Sunday, January 10, 2021

Deuteronomy 5:6-22 comments: The Ten Commandments revisited

 

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.”

No comments: