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Are the Ten Commandments really just a list of do and do not statements? Or is there a deeper message that we are meant to receive? Join Reverend Daniel as we ask the question: with what posture may we worship God so that we do not covet or rob him of his glory, but instead practice recounting God's faithfulness in our lives.

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The passage before us, uh taken from uh it's a long text. Yeah, so I'll just bring out some of the key points from Deuteronomy chapter 25, verse 13 to 26, verse 15, corresponds to the tenth commandment, right? And the tenth commandment is uh to not covet or long for anything that belongs to your neighbor. So uh it is exemplified in Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 21, which says you must not desire any other man's wife, nor crave his house, his field, his male, female servants, his ox, donkey, basically anything he owns. You should not long or desire to cover something that does not belong to you. Right? And this principle is delineated in the text before us, and we see that very clearly as an example from Deuteronomy chapter 25, verse 13 to 16, which says, You shall not have in your back two kinds of weights, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Lord your God. Leviticus chapter 19, verse 35 to 37 also speaks of the same principle to be observed by the Israelites. Leviticus 19, verse 35 to 37. It says, You shall not, you shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just if I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Right? So the use of false weights was a widespread abuse in trading in the biblical world. Right? The prophets of the Old Testament uh spoke against social injustices, and one of the key injustices that they spoke against was dishonesty uh in terms of weights and measures. So we see this in Amos chapter 8, verse 5 to 6, in which the prophet spoke and said, When will the new moon be over that we may sell grain and the Sabbath that we may offer wheat for sale, that we make that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great, and deal deceitfully with false balances, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. Larger and smaller weights were false by reference to an accept an acceptable standard. Like today we have a certain baseline in which we measure things. So uh they were false because they were not referencing a standard uh that was set out. The ifah was a measure used for weighing out grain. The traders in Amos 8, verses 5 to 6 wanted to in their own to suit uh their own financial ventures to make the ifah small when selling grain and the shekel large, which is a measure of weight of the silver in which they will be paid. So crookedness and dishonesty are just what contributes in the time of Old Testament to the oppression of the poor and vulnerable. Unethical behavior of this sort is condemned as abhorrent to God, with the same words interestingly being used for the worship of calved images, the worship of idols, we know in the Old Testament, is abhorrent, you know, it's something detestable in God's eyes. But along with the worship of calved images, when we cover the silver or gold, when we cheat and lie, it is an abomination, it is a cursed thing to the Lord. So Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 25 to 26 tells us the calved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not cover the silver or the gold that is on them, or take it for yourself, least you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. So let's read on from Deuteronomy 26, verses 1 to 4. It says, When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, and have taken possession of it and live in it, then you shall take some of the first of the fruit of the ground which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place where the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. And you shall go to the priest who is into our fathers to give us. Then the priest shall set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. So God's gift of land is crucial in the book of Deuteronomy. It's all about the land and God's gift to them. So God's gift of land is implied in Deuteronomy 26, verse 1. When you come into the land, and it leads into an instruction of bringing the first fruits to God at the place where we worship. So, in other words, the offering of first fruits was an act of worship to God. So today we do not practice uh, or at least uh church tradition, the first fruits, but uh nothing is stopping us uh from giving our first uh paycheck as an act of uh surrender or blessing to God because He has given us a job, He has given us, He has provided a comfortable job. So some uh people do that also, right? Uh when they first started work, when they first start work, they give uh a portion of their first fruits, the first job, uh a large portion in some way to as thanksgiving to God. But in the time of the Old Testament, this was practiced because it's an agricultural society. So whenever they have to is to bring it uh to the Lord as an offering of what the produce of the land. So this is not a single occasion of worship, but rather a provision for a regular act of worship. Because the phrase says the priest in office at that time, right? So at another time there'll be another priest, but each time the cycle, the agricultural cycle where you harvest what you receive, the first fruits belongs to the Lord. So as God has brought the Israelites into the land, their response crucially in coming to the land is really to bring the first of the fruit to the place of worship. This sequence appears in uh in some of the verses from Deuteronomy 26. Verse 3 tells us, go to the priests at the place of worship. It says, uh, I have come to the land. So it's a very deliberate action. Once they come into the land, offer the first fruits. Go to the priest and say, I've come to the land. And verse 9 tells us, He which is God brought