I know you understand we will all fall from time to time but as long as we pick ourselves up and continue so as not to lose what we are trying to hold fast.
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It's only when we let go of Jesus' hand that Satan gets a victory. We can all say things without first putting our brain into gear and sometimes, I could cut my tongue out - but at least I can feel remorse and have the desire to do better. The reason I chose this article to contact you was simply because of how you explained the love that should be poured out of us, not just to the ones we love but to others as well, which unfortunately is sadly lacking across society today. It has made me realise my own shortcomings and the need to do better.
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I agree with you, the Decalogue was a set of civil laws given specifically o the children of Israel at Sinai. In a very short amount of time the Israelites had already proven that they had forgotten who had led them out of Egypt and these tablets of stone were the statutes and ordinances of the contract that God made with them.
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I was reminded recently that there is no conflict between the the law of Moses and the law of grace. Through Christ we now know that all of the law is fulfilled in "two words". You are correct, thank you very much for reading my article. John is one of my favorite writers in scripture. His message is simple and consistent. The age of Christ, the final age of man. In this age Jesus who has been given all the authority of God until the end of this age is all until the end when He returns all power and authority to God and God becomes the Omega.
The God who is and was and is to come will have come and once again and forever will be God the only possessor of His authority. Jesus often condemned the Pharisees for getting caught up in the letter of the law at the expense of the meaning behind the law. I feel we often get caught in that same snare. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. HubPages and Hubbers authors may earn revenue on this page based on affiliate relationships and advertisements with partners including Amazon, Google, and others.
To provide a better website experience, owlcation. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so. For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: The context here is not the Ten Commandments or even the law, but loving one another. Dear Tony, I praise God for your humble reply, glory to God that we can have this technology so we can share ideas in unity of our faith in Jesus Christ: Thanks for letting me comment, God bless: Hi Tony, Well it seems our views on many thing are similar, if not identical.
Your 3rd paragraph, so, so very true. Hoping the evening goes as you hope. And again Tony with brotherly love, Jack. Hi Jack, Thank you for sharing your background. Hi Tony, Just so glad to form a mutual bond of friendship with you and fellowship in the one who is so dear to us - if only others would as well.
Again with brotherly love, Jack. Hi Jack, No worries, my brother.
Hi Tony, A number of things I want to say here but firstly, let me begin with saying how much I have enjoyed reading these six articles of yours - truth in every one and so much food for the mind and heart. Will make this do for now Tony and with brotherly love, Jack. Hi Charlie, I agree with you, the Decalogue was a set of civil laws given specifically o the children of Israel at Sinai. Th law of Moses is no longer in effect. This website uses cookies As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things.
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Exodus and Work | Bible Commentary | Theology of Work
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The literature in Old Testament theology on this point is immense both in scope and depth of analysis. Providing even a summary of the issues and approaches to this matter exceeds the scope of this article. For an able discussion of what is at stake and a fuller understanding of the position taken in this article, see Bruce K.
Zondervan, , — Baker, , Zondervan, , Wright, The Mission of God: IVP Academic, , He also equipped Aaron with skill surpassing that of the high officials of Egypt Exod. These disasters caused personal misery. Disease caused livestock to die Exod. Crops failed and forests were ruined Exod. Pests invaded multiple ecosystems Exod. In Exodus, ecological disaster is the retribution of God against the tyranny and oppression of Pharaoh. But we can see that when economics, politics, culture, and society are in need of redemption, so is the environment.
Each of these warnings-in-action convinced Pharaoh to release Israel, but as each passed, he reneged. Finally, God brought on the disaster of slaying every firstborn son among the people and animals of the Egyptians Exod. The appalling effect of slavery is to "harden" the heart against compassion, justice, and even self-preservation, as Pharaoh soon discovered Exod.
