Readers Guide: “The Word for Today” Thursday, October 11, 2012 Read – Exodus 19 & 20 Chapter 19 reveals to us the destiny of God for the people he has delivered from bondage in Egypt – they arrive at Mount Sinai. God’s purpose in bringing them to Mount Sinai was to give them the 10 Commandments. They are cited in Exodus 20 – another very similar version is provided in Deuteronomy 5. As we listen to the story it is good for us to reflect upon a few things – Why did God give the 10 Commandments? To what sort of people did God give them? How are the Commandments useful for us? The answers to those questions move us beyond the text but that’s okay. Perhaps it is better to think about the second question first. God gave the commandments to people God had just freed from bondage. It seems that at least one of the purposes of the commandments was therefore to help free people stay free. God did not give the commandments as a means of achieving some sort of status with God. Old Testament people never thought of them in that way. So, the commandments are first and foremost a gift to free people to help them stay free. They still function in that way for us – they provide the possibility of life. Especially among us Lutherans the commandments have taken on another function – they do point out our need. They drive us to the mercy of God. I’m not sure the Old Testament people ever would have thought of them in that way. But it is okay for us to go beyond them in our understanding. In fact it is the Apostle Paul who pushes us in that direction. We are now going to leave the story in the book of Exodus behind except for one brief story about the golden calf. Actually the story of Moses on the mountain receiving the commandments and the giving of instructions for the building of the tabernacle is worth reading – it’s just an easy place to get bogged down. We are also not going to spend time with either the book of Leviticus or Numbers, not because they are not important, but they are also books that tend to bog down readers – even to lead them to quit reading.