us to this place and gave us this land. So therefore, our act of worship uh for the Israelites is found in verse 10. So, since I have come to the land in which God has brought me, I have now brought the first fruit to the place of worship. So this uh ceremony, this act of worship or offering of first fruit uh realizes the response expected of all Israelites to the command of God concerning their life before him in the land. We see the response of the Israelite to God's blessing located carefully at the focal point of the worship in the sanctuary. So we see that in verse 4, it says, The priest will then take the basket from you and set it before the altar of the Lord your God. So at the center of worship is offering and sacrifices, offering of first fruits as a response to God's love and mercy in bringing the people to the land. So this is then followed by a narration or a confession, some uh commentators say a small credo, meaning it's a small uh kind of a declaration of the people's faith to God. In other words, as they bring the offering to God, they are to make a response. It's not just bring an offering and then leave it there, no, but each time they offer the first fruits to God, they are to make a response, almost like telling a story of God's redemption. And this is what uh in some way is recorded for us in Deuteronomy the response of the Israelite who brings to God the first fruit of his offering. Verse 5 tells us, and you shall make response before the Lord your God as you bring this offering. You should say, a wandering Aramian was my father. He went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice, saw our affliction, our thought and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Therefore, in light of what God has done, you know, therefore, verse 10 says, And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground which you, O Lord, have given me. And you shall set it before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. Verse 11, and you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you, to your house, you and the Levite and the sojourner who is among you. So the content of this confession or this narrative story uh relates in outline the story of Israel's origins, right? Never forget what the Lord has done for us. In other words, each time you come before God to worship for Israel, they have to rehearse the story of redemption. So it begins with the journeys of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all the way in Genesis. The wandering Aramian is actually Jacob, right? His long stay in Pandan, Aram, uh, recorded in Genesis 28 to 31. Uh, the story is there, it is memorialized in the name the wandering Aramian. And take note of the word wandering. That means he was, he's he didn't have land yet. He was just wandering from place to place. He was a wanderer with no land. That's what Deuteronomy wants us to see. But Jacob was the patriarch who also finally settled in Egypt. In other words, they were they had no land, they went down to Egypt. And the confession then continues through the time in Egypt and the expansion in numbers, how they grew in response to the blessing of Abraham, that the descendants of Abraham will be numerous. So they grew and expanded. Uh, and then they were enslaved by the Egyptian uh rulers. And the story narrates the slavery and moves forward to the miraculous deliverance of Israel at the Red Sea. So we see here two points. Firstly, a contrast between homelessness and land. Jacob's wandering make him vulnerable and weak. He's accepted as a stranger, a sojourner in Egypt, right? Both while he was wandering in uh Pandan Aram and later in Egypt. He was a wanderer. So while in Egypt, as uh as uh as a nation without a land, his descendants fell victim to oppression, cried to God, were liberated into a land of their own. As strangers and sojourners, they were possessing nothing, no land, no title deed of their own. But now, as they enter the land, they possess plenty, they have abundance of milk and honey, they have a land and a place that God has set them. So there's a strong contrast between homelessness and land, especially in Deuteronomy. Uh, the author wants us to see once we were homeless without land, without a place, wandering from place to place. But now God has brought Israel to the land, a blessed land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So a strong contrast between homelessness and land. We also see God's response to the people's cry, and that is a recurring story in Deuteronomy. Uh Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 34, 5, verse 15, 6, 21 to 25, 7, 19, 9, 29, 11, verse 2, 26, 8 all highlights God's deliverance, God's redemption of the people. As if to tell the people, do not forget that you were redeemed, you were saved from the Egyptians. So we see God's response to the people's desperate cry. He says, We cried to the Lord in the face of oppression from the Egyptians, and the God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, saw our affliction, our toil and our oppression, and his favor shown to us, to those who oppress us, and he they and God had mercy upon us by delivering us. So the force of the confession then lies in the response of the worshiper. And that is key because it the it tells us uh that the worshiper now individually brings that offering to God. The worshiper brings the produce of the land, acknowledging that all that they have in the land, the blessing, uh, is a critical formative experience for them. All that they have, the land, is due to God's gift to them and the events that form the people. Israel acknowledges that it's all due to God's gift of land to Israel that form their identity as a people. So the act of worship during the time of the Old Testament is essentially essentially agricultural. Uh, the context of their times bringing an offering to God. And the act of worship is a response to God's saving acts and deliverance on the people's behalf. So, again, to reinforce the point, the