I want you to imagine for a moment or two that all you have ever known in life is performing whatever tasks your slave masters have told you to do. If the empire wanted a wall built out of stone, and your slave masters told you to cut the stone, under threat of punishment you would have cut the stone. If the empire wanted more grain planted for the season, and your slave masters told you to plant an extra four fields of grain, under threat of punishment you would have planted the four extra fields of grain. If the empire only gave you five days of bread for a seven day week, you would have figured out how to stretch five days of bread into seven.
The picture that I am painting for you is the life of the Israelite slaves under the absolute power and absolute authority of Egypt. Raised as a slave from childhood, all you would have ever known would be how to serve the Empire. All you would have ever known would be listening to whatever you were told. As a slave, you were shaped and molded to serve the government…to serve the empire.
Now, I want you to imagine that you have suddenly been freed from a life of slavery by God. If fact, everyone around you has been freed by God from lives devoted to serving the empire. How do you now live to the next day? How do you live together in freedom with others? What does this new life look like? To whom do you now listen?
I think putting the Israelite’s situation in these terms reveals just how much of a gift that the Ten Commandments are to the people of God. For centuries, the Ten Commandments have been viewed by both Jews and Christians, not as burdens that we somehow need to accomplish in order to be holy, but as gifts that give us life as we strive to live together in this world.
It is a life that is focused, not on what is best for governments and empires. It is a life that is focused, not on what is best for corporations and CEOs. It is a life focused, not on what is best for narcissistic leaders and power brokers. It is a life focused, rather, on the life, and love, and mercy, and peace of God. It is a life focused on the desires of the one who created us and desires us to have the best life together.
So, it is no surprise that the First Commandment is, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.” We will find life together when we focus on the same merciful God together.
In the Hebrew language, this commandment is quite fascinating. It literally reads, “You shall not place other gods in front of me.” The image being conveyed here is literally picking up and setting down some sort of other god, in the form of a symbol or idol, in front of the one true God. And, that is precisely what the Israelites literally do when Moses is up on the mountain and God is giving him the Ten Commandments. They literally place a golden calf in between them and the mountain of God. The golden calf is literally blocking the path up to God on the mountain.
As you can imagine, God, quite rightly, gets really, really upset by this, as God does throughout the Bible as the kings of Israel place idols of their wives’ gods in front of the altar in God’s temple, and images and symbols of government, such as Caesar’s head, in front of God in God’s holy temple. This literal placement of other things or symbols in front of God or beside God in places of worship is a really big problem, because it reveals quite clearly the things and symbols that are blocking the view of God in our minds and in our hearts.
Think back to the Israelites wandering around in the wilderness, who are struggling and hungry, and who are more than willing to abandon God in favor of the pots full of meat that the Egyptian empire provided. They are placing another god in front of trusting the true God.
Think of those who are captured by the lure of addictive substances. I think of a widowed grandmother who told me about how her grandson stole her husband’s wedding ring right off of her nightstand, where it brought her comfort through the loneliness of the night, and sold it for an hour’s worth of feeling high. As tragic as that story is, I also think about how she told me that she does not need the ring back. All she wants is her grandson back. She desires nothing but life for him. If only the substances were not placed so solidly in front of God, blocking the holy, blocking the mercy, blocking the life.
Think of those who are captured by images of the good life; of nice houses, and nice cars, and an abundance of fine food. I think of those who have no problem paying their employees the bare minimum so that they can live the good life. I think about those who have no problem exploiting others so that they alone can live well. I think about those who place their own desires in the way of God, so that they cannot even see the desires of God, who desires that we care for our neighbors.
“You shall not make for yourself an idol.” “You shall not bow down to them to worship them.” “I am the Lord your God.”
Here’s a fun Bible fact. Did you know that the golden calf was supposed to represent God? It was not intended by Moses’ brother Aaron to be another god, but rather was supposed to represent God. Do you know why God got so mad about that and why God does not want us creating idols in the image of God? Because God is very clear in the book of Genesis that God has already created something in the image of God. To be more precise, God created “someone” in the image of God. God created us to be the image of God on earth. God created you to be the image of God on earth. The Bible reads, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (NRSV, Genesis 1:27). When others look at you, God hopes they will see in you the reflection of the divine. God hopes that nothing in your life is blocking the image of our life-giving God.
Jesus is explicit that we will only be able to see the gift of life and the gift of the salvation of God when we follow and do not place anything else in the way. In the same way, others will only be able to see that same life and salvation in us, God’s image on earth, when we follow and do not place anything else in the way.
To one man Jesus said, “’Follow me.’ But [the man] said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God’” (NRSV, Luke 9:59-62).
Now, I understand that Jesus seems pretty rude here and the story seems to be an obvious exaggeration. That might be the case, but it is an exaggeration that makes a much needed point. Sometimes we place family and our own homes in the way of God. Sometimes, we cannot see Jerusalem, where the Lord resides, because we have allowed others to stand in the way. Sometimes, we allow those closest to us to block the good life found in the kingdom of God. In a shocking teaching to our own society, Jesus teaches that sometimes family does not come first, especially if they are blocking all that is good and holy and loving.
Again, I need to emphasize that putting God first does not secure God’s love. Following the First Commandment is not what saves us. Notice that the commandment starts out with “I am the Lord you God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;” and then the commandment goes on to read, “you shall have no other gods.” God saves us from Egypt first. God saves us first, because God wants us near. Jesus goes to Jerusalem for us and dies for our sake and rises to new life, whether we follow along the way or not.
But, if we look at our world, bemoaning how it is crumbling, and then we also see our neighbors in pain, then God will create a desire to want all that God wants. After-all, it is God who can put it all back together. We will strive first for the kingdom of God. We will strive to live this life of peace that the Ten Commandments seek to create. We will place nothing before God, because it is only God who gives all of us life. We will do it for the sake of our neighbor who also cries out silently in the night for the world to be right again.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (NRSV, Luke 10:27).
“You shall not place other gods in front of me.”
No comments:
Post a Comment