more than instructions

Exodus 20:18-21

To rewind a bit, up to the time of receiving the commands at Sinai, we had seen a series of events that revealed the power and identity of the Lord to Israel and their leaders, and to the Egyptians. He was the one who would be experienced as faithful to his own purposes through historical events.

Now, as his will and character is to be lived out in the kind of community he is creating through the desert experience, his power is made evident also alongside the giving of instructions concerning life to be lived in community lived in freedom, that is, honouring of God and neighbour. There is the suggestion, too, I think, that the power experienced in the thunder and lightning is to find its way into the living of the commands, and the effectiveness of living according to them.

Prayer:
Thank you, Lord, that you make available power beyond our own, to live toward a destiny we could not dream for ourselves. Show each of us what that means for our lifetime. Through Christ. Amen.