Friday Sundown Worship

Sept. 15, 2017

God’s Preamble

Exodus 20:1, 2

 

What is a “Preamble” you ask? Good question for we don’t think much in terms of Preamble’s anymore. I would rather keep politics out of discussions about religious matters, but the US Constitution has a wonderful Preamble.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

The Preamble establishes “Who is making the document”, “Why the Document is being created” What the purpose of the document is. So in the preamble to the US constitution, It is the people that are forming the document. Why are they creating the document? To create a more perfect union. What is the purpose of the more perfect union, to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the Blessing of Liberty.

We could add one more aspect to the purpose of the constitution, it safeguards the purpose of the document.

So why the sudden interest in the US constitution or rather its “Preamble?”

Because God also gave us a Preamble to His law when he spoke from Mount Sinai. We often repeat or see the 10 Commandments starting with verse three where it states; “You shall have no other gods before me.” But the reality is it starts in verse 1 where it states who was involved.

¹ “And God spoke all these words saying: ² I am the LORD you God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

As with the Constitution, God’s Preamble states who is making the document or statement. God is stating, “I am the LORD your God!” Why is he establishing the document, because he did something for us, and that was to bring out of the land of Egypt.

Why is Egypt mentioned. Is it mentioned because this is where the Children of Israel were? Yes! But, it goes beyond that. Egypt in the Bible is synonymous with idolatry, immorality, excess and gluttony. God continues by further explaining that He brought them out of all this that had kept them in bondage. Wait, I thought they were in Egypt working as slaves for the Egyptians. Isn’t that correct? Yes! It certainly is correct, but when one is caught in the web is idolatry, immorality, excess and gluttony, they become in bondage to these things.

Therefore, the purpose of the next 15 verses which comes after God’s Preamble is to provide a means of keeping us out of bondage. The Ten Commandments show us God’s character, and what is the foundation of His government, along with the His desire for you and me. In reality it points us to the creator of the law showing us how free we become when we through Christ, accept the law, which was designed to keep us out of bondage to sin.

Therefore, when asked which is the greatest of the commandments, Jesus pointed to all 10 commandments by saying, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul. And with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it” You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hand all the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 22:36-40).

God loves us with all his heart and was willing to show us how much he loved us by giving of His Son who showed us of the character of God, by keeping that which is a reflection of God’s character and government.

John 14:15 says, “If you love me, keep my Commandments.” If we profess to be a Christian, then keeping the law will become second nature because we will become Christ like and like Christ keep the commandments, that God spoke the preamble and then the law, and after wrote them out for Moses, which also included the Preamble, so that we all understand who the author was, and why he wrote them and their purpose.