Deuteronomy 5:6 ¶ I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 7 Thou shalt have none other gods before me. 8 Thou shalt not make 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 waters beneath the earth: 9 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto 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, 10 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. 11 Thou 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. 12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee. 13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: 14 But 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, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. 15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day. 16 Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. 17 Thou shalt not kill. 18 Neither shalt thou commit adultery. 19 Neither shalt thou steal. 20 Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour. 21 Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour’s wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour’s house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour’s. 22 These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.
The Ten Commandments are here repeated. See the passages from Exodus, chapter 20. Note my
comments
about them.
“Exodus
20:1 ¶ And God spake all these words,
saying, 2 I am the LORD thy God, which
have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou 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: 5 Thou 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; 6 And shewing mercy unto
thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 7 Thou 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. 8 Remember the sabbath day, to
keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou
labour, and do all thy work: 10 But 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: 11 For 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.
Notice
below, in a parallel to verse 1, God declares that He brought them out of Egypt
as His appearance, His angel, declares
the same thing in Judges.
Judges
2:1 ¶ And an angel of the LORD came up
from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have
brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will
never break my covenant with you.
This
lends more clarity to the definition of what an angel in the Bible is, not the
good angel/bad angel of the Persian religion as a mythological winged creature
which the Roman church adopted, but as a presence
of something or someone that is somewhere else.
Isaiah
63:9 In all their affliction he was
afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his
pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
As some examples
in regard to children;
Matthew
18:10 Take heed that ye despise not one
of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always
behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.
Peter, the
apostle;
Acts
12:15 And they said unto her, Thou art
mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his
angel.
Church assemblies
of Christians;
Revelation
1:20 The mystery of the seven stars
which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The
seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks
which thou sawest are the seven churches.
And God’s
messenger, Gabriel;
Daniel
9:21 Yea, whiles I was speaking in
prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I
had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched
me about the time of the evening oblation.
Luke
1:26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God
unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
It
is pure foolishness and confusion to mistake an angel for the cherubim, the
living creatures of Ezekiel 1 and 10 or Revelation 4 who are the prototypes for
all creatures on earth as representing domestic and wild animals and fowls.
More on the cherubim later.
Here
we have the giving of the Ten Commandments, an important icon of Christian
civilization and culture. In verses 3-6 we have the ban on creating an image or
picture for the purpose of worship, which is the context. We then have the ban
on taking the Lord’s name in vain, for empty reasons, flippantly without
purpose, for instance, as a curse word. Most people even don’t like to be
talked about like they aren’t in the room. Such a thing is totally disregarding
God’s presence at all times and shows contempt and disdain for our Creator.
Then,
we come to the Sabbath Day, a blessing and a privilege that God granted men and
women of a guarantee of one day off from work every week. This is to be a day
of no work, not Mom cooking a meal for family and friends who visit or Dad
mowing the yard, but no work. Period.
This was important
enough to God to call for the death penalty if it was disobeyed.
Exodus
35:2 Six days shall work be done, but on
the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the
LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death. 3 Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your
habitations upon the sabbath day.
The
Ten Commandments are God’s basic standard. These first three are towards God.
Obeying God’s commandments were the external evidence that a Hebrew loved God.
Deuteronomy
6:4 ¶ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God
is one LORD: 5 And thou shalt love the
LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
might. 6 And these words, which I
command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy
children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when
thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign
upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of
thy house, and on thy gates.
Which Jesus
reinforced;
Matthew
22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind. 38 This is the first and great
commandment.
The
Hebrew, the Israelite, the Jew had proof of their love for their Creator that
flowed from their heart to their outward behavior. The Christian has evidence
because of something that God Himself puts in his or her heart by the mechanism
of the Holy Spirit. This is the proof that the Spirit resides in the Christian.
Galatians
5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is
no law. 24 And they that are Christ’s
have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in
the Spirit.
God promised the
Jews back in the Old Testament that this would happen.
Ezekiel
11:17 Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord
GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the
countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.
18 And they shall come thither, and they
shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations
thereof from thence. 19 And I will give
them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the
stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: 20 That they may walk in my statutes, and keep
mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their
God. 21 But as for them whose heart
walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I
will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord GOD.
And,
in that great tribulation at the end of history those who belong to God will be
obvious by their faithfulness to God’s commandments.
Revelation
14:12 Here is the patience of the
saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of
Jesus.
This
is the beginning of the civil and religious standard of laws given to the
physical, temporal Hebrew people to live by, manage their affairs by, and to
run their government by. God Himself was to be all three branches of government
for them; leading, creating laws, and judging.
Isaiah
33:22 For the LORD is our judge, the
LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.
