandments against the background of Eastern European culture. The Ten Commandments were approached not only from a religious and moral dimension, but from the perspective of the incomprehensibility of human life.
categorical imperative
1) The first commandment is, “You shall have no other gods before me” (verse 3). Judging from these expressions alone, it seems that there is a god called Jehovah God, and there is another god. Although other religions have different personalities, there is a God. There were many such gods around ancient Israel. The Babylonian moon god is Sin. In Plato's writings, a creator god named Demiurge is also mentioned. In Greek mythology, there are hordes of gods, including Zeus. In the Bible, Chemosh of Moab and Milcom of Ammon are mentioned. The Bible basically does not recognize other gods. All other gods are fake. There is only one true God, Jehovah. To not worship other gods is a stern warning against an atheistic life without worshiping a god. To be precise, atheism is simply to serve the world as a god, i.e., to serve the creature as its creator.
The first commandment is a teaching on the true way for man to gain life. Everything but God is finite. It is limited and provisional. To believe in God, to not have other gods as expressed in the first commandment, means to break through the ultimate limits of this world. Our youth, our power, our wealth and our honor, vanish with time. Anyone who regards it as absolute will fall into the fate of such a finite, limited and provisional. That's right. The first commandment, to have no other gods, is the command that binds us to ultimate life. That is the absolute command to save us. If you dodge this command, you die.
2) The second commandment is, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image… you shall not make any image” (verse 4). Instead of the Catholic Ten Commandments uniting the first and the second and saying, “Worship the one God,” the tenth commandment is divided into two. 1 and 2 mean similar. The ‘carved idol’ referred to in our second commandment refers to Jehovah God itself, not to the ‘other gods’ referred to in the first commandment. It means not to make God in an image. The image is the sensuous objectification of God. It is to bring God into the realm of human experience. People like to check the absolute in this way. This demand is very strong. When Moses was receiving the Law on Mount Sinai, the people made a golden calf at the foot of the mountain. I wanted to identify the golden calf as the God of the Exodus. The second commandment is a categorical imperative to reject it.
Even today, people constantly make idols and images. It draws God into our worldly experiences and categories. You already know what it is. Prosperity theology is idolatry and image worship. That's very attractive. Imagine the number of Samteo Church members doubling every year. Imagine having a nice church hall too. These are phenomena that are so fascinating to us. Few are free from this temptation. As long as we live with our feet on the ground, we cannot unconditionally sell these things. The problem is that we want to confirm our relationship with God only in these places. The second commandment forbids it. Because, in the end, our unique life is damaged in this. Do not try to identify God by your thoughts, experiences, or desires. God does not come into it. When you step into it, you are no longer God.
3) The third commandment is, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” (verse 7). This sentence is a little ambiguous to interpret. Taking one's name in vain, on the surface, refers to giving false witness in court with Jehovah's name. According to the commentary of the German Bible Society, it is a rash use of swearing or the use of the name of God as abusive language. Basically, to use your name in vain means to use God as an instrument for your own gain. Giving false testimony in the name of God in court is ultimately for your own self-interest. Self is the center and God is the object. Just as man sees and uses man as a means, he can use God in that way. It is the instrumentalization of faith, the instrumentation of God. The 3rd commandment forbids it. Such beliefs make individuals and society sick.
There are many believers who think that the reason they lead a life of faith is to receive blessings or to live well. They say that if you believe in Jesus, your heart will be relaxed, your insomnia will disappear, and your children will all be well. If you go to church, I think a lot of good things will happen. Such thinking is wrong. It is instrumentalizing your faith. The third commandment is to take the name of the Lord in vain. In fact, even if you believe in Jesus, good things do not happen unconditionally, but, as the writers of the Gospels and epistles say, you must rather take up the cross. Don't get me wrong. They say that believing in Jesus has nothing to do with blessings. It's not like that. Jesus is the source of blessing. But that blessing is different from the things we want in the world. To become a child of the kingdom of God and to receive the resurrection life as a promise. Those who do not see it are forced to use God to achieve their goals in life. It is the way of death. The third commandment gives orders. This is a command we cannot avoid. ‘Thou shalt not take the name of God in vain.’
4) The fourth commandment is “Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy” (verse 8). The motives of the Sabbath tradition are slightly different between Exodus and Deuteronomy. Exodus is linked with the creation event, and Deuteronomy is linked with the Exodus event. The two traditions are essentially the same in that the God of creation is the God of the Exodus, and that the power of creation is the power of the Exodus. The Sabbath command is revolutionary. Because it is the command of life. The Sabbath is a day of creation, a day of liberation. It is a day that focuses on the creation event and the Exodus event. The creation event is liberation from all worship of nature and witchcraft, and the Exodus is liberation from all political and economic oppression. The Sunday that Christians keep holy is the Day of Resurrection. Day of life. Free from all worlds of death, including the worship of nature and political oppression. What could be more pressing than this? The fourth commandment presents it as a categorical imperative. Because that's the only way to save people.
We must ask ourselves. Are we keeping the Sabbath day holy today? Are you listening to it as a command from God? Modern people do not think about rest, liberation, freedom, and resurrection life. No regrets there. You simply follow the life design program that you and the world have provided for you. They don't know that keeping the Sunday is more than simply going to church on Sundays to worship, even in a busy schedule. They still cling to the worship of nature, witchcraft, and political economy. Worship acts as oppression. People give up hope of resurrection life. To put it in Freudian terms, it lives only on the urge of Thanatos to reduce itself to an inanimate inorganic matter. Aren't these explanations hard to grasp? A look at the fact that modern people's lives seem passionate on the surface, but in reality are plunged into a deep swamp of emptiness will confirm that.
Spirituality of “Yes”
Now the sermon is over. However, one important spiritual fact remains. Those who believe that God's commands are the only way to save us can only say "yes" in front of them. The absolute command is only absolute obedience. God's command requires us to do just that. For example, a fetus approaching ten months of age is ordered to leave the mother's womb. He only has an example. I can't stand not going out because I'm afraid of the outside world. You have to go out to get life. Standing before God's command is similar. How can you hold back when you know that it is the way to life? If you don't feel it, it's a sign that you don't realize that it's a command from God. When Jesus called, “Follow me,” the disciples also left everything behind and followed it with ‘yes’. Because he knew that Jesus had life.