Tag: Ten Commandments

Long Live the King!

“Long live the King!” is a phrase rich with historical significance, symbolizing loyalty, continuity, and the enduring nature of monarchy. Its roots appear to trace back to 15th-century France in the declaration “Le roi est mort, vive le roi!”. “The King is dead, long live the King!” is a proclamation that marked both the death of a reigning monarch and the immediate succession of the next. Over time, the phrase found its place in English tradition and thus, “Long live the Queen!” The king (or queen) was kinda a big deal, I guess.

Recent blog posts have responded to the elusive and lingering question, “What is the Kingdom of God that was central to Jesus’ gospel message?” Why is it so hard for us to wrap our heads around and understand? We have slowly been working through scripture in an attempt to get a 30,000-foot view of God’s activity related to his kingdom and his subjects, starting with Almost Getting It back in November 2024.

Over the past months, I have had many conversations with people who, like me, have come to the realization that Jesus’ primary message was indeed about the Kingdom of God, but with the lingering question of what the kingdom actually is. As mentioned previously, I’ve been wrestling with the question for several decades. Part of this blog journey is my own attempts to articulate what the kingdom is (and what it is not, by the way).

For the last couple of months, I’ve begun to wonder if we have been asking the wrong question. We want to know what the kingdom itself is. I don’t know if it’s a Western thing or a human thing, but I suspect tunnel vision results in asking wrong questions. As I ponder Jesus’ interactions with his disciples, it seems like that was an issue for them, too – asking the wrong questions. So ponder this…

Are we more captivated by the characteristics of the kingdom than by the character of the One who reigns?

We want to know stuff about the kingdom – what it is, where it is, its relation to heaven (or vice versa), etc. We are interested in the characteristics of the kingdom. A place. What if we were to focus our attention on the character of the King himself? It’s this very wonderment that led me to create The Parable of the Benevolent King. I was attempting to describe a kingdom that reflected the character of the king. In the process, the characteristics of the kingdom became evident.

I suspect that when the Israelites met Yahweh at Mount Sinai, they were discovering the character of the God who rescued them from oppression and slavery. In the theophany, they discovered his holy presence on the mountain. The gods they knew about in Egypt were tied to time and place and a bit inept.

Try to imagine what they experienced…

16 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain[a] trembled violently. 19 As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him. (Exodus 19:16-19)

This awesome experience was followed by Him delivering a set of commandments given for the people, His subjects. Starting with the Ten, we usually view these commands as precepts on how the people were to live in the presence of a holy God. There is certainly something to that. But what if we also looked at the commands as a revelation of God’s character to a people who knew nothing of his character? Think about it. As we watch world leaders issue “commands,” don’t their directives tend to reveal their character?

Through the Ten Commandments, the people discovered that Yahweh is the only true God, not tied to time and space (Exodus 20). This God did not require images because He created them as his image bearers, as we discussed in an earlier post.

But God didn’t stop with the Ten Commandments. He instituted an additional set of commands (see Exodus 20-23). Like the bottom of the order of the first Ten, these additional couple of dozen commands are mostly related to how his image-bearers were to relate to each other. We might call them social justice laws. They talk about how servants were to be treated, about fair trade, about the treatment of widows and orphans, about how foreigners were to be treated, about justice and mercy, etc. In fact, the NIV translation’s heading for a section of these additional commands is “Laws of Justice and Mercy.”

Can you see how the commands reveal the character of the King?

So again I wonder, is our attention drawn to the discovery of the characteristics of the kingdom rather than the character of the King? Maybe Dallas Willard had that figured out when he said…

Jesus put a face on the Kingdom of God*

* Willard, D. (2024). The scandal of the kingdom : how the parables of Jesus revolutionize life with God. Zondervan Books.

Let’s Celebrate!

We love a good celebration. What happens after our sports team wins the big one? Or when a World War ends? Or when we get a promotion? Or when the shepherd finds the lost sheep? We celebrate!

The word “celebrate“ comes from Latin roots, and its etymology reveals some rich and festive meaning. The word comes from the Latin verb celebrare, which means “to honor, to go to in great numbers, to solemnize, to observe a festival.” So at its root, “celebrate” is about gathering people together to honor, remember, and/or observe something significant – often in a joyful or meaningful way.

Humans are wired for celebration and remembrance – to stop, look back, and reflect on momentous occasions. From birthday parties and national holidays to family traditions and cultural festivals, we instinctively celebrate that which matters to us. It’s in our God-given nature.

Celebrations aren’t just about fun; they help anchor us in time, in memory, and in meaning. They remind us who we are, where we’ve come from, and what we value most. Whether sacred or ordinary, these moments shape identity and draw us into community.

Times Square, VE Day 1945

Over the centuries, monarchial leaders have grasped the understanding of our need to celebrate by instituting kingdom-wide festivals. These kingdom parties were usually all-inclusive – from courtiers to the peasant ranks, all participated. Queen Victoria, who reigned over the British Empire from 1837 to 1901, instituted such a national celebration.

Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee marked the 50th anniversary of her reign and was celebrated across the British Empire on June 20, 1887. Central events took place in London and included a grand thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey, attended by royalty, dignitaries, and representatives from around the world. Throughout the Empire, communities held street parties, fireworks displays, and public festivities. The Jubilee served as both a celebration of national unity and a display of the vast reach of the British monarchy.