The
Founders of the American government were primarily influenced by The
Enlightenment at their very uppermost levels although there were many
evangelical Christians in the second tier and below. The Enlightenment was a
time of a rejection of political religion and it was a time of worship of man’s
reason, and humanism with so-called great thinkers like Voltaire and Locke and
Thomas Paine leading the charge, sometimes religious, sometimes atheists. The
Enlightenment political philosopher that Founders like James Madison, the
so-called ‘Father of the Constitution,’ leaned on for the three branches of
government was Montesquieu. You can look but I doubt you will find, in the
debates over the Constitution, any reference to the verse in Isaiah as a reason
for our three branches of government. I have read two volumes of those debates
and one collection of Madison’s letters and there is no reference to the verse
in Isaiah. I will be very happy if you prove me wrong with a primary source
like a letter or a transcript of a debate. In any event, substituting the
words, “our Republican government,” for the
LORD is blasphemy so please don’t do it.
The
Ten Commandments are a way to see the mind of God, to understand His efforts to
draw mankind, or at least those who will come, to Him. Christian culture
reveres these commandments as standards to live by and there is no reason to
believe that God’s standards have changed. You and your fellow citizens would
do well to follow the Ten Commandments and adopt God’s standard as your own.
Your life would be less filled with regret and sorrow at the end if you did.
However, WE are not justified by the Law before God but by Christ’s
resurrection and our belief and faith in it.
Galatians
3:22 But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them
that believe. 23 But before faith came,
we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be
revealed. 24 Wherefore the law was our
schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after that faith is come, we are
no longer under a schoolmaster. 26 For
ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Exodus
20:12 ¶ Honour thy father and thy
mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth
thee. 13 Thou shalt not kill. 14 Thou shalt not commit adultery. 15 Thou shalt not steal. 16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy
neighbour. 17 Thou 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.
Paul reinforces
these commandments again for the Christian.
Romans
13:8 Owe no man any thing, but to love
one another; for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery,
Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly
comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour:
therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
The
commandment to honor one’s father and mother is interestingly brought up
through Paul by the Holy Spirit in the context of family relations.
Ephesians
6:1 ¶ Children, obey your parents in the
Lord: for this is right. 2 Honour thy
father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) 3 That it may be well with thee, and thou
mayest live long on the earth. 4 And, ye
fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord.
Jesus
defined verse 13 and clarified it for us showing it to be a reference to
killing an innocent person.
Matthew
19:18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus
said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not
steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
This
is not a commandment against defending yourself or an innocent third-party from
attack.
Luke
22:35 And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and
shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. 36 Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath
a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword,
let him sell his garment, and buy one. 37
For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished
in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning
me have an end. 38 And they said, Lord,
behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.
Adultery,
a type of fornication where the marriage vows are broken is very serious to
God. Jesus, in the following passage insists that you have committed adultery
when you desire to seek after someone other than your spouse, long before any
physical action is committed. It would be better if you were to blind or
cripple yourself rather than do such a thing.
Matthew
5:27 ¶ Ye have heard that it was said by
them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: 28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on
a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his
heart. 29 And if thy right eye offend
thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that
one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast
into hell. 30 And if thy right hand
offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee
that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be
cast into hell. 31 It hath been said,
Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
32 But I say unto you, That whosoever
shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to
commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery. [This sentence
should be interpreted as shall marry her
that is divorced for any other
reason just as James 1:13 should be interpreted with evil at the end of it because the context calls for that
understanding and it is not necessary to add the words in the text.]
Of
course, sermons can be made about how adultery symbolizes the Hebrew people and
the individual Christian holding something other than God in high esteem.
Theft
undermines the very basis on which security within any civilization rests; the
right of property. Outside of a Buddhist monk and his begging bowl I doubt
there is any culture that doesn’t condemn stealing from someone. There will be
many regulations regarding theft in the Law explained in more detail. For
examples, see Leviticus, chapters 6 and 19.
Bearing
false witness, lying to accuse
someone falsely, is not only lying but is the most malicious gossip and the
most unjust legal proceeding. God called His people not to lie to one another,
true.
Leviticus
19:11 ¶ Ye shall not steal, neither deal
falsely, neither lie one to another.
But,
lying to accuse someone falsely played an important part in the actions that
resulted in Christ’s crucifixion for our sins.
Matthew
26:57 ¶ And they that had laid hold on
Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the
elders were assembled. 58 But Peter
followed him afar off unto the high priest’s palace, and went in, and sat with
the servants, to see the end. 59 Now the
chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against
Jesus, to put him to death; 60 But found
none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came
two false witnesses, 61 And said, This
fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three
days.
We
like to call something gossip when someone tells something true about us when
we are not present but the gossip referred to in the Bible is malicious and
false.
Coveting
something that belongs to someone else is the foundation of stealing. Coveting
is also a type of idolatry.
Colossians
3:5 Mortify therefore your members which
are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil
concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
We
have built a very successful culture in America based on coveting. We are never
to be satisfied with what we have but to always want more. It is not surprising
that the “more” that people of weak or bad character want belongs to someone
else. Paul warns us of the dangers.
1Timothy
6:6 ¶ But godliness with contentment is
great gain. 7 For we brought nothing
into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and raiment let us be
therewith content. 9 But they that will
be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful
lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is the root of all
evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and
pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
This
links these commandments together in many ways. Coveting and stealing of the
affections of another person’s spouse is theft. In this verse defraud is to rob in context when an employer doesn’t pay you that day for the
work you did that day.