This reversed the effects of slavery, which was the legalized plunder of exploited workers. When God liberates people, he restores their right to labor for fruits they themselves can enjoy Isa. Work, and the conditions under which it is performed, is a matter of the highest concern to God. Moses, Aaron, and others work hard, yet God is the real worker. While on the journey from Egypt to Sinai, Moses reconnected with his father-in-law Jethro. This former outsider to the Israelites offered much-needed counsel to Moses concerning justice in the community. Israel had already experienced unjust treatment at the hand of the Egyptian taskmasters.
Walter Brueggemann has observed that biblical faith is not just about telling the story of what God has done. One of the first things we learned earlier about Moses was his desire to mediate between those embroiled in a dispute. In the current episode, we see just the opposite. First, he rendered legal decisions for people in dispute.
Furthermore, it was detrimental to Moses and unsatisfying for the people he was trying to help. All of the other cases were to be delegated to subordinate judges who would serve in a four-tiered system of judicial administration. The qualification of these judges is the key to the wisdom of the plan, for they were not selected according to the tribal divisions of the people or their religious maturity. They must meet four qualifications Exod. First, they must be capable. It describes people who have a clear understanding of commonly recognized morality that stretches across cultural and religious boundaries.
Third, they must be "trustworthy. Finally, they must be haters of unjust gain. They must know how and why corruption occurs, despise the practice of bribery and all kinds of subversion, and actively guard the judicial process from these infections. Delegation is essential to the work of leadership. Though Moses was uniquely gifted as a prophet, statesman, and judge, he was not infinitely gifted. Therefore, the gift of leadership is ultimately the gift of giving away power appropriately. The leader, like Moses, must discern the qualities needed, train those who are to receive authority, and develop means to hold them accountable.
The leader also needs to be held accountable. Wise, decisive, compassionate leadership is a gift from God that every human community needs. Delegation is the only way to increase the capacity of an institution or community, as well as the way to develop future leaders. The fact that Moses accepted this counsel so quickly and thoroughly may be evidence of how personally desperate he was.
This observation may encourage Christians to receive and respect input from a wide range of traditions and religions, notably in matters of work. Doing so is not necessarily a mark of disloyalty to Christ, nor does it expose a lack of confidence in our own faith. It is not an improper concession to religious pluralism. On the contrary, it may even be a poor witness to produce biblical quotes of wisdom too frequently, for in so doing, outsiders may perceive us as narrow and possibly insecure.
Christians do well to be discerning about the specifics of the counsel we adopt, whether it comes from within or without. Varda Books, , It is almost impossible to exaggerate their effect on subsequent history. They constitute the basis of the moral principles found throughout the Western world and summarize what the one true God expects of his people in terms of faith, worship and conduct.
For these reasons, we will be attentive to what the text of Exodus actually says, for this is what we hold in common. At the same time, we hope to be aware and respectful of the variety of ways that Christians may wish to draw lessons from this part of the Bible. We begin by recognizing that Exodus is an integral part of the whole of Scripture, not a stand-alone legal statue.
Christopher Wright has written:. The common opinion that the Bible is a moral code book for Christians falls far short, of course, of the full reality of what the Bible is and does. The Bible is essentially the story of God, the earth and humanity; it is the story of what has gone wrong, what God has done to put it right, and what the future holds under the sovereign plan of God.
Nevertheless, within that grand narrative, moral teaching does have a vital place. And our mission certainly includes the ethical dimension of that response. Because this term is so central to the entire discussion at hand, it will help us to clarify how this Hebrew word actually works in the Bible. The word Torah appears once in Genesis in the sense of instructions from God that Abraham followed. It can refer to instructions from one human to another Ps. To highlight the rich and instructive nature of law in Exodus, we shall sometimes refer to it as Torah with no attempt at translation.
