Because I Said So

Exodus 20:1-2 - "Then God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”"
In Exodus chapter 20 the Lord gives Moses the Ten Commandments, He lays down the law. But before He gets to the law itself He begins by declaring who He is and what He has done. "I am the Lord your God," who He is, "who brought you out of the land of Egypt." What He has done. It makes sense that He would begin in this way. Instead of jumping right into the commands the Lord begins by stating the basis for the commands. In other words, our obligation to obey the commands of God is predicated on who God is and what He has done. These commandments are binding because they have the weight of God's eternal character behind them. So when God says "You shall have no other Gods before Me." Or, "You shall not steal." And we ask the question, "Who says?" He responds with the foundational statement of the ten commandments, "I am the Lord your God." He doesn't try and explain why these things would be good for a society, although they are. He doesn't talk about the benefits of obeying His commandments, He simply says "You shall..." or "You shall not..." Why? "Because I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt." He makes no theological argument for why they should buy into believing in Him, and doesn't try to prove His existence, He simply says "this is who I am." This is similar to the way the Bible starts. "In the beginning God..." There is no trying to prove His existence, it plainly says "In the beginning God." He needs no explanation or introduction, He is who He is. And He says “I am… therefore, you shall…”

God has all authority and He makes the rules because of who He is in His essential nature and character. In Leviticus chapter 18 the Lord continues to give commands to His people Israel, and He says to Moses in verses 2-5 - "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘I am the Lord your God. You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the Lord your God. So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the Lord.'" He tells them that they are to differ from the nations around them. It's easy to conform to what everyone else is doing, but God tells them that they are to be different, and three times in these verses He makes this statement, "I am the Lord." That's enough reason to obey.

From Leviticus chapter 18 through to the end of the book we have God giving the people command after command, one after the other. And it’s as if God anticipates that after He tells His people to do something they’re going to ask “Why?” So God is essentially saying what your parents probably said to you a time or two, "Because I said so." Occasionally you'll hear a parent tell their child to do something and the child will respond with the question, "Why?" Nine times out of ten, the next words out of the parents mouth are "Because I said so." Most parents don't try to explain the benefits of cleaning your room or finishing your dinner, they simply say "Do it because I said so." If they were to put it into Bible terms it might sound something like, "I am your father, you shall clean your room." Or "I am your mother, you shall not throw your food on the floor." God has set up the authority structure in the home and He requires children to obey their parents simply because they are their parents. And God has set up the universe in the same way. He is the ultimate Authority, and so when He tells us to do something that we don’t understand or don't want to do, and we ask the question, “Why?” He responds with by saying, "Because I said so."

From Leviticus 18 to Leviticus 26 God gives His people one command after another, and over and over again He gives this one premise for their obedience, "I am the Lord." 18:6 - "I am the Lord." 18:21 - "I am the Lord." 18:30 - "I am the Lord." 19:3 - "I am the Lord." 19:4 - "I am the Lord." And on it goes. In fact in these nine chapters the Lord makes this statement 47 times! 47 times in nine chapters God gives His people instructions and then essentially says "Because I said so."

There may be competing voices around us, but God is the only one who can back up His instructions with absolute authority. He has exclusive rights as God. No one else can claim that. The Lord makes this clear in Isaiah 43:10-13 - ""You are My witnesses,” declares the Lord, “And My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no savior besides Me. It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, and there was no strange god among you; So you are My witnesses,” declares the Lord, “And I am God. Even from eternity I am He, and there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?”" The Lord really emphasizes His exclusivity a lot in the section of Isaiah. We read in Isaiah 44:6-8 - "Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me. Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; Yes, let him recount it to Me in order, from the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place. Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, or is there any other Rock? I know of none.’"God challenges everyone who thinks that they're god, who thinks they have a right to determine what is and what should be, to declare what has happened in the past. We can't even do this perfectly, we're always guessing at the past, but even if we could, He goes on to give the challenge, "let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place." God has really proved His exclusivity by predicting the future. No other god of any other religion would dare do that, because they might get it wrong. God is the only one and the Bible is the only book that declares the future with absolute accuracy. He even goes so far, in some instances, to give the order in which nations would set themselves up as supreme authority on the earth, and He gives the name of the person that would be ruling hundreds of years before they were even born. He says in Isaiah 45:5 - "I am the Lord, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God." In verses 6 and 7 He says - "That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these." In verse 18 He says - "I am the Lord, and there is none else." At the end of verse 21 He says - "there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me." In verse 22 He says - "For I am God, and there is no other." In chapter 46 and verse 9 He says - "For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me." Do you think that God's trying to emphasize a point here? And yet people think that they have the right to determine what is right and what is wrong. They think that they have the right to determine truth. In the middle of all this discussion on God's exclusivity, the Lord gives us a word picture to show the stupidity of people who think that they know better than God. In Isaiah 45:9 the Lord says - "Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker— An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?" A potter has absolute authority over a lump of clay, and the clay isn't going to rebel against that authority or speak out against the one who forms it. And yet we as human beings have the audacity to disregard what God has said, deny His existence and set ourselves up as the standard of authority and truth. 

Simply because of who God is in His nature and character means that He is in charge. Because He is God is enough reason for us to obey.

This was illustrated to me not too long ago in a story that I heard a man tell about when he was a boy growing up in England. He talked about being at a great big festival that was going on in the city of London. And he got up on the top of a wall to get a better view of everything that was going on. As he was up there looking over the crowds he heard a voice behind him say, “Get off the wall.” He thought it was one of his friends shouting at him, so he spun around and demanded, “Who says?” When he turned around he saw a police officer standing there. The man said, “I am a police man. You shall get off the wall.” And he got off.

See, the very fact of the identity of the one who was speaking was enough reason for him to obey. And the very fact of God's identity is enough reason for us to listen to what He says and then hold to it as the ultimate standard."I am the Lord your God, therefore you shall..."