Connection in Covenant with God | Sunday, October 11, 2020

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image... you shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God... You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. (Deuteronomy 5:6–11)

God's law is not arbitrary regulation but the marriage vows of a covenant relationship—and that relationship still claims us today.

God Is Still on the Throne in 2020

This has been an extraordinarily challenging year, and many of the things we planned and expected in 2020 have not come to pass anywhere near how we anticipated. It is precisely in the midst of extraordinary circumstances that I am grateful for the promise of Scripture that God is able to work all things together for the good of His people. If we trust in God as He is revealed in the Scriptures, then we trust in Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.

My plans for 2020 did not include church exclusively online, distance learning for my kids, weddings with masks, or birthday drive-through parades. But God works all things according to the counsel of His will, and He is able to work these same things together for His ultimate good. In spite of the craziness of this year, I am expecting God to do great things in and through His church. I love the passage in Isaiah 6, where after the death of King Uzziah, Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, seated upon a throne. Although the throne in Israel was vacant, the throne in heaven was not—and God is still on the throne.

The Two Tables of the Law

We began last time to consider the actual law of God, the Ten Commandments, though I'll admit we didn't get very far. Today we begin to peel back the layers of the law and see how it applies to us some 3,400 years after it was originally given.

Commentators and preachers have often observed that these commandments are divided into what are called the two tables of the law. The law deals both with man's vertical relationship to God and his horizontal relationships with other people. As we say often here at Cross Connection Church, God created us to live life in connection with Him and then with one another in a harmonious way. He created us for connection. Sadly, our rejection of God's law—which is called sin—has destroyed that harmonious connection.

The law gives us a starting point for how God intends to deal with the disconnect. It doesn't deal with the disconnect entirely; it is just the starting point. The first commandments deal with our vertical relationship with God, and the last six deal with our relationship with other people. The godward laws and the manward laws are what we'll be looking at in this section.

Obedience Is Rooted in Relationship

The basis for obedience to the law, both vertically and horizontally, is relationship. God says, "I am the LORD your God." These laws are for those who desire to connect with God and with one another. If you reject God, you reject His law; if you reject His law, you reject Him. But understand that in rejecting Him and His law, you are also rejecting His blessing and all the privileges promised to those who live in a covenant relationship with Him.

One of those privileges is redemption. God saved Israel; He brought them out of the house of bondage in Egypt. Now, on the basis of His redemption of them and their relationship to Him, He says, "You shall have no other gods before me." God expects and commands exclusivity.

God Commands Exclusivity

I realize I've probably already lost some of you, because some people have a difficult time with claims of exclusivity. But I want to suggest that, more than any sophistication on your part, such an issue might actually reveal an immaturity and a lack of understanding about relationships than any refinement.

Every married individual intuitively understands this. We're living in a time when cultural views of marriage have shifted—not for the better. We hear talk of same-sex marriage, plural marriage, open marriages, and polyamory. There's no possible way to see this as a positive shift regarding marriage. When you got married, you entered into a covenant with vows before God and witnesses, with the expectation of exclusivity. That covenant relationship entitled you and your spouse to certain benefits and blessings—not only intimacy, but provision, protection, mutual satisfaction, and companionship. But all such benefits assume exclusivity, and as soon as covenantal exclusivity is broken, good luck enjoying the benefits and blessings of marriage.

It is fascinating that God's command does not explicitly deny the existence of other gods—that's a discussion for another time—but it does forbid any rival. The covenant relationship you have with your wife does not deny the existence of other women, but your wife would be entirely right to declare, "You shall have no other woman before me." And the inverse is true: "You shall have no other man before your husband." Because of the covenant relationship, there can be no rivals. There can be only one.

Proper Adoration and Representation

God's second command follows logically: "You shall not make for yourself a carved image... you shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments."

Pay careful attention to the words hate and love. These are relational categories. As I shared back in January when we began our study, scholars view Deuteronomy as an official document ratifying a formal relationship between the Lord and Israel. These are the marital vows—the conditions of a relationship. In this relationship, God demands proper adoration and representation. Your spouse expects that you will adore her, and if someone asked you about your wife and you said, "Oh, she's a friend of mine," good luck with that.

God will not suffer rivals. He will not turn a blind eye toward the banal hatred of indifference. He will visit—that is, punish—the iniquity of those who scorn and hate Him, though He promises mercy and blessing to those who love Him, as seen in their fidelity and faithfulness.

Jealous For Us, Not Of Us

Mark this and note it well: God is rightly jealous for our devotion and affection. God is not jealous of us; He is jealous for us. He does not look at you and pine over the things you have—that would be ridiculous. But He deeply desires our devotion and affection in the same way that a faithful wife does for her husband and a faithful husband for his wife.

Why do some people fight against this? Because they lack maturity; they're infantile in their affections. It's called childish selfishness, and they fail to recognize the relational aspect of the commands. If you don't like God and His commands, understand that because He is a good and loving God, He has given you autonomy. You can choose not to be in relationship with Him and not to observe His statutes. But you cannot at the same time expect His blessing—certainly not eternally.

Taking God's Name with Solemnity

"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain." There are different ways this third commandment is interpreted, but the differences sometimes reveal an ignorance of what it is really about. Many times you've corrected someone, or been corrected, for using the name Jesus or the word God as a curse word. I completely understand if the flippant use of God's name angers you. The casualness with which we speak of God could certainly be wrong, but I'm not convinced the third commandment is necessarily legislating against that.

A week ago I did the first wedding I've done all year. As the happy couple turned to face their guests and I presented them for the first time as Mr. and Mrs., I thought about the fact that traditionally the wife takes the name of the husband. This tradition has come under fire in our increasingly anti-patriarchal cultural moment; some view it as oppressive and misogynistic for a woman to take a man's name. I don't agree. I find it a beautiful and honorable tradition that acknowledges the biblical principle that in marriage the two become one flesh, and the wife takes the name of her husband.

At issue in the third command is the fact that Israel, in covenanting with God, is taking His name as the people of Yahweh. He will be their God, and they will be His people. Therefore the command teaches us that we must take God's name with the utmost solemnity. You should not enter into a covenant relationship with the Almighty without first reverently considering the implications of doing so.

Count the Cost

In New Testament lingo, we would say you need to count the cost. Jesus says it like this:

Whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it... Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?... So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:27–33)

There are great benefits and blessings to being a people in covenant with the one true and living God—blessings both in this life and in the life to come. But the one who would enter into such a covenant must recognize what these opening commandments teach. We must understand that God expects and commands exclusivity: "You shall have no other gods before me." He demands proper adoration and representation and is rightly jealous for our devotion: "You shall not make for yourself any carved image." And therefore we must take His name with the utmost solemnity: "You shall not take the name of the LORD in vain."

We may wrongly think that commandments given to Israel 3,400 years ago, as they prepared to enter the Promised Land, are not applicable today. But they are absolutely applicable, and we need to take note of what God teaches us through them.

Closing Prayer

Father, I pray that as we think about these things today, and as we meditate on them throughout this week, You would speak to our hearts about the reality of what they teach us. May we see that we take Your name as Your people—Jesus, we are called after Your name, the people of Christ, those who follow the way; You are the way, the truth, and the life. I pray that we would represent You well and recognize what it means to take Your name, and that You alone would have the exclusive throne in our lives, the leadership over us as our Lord. Do a work in transforming us by the renewing of our minds as we think about these things this week. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.