We continue to journey through the Old Testament, hearing God’s promises for our lives. Throughout this season of Lent, we have been on a journey of faith claiming God’s promises to us. We opened this season on Ash Wednesday, remembering and confessing our need for grace and healing—acknowledging that our lives are not complete without the One who made us, the One created us from the dust of the earth and breathed life into our nostrils. From creation forward, God has sought to be in relationship with humanity. We witnessed this truth in the days of Adam and Eve, when in the cool of the evening God walked through the garden looking for his creation.[1] As humanity descended into chaos and the waters once again covered the earth, God made a covenant with Noah, a covenant that never again God would use weapons of war to destroy the earth.[2] God continued to seek relationship with humanity and in Abraham and Sarah, God found unlikely partners. These seasoned saints were recipients of a promise so outrageous they both laughed at God.[3] But as Pastor Sarah told us last week,[4] God fulfills God’s promises.

Today we move forward in this story. More than four hundred years have passed since the days of Abraham and Sarah. But God has not forgotten them. In the life of the people of Israel God has indeed fulfilled the promise to make Abraham “the ancestor of many nations”[5] and to make Sarah “a mother of nations.”[6] This numerous nation, who had suffered under the yoke of oppression in Egypt, became free by the hand of God. God came to an unlike leader, Moses, and said, “I am the God of your father, Abraham’s God, Isaac’s God, and Jacob’s God… I’ve clearly seen my people oppressed in Egypt. I’ve heard their cry of injustice because of their slave masters. I know about their pain. I’ve come down to rescue them from the Egyptians in order to take them out of that land and bring them to a good and broad land, a land that’s full of milk and honey.”[7] God keeps promises.

Now the people are free. They have arrived at Mount Sinai—a holy place, a place of encounter with God’s might and presence. The people had a long journey. They had seen God decimate Pharaoh and the Egyptians. They witnessed God’s care in providing bread, meat, and water in the desert. Now they arrive at the Mountain of God and in deep awe and gratitude the people commit to following the One who had done wonders in the midst. The old rabbis told a story saying that Moses went up the mountain and before God said anything Moses spoke saying, “Speak Lord, for thy children have already accepted.”[8] In willing gratitude, the people committed to follow and serve God, even though they did not yet understand what God would ask of them. Our world lives by different standards. The great Billy Preston sang, “Nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’ / You gotta have somethin’ if you wanna be with me.”[9] The ways of our world require exchange before commitment. But God freely extended salvation, only later asking for a response.

So, here the people of Israel find themselves receiving words from God. Words we often misunderstand. The ten commandments have become so ubiquitous with good morals in our world that we forget the joy, power, and gift they offered the people of Israel. Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon tell us that “The commandments are not guidelines for humanity in general. They are a countercultural way of life for those who know who they are and whose they are.”[10] God did not speak these words to a people in general, God spoke all these words to his people in particular—to those who had been rescued from slavery, those who had inherited the promise made to Abraham, those who were called to be a blessing to the nations.[11] These words offer a new way of life in both what they say and what they invite us explore. Martin Luther, in his Large Catechism, said “Anyone who know the Ten Commandments perfectly knows the entire Scriptures.”[12] Jesus himself told us that all the