Author: Administrador

God creates and recreates us, God calls us and names us. We seek to embody new creation and our new names, but almost invariably we falter. Something in life — some misplaced desire, some grief, some reckless act — takes over where our new selves ought to be, and we find ourselves lost afraid. For … Continue reading “Exodus 20:1-17 Commentary by Elizabeth Webb”

The Decalogue was God’s direct address to Israel: “God spoke all these words” (“words,” not commandments). God’s own introduction to these words is important for an appropriate understanding: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” The Ten Commandments are not a … Continue reading “Exodus 20:1-17 Commentary by Terence E. Fretheim”

Exodus 19:1 states that “on the third new moon after the Israelites had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai.” For the next two years (see Numbers 10:11), the foot of Sinai was home. The first order of business God undertook was to give … Continue reading “Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Commentary by Nancy deClaissé-Walford”

This week’s lectionary text is a bit daunting. The Ten Commandments! One really cannot hope to out-do Charlton Heston, holding up the stone tablets with the wind blowing through his magnificent mane of hair. However, there are rich possibilities for preaching about the ways communities of God might imagine themselves in new and fresh terms. … Continue reading “Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Commentary by Amy Erickson”

The dramatic scene at Mt. Sinai signals the fulfillment of the promise made to Moses in his first encounter with God on this mountain back in Exodus 3. “I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out … Continue reading “Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Commentary by Callie Plunket-Brewton”

During the four years that I was a student at Luther Seminary I can recall only one assignment which involved memorization of Scripture. In his course on the Pentateuch, Professor John Milton required us to memorize Exodus 19:4-6. Milton’s pedagogical and theological instincts were correct. These words about Exodus, Covenant and People of God express … Continue reading “Exodus 19:2-8a Commentary by James Limburg”

My teacher James Arne Nestingen once said, “Every preacher should preach through the Ten Commandments once every three years.” Ideally, a sermon series on the Decalogue would run twelve weeks — one week to proclaim the theological context of the law, ten weeks for the commandments themselves, and a final week to proclaim the paradox … Continue reading “Exodus 19:1-6, 20:1-17 Commentary by Rolf Jacobson”

This elegant story is, first and foremost, a dual commentary on human nature and divine character. Yes, it is a story about Israel’s history, although in this case, the primary purpose is not to learn about the past. Rather, it is told so that we–who were, in the eyes of the ancient Israelites, a generation … Continue reading “Exodus 17:1-7 Commentary by Rolf Jacobson”

Exodus 17 records the fourth occurrence of “complaining” by the Israelites in the early days after the exodus from Egypt. Complaining, in fact, is a defining theme of the wilderness wandering story. In Exodus 14, when the Israelites reached the shores of the Reed Sea and saw the Egyptians in hot pursuit, they said to … Continue reading “Exodus 17:1-7 Commentary by Nancy deClaissé-Walford”

I never fully appreciated the Hebrews grumbling in Exodus until two years ago when given the opportunity to journey through the Sinai wilderness on a Middle East travel seminar. We entered the region after having hiked a day in the full heat of the Petra sun, and I had become extremely dehydrated–so dehydrated that I … Continue reading “Exodus 17:1-7 Commentary by David G. Garber Jr.”