In Exodus, it is clear that Torah in the sense of a set of specific instructions is part of the covenant and not the other way around. In other words, the covenant as a whole describes the relationship that God has established between himself and his people by virtue of his act of deliverance on their behalf Exod. This is significant for our understanding of the theology of work. In Christian terms, we love God because he first loved us and we demonstrate that love in how we treat others 1 John 4: Zondervan, , 4: It can be a challenge for a Christian to draw a point from a verse in the book of Exodus or especially Leviticus, and then suggest how that lesson should be applied today.
How do we avoid the charge of inconsistency in our handling of the Bible? The diversity of laws in Exodus and the Pentateuch presents one type of challenge. Another comes from the variety of ways that Christians understand and apply Torah and the Old Testament in relationship to Christ and the New Testament. Still, the issue of Torah in Christianity is crucial and must be addressed in order for us to glean anything about what this part of the Bible says concerning our work. The following brief treatment aims to be helpful without being overly narrow.
God gave the Torah as an expression of his holy nature and as a consequence of his great deliverance. Reading the Torah makes us aware of our inherent sinfulness and of our need for a remedy in order for us to live at peace with God and one another. God expects his people to obey his instructions by applying them to real issues of life both great and small. The specific nature of some laws does not mean God is an unrealistic perfectionist. These laws help us to understand that no issue we face is too small or insignificant for God.
Even so, the Torah is not just about outward behavior, for it addresses matters of the heart such as coveting Exod. Later, Jesus would condemn not just murder and adultery, but the roots of anger and lust as well Matt. However, obeying the Torah by applying it to the real issues of life today does not equate to repeating the actions that Israel performed thousands of years ago.
Already in the Old Testament we see hints that some parts of the law were not intended to be permanent. In some important sense, he embodied all that the temple, its priesthood, and its activities stood for. Much in the New Testament confirms the Torah, not only in its negative commands against adultery, murder, theft, and coveting, but also in its positive command to love one another Rom. In the end, only Jesus could accomplish this. On the other hand, new covenant believers do not work that way. For our purposes in considering the theology of work, the previous explanation suggests several points that may help us to understand and apply the laws in Exodus that relate to the workplace.
They are to be taken seriously but not slavishly. On the one hand, items in the Ten Commandments are worded in general terms and may be applied freely in varied contexts. On the other hand, particular laws about servants, livestock, and personal injuries exemplify applications in the specific historical and social context of ancient Israel, especially in areas that were controversial at the time.
These laws are illustrative of right behavior but do not exhaust every possible application. Christians honor God and his law not only by regulating our behavior, but also by allowing the Holy Spirit to transform our attitudes, motives, and desires Rom. To do anything less would amount to sidestepping the work and will of our Lord and Savior.
Christians should always seek how love may guide our policies and behaviors. Do Christians Apply them Inconsistently? The Ten Commandments are worded as general commands either to do or not do something. These laws fit the social and economic world of ancient Israel.
They are to be thought of not as the ten most important commands among hundreds of others, but as a digest of the entire Torah. And a second is like it: All the law, as well as the prophets, is indicated whenever the Ten Commandments are expressed. That is, when applying the Ten Commandments, we will take into account related passages of Scripture in both the Old and New Testaments. The first commandment reminds us that everything in the Torah flows from the love we have for God, which in turn is a response to the love he has for us.
Nothing else in life should concern us more than our desire to love and be loved by God. The other concern—be it money, power, security, recognition, sex, or anything else—has become our god. Observing the Ten Commandments is only conceivable for those who start by having no other god than God. In the realm of work, this means that we are not to let work or its requirements and fruits displace God as our most important concern in life. Jesus warned of exactly this danger. But almost anything related to work can become twisted in our desires to the point that it interferes with our love for God.
The Commandments of God According to the Apostle John
How many careers come to a tragic end because the means to accomplish things for the love of God—such as political power, financial sustainability, commitment to the job, status among peers, or superior performance—become ends in themselves? When, for example, recognition on the job becomes more important than character on the job, is it not a sign that reputation is displacing the love of God as the ultimate concern?
