03.19.06

Exod. 20:1-17

“Out of Egypt”

Rev. Melissa D. Ramos

There is a film made by Mel Brooks in 1981 called “History of the World, Part I,” which is a humorous and irreverent look at the history of our ancient world. In one of the opening scenes of the film, Moses is portrayed on Mt. Sinai receiving the stone tablets with the 10 Commandments from God. In this spoof of biblical history, Moses receives not two, but three tablets, but accidentally drops one and it smashes all over the ground. So when Moses comes down the mountain, in the film, the actor playing Moses announces, “The Fifteen – crash – Ten Commandments.”

It’s a humorous way of looking at the question, “what if there had been more commandments and we just didn’t know about them.” But we can rest assured that the biblical text is accurate in describing only 10 commandments. And I think we’re glad about that, because it’s hard enough just to keep those 10 commandments we’ve been given.

One of the premises of the film that sets its tone of humor is the way it pokes fun at our lack of human development over thousands of years of history. We don’t find it any easier to keep the 10 commandments than did the Israelites who first received them.

Before I get too far in the sermon, I want to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. Walter Brueggemann of Columbia Theological Seminary for some of the thoughts and developments on the book of Exodus.

When we think of the 10 commandments, sometimes a feeling of guilt sets in because we do find it hard to keep them. And yet the law, the 10 commandments, come to us in the Scriptures, in the book of Exodus, as part of the story of God redeeming Israel. The 10 commandments are not just an abstract, theoretical set of decrees by an impersonal God. They are not given to restrict or burden us. Listen again to the opening words of the 10 commandments in its entire narrative form. Listen to Exodus 20, verse 10: “Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery…”

Right away this God who speaks to the people identifies himself as “your God.” This God is personal, he is your God. He has chosen and called you into a covenant relationship. And this God says, first of all, “I am the Lord your God,” so this God of the covenant claims the people and says, “You belong to me.” The next words that God speaks are a reminder of Israel’s history and relationship to God.

God says, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage…” As God speaks, God is reminding the Israelites that just a few chapters back they were slaves in the brickyards of pharaoh. Now the Israelites, when they hear these words, they don’t need much reminding of what it was like to have pharaoh as god of the land.

But for us, maybe we haven’t traveled back to Egypt in the books of Genesis and Exodus for a while. Maybe we need to be reminded of what it was like to serve pharaoh.

Let’s remember back to the stories of the book of Genesis. Since the time of Joseph, the Israelites had lived in Egypt. There was a great famine in the land of Canaan because of a great drought, and the land of Egypt was the only kingdom with grain to spare. The descendants of Isaac came from Egypt and settled there. They eventually became slaves of the tyrant pharaoh, making bricks in the broiling heat and the dust in order to earn their bread.

The story continues as God appears to Moses in the burning bush, on holy ground, and God says to Moses, ‘I have seen the misery of my people who were in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey.”

God sends Moses and Aaron to confront pharaoh on God’s behalf, which they do. Standing before pharaoh, Moses and Aaron speak out on behalf of Israel in their ruthless toil, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go.’”

Pharaoh is not impressed by this, and the Scriptures say that same day pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people, as well as their supervisors, ‘You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks as before; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But you shall require of them the same number of bricks as before… for they are lazy; that is why they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ Let heavier work be laid on them.”

So the Israelite supervisors see that this is impossible. They come before Pharaoh and cried, ‘Why do you treat your servants like this? No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ Pharaoh replies, ‘You are lazy, lazy; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and make sacrifice to the Lord.’ Go now and work; for no straw shall be given to you, but you shall deliver the same number of bricks.”

And we know the rest of the story, how plagues of many kind God brings upon pharaoh and Egypt until pharaoh agrees to let the Israelites go. But as soon as they depart from the city, pharaoh changes his mind and sends his chariots and warriors after them. And God performs a miracle of deliverance as God parts the Red Sea for Israel to pass through, but brings the waters crashing down on the Egyptian armies, and Israel is now free.

And so when God speaks to the Israelites, now by Mt. Sinai, having left the land of Egypt, God reminds them of what it was like to serve pharaoh as lord of the land. God reminds them of the hot brickyards of injustice where the people suffered under the tyrant revered as a god in Egypt.

This narrative background, the story of Israel, is essential to understanding the 10 commandments that follow. That is why God begins his address to the people with the words, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery.”

God identifies himself as the powerful deliverer who has brought the people out of a terrible suffering. And this God doesn’t want the people going back to that same suffering now that they are free. Israel is now a people redeemed by the Lord their God, and this God is making them into a people who bear the character of their God, not the character of the evil tyrant pharaoh. And that is what the 10 commandments are about.

