May 4, 2018: Day 20 – Exodus 20

We find ourselves receiving the 10 Commandments in this chapter.  If you wanted to see another place in the Bible where we find these commandments you can look at Deuteronomy 5.  I’m not going to do a cross section of these two renditions, we will do that when we get to Deuteronomy.  But read the commandments one more time.  What I notice in this section is that God is speaking not only to Moses, but to the entire people of Israel.  The commandments are clear and there is no wiggle room in them.  These commandments address some of the primary problems that the people of Israel were facing at that time.

They had come from a land where gods were abundant.  It is important to hear and to remember that there is only one God.  There is no other God, but only one.  That brings us to the statement that people often say when they compare religions: but there is only one god, right?  The answer is yes, there is only one God.  But the God that Christians worship is not the same god as that worshiped by the religion of Islam or that worshiped by the Jewish people.  I think if you were to ask a Muslim or a Jew if Jesus Christ is God, they would say no.  We believe that Jesus is God.  Now, is it possible that one of us, or all of us, or some of us is/are wrong?  Absolutely it is possible, and I will even go out on a limb and say that it is probable.  I believe that Jesus is God as depicted in Scripture.  I believe that so I believe that this is correct.  With my belief I am not condemning anyone to damnation (as if I had the power to do that, if I did, I would condemn them to grace and mercy instead.  That’s just the way I roll.)  But I don’t think there needs to be a scandal if a believer in the religion of Islam thinks Christians are wrong in their understanding of God, or if a Jew thinks that a Muslim is wrong in their depiction of God, or if a Christian understands God differently from the way a Jew does.  We are not worshiping the same god.  We believe differently about god.  So there is only one God, and one of us, or all of us, or a few of us is/are wrong.  I hope that doesn’t bring scandal, not sure how it could.  

But this was how the early people of God community had to identify themselves.  They were different from the people around them, and they had no problem in proclaiming that and understanding that.  We should have the same courage.