confession in Deuteronomy 26, verse 10, I, first person singular, I have brought. You know, it's not just in the group in the mess, but Deuteronomy wants us to see it is worship, it's an individual response to God. Each time we come to worship God, we bring something. I have brought. It's not my Amma or Apple or my neighbor there, but I, first person singular, I have brought the first of the fruit to the place of worship. So it's remarkable because it focuses the response required of Israel on the individual worshiper who says in Deuteronomy 26, verse 3, again, first person singular, I've come into the land that the Lord promised to our ancestors to give us. I have come, so now I have brought the first of the fruit to the place of worship. So the nation, Israel, their obedience is symbolized by the individual worshiper. In bringing his offering and making his confessions of the Lord's deliverance, he's not merely just obeying God's commands, but he's also accepting the terms on which they are given. So willingly he comes and brings the offering. It's not no choice, you have to do it, but willingly he comes and says, God, in light of your deliverance, the the narrative story of deliverance, I have come now to bring the first fruits. So the offering and uh confession complete, the worshiper now proceeds to join in the celebration and feasting uh that records for us in Deuteronomy 26, verses 10 to 11. Um, so you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given you. So there's great rejoicing and feasting after the offering of the first fruits. So Deuteronomy 26, verse 12 to 13 then continues. Not just the first fruit, but talks about the tie of your produce in the third year. Right? Because of time we won't read the whole text again. But what it actually records is in addition to the first fruit, there is something called the tie of your produce in the third year. And the tie of your produce in the third year is actually used uh for the provision for those uh who do not have land, the landless, the sojourners, the fatherless and widows whose independence status were not recognized. So provision was made that the uh the tie of your produce in the third year is set aside, set apart for this group of people. So the Israelites' deliverance from homeless slavery into home and place brings with it a social moral responsibility to draw the homeless uh fully into the experience and celebration of rooted belonging. So during the time of Israel, the Levites, that means those who are working the altar, were set apart. Their inheritance is the Lord, so they had no land, so they should be taken care of. And it includes, like I mentioned last week, those who do not have a legal status at that point. The sojourner, the fatherless, and the widows, all of them need to be taken care of. So that was set aside for these people. So just as how the Israelites were previously slaves in Egypt, they were oppressed and their lives made bitter with hard service. They were now not to treat the sojourner, the fatherless, and widows the same way. The worshiper, having now declared his faithfulness in responding to God's commands, now claimed his promises of the blessing of the ground. In Deuteronomy 26, verse 15, it says, Look down from your holy habitation from heaven and bless your people, Israel, and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey. And perhaps. A very important point in our study, or as we go through the book of Deuteronomy, is now as the faithful Israelite comes to the chosen place of worship, the command in Deuteronomy 12 verses 5 to 7, which is a very important verse in the theology of the book of Deuteronomy, because this is the end goal, the outcome of coming to the land, right? This is the end goal. It says, but you shall seek the place the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your contribution that uh you present, your vow offerings, and all kinds of offerings, and there you shall eat before the Lord your God. Again, emphasizing once again, once you enter into the enter into the land, find a place, worship God, offer to God his due. Recall, remember, every year as you come to bring your first fruits, remember to make a response to God. We were all slaves in Egypt, we were sojourners, we were wanderers, but the Lord delivered us, the Lord heard our cry, the Lord has saved us. So I'd like to explore with us in terms of application a very simple question in the first person. It says this In what posture do I come before God to worship him, such that I do not covet or rob him of his glory or what belongs to him, but instead offer myself to God as I recount his faithfulness. Sorry, it's a bit long and lengthy, but I'm just trying to capture the main point of in terms of application. And this is the this is the point. In what posture do I come before God to worship him, such that we do not covet or rob him of his glory, but instead offer ourselves to God as we recount his faithfulness. The Israelites moved from possessing nothing, they were homeless people, to possessing everything. They had land, they had possessions, they had wealth. And Deuteronomy, again in other passages, remind them when you come into the land, do not forget that it is the Lord your God who brought you to the land and give you the power to have wealth. When you have grown fat and enjoying the produce of the land, do not say, It is by my own strength and wealth that I have achieved it. No, but you must remember it is the Lord your God that has given you the ability to produce wealth. So the only right response for Israel, being a homeless people to possessing of land and abundance is worship. The only response, in fact, that we can bring to God as New Testament Christians today is actually worship. That's why it's so important for us to gather every week, you know, to set apart Sunday or one day of the week to worship God. Because that is where we realize that we need to come to the place of remembering God, to realize that actually all things come from God and it's of his own that we give him. So I'm reminded of an account from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 21, verses 1 to 4. Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, and he observed the various gifts brought by the people, right? So he was at the temple courts, and during the time of Jesus, the offering was placed right at the center, right? So if you the offering was probably placed somewhere here, right? So Jesus was at the temple courts, he had a clear view of who comes and what offering they bring, right? I'm not saying that we should look at one another and see how much each other gives. But Jesus was there and he was just observing uh the people as they brought their offering. So Luke 21, verses 1 to 4 tells us uh Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins, and he said, Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them, for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on. A widow in Jesus' time would one who would be utterly destitute because she would have no husband and presumably no children, perhaps to take care of her. So this woman, the poor widow, is the epitome of the least of this. She's needy in every way, needing of support, needing of status. Yet she comes to give and offer everything. Just to give us a sense of how much two copper coins is worth. So each mic or copper coin was worth one, it's a fraction, one over 128 of the average laborer, laborer's daily wage, right? And the average daily wage of a laborer is about one denaris. So convert to sing dollars is about six cents. Right? So of course it's not apple to apple. We cannot compare during the time and and Singapore, apple to apple, yeah, because we are we are in a different context and culture, but it's about six cents, right? One denaris, that's about uh the daily wage of uh uh of a worker, a laborer. So one over one two eight uh times 0.06, what do you get? Right? It'll be very small, a very small fraction, right? Uh I just computed it, it's about 0.0005445. Right? So that is almost nothing, it's not worth, it probably is worth something during time of Jesus. Maybe you can buy a morsel of bread or something, right? Probably there's some worth, but that is the amount of offering. Yet Jesus commended this woman, right? Because in our giving an offering to God, you know, he always, it's not about the amount that we bring, but it's always about the hard posture. So this woman, this woman, poor widow, put in more than anyone else because in relation to them, even though two small copper coins is not worth much, anything much, but it was hundred percent of what she had. Right? So by giving up everything to Jesus, she was placing herself wholly and without reserve into the hands of God. That's why she was commendable, because she was offering herself wholly to God. And that is true worship. That is the picture of what worship is about. And in the New Testament, Paul tells us, you know, we do not come to him with bulls and goats and calves, you know, and it's it's really not about uh the sacrifices we bring as much as the bringing of ourselves to God. So Paul tells us the passage that uh Gary read for us, Romans chapter 12, uh, therefore, is it Romans 12? Yeah, I think it's Romans chapter 12. It says, uh, therefore, uh as God's uh, therefore, I urge you to offer yourselves uh as living sacrifice to God. So this is our act of worship to God, to offer and give ourselves wholly and fully to God. So the heart of worship is it's really still about the heart. Are we willing to give up our resources and possessions to God unreservingly? True worship is a total and complete surrender. It's about bringing our lives and possession and place it at God's disposal. It's only in true worship that we do not cover what belongs to God or long for anything that belongs to our neighbor. So the question, the topic today about do not cover, do not long for anything that belongs to our neighbor finds its fruition only when we truly worship God. Because only Him deserves our true allegiance and worship. So, however, the basis of true worship always lies in the indicatives of what God has done for us. It's never about trying to outbid one another in terms of our giving. No, if we fail to understand this, we cannot truly worship God. So the true worship of God is always a prior thing of what God has done for us, what God has already accomplished on our behalf. So I believe uh we may all be very familiar with the story of Jesus being anointed by a sinful woman. Um in Luke chapter 7, verse 36 to 48 records how a woman of the city learned that Jesus was coming to a Pharisee's home. And what she did was she began to take an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing at the feet of Jesus, she wept and she began to web his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. So when the Pharisees heard this, they were indignant and said, Why are you doing this? Why are you, rabbi, holy man, teacher, Jesus, why are you allowing this woman who is a sinful woman to touch you? And then Jesus began to tell them a story. He said, A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed him 500 denarii, the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more? Simon answered, the one I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt, and he said to him, You have judged rightly. Then turning towards the woman, he said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loves much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. According to this story in Luke chapter 7, 36 to 48, there's a deep connection between our experience of love and forgiveness from God, and our ability to extend that love and forgiveness to others. Right? The troubling thing that I see in Christianom everywhere I go, everything I hear, sometimes we do have good stories of uh good things happening, but we we also do have uh challenges, right, as we learn to relate with one another. But very oftentimes we can be Christians and actively