Im going to teach the adult Sunday School class at my church this Sunday and I am supposed to speak on the first commandment. Ive been reading John Calvin this morning to get some ideas, and I really like some of the things he has to say. In his sermon on Deuteronomy 5:4-7, which includes the first commandment, he chooses to place a lot of significance on the fact that God, in delivering his law to Moses, spoke to Moses "face to face." Now I have been sitting here all morning trying to think of a uniqe angle on this topic, something I can say about the first commandment that would stand out and would really get to the heart of the matter. I mean try walking into a library to research a topic like the first commandment. There is no end to the amount of research and commentary that has been devoted to this simple phrase: "you shall have no other gods before me." But I think Calvin really does cut to the core of the issue by not focusing so much on what the commandment says but on how it was delivered. This commandment comes to us from the Lord, who brought Israel out of Egypt and out of the land of slavery, and who spoke to Moses "face to face out fire on the mountain." So the significance of the first commandment is that it is preceded by what is possibly the most powerful and unique declaration of God to man in the history of this world: "I am the Lord your God!"
When I really think about it, I dont think there is any other time in the Bible that God reveals himself so directly, so forcefully to man. God made similar statements to Abraham saying things like "I am the Lord who brought you out of the land of the Chaldeans" but we dont really know a lot about how God spoke to Abraham. It seems that God spoke to Abraham through visions and through theophanies, but we dont ever get a real clear account of the Lord speaking to Abraham "face to face" the way the Moses encounter is described.
When Christ came to earth, it can of course be said that many people spoke to God face to face, because Christ was indeed God, but it was a different kind of thing. Christ never once stood up in a crowd and shouted to them "I am the Lord Your God!" He often spoke in parables, and he used Scripture a lot to speak of himself, and he associated Himself a lot with the Father declaring that He was "one" with the Father, but He never just downright declared Himself to be "the Lord Your God."
So what is so unique about the delivering of the first commandment is that it represents one of the most concrete acts of revelation of God to man. God declares "face to face" that He alone is God and He alone must be worshipped. Think about what the Bible would be without those few verses. Jesus never said anything so declarative about Himself. We have to learn to associate Jesus with the God of Exodus by the connections He Himself made. But without God declaring Himself at some point in history that He is indeed the Lord, the one and only true God, the rest of the Bible would be like an intricate web of truth without a center to hold it all together. We need that fundamental revelation, that central moment in time when God actually told us who He is, to serve as the basis for all of the revelation that comes after it.
These are just a few thoughts for now. Hope Im not way off, but I have to go now!
Posted by todd at November 13, 2006 02:34 PM