Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Old Testament, which was read earlier.

Many times, it appears that God is silent, that He doesn’t have much to say, or least that He doesn’t have much to say to an individual personally. We want to hear God speak to us, but often times He remains silent. Or what is even worse, when God does speak to us, it isn’t how we want Him to speak. However, when God does speak, He has a lot to say. His words carry great importance, but we often fail to heed what He has to say. That changes in our Old Testament reading today, for God speaks words that cut deep to the individual.

We are all familiar to our text. We know it to be the Ten Commandments. God had called Abraham, promising to make out of him a people set apart. God gave him no rules, no guidance; He just asked Abraham to follow. What that people, now nearly one million in number, found itself delivered from Egyptian bondage, God made His radical will known.

What God sets forth is an excellent summary of His will for His people. They were intended not as threatening commands, but rather ten easy steps to follow for the smooth running of God’s people. At least, that’s what it seems like on the surface.

As God’s chosen people, they were often seen departing from God. They had turned to their own ways, they had turned to other gods time and time again, only to return to God when they realized that they were too far gone and they could not do anything to save themselves. And so God issues to them His First Commandment, one that would set the stage for the remaining Commandments: “You shall have no other gods before me.” God then goes on to expand just what that means: not having any idols or graven images, not bowing down to created things and worshipping only Him. Luther, in his Large Catechism writes this about the First Commandment: “A god is that to which one should look for all good things and to which one should take refuge in all needs.” It didn’t take long for the Israelites to break this commandment. In fact, before Moses had even descended the mountain, there were the Israelites at the foot of the mountain worshipping a golden calf.

As God continued to give His Commandments, it became clearer and clearer that Israel would not be able to keep them. Misusing the name of God? Broken. Sabbath day violations? Check. Honoring father and mother? Broken in the Garden, as Adam and Eve failed to honor their Father. Murder? Check. As God continued to give Moses His Law, it didn’t take long to see that the Israelites had already broken most, if not all, of these Commandments. And if they hadn’t, it wouldn’t take them long to do so.

What you have laid out before you is pure Law, God’s perfect and all-demanding Law. Its purpose was to make God’s people holy, keeping them faithful to God. God had continued to give to Moses instructions for worship and building of the Tabernacle, further laws for the governing of His people, and finally ending with details for the Sabbath. But once Moses made his way to the foot of the mountain, there was God’s people, worshipping an idol. They had erected for themselves a god, one they had fashioned out of gold. Aaron had declared to the people, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” And then, ironically, he declared, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” Even before receiving God’s Commandments, they had broken the very first. God sent Moses back to the people, threatening to consume them with His burning wrath.

So here’s a question: why make these Ten Commandments for the people of Israel to follow if they’re only going to break them? This was God’s people. He had seen them through thick and thin and promised that He would remain their God. In return, He asked that they would remain His people. God had asked the same thing to Adam and Eve. He created them; He was their loving Father. All they had to do was keep a single command of God – eat from all trees in the Garden except one. That single command of God proved to be too much for them and they were forever cast out of the Garden. Obviously if Adam and Eve couldn’t keep a single command of God, then there would be no hope for all of Israel to keep the Ten Commandments, let alone the total of 613 commandments every Jew should follow and keep. If you can’t keep one, you surely can’t keep ten and definitely you won’t be able to keep 613.

So with the Ten Commandments given to the people of Israel and their failure to keep the very First Commandment, let alone the remaining nine, all is doom and gloom for Israel. They will be forever lost to their failure of keeping God’s Law; they will be forever lost to their sin. It would easily appear that way, and at times for Israel, it seems as if God had completely abandoned them. If God had forsaken Israel, then that means there is no hope for you and I. And if that’s what you think, then you would be wrong. There is indeed hope for you and I; there is salvation for us. God did not completely abandon Israel to their sin. God has not abandoned you to your sin. He has sent to Israel and to the entirety of His creation a Deliverer, One that would keep the First Commandment in its entirety. And not only the First Commandment but also the other nine. And not only the Ten Commandments, but also the 613 commandments. And not only those, but One who has kept the entirety of God’s Word and His Law. There is for Israel and for you a Savior, one who goes to the extreme to atone for your sins, for each and every one of them, for every single time that you have broken God’s Law, for every time that you have not done as His Word has declared.

This Savior, this Jesus, is the One who has done for you all that you could never do yourself. In keeping every iota of God’s Law, He has done all that the Father desired of His creation. He has achieved for all those who trust and believe in Him full salvation. For all who have faith and call upon the name of the Lord, all those sins that would make you stand before God as a condemned sinner have been removed and God only sees that the holiness and righteousness that has been achieved by Jesus’ all-atoning sacrifice on the cross. God has promised salvation and that salvation comes through Jesus Christ, the One promised of long ago. As Jesus says in our Gospel for today, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Through His bodily temple, the Son of God lays down His life, only to take it up again three days later. In doing so, He proclaims eternal victory over sin and death for the sinner.

All of this is in keeping with what God speaks to Moses, “I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” We know these words as the Close of the Commandments. In short, for all who fail to call upon the name of the Lord, God will condemn. For those who believe, for those whom God has made His beloved child, God will show His steadfast love. And what greater steadfast love is there than granting to a person the forgiveness of sins, whereby eternal life is awarded to them?

With the giving of the Ten Commandments, it was not meant to punish or tie the hands of Israel. They were given as a response to whom God was, their creator, provider and protector. He had promised to be with them all the days of their life. In line with man’s breaking of God’s Word and commandments, One is sent for us who keeps these Commandments in order to grant to us everlasting life. We have failed time and time to keep these Commandments. Fortunately for us, there is One who has kept them, One who would give His life so that we would live. Christ has come, keeping these Commandments and more, to grant to you life and salvation. Steadfast love from God has been shown to you, all because Christ has kept these Commandments in your place. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.