Stroll through Scripture for Sunday August 23, 2026

Based on Exodus 20:3-11

As we move from the foundation of the Ten Commandments into the Commandments themselves, we see a pattern.  The first group of commandments are about our relationship with God.  This relates to the foundation of the commandments – God is the one who frees Israel and loves them.  God is the one who gives order.  So, it makes sense that the commandments would start with our relationship with God. 

This set of commandments falls into the love God category of the summary of the commandments.  The next two weeks we’ll look at our relationship with our neighbors.  

The first one listed is that you shall have no other gods before/besides me.  This is radical in a world shaped by polytheistic belief about gods.  Just a single divine being?  Wow.  Take in the radical shift this represents.  The vast majority of polytheistic religious belief centers on gods who are in conflict with each other and pull humanity into that conflict.  Humans are just pawns in the ongoing heavenly battles of the gods.  But with this commandment, what we see if a unified divine presence – one that is not at war with itself.  In a theological sense, this commandment is laying the foundation for how Shalom is embodied in a divine way.  If the gods are constantly at war, and humanity gets pulled into those conflicts, then it shouldn’t surprise anyone that humans play out those conflicts with each other.  But a unified divine order means that war can be set aside.  Of course, humanity still struggles with this very concept.  But then again, I’m not convinced that humanity ever stopped worshipping a polytheistic range of gods. We just stopped calling them gods.  But if you look around you can easily see which “gods” humanity follows – war, wealth, pleasure, etc.  

Verse seven tells us about the wrongful use of God’s name.  For a long time, this was seen as swearing with God’s name.  But it goes far beyond that.  It builds off the previous commandments.  If there is only God, then it makes sense that humans should not build idols, which would represent other gods.  And it also makes sense that we shouldn’t wrongfully use God’s name, like we would with an idol.  When we do, it reduces God from the divine being who led Israel out of slavery into just something that humans use for their own purposes.  Wrongful use of God’s name isn’t primarily about swearing.  It’s about using God for our own purposes.  In essence, when we do, we make ourselves into gods. 

And lastly, the Sabbath.  This relates to honoring what God did in creation (working six days), as well as reminding the Israelites that they are no longer slaves (who worked 24/7) and were freed by God.  The Sabbath will become a key bone of contention between Jesus and the Pharisees when we get to the Gospels.  But that’s for a later reflection.