A practical touchstone is to ask whether our love of God is shown by the way we treat people on the job. The commandment we have from him is this: If we put our individual concerns ahead of our concern for the people we work with, for, and among, then we have made our individual concerns our god. In particular, if we treat other people as things to be manipulated, obstacles to overcome, instruments to obtain what we want, or simply neutral objects in our field of view, then we demonstrate that we do not love God with all our heart, soul, and mind.
In this context, we can begin to list some work-related actions that have a high potential to interfere with our love for God. Doing work that violates our conscience. Working in an organization where we have to harm others to succeed. Working such long hours that we have little time to pray, worship, rest, and otherwise deepen our relationship with God. Working among people who demoralize us or seduce us away from our love for God. Working where alcohol, drug abuse, violence, sexual harassment, corruption, disrespect, racism, or other inhumane treatment mar the image of God in us and the people we encounter in our work.
If we can find ways to avoid these dangers at work—even if it means finding a new job—it would be wise to do so. If that is not possible, we can at least be aware that we need help and support to maintain our love of God in the face of our work. IVP Books, , The second commandment raises the issue of idolatry. Idols are gods of our own creation, gods that have nothing to them that did not originate with us, gods that we feel we control. In ancient times, idolatry often took the form of worshiping physical objects. But the issue is really one of trust and devotion.
On what do we ultimately pin our hope of well-being and success? Anything that is not capable of fulfilling our hope—that is, anything other than God—is an idol, whether or not it is a physical object. In the world of work, it is common to speak of money, fame, and power as potential idols, and rightly so. Yet when we imagine that we have ultimate control over them, or that by achieving them our safety and prosperity will be secured, we have begun to fall into idolatry. The same may occur with virtually every other element of success, including preparation, hard work, creativity, risk, wealth and other resources, and favorable circumstances.
As workers, we have to recognize how important these are. The distinctive element of idolatry is the human-made nature of the idol. At work, a danger of idolatry arises when we mistake our power, knowledge, and opinions for reality. But what is wrongful use? It includes, of course, disrespectful use in cursing, slandering, and blaspheming. But more significantly it includes falsely attributing human designs to God. Regrettably, some Christians seem to believe that following God at work consists primarily of speaking for God on the basis of their individual understanding, rather than working respectfully with others or taking responsibility for their actions.
The third commandment also reminds us that respecting human names is important to God. Do you know the name of the person who empties your trash can, answers your customer service call, or drives your bus? If these examples do not concern the very name of the Lord, they do concern the name of those made in his image. The issue of the Sabbath is complex, not only in the book of Exodus and the Old Testament, but also in Christian theology and practice.
The first part of the command calls for ceasing labor one day in seven. In the context of the ancient world, the Sabbath was unique to Israel. On the one hand, this was an incomparable gift to the people of Israel. No other ancient people had the privilege of resting one day in seven. Six days of work had to be enough to plant crops, gather the harvest, carry water, spin cloth, and draw sustenance from creation. While Israel rested one day every week, the encircling nations continued to forge swords, feather arrows, and train soldiers.
Israel had to trust God not to let a day of rest lead to economic and military catastrophe. Does it take seven days of work to hold a job or two or three jobs , clean the house, prepare the meals, mow the lawn, wash the car, pay the bills, finish the school work, and shop for the clothes, or can we trust God to provide for us even if we take a day off during the course of every week?
The fourth commandment does not explain how God will make it all work out for us. It simply tells us to rest one day every seven. The polarity that actually undergirds the Sabbath is work and rest. Both work and rest are included in the fourth commandment. The six days of work are as much a part of the commandment as the one day of rest. Although many Christians are in danger of allowing work to squeeze the time set aside for rest, others are in danger of the opposite, of shirking work and trying to live a life of leisure and dissipation. If overwork is our main danger, we need to find a way to honor the fourth commandment without instituting a false, new legalism pitting the spiritual worship on Sunday worship against the secular work on Monday through Saturday.
