How do you know what is right and what is wrong?
Traditional morality no longer rules the minds of contemporary Australians. What makes a person decent is not the code he honours, but simply that he honours one at all; which one - his own or someone else's - is of little consequence. Homosexuality is OK if that is your orientation. Sunday trading is OK if you have no religious conviction, keeping the Sabbath is equally OK if you do. The one concern common to the multiple moralities people adopt seems to be the effect of your behaviour on others. The bottom line is, "If it feels good and no-one is hurt by it, it's OK" ... where do you fit discipline into that?
What is disturbing is not so much the prevalence of moral delinquency - sin, after all, has been a fact of life from the beginning; what is disturbing is the growing uncertainty as to what is moral failure and what isn't. The ability to say roundly, "That is wrong" or "This is right" has ebbed away. There is no clear standard that enjoys general consent. Society is in a moral muddle; we are in confusion.
We do not question standards in other areas
In the Greenwich Observatory there is kept at even temperature a bronze bar which defines the length of a yard, and a platinum cylinder whose weight determines the imperial measure of 1lb. They supply a universally acknowledged standard of length and weight.
What if anyone's opinion of length and weight was as good as anyone else's? Why should I not opt for a yard of 100 inches? ... much easier for making calculations. Why be lumbered with stuffy old traditions? Let us be flexible, change with the times. So I order a door from you, and you supply one measured in the old standard of 36 inches to a yard. It won't fit. If I order timber, tiles, frames and plumbing fixtures from twenty suppliers who all honour different standards of measurement, I shall never build a house with them. And if people honour multiple standards of morality, we shall never build a house of life in which anyone can live. Nobody can be sure of anybody. It does not do to say that agreement on standards is not binding, that people must be free to make up their own minds.
Is there a universal, moral standard that is properly binding on all?
For the Christian the answer is "Yes, the Ten Commandments."
To put it as briefly as I can, the rational ground for their acceptance amounts to this: morality, since there is one Creator God, is grounded down on His character. In a world He creates, good will be what accords with His character and will, and evil will be what does not. To know good and evil therefore, you have to know God. You cannot invent moral standards; you have to discover them. They are not determined by committees, they are determined by character - the character of the world's Maker. If He reveals Himself so He can be known, we shall know what is good and what is evil. If He does not we shall be for ever in the dark. Morality is fixed by revelation, not by referendum.
If you are going to mess with electricity or radiation, you had better understand the rules that govern their behaviour. Make up your own rules for them and you will be in trouble. This is the force of Exodus 20:20: "... that the fear of Him may be before your eyes, that you may not sin." It means, "If you have a true regard for God as He really is, there are things you will do and things you will not do."
The Ten Commandments were given by revelation. Again I must forbear to expand. Let me just try to encapsulate the argument.
The God of Moses, whom the Israelites by the time the Commandments were given, no longer really knew, took the initiative in making Himself known to them. He did so first by deeds, not words. "He came down to deliver." Only on the basis of what He had first done for them did He then speak.
What He said when He did speak - from Mt Sinai - was, "You have seen the God I am. You know therefore what accords with my character and will." And He spelled it out for them in the "Ten Words," (The word 'commandment' does not appear in Exodus ch. 20.)
"These are the ground rules for living in a world I have created. Accept and observe them, not just because I say so, but because they accord with what I am, and because they define the only response you can truly make to Me and what I have done for you."
Understand that God put no obligations on His people until after He had acted for them. He did everything needed first. Then He said, "Now do this and that, and be careful to avoid that and the other. Heed me and it will go well with you; ignore or disobey me and you'll be in trouble." In the truest sense of all, the commandments are not arbitrary, they rest on grace - on the gracious action of God in making Himself known through good deeds, and righteous and redeeming acts.
The Ten Words then are the moral blueprint for those who acknowledge God. And if the Lord changes not, neither do His commandments.
Morality is grounded on the character of God ... and His commandments rest on grace.
So turn with me now to the first of them.
"I am Yahweh your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."
There is God's statement of the ground on which He bases the standing orders He will give, as we have observed.
"You shall have no other gods before me."
Understand the thrust of that word 'before' ... no other gods before Me. It is a preposition of place, not of priority. It does not mean, "You shall put no other gods ahead of Me" ... as though to say, "You can have as many gods as you please so long as you put me at the top of the list." It means, "There shall be no other gods in sight."
An astonishing requirement when it was first made.
Everyone knew there were lots of gods.
