10 Commandments, what’s their real purpose….

Exodus 20…the ten commandments.

1And God spake all these words, saying,

2I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

4Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

7Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

8Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

12Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

13Thou shalt not kill.

14Thou shalt not commit adultery.

15Thou shalt not steal.

16Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

17Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

I mentioned in a previous article that I would write about these commandments, or the law as some call it. What are they about, why are they mentioned? Are they in any particular order? Can we keep them, what if we break them? I’ll try to cover these questions.

First, to get the point of the commandments, we have to go back a few chapters in the bible.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Everything God had created was good. Including man / woman. Then the serpent, was more subtle than any beast of the field. Tempted the woman to eat of the tree that was forbidden. The was only one law then. Don’t eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

The woman was tempted, she ate, and gave some to Adam, and he ate. Thus, the bond that was between man and God was broken and as they say, it was all downhill from there.

A few chapters later, it says that man was evil in all his doings. You see, God is so Holy, He is perfection. There is absolutely no evil in Him. Everything he does is perfect.

So God repents of his creation (this is a topic on its own) and gives Noah instructions on building an ark. This thing was not necessarily meant to navigate the waters, but mostly just to stay afloat with everyone and everything on board.

Everyone is drowned except for the 8 on board, and the multitude of animals.

Years go by again, and the world populates again. During this whole time, technically, there was only one law, the tree from the beginning.

The Hebrews (God’s chosen) have their path drawn out that they go to Egypt and become slaves for 400 yrs (that will be another article). The good news is, God finally delivers them and brings them out.

Now, they are at Mount Sinai, and God gives them a bit more law. Instead of do not eat from the tree. Now they have 10 laws. Let’s look into them, shall we?

First, let’s look at the format. We have 10 given. They start with the first 4, as a relationship between God and man, or rather between man and God. No Gods before him, no graven images, do speaking the Lord’s name in vain, and remember the sabbath day.

It’s almost like they are starting in the order of priority. The first 4, have complete and utter respect and worship for God. Do not make the mistake of thinking anything other than God deserves worship. Even when the angels came to earth for whatever reason, men bowed down, and the angels refused the worship. Revelation 22:8-9. And then you had a seraphim in Isaiah 6:2, that worshipped God day and night.

God is the only one to be worshipped and there are to be no other gods before him.

We shall not make graven images of anything that is in the heavens, on the earth or in the water below the earth. This is simply, statues, cars, houses, toys money…celebrities, politicians, family…what ever you can put there that takes the place of God as far as your priority list, don’t.

So here’s a quick trivia. Most people I talk to say that God doesn’t have a face or a body for us to compare to, he doesn’t have an image that we can make. While that might be true, what if he does have an image, and anything we construe with our imagination, is wrong.

Next one is that we will not take the Lord’s name in vain. In today’s culture, it’s said all the time. Hit your finger with a hammer, over spend on your budget, miss a goal…household pets drive you nuts. Wife / husband is making you late. The first thing uttered out of a non Christian is typically the Lord’s name.

In the old testament, this one was so particular, they considered it very, very dangerous to pronounce even the name Yhwh (pronounced Yahweh). They were so careful with this commandment, it was almost as if they said “this is the name no one should speak about” because they knew God is the creator and the ultimate judge. Anyone that even uttered the name of God, was looked upon like “he / she is going to bring judgment on us”.

Then, to remember the sabbath. In other words, in the Old Testament, people worked the first 6 days, and rested the 7th. This is following the example of God creating the world / universe in 6 – 24 hr periods and resting on the 7th. He didn’t rest because he was tired, he rested because he knew his creation would be tired. And for us to work 7 days a week, is an offence to the day’s rest he gave us. Look at when the Hebrews were travelling in the desert, the had food for each day, and on the 6th day, there was food for 2 days. Because it was forbidden to gather the food on the 7th.

Then the commandments make a quick change in person they offend (all broken commandments offend God, however, now the focus is on man).

The next 4 commandments are interesting, they all involve physical acts. Same as the previous ones that focus on God. But these are all 4 that involve a second person that’s offended. Those are all viewable acts that people can see the person in action. I’m going to go and make a random guess, that the reason most people don’t commit those acts, is because they can get caught. If there was a way they could get away with those acts without jail time or consequences, they would do them in a heartbeat. I’m not the exception. If there was no consequences, I have no doubt I would commit some of these. My heart is very sinful and the more I read my bible, the more it’s exposed.

Then there’s the last commandment – Thou shall not covet. This one is very interesting and peculiar. First, let’s discuss what it’s not. It’s NOT “wow, my neighbor has a nice house” and you don’t really have a desire to have the house. You just appreciate the work your neighbor has put in to purchase / buy it. My wife and I go for drives from time to time, and we both admire some of the marvels of construction some designers, engineers and construction workers are able to put together.

What coveting is, it’s actually a strong desire for something you don’t have. To the point that it’s distracting you from your own possessions or relationships. You fantasize about it, you daydream about it, and in some very sad circumstances you commit the crime needed to obtain that particular dream.

That’s coveting. However, the sneaky part about this one, is that you and I could be sitting next to each other, and you would have no idea I’m coveting something that belongs to you. It’s beyond deceitful, conniving, and discreet. YOU are the only one that knows you’re dealing with this. And if you don’t kill that sin where it is, it may develop in the previous 4, or possibly previous 9.

Now, that we have run through the commandments fairly quickly. What is the point of them. Well, some religions (Catholic being one of them) claims if you follow all 10 to the best of your ability, you earn your heaven.

That’s very misleading. NO ONE is able to keep all 10, on any given day. They were never meant to be followed. They are the law that reflects God’s character. He is perfect, he is the one to be worshipped. He doesn’t covet, he has no idols. We are the ones that suffer with all those.

The 10 commandment are the image of God’s perfection, and only HE can keep all of them perfectly. We break them daily.

Which brings me to the point of this article. The only way out, since we break God’s law, there’s also a punishment for breaking his law. It’s eternal punishment. There’s no way out since God knows everything you did, do and will do, and we run from him daily. Either cause we want to commit one of those crimes, or because we already did, and we feel shameful for doing it.

Christ, was the ONLY human to keep all 10 commandments perfectly, because he is God in the flesh. This also will be another article. Christ had NO choice but to come die, and be resurrected in order to pay for our crimes. God was so satisfied with the work of Christ on the cross, the atonement was made perfectly for our sins.

The only way you make it to heaven, is trusting in Christ. Repent of your sins, trust in Christ and be saved, while you still have breath in your nostrils. Time is running short.