“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.
Exodus 20:2-3
Dear members and friends,
God noticed the suffering of the people of Israel in Egypt. As they cried out, God heard their voice. Thus, God called Moses and sent him to lead the people out of Egypt, meaning to liberate them from their suffering. This might have been much more than what the Israelites were asking for. What they could have desired was to lift hardship imposed on them by the current Pharaoh; they may have otherwise been pretty happy living in Egypt. However, God’s plan appears to be providing a lasting lesson to humanity on how to liberate themselves from ever-present suffering.
The Ten Commandments given on Mt. Sinai was a God given solution to the inevitable suffering of being and living as humans. The heart of the Decalogy is nothing but human relationships. In other words, the core of human suffering is relational, and thus liberation from such suffering should be found in relationships as well. All human suffering, according to Exodus, arises from broken, damaged, inappropriate, or delusional relationships. Thus, the first step toward liberating humans from such suffering is to acknowledge and learn what proper relationships are.
According to Jehovah in Exodus, there are two fundamental relationships: between humans and God, and between humans themselves. In Exodus 20, God teaches them that the relationship between humans and God must be built first. And this could only be initiated by knowing and acknowledging the true nature of God, which should be followed by proper behaviors among people. In other words, knowing and believing God should result in kind and gentle actions towards each other.
My brothers and sisters in God, let us take a moment of time this week to pray and reflect. Let us deeply reflect on our relationships. What are they? What do they mean to us? Remembering the teachings of God in Exodus, let us take it to our heart: our suffering might be caused by certain aspects of our relationships.
Blessings,
Rev. Junchol Lee