1 / 8 We have arrived at a change in theme between 1-4 sandwiched between our obligations to God and 6-10 our obligations to man But here in the 5th we find a promised blessing. (Exodus 20:12) There are 2 places where 10 commandments are listed Exodus 20 which we are using and Deuteronomy 5 the second set being slightly more complete that those here. For years has been a debate within scholarship and heavies like Luther and Calvin arguing their case for how many there are, and depending on where you make the cut or join there can be as many as 13 or as few as 8! Again within biblical scholarship they tend not to be referred to as the 10 commandments but as the Decalogue as they were translated into Greek as Decalogos deca - 10 logos -word or ten words. On a side note, I will be referring to man from time to time, I really mean mankind. The bible is not misogynistic, If you are a keen bible reader you will see how God puts woman alongside man, and often ahead, and none more than here in Exodus 20 God refers to, Parents not Parent. But in the 5th why this change from warnings to blessings and a promise? What is the 5th commandment saying to us and what does it mean? I am the Lord your God, You shall have no other God before me. You shall not use the Lord's Name in vain. Remember to keep Sabbath day holy. Honour your father and mother. You shall not commit murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
2 / 8 You shall not covet your neighbour's wife or goods. The whole reason for the Decalogue was to make Israel free See (Exodus 20:2) I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery prefaces the commands to follow. The 5th is an interesting commandment as you would not expect to see it in the Decalogue as it seems out of place. Or is it? If the commandments follow a hierarchical order of importance then the 5th shares the same tablet as the God commandments and for the Rabbi s this gave the 5th serious credibility. The Decalogue was given to Israel at a specific time in their history. They were free from their Egyptian slavery, sitting on the border of the promised land there was no way back. They had moved from being nobody and no-one into a body of peoples they could now self determine their future and to do this they had to become a nation, a people united and they needed guidelines, they needed the Law, and the first 4 look upwards, the next 5 look outwards, but 5th looks inward. A misconception is the Decalogue was given to make them holy. It was not, it was given to show them individually when they were working against the nation as a whole. Paul reminds us Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. (Romans 3:20)
3 / 8 When you get a new car you think it s unique and there are few of these on the road, that is until you take it out the showroom and realise there are hundreds of them. The reason is you fell foul of this aware-meant trap is that you were not tuned into noticing that model until you finally owned one! Until we had the Law and the understanding of the Law we were not tuned to recognising it. However, don t relax, thinking you have this covered by your ignorance, because not knowing something does not exclude you from the consequences of it. For example, in the 40/50 s most people smoked and most were unaware the smoke was clogging their lungs and potentially setting them up for lung cancer in the years ahead. Not knowing didn t stop them from the consequences of their action. Being caught speeding even when you honestly believed the speed limit was higher than it was does not negate you from the 3 points. The Law is a safety net to catch us when we fall... not an entrapment for the innocent. Going 70 in a 30 is breaking the law but primarily it is to protect the innocent. The 5th commandment offers us a glimpse into the heart of God, a crack in the door as it casts its slither of light into our darkness a brief vision of how he loves, how he wants to protect us and above all how he misses us - I am always drawn by the tragedy of the content within (Genesis 3:8) they hid from God Why was the 5th on the God side of the tablet? Interestingly Jesus when questioned in Mark 12 about the greatest commandment he combines the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4 and a combination and rewording of 1st through to the 4th and the 5th and does not mention the second tablet. Listen
4 / 8 The most important one, answered Jesus, is this: Sh'ma Yis-raeil, A-do-nai E-lo-hei- nu, A-do-nai E-chad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. The 5th mimics creation. God the creator - creates man. Man the created - creates children. This is why the 5th is on the left side, we in a strange way get to see what it s like to be a creator, to see the joy and pain of rearing children. We could take this a step further in that God creates man who eventually sinned We create our children, but God gave the 5th to guide us away from falling into Adams trap. We are reminded of how this all works in (Deuteronomy 6:4ff) Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. In other words don t forget them, and you will not forget God, his church or or his creation What did God miss? We walk, talk, write, put them on our bodies, never forget the Law this is how important the commands of God are, they have to be an intrinsic part of our life.