If avoiding work is our danger, we need to learn how to find joy and meaning in working as a service to God and our neighbors Eph. There are many ways to honor—or dishonor—your father and mother. Rather there are a number of commandments on this subject spread through the books of the Tanakh, and taking these passages together, idolatry may be defined as the worship of idols or images ; the worship of polytheistic gods by use of idols or images ; the worship of created things trees, rocks, animals, astronomical bodies, or another human being ; and even the use of idols in the worship of Yahweh God , the deity worshiped by the Israelites.
In a number of places the ancient texts assert that God has no shape or form and is utterly incomparable; thus no idol, image, idea, or anything in creation could ever capture God's essence. Sinai at the time the Ten Commandments were given, they saw no shape or form and this is stated as a reason why any physical representation of the divine is prohibited — no idols of humans, animals, or heavenly bodies were to be made.
Rather than use an idol, Yahweh chose to reveal himself in words, by working through people, and by working in history. The question has been raised whether the ancient view of this command prohibits images of Yahweh or of foreign gods. Sinai to Moses, judging the golden calf to be a violation of the recently revealed law: This event and the plurality of the language used in the second commandment leads many scholars to conclude that it prohibits the making of any image of Yahweh as well as any image of a created thing to which divinity would be ascribed.
The commandments in the Hebrew Bible against idolatry also forbade the adoption of the beliefs and practices of the nations who lived around the Israelites at the time, especially the religions of ancient Akkad, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. The ancient understanding apparently did not conflict with the artistic rendering of created things, and the Bible describes the Tabernacle, and later the Temple, as having tapestries and objects incorporating cherubim, flowers, fruits, trees, and animals.
The Book of Numbers contains a narrative in which Yahweh instructed Moses to make a bronze snake as part of addressing a plague of venomous snakes that had broken out among the Israelites as a punishment for sin. According to Exodus 25 and 37, the Ark of the Covenant was a rectangular container overlaid with pure gold with two gold cherubim on its cover. It was considered holy; it was kept in the innermost part of the Tabernacle and later the Temple , was not to be touched directly, and was only to be transported in a prescribed manner.
The Israelites were specifically instructed to not only discuss the covenant with Yahweh with their families in everyday life, but also to physically incorporate the words in their homes and attire. The idols of the Ancient Near East were central figures of the tribal cults around the Isaraelites.
Scholars have discussed whether idol worshipers made a distinction between a spiritual being that existed independently of idols and the physical idols themselves. Magical ceremonies were performed through which the people believed the spirit of the god came to live in the physical idol. So while scholars may debate the relative importance of belief in the physical object or the spirit it represented or housed, in practice the distinction was not easy to discern.
A narrative in 1 Kings This was done for political purposes, to distance the allegiance of the Israelites from loyalty to worship in Jerusalem, which was in Judah and ruled by King Rehoboam. The images themselves were reminiscent of Egyptian gods represented by the bull. Not only did the common people substitute Canaanite gods and worship for the worship of Yahweh, polytheism and worship of foreign gods became virtually official in both the northern and southern kingdoms despite repeated warnings from the prophets of God.
For example, the Biblical prophet Jeremiah complains: The psalmist described idols as being made of gold, silver, wood, and stone. They are described as being only the work of men's hands, unable to speak, see, hear, smell, eat, grasp, or feel, and powerless either to injure or to benefit. The Bible presents Daniel and his companions as distinct, positive examples of individuals refusing to pay homage to another god, even at the price of their lives. During the time of the exile, Nebuchadnezzar erects a gold statue of himself and commands all subjects to worship it.
Three Jewish officials — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego — who had been taken to Babylon as youths along with Daniel, refuse to bow to the statue. As they face being burned alive in a furnace, they communicate their faith as well as their resolve: But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up. In the centuries that followed the Babylonian captivity, Jews were willing to suffer death rather than pay the honor due God to any other man or god.