#DailyDevotion The LORD Instructs His People
Ex. 20:1-11 God spoke all the following words: 2“I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves. 3Do not have any other gods besides Me. 4Do not make an idol for yourself or any likeness of anything in heaven above, on the earth beneath, or in the water below. 5Do not worship or serve them, because I the LORD your God am a jealous God. I punish the children for their fathers’ sins, if they hate Me, to the third and fourth generation, 6but I am kind to thousands of those who love Me and do what I order. 7“Do not misuse the name of the LORD your God, because the LORD will not let anyone who misuses His name go unpunished. 8“Remember to keep the Sabbath day [rest day) holy. 9Six days you should labor and do all your work, 10but on the seventh, the rest day of the LORD your God, do not do any work — you, your son, daughter, male or female slave, your cattle, and your foreigner who is within your gates. 11In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them, and on the seventh day He rested. This is why the LORD blessed the rest day and made it holy.
When the LORD God had delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians he brought them to Mt. Sinai. What follows then are the Ten Words. That is what Moses in Deuteronomy calls them. We often call them the Ten Commandments. These Ten Words begin with the Gospel, “I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves.” Indeed, with a mighty hand, the LORD delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians by striking them with plagues and finally killing those who pursued them in the Red Sea. These people were now free from Egypt’s bondage. They are now the LORD’s people. He made us his people in Christ Jesus.
As his people, the LORD instructs them on how to live as his people. Firstly, they are to have no other gods. They are not not make idols of other gods or of the LORD and worship them. The LORD is a jealous God. To worship other gods and to make idols of gods or the LORD is to hate the LORD. He warns them those who worship other gods or worship idols will be punished to the third and fourth generation “of them that hate me.” If of course the children of those who worship other gods repent of their father’s sin the anger of the LORD will not be upon them. His steadfast-love is towards those who hear him and do what he says. To have the LORD be your God is to look to him alone for every good. It is trusting in him to solve all your problems. Mind you, he doesn’t zap your problems away but provides the means for you to get through them.
Secondly, his people were to not misuse his name. The LORD is serious in people not misusing his name. He says those who do so will not go unpunished. However, he did want his people to use his name in faith. He wanted them to call upon it in every trial, tribulation, trouble and to give thanks with it. In the same way, he wants us to call upon the name of Jesus now in prayer to our Father in heaven. Doing so shows we trust in him above all things. The LORD calls his people to rest in him. He set apart the 7th day for their rest because he himself rested on the 7th day after finishing all creation. No one in all Israel was to perform work on that day. Hebrews tell us Jesus is our rest, our Sabbath. When we trust in him from our salvation we find eternal rest in him from all our vain works.
Heavenly Father, you saved the Israelites and instructed them on how to be your people. You saved us through Jesus Christ. Give us you Spirit so we may know you and obey all you command. In Jesus’ name we pray.