Exodus 20 - Covenant Stipulations-The Basics

1-2 Gateway to the Big Ten What is the rationale behind the Ten commandments? – first, their God is–I am Yahweh your God–and second, what he’s done–rescued you • he doesn’t follow this with description of his nature or a list of his attributes ◦ the Christian church has constructed a super-rational theology ◦ by extracting concepts from scripture and arranging them in categories • that is not how theology emerges in the Scriptures – the Bible isn’t an encyclopedia–“Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About God” • nor does it concern itself with abstract concepts ◦ God’s self-revelations come through interactions with him Going through life with God, Abraham learned Yahweh was El Shaddai (the Almighty God), El Elyon (God Most High), Jireh (Provider). These revelations came to him in the course of his life through both his circumstances and his personal encounters with Yahweh. • God does not reveal his essence; that is, what he is in himself ◦ he reveals to us what we need to know about him, who he is to us