There was one for the spring planting, and another for the harvest. There was one for putting fish into your nets, and another to give you success when you hunted. There was one for bringing the spring rains and another to make the crops fertile. There was one to safeguard you in childbirth and another to guarantee your safe passage through the underworld when you died.
There was a God for every mortal thing.
The trouble was they were all in conflict with each other, fought among themselves, loved and hated without reason and demanded unspeakable bribes, like slaughtered virgins or incinerated sons.
While they were worshipped, a consistent moral law was impossible. What pleased one deity offended another. If your wife ran out on you, it was not because you beat her, but because you had forgotten the monthly sacrifice to Actor. Offer her a double sacrifice, and you might get two new wives, both prettier than the old one.
Then came the discovery of the one God - a Single Being of infinite power and majesty, creator of all things, loving righteousness, not to be bribed with children burned alive ... a Being Who demanded your whole heart.
It was the greatest discovery every made.
It slew a host of horrors: storm demons, river spirits, evil jinns of plague and pestilence and calamity. It resolved all the confusion, made order out of chaos. All the processes of life were fused into one process, under one controlling hand.
It was a liberating discovery. Moral sense could be made of life at last. So for example, in their exile in Babylon, Jewish prophets were able to see, not a victory for the gods of Babylon, but the righteous judgment of the one true God.
Thou shalt have no other gods before my face.
We say we know this, but do we? We think we are too advanced to worship false gods any more. Are we?
What is a god?
How did the gods arise in the first place?
The priests of Persia, to take an example, observed the heavens with care. They realised that the seasons came round in rhythm with the march of the constellations across the sky. What more natural than to suppose that the stars governed the seasons? And since life depended on the spring rains, the summer sun and autumn calm, how could you get the power of the stars over these processes to serve you?
The deity becomes a power you must find some way to control; not a Being of infinite authority whom you must obey, but a genie whose power must obey you!
All the idols men ever worshipped are representations of some aspect of the creation, some element in nature and life which they are convinced is necessary to their well-being.
We must have bread to live, and the provision of bread depends on the fertility of the crops. To have control over the fruitfulness of the land is to live. If we can get the process of fertility, or the power who has control over it, under our hand all will be well with us. Who has it? The harvests depend on spring rains and summer suns. To have power over the coming and withholding of rain is to be sure you will live to see another year. Call the rain god Baal, or Science ...
The perpetuation of your name and the survival of your clan depends on having children. To have the process of human reproduction under your control is to live on ... as a person, as a family, as a clan, as a nation. A goddess, obviously, with an interest in women. Call her Astarte, Diana, In Vitro Fertilisation ...
You must have money to live. To have control over the getting of wealth is not only to live, but to live well. The god of prosperity they called Mammon, Midas. We call him Profitability, Economic Growth ...
You must have standing to be able to live with yourself and hold your head high among your fellows. So status becomes a god. I must have what will give me prestige. "Image" is the name by which this god is known today. We worship "image" ...
To have friends I can depend on is essential to my personal fulfilment. I must have a god who can make people love me ...
To experience pleasure is to feel good, to be happy. The pursuit of pleasure becomes a priority, and whatever affords it will receive my devotion. The pursuit of sexual fulfilment or pride in achievement will engage all my powers ...
To have possessions is to be cushioned against want. I must know how to get ...
To have access to positions of power and influence is to be safe against those who are hostile to me. So the acquisition of privilege and a place in the corridors of power becomes a consuming goal ...
So are fashioned the gods of privilege, power, prestige, pleasure, projects, prominence, persons, prosperity, plenty, propagation and perpetuity. We pursue these things with ardour because they reward us by making us safe and happy.
No better definition of the gods has ever been given than by Martin Luther: "Truly whatever your heart clings to and trusts in, that is properly your god."
When we turn from the living God Himself, as we all have done, we have only the world to turn to. And turn to it we do. Whether it is some power built into nature, or some aspect of human nature, or some product of the two working together, we set our hearts upon it as that which we must have to be something, to get somewhere. Everything depends on passing that exam, landing that job, having that woman, buying that house, owning that car, acquiring that business, accumulating that bank balance, getting in to that club, achieving that award, making that breakthrough.
It is what Adam and Eve did - they sought their good, not from God, but from a tree in the garden. The prophet Jeremiah put it as succinctly as it can be put when he said, "Cursed is the man who makes flesh his arm," (his way of saying that we turn to some aspect of the creation [flesh] instead of to the Creator as the only means to secure our good), "whose heart turns away from the living God ... but blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord."
"We worship and serve the creature, instead of the Creator." Romans 1:25
What god do you worship?
