One of the things that made Israel distinct in the ancient world was how they were commanded to care for the powerless. Many nations in the ancient world lived by a survival of the fittest mindset and that started with how they viewed the individual value of people. The only person who was made in the image of God, in many ancient nations, was the king and that was it. In the beginning God said “let us make man in our image.” That includes every human being regardless of how society defined their worth. 

If someone damaged your property today whether that be your car, home or land you’d likely lean on insurance to handle the damages or some of the social systems in place like the police department and civil courts to pursue damages for loss incurred. Basically, if someone ran into your fence with their car you’d expect them to pay to have it fixed, or that you’d have the civil networks to get it fixed. What about a nomadic wandering people waiting to enter the promised land? What about a society given their values and laws from God? For any community to flourish there needs to be a sense of respect for property and laws in place that guide a proper response for when things go bad.

The Old Testament Law can be one of the most complicated parts of our Bible to understand. We finished exploring the 10 Commandments and now God turns to giving his people laws related to slavery, crimes, worship and what to do when someone is injured or harmed. This can be confusing for us because of how foreign some of these concepts are to our modern culture. For example, Exodus 21:7-11 discuss what to do if you were to sell your daughter to marriage. This was seemingly common practice in the ancient world but is an abhorrent idea to our modern ears! Also, this passage talks about slavery as if it is an “ok” thing, does the Bible support slavery? When approaching these laws it is really important to see how they differed from the legal codes of the surrounding nations and to understand that many of these laws are given by God to respond to human sin, so rather than painting the ideal God is pointing his people towards a righteous response when things are broken.

If you were to ask people on the street today if they thought Jesus was a real human being, the vast majority of them would say “yes!” If you were to ask them if they thought Jesus was God or a spiritual being like an angel, the majority of them would likely say “no way!” The surprise is that in the ancient world it was reversed. Our world today struggles with things that seem miraculous or spiritual, but the ancient world thought the idea of Jesus taking on a human nature was a sort of demotion at best or evil at worst. Much of this came from a negative view of the created/physical world (we are starting a Sunday morning class on what it means to be fully embodied people and how that relates to our worship of God in August if you’re interested in exploring this more). Many of the New Testament letters are concerned with teaching correct theology that Jesus was fully God AND fully human and that this was needed for our salvation. One such place is Hebrews 2, let’s explore seven reasons why Jesus became human and how that is good news!

Prayer can be both natural and something we can learn an grow in. Many people experience an impulse to pray from an early age that likely comes from being created in God’s image and seeing his glory in the world around us. We have a deep seeded knowledge of God’s existence, but sin and secularism fight against that and often that impulse to pray is lost. Likewise, prayer can be learned. Followers of Jesus can grow in their knowledge of how to pray and what to pray for. In the gospel of Luke, the Lord’s Prayer was a direct response to to the disciples request to Jesus, “teach us how to pray.” In the gospel of Matthew, it comes during the Sermon on the Mount as Jesus talks about what it means to practice the kingdom of God. In both situations, Jesus wants his people to have a model of prayer they can follow so they can grow to pray.

Suffering may be the greatest challenge and greatest catalyst for prayer. Some circumstances show our helplessness and drive us to the Lord, other times we can feel distance and disappointment, especially when our suffering is ongoing with no end in sight. Many of us have heard a presentation of the good news as “God has a wonderful plan for your life!” What if that wonderful plan includes hardship and suffering? It almost certainly does. Another challenge is that we can often put expectations on God that he has not promised us and then be disappointed or let down when he doesn’t fulfill our expectations. We can also get trapped comparing our suffering to the pleasant and joyful lives of those who do not follow Christ and wonder what  God is up to (see Psalm 73).  

Prayer is an expression of faith and trust in God. In prayer we not only express praise to God but we ask for him to work in ways that we are powerless. This kind of prayer requires faith. Faith is an expectation that we can depend on God, that his work is for our good and that he desires for us to seek him. The gospels are filled with many examples of people going to Jesus in faith for things they could not accomplish through their own efforts and Jesus rewarding their faith and trust. This is not a formulaic way to get God to do something for us, that is superstition and something Jesus warns against (Matthew 6:7). Likewise, praying in faith does not require us to shed all of our uncertainties or doubts (Mark 9:24). Instead praying in faith is an expression of dependent trust in God and is key to a regular practice of prayer. 

Prayer is an ordinary and everyday activity in the Christian life. We have an incredible access to the God of the universe and we are invited and encouraged to bring him our needs, shift our attention to what he is doing and to talk with him throughout our day. We are not alone or distant to God. It may surprise you but praying at all times is actually a command in the Bible! This commands comes in the form of “pray always,” “be constant in prayer,” and “pray without ceasing.” Does this mean we spend out days with our eyes closed and heads bowed for all our waking hours?! No, instead this command invites us to live life with God who is always there. 

Does prayer even work? Well, that depends on what you mean by “work.” Many of us think of prayer primarily as supplication, which is asking God for our needs or for him to work in a specific way. Paul tells us in Philippians 4:6 to bring him our requests, God desires to hear them. We know that prayer is more than supplication, prayer is our human experience of conversation with God where we can bring our needs to God, praise him for who he is and what he has done, and experience his presence, especially in times of suffering. Yet often when we wonder if prayer has any purpose usually it is when we’re wrestling with supplication. Does our prayer change God’s mind? Does he hear our prayers? If God is sovereign, does praying even matter?

