Exodus 19

You know how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. 6 And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.’

 19, our relationship with God the Father.

And only then, do we get to the commandments. That’s 20, as in  Exodus 20.

Exodus 20.1-2

20 And God spoke all these words:

2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

And then he follows with the commandments..

So, 19 comes before 20.

Our obedience, following the laws of God, comes as a response to our relationship with God. Our identity.

We notice the Bible introduces the commandments as “words.”

And God spoke all these words

The Hebrew word for this is dabar. Dabar is translated “word”. The same word, dabar is also the Hebrew word for, “promise.”

So, you could call the ten commandments the ten promises.

What do these promises do? Why does God give them to us?

The Ten commandments describe a way of life.

Loving God and loving our neighbor. They are not a formula about how we get God to love us. That is how we often mistake the meaning of the commandments. It’s like an inverted covenant triangle.

We are obedient to God, then he becomes our Father, then he loves us and gives us our identity as his people.

No.

The reason we so often make this mistake is because we think God should act like we act.

First you do things and then you get rewarded.

In fact, all religions, except ours, have people doing good things in order to get rewarded. Human effort is the center of all religions except Christianity. In Christianity it is not what we have done that counts. It is what Jesus has done for us.

We are special to God and he loves us first. We don’t have to do anything to deserve it.

So, because he loves us first, as a result we want to obey him, as a sign of our thanksgiving. Our loving Father gives us the commandments to guide our response.

In other words, 19 before 20.

Let me give one example of what it means to live a Jesus kind of life.

Take kindness.

You see the word “kindness” being thrown around a lot today. It’s big in advertising. Branding statements. All the good branding statements are biblical. Like Northridge hospital, part of the Dignity Health organizations. Branding statement.

“Hello humankindness”

Well, I’ve noticed not one of the businesses talking about being kind or kindness has the #1 solution as to how you can actually make progress in your kindness.

You know why we have a tough time actually being kind? We have a tough time being kind because we are too rushed to get things done.

Haste has worry, fear, and anger as close associates.

Hast is a deadly enemy of kindness and hence haste is the enemy of love.

This is why when you are running all over the place, trying to get from here to there, you’re not someone anyone else wants to be around. Deadlines, being late, rushing because you have so many things to do…well you need help.

You are the person who is speeding in and out of traffic from one red light to the next so you can get some place 38 seconds faster.

You are the pushy guy elbowing me aside so you can get checked out at the store as quickly as possible. You are the mom who doesn’t have time to notice your kid is usually quiet today, because you’ve got to get her to the next practice or the next lesson or something else you came up with that you thought would be good for her so she could get ahead or get in the right school or at least do better than you did. There is one thing the overbooked and rushed kid will learn. She will learn to be unkind too.

Is this you?

Are you rushing for your life?

Or are your rushing from the life Jesus wants for you?

Yes, think of Jesus. Find me one example of Jesus rushing to get something done?. Show me in the Bible one place where Jesus overbooked? Where Jesus got irritated.

No, you can’t, because Jesus didn’t live a life where is too rushed to get things done. No matter what is happening around him, Jesus is the picture of kindness.

Why is Jesus so calm? So unrushed, and so, yes, kind?

Because he is a human being who realizes life goes on.

Well, I have a solution. If being too rushed is making you unkind, and if you don’t believe this is happening ask those rushing with you. If this is your problem, you may greatly be helped by doing what Jesus did frequently. Spend a day of silence and solitude so you can see the world survives without your activity. The world isn’t going to end if you aren’t rushing to get there.

Oh but that is impossible! That would be so hard!

OK, another way you can learn the world goes on without your activity is to have a serious accident or illness. Another way to discover the world will actually survive without your input.

What will it be? The worry, fear and anger of rushing all over the place? The unkindness the rest of us have to put up with?

Maybe a good sickness or accident will save you…

Or, how about silence and solitude? That sounds about right to me, eh?

You seem when we prayerfully consider the damage done by our unkindness, and honestly compare it to what, if anything is really gained by our hurry, we will come to understand that for the most part our hurry is really based upon pride, self-importance, fear, and lack of faith, and rarely upon the production of anything of true value for anyone.

And to think this is only one example of living the new creation. To do this one thing, stop rushing everything and everybody, this one thing can change your world.

ME

When do you find yourself rushing?