We might think to ourselves, “After such a horrible experience of suffering as slaves in Egypt, surely Israel would never go back to the oppression of pharaoh! But let’s recall that the Israelites don’t make it very far into the desert before realizing that there isn’t much to eat on the say to the promised land.

God has provided the people with bread from the sky, called manna, a miracle of provision in the barren desert land. In the book of Numbers, we find that after a time Israel is bored with eating manna, this bread from God, and Scripture says this: “The rabble among them had a strong craving; and the Israelites also wept again, and said, ‘We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now… there is nothing but this manna to look at.”

It didn’t take Israel long at all to start wishing that they were back in the kingdom of Egypt. Suddenly they are daydreaming about the enticing foods there provided by pharaoh, seemingly having lost all memory about working in the brickyards without even the straw to heat the ovens.

God has to remind us, too, because there are always pharaohs on the sidelines of life enticing us to leave the redeemed and free live given by the Lord our God in order to make bricks as slaves.

The 10 commandments were given to Israel and to us to help us live within the redeemed and free live given by God in Jesus Christ. The 10 commandments are given to keep us from the oppression of every other god that sets itself up before the God of Israel, the God of our salvation. The Israelites, walking through the desert toward the promised land, are now in a covenant with their God to lead lives of generosity, or kindness, or freedom – they are not to exhibit oppression and cruelty that are the characteristics of pharaoh.

The laws God gives are intertwined in the story of Israel’s redemption. The first commandment God gives to Israel is this: “You shall have no other gods before me.” Israel has firsthand experienced what it is like to serve another god. Israel knows that the Lord is God of mercy and tender compassion for his people. The Lord protects and provides for his people.

And every other god exploits the people. And the Lord knows that there are many pharaohs that tempt us to give over our worship – it may be our work, our career, it may power, gods of success, money – those gods will only exploit us. If we give them our worship we will find ourselves in the brickyards of pharaoh serving under merciless taskmasters.

Everyone knows that once you move up in the company, you get more responsibility, more clients, more territories, so that we can make more bricks for the company. The more you succeed, the greater the demand for more and more bricks, and then bricks without straw.

It’s the same with the second commandment, not to make any idols, any manufactured replicas of God. The glitter of the world entices us to give our worship to things, but we all know that no matter how much wealth we have, no matter how many possessions we have, we would be happier if we had just a little more.

And that desire to have more and more leads us right back to the brickyards of one pharaoh or another, because then we have to earn that more and more. And the only way to earn that more and more is to make more bricks and then to make them without straw. And we call that the American Dream.

But God says, “Worship me only.” When we worship God, the possibility of freedom exists. Freedom from this merciless pressure to manufacture happiness by the labor of our backs. God says, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of bondage.” God says, “You can trust me to provide for your needs.”

Commandment number three: “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God…” We could turn this commandment into a positive statement. “Praise the Lord your God.” God commands us to praise him, not because God has an ego problem, not because God is insecure and needs encouragement, like us. God calls us to praise him because praising God reminds us of who God is. It reminds us of how great and wonderful, how powerful and compassionate, how merciful and just is our God.

By praising God we resist the temptation to worship the pharaohs which are luring us and ensnaring us and stealing away the worship of the God who redeems us. Praising God’s name clears up any confusion in our minds about who we belong to – not our jobs, not the media, not political groups, not our houses or cars or even… ourselves. We belong to God, because only God can set us free from the brickyards.

The fourth commandment is about the Sabbath, and we’ll come back to that one because it’s the key to understanding all the other 10.

The fifth commandment is: “Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” Parents are meant to be God’s ambassadors to their children. Parents love children and have their best interests at heart. Parents are older and wiser than their children. And parents are more savvy than their children, we hope, at spotting the lurking pharaohs that want to steal away the worship of our children – whether that is schoolwork, the pressure of getting into the best schools, an unhealthy group of friends, or even soccer. High school and the pressure to succeed, the pressure to be popular, and to pave the way of your own future is one of the hottest brickyards around.

So for parents and grandparents, this commandment is for you to guard the hearts of your children carefully. And for students, if you’re thinking about going against the advice of your parents, you have to consider the consequences, because there are many pharaohs lurking who are more than happy to use you. Our culture tells you that if you get into the best schools, if you have all the right friends, then you’ll be happy – but that’s a lie. Joy comes from the Lord, not from making more bricks to put on our transcripts and applications.

