Still looking into God’s Ten Words (Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 10:4) to His people, we continue to understand what to means to live as God’s people toward those around us.
Read Exodus 20:15
– What is God protecting in this verse?
Genesis 2:15-16: The Lord God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden.”
Even before our fall into sin, God created us to have active and fulfilling lives. This, however, would not “feel” like work and become drudgery because of our fallenness and the fallen creation. Yet, even in our pre-fallen state, God set us up to receive the fruits of our labor. This is central to God’s creational intent for mankind.
– Stealing is then a further fragmentation of what?
In Exodus 22, we will learn what restitution was required for someone who had stolen something from another.
Read Exodus 20:16
This verse deals with perjury against another in a legal setting.
– What are the broader implications of this word?
– Discuss: by perjuring, using your words to slander or lie against another, what does this do to the perceived value of words.
– What is God also protecting concerning words in the vertical relationship with Him?
Read Exodus 20:17
– What is coveting?
– What can coveting lead to?
– What then does God focus on, the outward, the inner, or both?
Read Exodus 20:18-21
– When God appeared to Moses, what did that do to the people of Israel?
– Moses brings out a function of the “fear of God” in people’s lives. What function is that? (vs. 20)
Read Exodus 20:22-26
Here again God tells the Israelites not to worship other gods (remember we are just a few months past their Egypt practices and experiences) or to incorporate them into their worship of Him. The stones for the altar shouldn’t even be cut, but left in their natural state.
– Discuss why you think God would be so picky, even about the stones?
Right now, with the Sinai covenant, God allowed for multiple altars and sites of worship. Later, God will restrict public worship to a single location after Israel secures a peaceful existence in Canaan (Deuteronomy 12:10-14). Worshiping at the Temple takes full effect when Solomon builds the Jerusalem Temple (Joshua 8:30-31; Judges 6:24; 21:4; 1 Samuel 7:17; 14:35; 2 Samuel 24:25).
– Discuss Exodus 20:24b.
Burnt Offerings
We’ll cover further specifics of the burnt offering later.
By whom: Priest
When: Every evening and morning
What: Yearling lamb
Other Ingredients: unleavened bread and wine
Other factoids: Jewish teachers liked to compare the morning and evening burnt offering with the Passover.
Purpose: The burnt offering was God’s instituted way for the offerer, after being forgiven, to offer himself to God. If done faithfully, sincerely trusting in God’s salvation, God was pleased. If done hypocritically, with the offerer flagrantly persisting in sin, God was not pleased with the offerer or his offering.
Basic Tie-In to the Lord’s Supper: Jesus becomes the lamb. He uses the bread and wine to offer Himself to us for the forgiveness of sins.
Peace (Fellowship) Offerings
By whom: Priest and layperson’s family
When: No set frequency
What: Unblemished sacrificial animal
Purpose: An offering sacrificed and eaten by an offerer because he realized that peace with God was an already established reality. This was done after sacrifices for sins were already made.
- The first stage in the process was the sin offering. This offering signified and conveyed the forgiveness of sins, bringing spiritual peace.
- The second sacrifice was the burnt offering, which signified the self-surrender of the offerer who, realizing he was at peace with God, was willing to have this highly valued creature wholly burned upon God’s altar.
- The final sacrifice in the stages of sacrifice was the peace offering, and this final sacrifice was particularly associated with a meal eaten with thanksgiving and praise.
God “ate” His part (the fatty portions) from the sacrifice, and the priests and their families ate their holy things (the heave and wave portions). Then, if a layman had brought the peace offering, he and his family were privileged to eat the rest of the flesh from this holy sacrifice.
Basic Tie-In to the Lord’s Supper: As the peace offering was the final sacrifice in a series of stages, the Lord’s Supper became the final stage, fulfilling all the Old-Covenant sacrifices. Like the covenantal eating in the Old Covenant, all in the New Covenant were to eat. From St. Matthew’s Gospel for the words of institution for the Lord’s Supper we have:
Matthew 26:27: “Drink of it, all of you …”
Our liturgy also recognizes this tie-in when we sing the Agnus Dei before receiving the Lord’s Supper: Lamb of God, You take away the sin of the world; have mercy on us … grant us peace. Yet, the Supper is not only Jesus giving us forgiveness and peace, but also a meal of thanksgiving on our part (hence also the name Eucharist). The Lord’s Supper folds all this into His New-Covenant fulfillment.
Next week: We look at slavery and the Old Testament rules to keep it humane. We will also note that these are “laws” not “words.”
Click here to go to Lesson 15.
