10/11/2026
Apparently, We Need Some Rules.
Exodus 19:1–8; 20:1–21
There are moments in life when you realize that somebody is going to have to make a rule. Like, when someone does something so spectacularly ridiculous that everyone else looks around and says, “Well, we need to say that out loud now.” This is how we get warning labels like: Do not use hair dryer while sleeping. Do not iron clothes while wearing them. Remove child before folding stroller. Somewhere behind every bizarre warning label is a story. A story involving a human being, a questionable decision, and probably an insurance company.
Which makes me wonder if we sometimes read the Ten Commandments all wrong. We tend to imagine them arriving with thunderous organ music: THOU SHALT NOT. But Exodus gives us something much more interesting. The Israelites have just been freed from slavery. They have crossed the sea. They are learning how to live without Pharaoh telling them what to do. And now they are gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai, where God essentially says: All right. If we're going to live together, we're going to need some ground rules.
They sure do. These are people who have spent generations living under a system built on domination. Pharaoh decided who mattered. Pharaoh decided whose labor belonged to whom. Pharaoh decided whose bodies could be exploited. Pharaoh even decided whose children could live. Now God has liberated them.
As we spoke about in church last Sunday, getting out of Egypt and getting Egypt out of you are two different things.
God begins teaching these newly liberated people what freedom actually looks like: Don't worship power. Don't turn God into something you can possess and control. Don't use God's name to justify whatever you already wanted to do. Take a day off, for heaven's sake. Honor the people who raised you. Don't kill each other. Don't betray each other. Don't steal each other's stuff. Don't lie about each other.
And maybe stop spending so much time staring at your neighbor's life thinking, I would be happy if I had their house. Or their job. Or their spouse. Or their donkey. Okay, the donkey thing may be less of an issue for you. I probably shouldn't speak for everybody.
The Ten Commandments aren't a divine list of ways to get in trouble. They are a picture of what a free community might look like. Where people aren't commodities and neighbors aren't competitors. Where work doesn't consume every moment of our lives. Where truth matters. Where relationships matter. Where wanting more doesn't become the organizing principle of existence.
And notice what happens first. God doesn't give Israel the commandments and say, “If you follow these perfectly, I'll rescue you from Egypt.” God rescues them first. Grace comes first. Freedom comes first. Relationship comes first. Then God says, essentially, Now let me show you how free people live.
Maybe that's why these ancient commandments still have something to say to us. Human beings haven't changed nearly as much as we'd like to think. We still make idols. We still misuse God's name. We still have trouble resting. We still hurt one another, lie about one another, take what isn't ours, and compare our lives to everybody else's. We just do some of it online now!
Thousands of years later, apparently, we still need some rules. But perhaps the Ten Commandments are less like the warning label on a hair dryer and more like the boundaries around a playground. They don't exist to ruin the fun. They create a space where life can flourish.
Because the God who brought Israel out of slavery wasn't interested simply in getting people out of Egypt. God was creating a people who could imagine another way to live. And God still is.
