Yahweh – Practical Theology Today

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).

Sabbath

Years ago, when I was in the corporate world, I had a boss, Bob, who I would rank as my best corporate boss ever. What made him best? First of all, he was very good at what he did. He was known nationally throughout the industry. More importantly, Bob was a man of character.

I remember once when we had a production mistake that required someone on the construction site early Monday morning. Bob had me fly Sunday with no specific instructions. I quickly assessed the situation and had the wrongly-built parts on a truck headed back to the factory (which, fortunately, was 10 miles away). The parts were revised and returned to the construction site by the next morning. The customer was a little surprised when I prescribed the fix without discussing with them who was going to pay.

As I said, Bob was a man of character. I learned from him that we always fix the problem at hand and perform an autopsy later. So that’s what I did. After the prescribed fix was in process, I found myself in the customer’s corporate offices, entering a conference room where I was outnumbered by far. In typical corporate adversarial thinking, the meeting participants were poised, ready to assess blame. Instead, we did a non-adversarial autopsy (I had learned from Bob) and discovered that we built exactly what they specified – what they specified was not what they really wanted. I have many similar stories seeing the benefits of Bob’s non-adversarial approach to doing business.

As a man of character, Bob was also a benevolent boss. A corporate C-suite decision was made that relocated my job from Minnesota to Memphis. With four kids in school, the prospect was challenging, to say the least. His benevolence came through in ways we could not have imagined. He even arranged for my sophomore daughter and me to travel to Memphis to help her get a feel for the area. I was able to get her connected with a Young Life leader and some high school girls. As I write this, I am flooded with great memories of Bob modeling character and benevolence. It brings tears to my eyes.

I don’t know if we fully understand what a benevolent king God is. I was recently reading Psalm 113. It is part of a grouping of Psalms frequently labelled the Passover Hallel (Hallelujah) or the Egyptian Hallel. The Hallel Psalms contain praise to the benevolent Divine King, Yahweh, for rescuing their Israelite ancestors from Egyptian slavery. How benevolent was their view of God?

Who is like the Lord our God,
the One who sits enthroned on high,
who stoops down to look
on the heavens and the earth?

He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
he seats them with princes… (Psalm 113:5-8)

Only a benevolent king would go find the poor and needy in the dust and ashes and bring them into the palace to seat them with the princes. As I think about this, I wonder how we might respond if we actually witnessed such benevolence. Especially if we were a prince (or princess) with inherited or earned station. The older prodigal brother comes to mind.

In the last post, Wilderness, we wondered if part of the wilderness experience was to provide the Hebrews with the opportunity to get to know Yahweh, the Divine King who rescued them from Pharaoh (who thought he was a divine king). Think about this: For hundreds of years, all they knew was a malevolent, harsh king. Did they even know what benevolence looked like? They would soon find out.

Their first introduction to God’s benevolence was his very presence. Pharaoh was a distant king, making decisions from a distance that affected the people. When the C-suite executives made the decision that we should uproot our family, they were not present during the resulting difficulties we experienced. Bob was. God welcomed his people out of captivity through the theophanies of pillars of fire or cloud. He was present. He “walked with them.” It reminds me of life in the Garden before the Fall, when things were “on earth as in heaven” with God present and walking with his created humans.

Secondly, Yahweh ensured they had a supply of water (in the wilderness!) and sufficient food. If you recall, he provided manna each morning and quail each evening. In the morning, there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. The people of Israel called the bread manna. Manna sounds like the Hebrew for What is it? (Exodus 16:15). It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.

The people were instructed to gather exactly what they needed for the day (think, “Give us this day our daily bread”). Gathering more than needed led to spoilage and maggots. Everyone had enough…

Moses: “Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer (~ 3# or 1.4 kg) for each person you have in your tent.” The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little… the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed. (Exodus 16:16-18)

Not only did the benevolent Divine King provide sustenance, but he also provided rest. Consider that for hundreds of years, the enslaved Israelites were likely worked by the slave-masters seven days a week. I cannot imagine the malevolent king of Egypt tolerating a weekly 15% labor loss. It wouldn’t be good for economics and project management. So…seven days a week.

At the same time God provided his rescued people with sustenance, he provided rest. He told them he would provide the bread (manna) six days a week. On the sixth day, they could gather enough manna for two days so they could rest on the seventh day – a day of sabbath. What a gift! A day each week to rest and do nothing! Moses reminded the people that it was a gift…

Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. (Exodus 16:29)

Sabbath is a biblical principle rooted in rest, worship, and trust in God. It originates from Genesis 2:2-3, where God rested on the seventh day after creating the world, setting a pattern for humanity to follow. I find no biblical evidence of “sabbath-keeping” prior to this gifting to the rescued people. Keep in mind that the gift of sabbath was given before it was formalized as one of the Ten Commandments. This might be something of significance for us 21st-century Christ-followers to pay attention to.

I wonder, do we tend to view the sabbath as a command only and miss the gift?

