No media available

Sermon Notes

Morning Prayer and Sermon

3rd S of Lent Year B                 3 March in the Year of our Lord 2024

Psalm 19:1-14

Exodus 20:1-17               

I Corinthians 1:18-25  

John 2:13-22

 

           “You shall have no gods before me”

Jacobs’ son Joseph became overseer of ancient Egypt, sometime in the 17th century BC as a result of interpreting a nation threatening dream that none of Pharoah’s diviners or magicians could. This would be life changing for Jacob’s young clan of Israelites and enabled all of Jacobs family, 70 men women and children to escape a famine in Palestine and move to fertile lands in Egypt. The LORD would bless the Israelites while in Egypt. Over the next 400 years what had been promised Abraham, took place: his decedents became a nation. But as time passed the Israelites were enslaved by Pharoah’s who knew nothing of Joseph.  Just as antebellum American plantation owners would not willingly free their slaves, Pharoah subjected his own people to 10 destructive plagues before he allowed Moses to lead them to freedom. When they departed there were 600,000 men on foot (Exodus 12:37-38) as well as women and children, a population of perhaps two million persons. Freedom never comes easily, and it never brings utopia, but problems that still need solutions.

By this time the Jews were spiritually heretical and emotionally crushed due to years of bondage to very sophisticated Egyptian overlords. In every way Gods’ chosen people needed deliverance. When the LORD called Moses from the burning bush, God told Moses:

“I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt, I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey …” (Exodus 3:7,8)

Everything about Egypt was Idolatrous. proliferating images of human and animal representations of divinities of every kind, all with their priesthoods, temples, rituals and holy days. The king, or Pharoah (great house) was believed to be a living god, the divine son of Ra, the supreme Egyptian deity. Ra was portrayed as a man with the head of a falcon, which the king wore on certain occasions. He was believed to have ruled as the first Pharoah of Ancient Egypt and was reborn in each first-born son of his Queen. Like many polytheistic people, they had many gods by many names. The gods of the Egyptians were understood to be local gods. The Egyptians were henotheistic, worshiping their own gods but acknowledging the existence of others. In that world Gods fought the rivals of other nations for supremacy. And so pharaoh against the Lord God.

Having been raised as a prince of Egypt by the daughter of Pharoah, it is not surprising that Moses asked God what his name was, so that he could inform the leaders of the Israelites when he returned to Egypt. Moses had much to learn. “God said to Moses, YHWH, I AM WHO I AM, … the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. this is my name forever.” (Exodus 3:15,16) This is what you are to say to the Israelites, I AM (YHWH) has sent me to you.

YHWH is a four-letter word (tetragram), translated I AM. On a number of occasions Jesus used this name in reference to himself. “Truly, truly I say to you before Abraham was, I AM,” (John 8:58), is one of the most dramatic.  Ancient Hebrew was a semitic language like Arabic and had no vowels. Today we add vowels transliterating YHWH to Yahweh. This name was so holy that it was not spoken so as to observe the 3rd commandment. I cringe when I hear people saying OMG, thus bringing judgement on themselves. The LORD God is like no other, a being of unique, creative and eternal power, glory and unchangeable character. He must be uniquely revered.

He created the 8 billion people on our planet, and to reveal Himself in nature sees to it that no two sets of human fingerprints or snowflakes are alike. And yet there are unbelievers everywhere and our Lord and Creator is even mocked.

As Paul, greatest evangelist of the Apostles reminds us … “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world.” (I Cor. 1:20)

Now returning briefly to the spiritual condition of the Jews, the Exodus, and the giving of the law. In 400 years the Jews had been introduced to all the Egyptian gods and to the magic of their priests. This began when, to honor his Overseer of Egypt, Pharoah gave Joseph, Arsenath in marriage, daughter of Poterfera, priest of On, the most ancient and sacred of Egyptian cities. (Gen. 41:45) Joseph was thirty, having lived in Egypt since 17, was literate in Egyptian languages. His wife was never identified as a believer, but his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim were given semitic, not Egyptian names and later formally blessed by their grandfather Jacob. Again and again the Lord declared in His word that there will always be a faithful remnant of Jews. While wandering in the Sinai desert the LORD, through his servant Moses gave the Israelites laws of great consequence, which if followed would enable them to become the special, holy people that God desired.

  1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
  2. You shall make no idols.
  3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
  4. Keep the Sabbath day holy.
  5. Honor your father and your mother.
  6. You shall not murder.
  7. You shall not commit adultery.
  8. You shall not steal.
  9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

The first four address our relationship to God, the next six address the building of a just and stable community. Each one of us, looking back on their life one or more of these laws broken. But as Christians we may be assured that in confession, we are forgiven. The God who appeared to Moses is the same God who wishes to live in us today. And in God we find stability and security in our unchanging God, who “is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.” As Psalm 19 reminds us:

“The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul, the decrees of the LORD are sure making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart … enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether …more to be desired than gold … in keeping them there is great reward.” (19:7-11)

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be except to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Joseph J. Muñoz

Emeritus Warden