The sixth commandment is: “You shall not murder.” Again, to turn this into a positive statement would mean “You shall preserve the dignity of human life.” God called Israel out of Egypt, out of the power of pharaoh who used slaves as brickmakers, not as people. Brickmakers existed to bring pharaoh wealth and power, not as humans with hopes and dreams of their own. Sounds a little bit like corporate America, doesn’t it?

But God says to Israel, and to us, “You are my people, and I redeemed you so that you would carry out my rule and my reign among yourselves. And God commands us to preserve life, to honor life, not to use people for our own purposes.

The seventh and eight commandments are similar: “Do not commit adultery” and “Do not steal.” Pharaoh in Egypt had no respect for his slaves in Egypt, piling up for himself the wealth that should have been given to his workers. Stealing is a form of oppression, especially when it is on a large scale, like the hiring of illegal immigrants and paying them less than minimum wage.

Committing adultery is also stealing – stealing someone else’s husband or wife. The same principle for the command “Do not murder” applies here. We are called by God to defend and protect life, not to use the life of another for our own pleasure, whether that is in sex or pornography or revenge. We are called by God to uphold and honor the covenant of marriage to the best of our ability.

Commandment nine, “Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Again we remember the Israelites in Egypt. When pharaoh became angry he ordered the slaves to forage for the straw to heat the ovens and continue to deliver the same number of bricks as before. When the Israelites complained, pharaoh said, “You are lazy, lazy.” The commandments of God are anti-pharaoh.

God is full of mercy and compassion for God’s people, and we are called to be the image-bearers of God. And so we are called to speak well of our brothers and sisters in Christ, to speak well of our neighbors, our co-workers, our family and not oppress them with our words. We are to honor them with the things we say.

Commandment 10: “Do not covet.” If our eyes are always set on the things we don’t have, rather than thanking God, praising God for the blessings we have been given, we are open to the temptation of the pharaohs. The pharaohs tell us that we need to be making more bricks in order to buy all the things we see and become convinced we need. The pharaohs tell us that God isn’t providing well enough for us, that we should have more, deserve more.

And soon we may find ourselves like the Israelites in the desert, on the way to the promised land, complaining about he manna-bread, wishing we were back in Egypt, the land where all the glittering things of the world sparkle, just on the other side of the brickyard.

And maybe in these biblical images of Egypt and the promised land, of pharaoh and the Lord our God, we can begin to see why we struggle so much with the 4^th commandment: “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work – you, nor son or your daughter, your male or female slaves, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and consecrated it.”

The Sabbath is God’s redemption of us from the brickyards of pharaoh. The Sabbath is a dya in which we are called to physically remember God’s redemption by stopping our work. This may be one of the biggest challenges for the church in 21^st century North America.

We do pretty well with the most of the commandments – we try to honor our parents and figure out what that means, Presbyterians are concerned to uphold and honor human life and speak out against injustices, most of us have an ethic of hard work, and we’re not interested in stealing what belongs to others. But what about the Sabbath?

The church in North America has mostly abandoned the idea of a day of no work. We are always on the go, we find ourselves pulled in every direction, and yet, no matter how much we give of ourselves, we feel it is never enough. Maybe that’s because we are in the grip of the pharaohs who demand that we make more bricks, and then bricks with no straw.

But God has redeemed us and wants to redeem us out of Egypt, out of lthe brickyard, and has said, “Honor the Sabbath.”

God has already granted us permission, given us a commandment to stop working for one day without the slander of pharaoh saying, “You are lazy.” God says when we rest, “You are not lazy, you are honoring me, you are honoring creation.”

All of us have at least one, maybe several pharaohs, that keep us as slaves in the brickyard. When you succeed at your job, you get a higher position, and are expected to make more bricks. If you’re a pastor and you succeed in ministry, you get a bigger church so you can make more and more bricks, and then make them without straw. If you’re a good parent you coach soccer and you’re a member of the PTA, and you’re in charge of fundraising, and pretty soon our kids are learning from us to make as many bricks as we do. And the list goes on and on…

But God calls us to come away and rest for a while. Even Jesus rested. And if Jesus rested, we need rest too.

And I would like to suggest that when we keep the 4^th commandment, the day of stopping work and resting, I think we’ll find it easier to keep the rest of the 9 commandments.

When we rest for a day to honor the God who every week brings us out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for one day – when we take that day of rest we are more able to imitate God with others rather than imitating pharaoh.

Let us honor the God who calls us to walk in freedom, in joy, in rest, and in unity with one another. Let us affirm our faith together using the words of Moses and the Israelites as they responded to the words of God…