Wilderness…

What comes to mind when you think of wilderness? More specifically, when “wilderness” pops up in scripture? Knowing the arid climate of the Middle East, I always pictured an Arizona-type wilderness with limited, brushy vegetation. That is until a few years ago when I saw the wilderness between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea in person. Nothing! Just hills of rocks and dirt – no vegetation.

The photo below is of the Wadi Qelt and the Monastery of St. George of Choziba. There is greenery in the wadi but nothing on the hills. Just rocks and dirt.

We last left the million or so newly freed Hebrew slaves in the Sinai Wilderness. I now imagine a different kind of wilderness than I used to envision. I wonder what the view looked like to this large group of people who, even though they were now freed, had left the Nile Valley for this? I think of my parents in their mid-20s. Wanting familial autonomy, they left the rich wheat-farming soil of the Red River Valley (the Lake Agassiz silt deposits) of Northeast North Dakota for the rock-infested sand, gravel, clay, and peat loam of Central Minnesota to become dairy farmers. Wrestling with some depression, I’m sure, my dad said he would end up at the far end of the farm periodically to lament the decision for several hours, then go back to work. (I suspect “lament” was a German farmer’s way of describing an afternoon crying session!)

The good news for these people who found themselves in the wilderness? They were free! But what next? God would use Moses to lead this mass of people about 250-300 miles (400-480 km), as the crow flies, to their ultimate destination, Canaan. It was a long trek, but even a crowd their size could possibly make the trip in about 40 days. Spoiler alert: It took 40 years! Why? There were a myriad of reasons, including some disobedience and stubbornness on the part of the people that delayed the trek. But 40 years? Seems a little extreme to us.

We should probably consider time from God’s perspective. We live in a culture where time is of the essence. We are usually more interested in the arrival than the journey. As I write this, my wife and I are in Arizona for three weeks. Our original intent was to drive the 1700 miles (2735 km) for a four-week stay. Some family stuff required us to shorten our trip by a week, so we decided flying was more prudent. We arrived quickly, but missed out on the journey across the prairies and the mountains and listening to a couple audiobooks. We don’t have to spend much time in the biblical narrative to discover that Yahweh is a God who is comfortable with lengthy processes. We don’t like that! We want to arrive – now!

Not so with God. Maybe not with Moses, either. For Moses, 40-year increments were apparently par for the course. According to Stephen in the sermon that led to his death (see Acts 7), it was after Moses had been an Egyptian Prince for 40 years that he decided to check in on his fellow Israelites, which led to a 40-year exile in Midian. At 80, God called him to help with the rescue of His people (Exodus 7:7). Apparently retirement isn’t a biblical concept 🙂. Forty years later, he died at 120 years old (Acts 7), having never personally entered Canaan. Moses is credited for a prayer included in the Psalter…

A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night. (Psalm 90:5)

In God’s economy, time is not of the essence that we deem it should be! For Him, it seems that the process is as important (if not more) than the outcome.

As I mentioned in the last post, I wonder how well the rescued Hebrews knew Yahweh, the God who rescued them. Likely, there was some oral tradition about the God of Joseph, their first ancestor in Egypt. They knew about this God, but they didn’t seem to have first-hand experience with him. Keep in mind that Moses needed a primer regarding this God whose name he didn’t seem to know.

“Wilderness” is a powerful theme in the Bible – both literally and metaphorically. “The wilderness” often represented a place of testing, transformation, learning dependence on God, and/or preparation for a greater calling. Moses spent 40 years in Midian, in the Saudi Arabian desert, in “preparation” for leading the Israelites out of Egypt. Other wilderness examples found in scripture…

Elijah – Fled to the wilderness after confronting King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. He was fed by ravens at the Brook Cherith (1 Kings 17:2-6) and later encountered God at Mount Horeb after journeying through the wilderness for 40 days (1 Kings 19:4-8).
John the Baptist – Lived in the wilderness, clothed in camel’s hair and eating locusts and wild honey, preparing the way for Jesus and calling people to repentance (Matthew 3:1-4).
Jesus – Spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting, then being tempted by the satan before beginning His public ministry (Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13).
The Apostle Paul – After his conversion, he spent time in the wilderness (Arabia) before beginning his ministry. I imagine he poured over the Hebrew Scriptures that he knew so well, rediscovering the God of Jesus (Galatians 1:15-17).

So why 40 years of trekking around the Sinai Peninsula and Arabia? Could it be that God needed to prepare the Hebrews for the upcoming years under His kingship? They had no experience with a benevolent king. It was out of God’s fidelity that Israel was delivered. But what did they know about God’s fidelity? They had no experience following, only being driven. This was all new territory for them (literally and figuratively). If Yahweh was going to be their God, they had to learn what it meant to be his people (Exodus 6:6-7a).

We can’t underestimate the value of the wilderness. In God’s economy, in his kingdom, the wilderness experiences/processes can be transformative. It’s something we must be careful not to circumvent.