It's a New Month

Okay, so last month I was all about the Passion of Jesus Christ--his sinless suffering, his sacrificial death, his subsequent resurrection--and what a trip that was for me. I so enjoyed getting into those last days of Jesus before His trip to heaven. I took the last week off for personal reasons, but now I'm back and ready to start something new. I've got some ideas for the future, but something the Lord has been prompting in my heart is a return to His instructions for basic Godly living. Those life standards, immutable and unchangeable and irresistible, are summed up in Ten Commandments that have caused much ado among men since the day God's finger carved them in stone. In fact, these are the only rules He ever carved in stone, and they are as good for us today as they were 3500 years ago.

There is nothing in the Ten Commandments that is tied to a culture or period of time. There is nothing in the Ten Commandments that is defined by one specific people group or nation, or any one religion. There is nothing in the Ten Commandments that cannot be universally applied to all societies everywhere, because these are just basic tenets for life...good in theory, good in theology, good in practice. And I thought I might spend a few weeks exploring them. Reading through them again today opened my eyes to some things we tend to skip over or forget about, and I'll be sharing those thoughts over the course of this discussion. Please add your own thoughts about the Divine Decalogue, and let us draw closer to the heart of God.

And 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 bondage.

You shall have no other gods before Me.

"You shall not make for yourself a carved image--
any likeness of anything that is in heaven above,

or that is in the earth beneath,

or that is in the water under the earth;

You shall not bow down to them nor serve them.

For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,

visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children

to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

but showing mercy to thousands,

to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,

for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

In it you shall do no work:

you, nor your son, nor your daughter,

nor your male servant, nor your female servant,

nor your cattle,

nor your stranger who is within your gates.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth,

the sea, and all that is in them,

and rested on the seventh day.

Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

"Honor your father and your mother,

that your days may be long upon the land

which the Lord your God is giving you.

"You shall not murder.

"You shall not commit adultery.

"You shall not steal.

"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

"You shall not covet your neighbor's house;

you shall not covet your neighbor's wife,

nor his male servant, nor his female servant,

nor his ox, nor his donkey,

nor anything that is your neighbor's."

Perhaps the most important thing for us to realize about the Ten Commandments is the statement that introduces them: And God spoke all these words. These aren't a bunch of rules Moses made up on Mount Sinai to impose dictatorial control over the lives of his people. These aren't the result of a committee imposing its sense of morality on the community. These are the very words of God, and they were given so that we would understand His character in our quest to be like Him. And He shows us here that the best way to be like Him is simply to hear and obey His words. He gave these commandments for our benefit, not our detriment.