Saturday after Sexagesima Sunday
Posted on March 2, 2019 by under
Scripture: Exodus 20:1-23 (NKJV)
20:1 And God spoke all these words, saying:
2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house;
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
18 Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. 19 Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”
20 And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.”
21 So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.
22 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. 23 You shall not make anything to be with Me—gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves.'”
Devotion
These are the Ten Commandments. The First Commandment is the chief: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” For this reason, God repeats it again in verse 23: “You shall not make anything to be with Me—gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves.”
Many believe that the function of religion is to impose a “moral code” on society. They think that the kind of religion does not matter so long as it helps people to behave well in society. In truth, religion is a matter of who or what is your god. The true Religion is that which has the one true God as its God. Christianity alone can claim this honor.
Who is this true God of Christianity? It is none other than the man Jesus Christ, who proved His godhood by rising from the dead (Acts 17:31). Before He became man He spoke to Moses on the mountain and gave the Law. He identifies Himself as the God who spoke to Moses and the patriarchs when He declares, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58), for the name “I AM” was the name God gave Himself when He spoke through the burning bush to Moses (Ex. 3:14). Though not yet become man, the God who spoke to Moses on the mountain is the same God whom the Christian Church worships today: the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit—three divine persons, yet one God.
We pray: O God, who seest that we put not our trust in anything that we do, mercifully grant that by Thy power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
