“God’s Commandments – Given as Gift” by Colleen O’Sullivan
Moses spoke
to the people and said: “Now, Israel,
hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may
live and may enter in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God
of your fathers, is giving you.
Therefore, I teach you the statutes and decrees as the Lord, my God has
commanded me, that you may observe them in the land you are entering to
occupy. Observe them carefully, for thus
will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will
hear of all these statutes and say, ‘This great nation is truly a wise and
intelligent people.’ For what great
nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us
whenever we call upon him? Or what great
nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am
setting before you today? However, take
care and be earnestly on our guard not to forget the things which your own eyes
have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach
them to your children and to your children’s children.” (Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9)
Jesus said
to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the
prophets. I have come not to abolish but
to fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17)
Piety
Your words,
Lord, are Spirit and life; you have the words of everlasting life. (Verse
before Today’s Gospel Reading)
Study
Jean-Léon Gérôme, Moses on Mount Sinai, c. 1895-1900, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons |
The story of God’s giving the commandments to Moses for the people of
Israel (Exodus 19-20) used to scare me when I was a child. Moses himself seemed like a rather forbidding
individual as depicted in many works of art.
All the thunder and lightning, the clouds, the shaking of the mountain,
the commandments and threats of punishment should they be transgressed made God
seem rather frightening, not someone I’d like to contend with.
But today as an adult, my image of God has changed and I imagine the
conversation on the mountain top somewhat differently. Yes, a lot of drama surrounds the event to keep
before us the knowledge that God is totally Other. But what if the conversation went something along
these lines: Moses, I want to give
you a gift to take back to my people, a gift that will help you and them to remember
who I am and who you all are. There is a
vast difference between being Divine and being human. As much
as you each might attempt to run your own show, the bottom line is that I am the
Creator and you are my creatures. People
many times end up quite unhappy when they live as though they are lords of their
own lives. So reserve your worship for me.
Chaos and unhappiness reign when you worship anything else. Keep my name holy. Don’t use it for anything other than
addressing me. And keep one day of the
week for rest. As you relax from your
work, take time to remember how much I love you. I created you from the dust of the
earth. I saved you from slavery in
Egypt. I am leading you all to the
Promised Land. Be filled with
thanksgiving that you have a God who loves you so much.
I am also giving you guidelines on how to get along with one
another. You, yourself, Moses, took the
life of another human being. And you
know the grief that caused you. You had
to leave everyone you ever knew and run a far way off. These commandments that I give you are
designed to make your lives easier, to keep you from suffering the consequences
of hurting others or being wounded yourselves. So don’t take another human being’s life. Love and cherish the parents who brought you
up. Don’t tell lies about your brothers
and sisters. They only come back to
haunt you in the end. Don’t wish for
what isn’t yours, whether it’s something that belongs to another or someone
else’s husband or wife. And, certainly,
don’t take something that isn’t yours. I
am not a harsh taskmaster. These together
constitute my gift to help you live in peace with yourself, one another, and
me, your God.
Moses goes back and tells God’s people that they, a tiny, politically insignificant
people surrounded by greater and mightier peoples, will be the envy of those
greater powers. Israel’s God loves them. No other people in the Ancient Near East
could make that claim. Other peoples’ gods
in that time and place weren’t close to them.
This gift of the law from Israel’s God is a symbol of God’s great caring
for Israel. Worshipping this God, keeping the commandments God has given, will
make Israel look wise in the eyes of others, Moses says.
Other peoples were afraid of their gods.
The Israelites had a God who encouraged them to call out whenever they
needed God’s help.
It ‘s not difficult to see why Moses said that faithfulness to God’s
commandments would make the people appear wise and intelligent in the eyes of
all the surrounding nations.
Action
How do you regard God’s commandments?
Do you regard them as a gift? Or
do you chafe at the slightest mention of “rules?” Do you want to be free to do your own
thing? Being human means, we are
sinners. Our “own thing” often leads us
into trouble, either by drawing us away from the Lord or causing us to hurt
someone else or ourselves.
Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me,_Jean-L%C3%A9on_-_Moses_on_Mount_Sinai_Jean-L%C3%A9on_G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me_-1895-1900.jpg
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