Which among all these things comes "before God?"
When anything does, we have committed a monstrous folly.
A folly because we have blinded ourselves to the truth. ... the truth that the path to the acquisition and enjoyment of all these things lies with the one God, and with Him alone.
God it is who gives rain and sun. It is "He who covers the heavens with clouds, prepares rain for the earth and makes grass grow upon the hills." Psalm 147:8
The power of reproduction is His gift and provision. In the Bible, it is God, not fertility drugs, who opens and closes the womb.
As to wealth and possessions Moses would
later say, "Yahweh your God is bringing you into a good land, a land
of brooks of water, of fountains and springs flowing forth in valleys
and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and
pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you
will eat bread without scarcity and in which you will lack nothing, a
land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper.
And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless Yahweh your God
for the good He has given you.
Beware, lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping His
commandments: lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built
goodly houses and live in them, and your herds and flocks are
multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, then your heart
be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you
out.
Beware lest you say in your heart, "My hand and the
might of my hand," (or my gods and the power of my gods) "have
gotten me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord your God, for it
is He who gives you power to get wealth." Deuteronomy
8:8-18
To believe otherwise is a folly ... a monstrous folly, because ... "If you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you that you shall surely perish."
To stand before the face of the living God is to be somebody.
To enjoy His friendship is to be safe from crippling loneliness.
God is the giver of pleasure. "At His right hand there are pleasures for evermore. He it is who shows us the path of life, in whose presence there is fullness of joy." Psalm 16:11
God it is who has the whole world in His hands, the powers of the state and all its authority. You look to God for seasonable weather, for the blessing of marriage and children, for the getting of wealth (and the spending of it!), you look to God for status, pleasure, possessions, power and influence, and it is God you trust not only for the provision of all these things but for wisdom and guidance in what you do with them all.
You put God first, before the weather. You do not stay home from church because it is too wet, or too cold, or too hot. God comes first.
You put God before your children. If He calls them to a life of poverty in Zambia just when your ambition to install them in a lucrative profession is on the brink of fulfilment, you send them to Zambia with your blessing ... and beggar yourself if you have to, to keep them there.
God comes first with your money. You pay your tithe - or whatever proportion of your income you covenant with God to give, and that may need to be more than a tithe at some periods of your life - you pay your tithe before you pay the rent, before you pay your taxes. And you calculate your tithe on your income before tax instalments are deducted. God comes before the Federal Treasurer. God comes first.
God comes first before advancement, and if there is no way to get a rise or promotion without loss of honour, you go on without it.
God comes first, before your pleasures; God comes first, before your acquisition of possessions. And if the only way you can put God first before either is to suffer the loss of both, then you choose, with Moses, to "suffer hardship with the people of God rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin." Hebrews 11:25
God comes first before the making of money, and if He ordains poverty for you then you become a Lazarus at the rich man's gate.
All the implications that arise out of the Ten Words God spoke from Sinai are summarised in the Beatitudes of our Lord Jesus.
"Blessed are the poor" ... those who have
nothing.
"Blessed are they who mourn" ... those who have nobody.
"Blessed are the meek" ... those who are nobodies.
It is they who share the rule with God (theirs is the Kingdom of
Heaven), who are comforted (who enjoy the consolation of
companionship with the eternal Father which no human being can either
supply or deny), who inherit the earth (who have the freedom of God's
entire estate, with all the rights of a firstborn son).
"Blessed are the merciful" ... those who offer before they demand, who absorb the hurt of wrongs done to them and forgive the wrongdoer so as to release him from imprisonment in the guilt of it for ever, who put others' needs before their own rights, who are generous before they are just. It is they who obtain mercy ... who are blessed above all deserving.
"Blessed are the pure in heart" ... who have set their mind on one thing - who are single-minded in their pursuit of God and His good pleasure. It is they who shall "see God" ... shall never know confusion or dismay because, seeing with God's eyes, all life and the meaning of all life is an open book to them.
"Blessed are the peacemakers" ... who strive for friendship between all through the ministry of reconciliation with God which He gives to them. They shall be called "the sons of God" ... that is 'status.' They'll be "the King's Kids."
"Blessed are those who are persecuted, reviled and disadvantaged for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the inestimable privilege - the sheer glory - of a share with God in His rule of the world to bring it to final redemption by way of love through suffering.
God first. God first, middle and last.
Will you still say that you worship only God, and have no other gods before His face?
"You shall have no other Gods before Me."
Have you? More to the point, will you?
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