Exodus 19:5-6 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. (KJV)
The family of Jacob had escaped from Pharoah and were now totally free to do as they pleased. Right? Wrong. The family of Jacob had escaped one king, but they were just getting to know their new king.
This ruler did not hide in palaces or pyramids. He did not build monuments to himself or empires. He did not raise armies or have slaves. Instead, this ruler stood on mountain tops and in fiery pillars. He built the world and made everyone in it. He raised winds and waves. The sun and the stars did his bidding. This king was not called Pharaoh. He was called God.
And the family of Jacob were pretty excited to have God as their new leader. They had already seen how powerful he could be. “This is great news,” they said to themselves. “We don’t need to be scared of anyone. If God is on our side, we can do anything.” And so they followed their new leader into the desert where they camped and waited for their new leader to lead them to their new home.
At first, camping can be lots of fun. You get to cook hot dogs and marshmallows and see so, so, so many stars at night. But try camping for two weeks. Then five weeks. Then six months. Then seven years. Eventually, you will be very tired of camping. You will want bathrooms and air conditioning and running water and grocery stores and restaurants. And so we should not be surprised that it didn’t take many months before the family of Jacob grew tired of camping and started to complain to their leader.
“God,” they cried out, “aren’t you ever going to give us our new home?”
“Little children,” God replied, “I am preparing you a home, but before that I am preparing you for the home. I need you to learn how to make a city. My city. The city of God.”
“Oh, that’s no problem,” the people responded. “If there’s one thing we learned in Egypt, it’s construction. We already know all about building cities. Just tell us when and where, and we will get started.”
“Not so, little children,” laughed God. “I don’t mean building with bricks and mud and sand. I’m talking about building hearts, minds, and souls. That’s the strongest, best, and most precious material that you can build with. And it’s the foundation of any city of mine.”
And so God decided to give Moses some instructions on how to build the foundations of this city, which was the City of God. It was a ten-step plan. He called the steps commandments, and he wrote them out on stone tablets so Moses wouldn’t forget them.
“Commandment number one, two, three, and four,” said God, “Don’t worship any other God or any other person other than me. And definitely don’t worship yourself or the things you make. Respect me. Worship me.”
The first four steps for building this foundation seemed simple enough. The people just had to remember what they were doing. They were not following a pharaoh, or a celebrity, or a billionaire, or a politician, or an idea, or their own ambition, or anything or anyone other than God.
“Commandments number five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,” God continued, “Honor your parents. Don’t kill. Keep your word. Don’t steal. Don’t lie. Don’t be jealous.”
These rules also seemed pretty obvious. In short, God was saying, “Follow me, and treat each other well.” If they could master that, they’d have a home in no time.
“Oh, great,” said Moses. “This will be no problem.” And he took this blueprint for the foundation of God’s city and brought it to the people. And the people smiled widely, because they, too, thought it would be so simple.
But the problem was, while the commandments seemed very easy, they were actually surprisingly difficult. And they are difficult because none of us are quite as good as we should be. We all want to be better than we actually are. We make mistakes. We’re mean, or untruthful, or say bad things — even though we don’t want to and wish we hadn’t. Even though we know we shouldn’t. Even though we know other people shouldn’t. Still, we hurt people we love. Even when we try really hard not to. We say things that are rude and bad and ugly for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes because we’re tired. Sometimes because we’re hungry. And always because we’re human.
And the family of Jacob was just like us. They were imperfect. They tried to worship God, but they would get distracted by things like gold or money or food or other people, and they would forget all about him. So then they tried to be kind and honest to other people, but they failed at that, too. They were mean to each other. They forgot about God all of the time and followed other people, other leaders, and their own ambitions. They stole, and lied, and were jealous. Children screamed at their parents when they didn’t want to leave the playground. Parents lost their tempers. People even fought and killed each other. Before long, they had messed up all ten of the commandments. And everyone was so embarrassed to be so bad at keeping such simple rules.
And maybe that was what God was trying to show the family of Jacob: they were not as good as they ought to be. They had a lot to learn. But when they failed, God did not give up. Instead, he gave Moses some new laws for his city. But these laws were very different from the first ten. Instead of being obvious but hard to do, these new laws were not obvious at all and were much easier to do.
God told the people to plant food, but then not harvest all of it. They had to leave some food behind so others could pick it for themselves, even though these people hadn’t planted it or paid for it. If they wanted it, they could get it for free.
And this was very confusing. Why give food away? Who will buy food if they can get it for free? “God,” they said, “you are going to make us all poor!”
Then God told them that every seven years they should stop planting food and just let the ground grow whatever it wanted. And they should forgive all debts, anything anyone owed them. But if the land grew whatever it wanted, it would grow weeds! No one wants to eat weeds. And who will pay a debt if they can just wait a few years to have it forgiven?
Then God told them to return any land they had bought every fifty years. “God,” the people cried again, “Enough! This is a very crazy economic system! We will never be able to make a living if we are always giving our food away, or giving our land back, or not even planting any food on it. We have no doubt that you are great and powerful, but maybe you don’t know very much about farming. How about you leave the farming to us.”
But God had created the dirt and the seeds. And he was telling the people that the world does not work the way they imagine. Gold will not save you. Crops will not always grow. The dirt is not your servant. The poor deserve food. All people are free. And everyone should be treated like a friend, even if they aren’t from around here. Because everyone in the world is your neighbor. Even if they live far away. Nothing is quite as it seems.
And even though they were strange, illogical, bizarre laws with scary implications, the people found that they could follow these laws much easier than the first ten. And as they lived the laws, they began to see the world differently. And they began to see each other differently, not as competitors, but as sisters and brothers. They were a family. And the only way for a family to succeed is to help each other.
It was different and scary to see the world this way. But it gave them a glimpse of a possibility. Maybe if they followed these laws long enough, they would be ready to try the first ten commandments again. And maybe this time, they’d do it. The people would be less tired and less hungry and lose their tempers less often and respect their parents more and remember God always. Because maybe, just maybe, they were better than they feared. And they could be a little less human if the world they lived in were a little more divine.
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