What do you long for? We can find ourselves day dreaming about the missing piece of our lives whether that be a new job, more money, a different spouse, more things or a change of scenery. More than that, we can develop a jealousy over what we see others have compared to what we have. Our world pushes us towards comparison and discontentment. Just think of marketing, often marketing is designed to convince you that you need what they’re selling and that your life is missing until you have it. Many of us can look in our closets or garages and see various things we have that we thought we needed but haven’t touched in years. Some of us have made rash choices on big purchases, changing jobs or even leaving marriages because of what the Bible calls coveting. To covet is when we don’t just notice what other people have, instead we desire it for ourselves and in the process we cease to be thankful for what God has provided. The root of the Tenth Commandment is contentment in God. When we survey all the commands this one is most similar to the First Commandment’s call to worship God and God alone because of how it addresses the heart. Specifically we’re not to look to what is our neighbors and make that thing and idol for our lives. 

It hurts when people lie to you or about you. We live in a world that spins truth as relative or categorize some lies as big and others as “little white lies.” This seems to make it easy to get away with spreading falsehoods in everyday conversation and online. Sometimes these lies are intentional and malicious, other times they are partial truths or misunderstandings that we share. The Bible teaches us that lying tears down real relationships creating real harm. The ninth commandment teaches us to not bear false witness about our neighbor to their harm. Inherently it is a command to guard each other’s reputation and to speak the truth, especially as a witness in a legal proceeding. At first glance you may think “I got this one covered!” but like with the other commandments, historically and scripturally, the root issue to this command is a prohibition against all forms of lying. The ninth commandment teaches us that God loves truth and we love our neighbor best when we speak the truth to them, about them and to each other.

Do you remember the first time you were tempted to steal? For many of us it happened as small kids seeing a friend’s toy or when we were with our parents and they were not looking when we were at a store checking out at the cashier. Why do they put candy and toys right at our childhood eye level? Behind his childhood impulse is a desire to have what we want without there being a cost to it. Who doesn’t like free stuff? Stealing is a dieter to gain, with minimal effort, even at the expense of another. The eighth commandment teaches us to honor another’s property. The commandment prohibits stealing and pushes us to consider how we can use what we have to bless others. 

Marriage has become less and less favorable in our culture. Fewer people are getting married, people who do get married are getting married later in life. There are many reason for this including poor examples of marriage in one’s personal life, a cultural vision prioritizing independence and economic achievement, and hyper sexualized content all around us…, just to name a few. Should marriage just be thrown out as an archaic thing of the past? Throughout our study on the Ten Commandments we have learned that God forbids what he hates so that we would pursue what he loves. In the seventh commandment God commanded “do not commit adultery” because he loves marriage. 

The Sixth Commandment: “do not murder” prohibits the taking of another life and points to God’s love of life and desire to protect it. Out of all the commandments, this one comes with the most number of complicated ethical situations attached to it. Does this apply to wartime scenarios, how about medical procedures that may terminate life and what about Jesus’s interpretation of the command to include prohibitions on anger and hatred? When we step back and look at our world and our culture in general, we see that our culture does not value life the same way God does. To not murder is not enough, followers of Jesus also need to actively pursue and protect life. 

This may be the most difficult command in scripture to wrap our minds and hearts around. In some sense it is straight forward, a godly relationship to one’s parents consists in honoring them. This commandment also points to how God loves family and created the family as a place where his ways are taught and where love, respect and support flourish. Yet, for many of us our deepest wounds have come from family, even our parents. Many of us reading this have come from broken homes, experienced abuse, or even lost our parents at an early age. What does honoring your parents mean in the ideal situation and what does it look like when there’s been a lot of difficulty?

Most images of kings and rulers in our culture and media are negative. Usually the focus is on the unjust rule or abuse of authority. Think King George in Hamilton, Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars and of course the classic Lord Farquaad from Shrek. More often than not, we’re conditioned to think that kings are bad and in many cases they are. But, what if you’d be better off living under a king? The answer to that question would depend on who the king is, right? The story of scripture tells us there is a perfectly just, holy and loving king.  The bible begins and ends with a picture of God’s loving rule and as followers of Jesus, we do not just follow a loving savior, we follow a good and gracious king. This Sunday is Palm Sunday and a time when the church pauses to reflect on the kingship of Jesus before we look to Good Friday and Easter. We’re going to turn to Psalm 2 and learn about the good and gracious rule of Jesus as our king. 

God commands his people to rest. The fourth command was the longest, and likely, the most refreshing word from God the Israelites could have received. The word sabbath meant to cease, and specifically they were to cease from work! God established a pattern of 6 days of work and a single day at the end of each week for rest and worship. For many of us the idea of taking a sabbath can be complicated. Some of us have images of extra rules and burdens associated with what it means to rest on the sabbath. Others struggle with the idea of losing productivity or getting behind. Most of our jobs provide two days off, but many of us struggle with being able to fully disengage from work as we check emails and sneak a little extra productivity in on the weekend to make next week “easier.”

The first four of the ten commandments relate to how we love God with our heart, soul, mind and strength. Love for God includes undivided allegiance, whole hearted worship, reverence for who he is and an active trust that he will provide as seen in the Sabbath command. From a genuine love for God flows a love of our neighbors which is the focus of the next six commandments. How do we love God in such a way that we revere and represent him well? That is the focus on the third commandment and what it means to “ not take the Lord’s name in vain?”