Leviticus
19:13 Thou shalt not defraud thy
neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with
thee all night until the morning.
And
here, in the following passage, it refers to adultery and fornication in
defrauding someone.
1Thessalonians
4:1 ¶ Furthermore then we beseech you,
brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how
ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. 2 For ye know what commandments we gave you by
the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will
of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
4 That every one of you should know how
to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; 5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the
Gentiles which know not God: 6 That no man go beyond and defraud his
brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as
we also have forewarned you and testified. 7
For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. 8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not
man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.
Ethics
are the standards we ascribe to if we are civilized and morals are our real and
everyday actions. If our ethics are no higher than our morals we are a pretty
sad lot. These commandments are God’s ethical standard for the Hebrew society,
the culture, to live by. They are as true or even more true than any so-called
laws of physics. The violation of these commandments almost invariably causes
awful consequences. As if you deny that gravity applies to you may result in
your breaking a leg of worse if you jump off the roof so stealing, lying, and
sexual immorality lead to certain dismal consequences almost all of the time.
Someone not being hurt jumping out of a tree does not make gravity a lie any
more than someone committing adultery and no one finding out except God makes
the commandment false. The damage done sometimes takes years to bear fruit. But
you can be certain it will. As preachers say, sin will take you further than
you want to go, make you stay longer than you want to stay, and make you pay
more than you want to pay. And, to violate one of these commandments is to
violate all of them.
James
2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole
law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
The
Ten Commandments are vitally important to understanding the history of so-called
Christian nations and terribly important for you to regard in your life. Of
course, our inability to keep God’s law is one of the reasons we need Christ so
badly and to depend on His righteousness and not our own. If you depended on
your righteousness to gain eternal life with God you would be sorely
disappointed in your failure.”
In verse 22 of Deuteronomy,
chapter 5, here is a very important reference to the tables of stone
God provided Moses. See
my comments on the passage in Exodus 24.
“Exodus
24:12 ¶ And the LORD said unto Moses,
Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of
stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach
them. 13 And Moses rose up, and his
minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God. 14 And he said unto the elders, Tarry ye here
for us, until we come again unto you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you:
if any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them. 15 And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud
covered the mount. 16 And the glory of
the LORD abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the
seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. 17 And the sight of the glory of the LORD was
like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.
18 And Moses went into the midst of the
cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and
forty nights.
Here
is what may be the beginning of the alphabet that we use, the precursor to it.
God created the writing
that contrasted with the pictograms of hieroglyphics and cuneiform writing that
dominated the ancient world. From China, Sumeria, and Egypt to the
civilizations of the ancient Americas pictures were used to convey ideas and
history and as representations of things worshipped. The basic units of writing,
the letters, become symbols for ideas rather than pictures representing things
to be worshipped as idols. ‘A’, instead of a symbol for a bull or an ox, is
Aleph in Hebrew and Alpha in Greek, and ‘A’ for modern purposes. A good study
for this is Marc A. Ouaknin’s Mysteries
of the Alphabet. This could be part of God drawing a people out of a world
of idolatrous pictures to be adored and turning their writing into ideas to be
expressed by symbols.
God
is going to give the Ten Commandments, the foundational principles of the
Hebrew’s relationship with Him and with each other, to Moses. These are
negative principles designed to constrain man’s inherited sin nature and
channel their journey between the rocks of idolatry against God and evil
behavior toward each other. Within their
fullness, which will be revealed, lie the positive statements that will become
the essence of Christian faith and practice.
Deuteronomy
6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God
with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Leviticus
19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear
any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
They are the
essence of Jesus’ positive statements.
Matthew
22:35 Then one of them, which was a
lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the
law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind. 38 This is the first and great
commandment. 39 And the second is like
unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law
and the prophets.
The
essence of loving God, from the commandments, is to not worship other gods and
the essence of loving one’s neighbor, according to the commandments, is to do
him no harm.
Christ
revealed the fullness of the Law, for instance, in His story of The Good
Samaritan. It is not enough not to harm someone as an expression of love but to
do good to them, as well.
Luke
10:29 But he, willing to justify
himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? 30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went
down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of
his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 And by chance there came down a certain
priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the
place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed,
came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, 34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds,
pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an
inn, and took care of him. 35 And on the
morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and
said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come
again, I will repay thee. 36 Which now
of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the
thieves? 37 And he said, He that shewed
mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
James laid it out
this way.
James
2:14 ¶ What doth it profit, my brethren,
though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister be naked, and
destitute of daily food, 16 And one of
you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye
give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
17 Even so faith, if it hath not works,
is dead, being alone.
With regard to the
simile in verse 17 note;
Deuteronomy
4:24 For the LORD thy God is a consuming
fire, even a jealous God.
Hebrews
12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Biblically
speaking, seven is a number that can represent completion, the perfecting of a
thing, finishing it. The seven days of Creation come to mind, as an example.
Forty days is a number that can represent testing and trial. See Elijah’s forty
days on Mount Horeb also in 1Kings 19 and Jesus forty days in the wilderness in
the Gospels.”
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