serving God, doing our Christian duty, yet never grow in experiencing the depth of the love and forgiveness Jesus offers. So, in other words, there is a kind of decoupling between what we do for God, what we offer to God, our service to Him and our ties, our giving, and our connectedness with the love and forgiveness that Jesus offers. That is why I suggest to us that our love often is shallow and our worship half-hearted. When we are free, we come to church. When I'm not free, then probably don't need to bother, right? I'm too occupied with matters at work. We can be Christians yet be most bitter and unforgiving towards fellow brothers and sisters who have hurt us. We can be Christians yet be constantly looking out at others to see if they meet up to the criteria of what it means to be a good Christian. That's not a bad thing, uh, because sometimes we need to critique and uh in some way correct one another, but a cycle and a pattern of always looking out for the fault of others becomes unhealthy. We are not fully committed to God because we are not fully convinced and convicted of the love and forgiveness Jesus offers. I mean, this is the conclusion I come to. That a lot of times why we are not able to worship God fully is because we have not experienced the depth of the love and forgiveness that Jesus offers. Right? And the the story of the of the sinful woman anointing Jesus is a picture again of extravagance and the actions she did reveals her heart. Right? That means there's a connectedness between what she does, uh anointing Jesus, and the act of worship that she performed on Jesus and her heart condition because Jesus commanded her. She says, Umgiven. And because you love much, because you have been forgiven much. Church, I believe we need to be gripped once again afresh by God's love for us. Because that's the only way that we can truly, fully be committed to God and be fully given over to the worship of God. That is where our sacrifices to God can be whole and complete. That's where in Romans 12, when Paul says, therefore, offer yourselves as living sacrifices, we are able to position ourselves and give ourselves wholly to God. And our worship happens every Sunday, right? It's we don't follow the issues' calendar, but for us it's a Sunday. So each time we come before God, He expects that even as we give off our tithes and offering, He desires that we give of our hearts fully to Him. So imagine each time we come to church, we bring the first fruits. The first fruit is actually our lives. We bring our lives before Him and we say, God, I offer myself wholly to you. And that's worship. That's where worship truly begins. When we position ourselves to offer ourselves wholly to God. That is why the poor widow who offered up two copper coins was commendable because she positioned herself. Though she has nothing and she's destitute, yet she gave everything. She positioned herself wholly, set apart. Everything, nothing holding back, everything to God. Similarly, the the sinful woman that anointed Jesus, nothing held back, but she poured out her love on Jesus. Again, both the poor widow and this sinful woman had their heart connected. That means what they are on the inside overflows to what happens on the outside. But I believe today, including myself, sometimes what we struggle is there's a disconnect between how we truly feel about God and know Him, His love and forgiveness, and our actions. That means what we do. So we could be serving, we could be doing many things, but we don't feel that we are vitalized in God. Because I believe the answer is we have not really grasped the love and forgiveness that Jesus offers. Because if we do, we will be like the sinful woman. There's nothing holding us back. We will be like the poor widow, give everything to God when He calls us to. Right? So I believe this is a challenge, you know, and I pray each day as we come before the Lord's presence, uh, we will we will meditate on Luke 7, 36 to 48. How as we are forgiven much, we are loved much. Why why are we so hard-hearted sometimes, so unforgiving? It's because we don't have uh our love tank top up, you know. We we don't sense we are forgiven by God enough. We don't sense his love and forgiveness deeply. Because if we do, you know, then our actions will flow naturally. I just like to share us, I'm not sure whether it's a familiar song, but it's supposed to be a Sunday school song, right? Uh it talks about the love of God. I mean it's a very simple chorus, but it speaks of the love of God and how uh because of God's love for us, we see wonders. We don't see problems and difficult people, but we see wonders because God loves me, God accepts me, God forgives me. Time and time again. I may have done many things that are wrong, but because of the love of God, you know, I'm secure. And I need to experience his love and forgiveness every day, every time. Because once I lose that wonder of his love and forgiveness, then I become a monster in various forms, you know. The way I treat others, the way we relate to one another, the way we handle conflicts, and so on. So I think the chorus goes like this My God loves me, and all the wonders I see, a rainbow shines through my window. My God loves me. I love my Lord because He first loved me, He bought my sin and my shame when He died for me. So this is a wonderful song that uh chorus, I believe, is familiar to some of us. Yeah. Uh decades ago, right? But it's a wonderful song, simple song, but choruses like this remind us there's hope for the day, you know, because God loves us, he accepts us, he forgives us. So may the Lord draw us deeper into just this sense of his love, forgiveness for our lives, so that as we come before God, each week we may offer ourselves wholly to God.

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We pray that you've been ministering to the Word of God today. If you'd like to know more about Eastern Christian Church, please visit our website at yccanglican.com. Have a blessed day.