We see a pattern of celebration deeply woven into Scripture. The benevolent King Yahweh didn’t just permit celebration, He commanded it.

After giving the people the Ten Commandments, Yahweh provided an additional set of commands related to the treatment of others – fellow servants, property protection, and social responsibility focused on justice and mercy. The deliverance of His commands was followed by the institution of three annual festivals that the people were to celebrate – the Festival of Unleavened Bread (Passover), the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering (See Exodus 23).

Reflecting on these three annual festivals we see God’s heart to draw His people into regular rhythms of remembrance, worship, and gratitude. These were not just events on a calendar; they were sacred invitations to remember who He was and what He had done. They reminded Israel that their story began with deliverance, was sustained by provision, and moved toward a future shaped by His faithful presence.

In our fast-paced, “always-on” world, such rhythms still matter, maybe even more so. Celebration slows us down. Celebration is woven into the fabric of God’s kingdom. Remembrance calls us back. When we intentionally create space to remember God’s goodness – through personal moments, family traditions, or gathered worship – we step into something deeply human and profoundly holy. These practices point us to a God who transcends time and is faithful across generations, filling us with gratitude, worship, and wonder. Sometimes a child-like wonder.

Something to reflect on as we approach the annual celebration of our risen King.

The Ten Commandments

[If you have yet to read The Parable of the Benevolent King, you may want to do so first]

I remember the day I received my first Bible. It was a leather-bound King James Version of the Bible, complete with my name written on the cover in gold letters. It was a proud moment when I stood in front of the Church to receive my Bible. Along with it, I received a gold “chain” bookmark inscribed with the Ten Commandments. As a third-grader, attempts to read my new Bible usually resulted in me playing with that smooth, shiny bookmark. I can remember the feeling today, decades later. Though I didn’t read much, I certainly became “familiar” with the Ten Commandments.

Think about the process of Yahweh, the benevolent King, redeeming a people from slavery, where they acquired an identity apart from Him. Their identity and entire being were shaped by their bondage to the Egyptian empire and the worship of its gods. When Yahweh redeemed these people, he took them out to the middle of nowhere, where they had no land and no social identity. He was remaking these people, His people.

In the Sinai desert, about a year after their rescue, God gave the people instructions we know as the Ten Commandments.* These were the first of many covenant commands. We think of them as laws. To us, law conjures “right/wrong” thinking. If we obey the law (or don’t get caught), all is well. If we are disobedient (and get caught), we pay the consequences. It fits our Western judicial thinking. What if that wasn’t God’s intent?

I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. (Exodus 6:6-7)

For this to be true – for Yahweh to be the people’s God, a few things needed to be true. He was the one true God, there were no others. Period. He was sovereign. Period. They didn’t need nor should they make images. Their experience with the Egyptian “gods” included images of those gods, both in and out of temples. These foreign gods were tied to time and space.

Yahweh transcends time and space

So, for Yahweh to be the people’s God, images were not to be utilized in their attempts to understand him. They were an unnecessary distraction. Images, created by human hands, usurp Yahweh’s sovereign role as the creator God. The people needed to know, needed to discover that they were created in his image and not the other way around.

This reminds me of the early 20th-century discoveries of “untouched” civilizations on remote islands of the Pacific. It was an anthropologist’s dream! They discovered a striking similarity between these previously unknown societies – they all worshipped some form of God, and that god resembled themselves. They had created God in their own image. Anthropologists refer to such societies as “totem societies.”

These newly freed people needed to understand what it meant to be bearers of His image. The old identity as slaves was past, dead, and a new identity as Yahweh’s image-bearers was being formed. He was remaking the people. New creation. Consistent with God’s’ call of Abraham (see On Earth as in Heaven), they were being reshaped to mirror Yahweh’s character to the nations, the Hebrews’ original mission. Not only a new identity but a new vocation.

Now, if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine, and you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation. (Exodus 19:5-6, CSB)

As a kingdom of priests, they were to be ambassadors of sorts. That’s why they were to worship only the one true God. They were not only to mirror His character to the nations but also to fellow image-bearers. That’s why things like murder, adultery, lying, stealing, and coveting are so damaging – they tear apart relationships, dehumanize others, and violate the dignity of those created in God’s image.

It becomes evident that the Ten Commandments aren’t exhaustive, even with the additional 603 that the Pharisees tried to keep and enforce. They are primarily descriptive, not prescriptive. They describe our relationship to the one true sovereign God and with His creation, including fellow image-bearers. When we see them primarily as prescriptive, we are ripe to becoming pharisaical.

* It’s important that we grasp the difference between torah and “the Torah.” The Israelites came to refer to the Ten Commandments and the subsequent 603 covenant commands as “torah.” Torah literally means instruction. As said above, these laws, these instructions represented the way that the people of Yahweh’s communal identity, story, and values were being reshaped and recreated. Remember that God’s redemption and restoration project was one of recreation. Formal “Torah” usually represented the Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Hebrew Scriptures, our Old Testament.

As Christians think about the Old Testament law (torah), we should remember that according to Jesus, a primary facet of torah was to shape people to love God wholeheartedly and to love their neighbors as themselves (Matt. 22:35-40).