5 / 8 Jesus said For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. (Matthew 5:18) Within Judaism there has been a debate. How can you honour your father and mother if they are bad, and not a people to look up-to? I may not particularly agree with or like the way Theresa May does politics, but I do respect her position as Prime Minister (and told to pray for her). And by respecting the PM as the elected leader of our country, I can also respect her choice as a cabinet, I can also respect the laws of our country that the elected government oversees, I can and do respect the judges and policemen who administer those laws, however, one bad politician, policemen or judge does not destroy the law. Or my respect and honour for our leaders. The Law is above people and personalities. And to relate this concept to the 5th commandment, it s because of my respect for my parents position as the people who gave me life that I can then have respect for my family, my friends, my church family and my neighbours, conversely I cannot harbour racial prejudice, I cannot be homophobic I cannot be xenophobic. I could spend this whole sermon on the concept of honour. My son wrote his PhD on the concept of honour in Galatians. But as students of the bible there has to be some home study for yourself and here are some thoughts. Learning to honour parents is thus a significant step in the direction of honouring others. Honour is personal, preferential, positional, practical and public. Most people believe the commandments are given to limit our fun, make the church boring and dictatorial this is a huge misconception.
6 / 8 The commandments were given to help us grow, protect us and not destroy us. The bible is often misquoted or perhaps a better truism its misunderstood, for example (Leviticus 24:20) eye for eye, tooth for tooth. A common quote even by Christians. But the quote continues As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured. Do you see the limitations placed on retaliation it is not an arm for an eye or a hand for a tooth. Get this big time God protects the innocent from themselves and the guilty from destruction. The promise of the 5th was given to Israel, and adopted by the NT church and the promise that were given to Israel has to be interpreted in todays Christian life. Years ago when I was beginning my journey into theology it was pounded into me Sitz im Leben is a German phrase roughly translating to "setting in life". Honour your father and mother which is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth. Paul does this for us here in (Ephesians 6:2-4) makes the scripture relevant to his readers in the this new Christian era he changes the last few words from living in the land (specifically for Israel) and updates it to the earth. For us as NT believers we need to make the scriptures relevant to our friends and colleagues. Some of the modern translations available, help make the bible speak today. Also Paul also puts the pressure on parents, because he continues. Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
7 / 8 But to return to the promise. We have to be realistic to scripture and life, we all cannot live long, even if we bring our children up right and honour our parents to the letter of the Law, there is DNA flaws and hereditary illnesses that can kick in and rob us from the long life promised. But let me reassure you God will restore to you the days that are lost to you. I lost a baby, but believe the years I lost as a parent to Aaron will is some mysterious way be restored to me. I don t fully understand it but I believe it. Let me explain. Read the book of Joel it s fantastic I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten (Joel 2:25) I am also reminded what Jesus said the the rich ruler (covered excellently by the pastor last week when he stole some of my sermon) Jesus said to them, no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life. (Luke 18:29f) God is no mans debtor, he is more willing to give than we are to receive One of the key things in all cultures and all nature is procreation. We create and recreate, we live in and through our children and our children s children. The things I do today and my (our) influence in my (our) children can continue down for a thousand generations. How exciting that a hundred years from now my great, great, great grandchildren could be doing the right thing, making the right choices following God because I (we) taught my (our) child the Law and they gave me (us) honour! Here is the challenge for all of us, I have to be better than my parents, my children have to be better than me, and we as parents
8 / 8 must facilitate them in every way we can, if we don t then someone or some thing else will. I want to honour my parents (even if they have passed away) so that my children can see and learn this from me, so that they honour God, honour me and honour others and become mighty warriors for Christ. And thats the. Lessing and the promise in the 5th.