Introduction: A True Story! A man was imprisoned in Brisbane, Australia for theft. He was led to Jesus and nourished in his new found faith by a caring couple. On his discharge they offered to drive him to his area in Far North Queensland, which is about 1500 km. On Sunday morning after a night’s stop in Mackay they went to the cathedral in which the text over the altar was ‘Thou shall not steal.’ This was not the couple’s city or church and they were dismayed when they saw the text. They felt that maybe the man would be terribly distressed being reminded of his guilt! After the service the man’s first words were ‘Did you see that?’ ‘See what?’ the couple replied’, ‘God’s promise to me in large letters above the altar!’ There are both inhibitions in these verses but there is a huge amount of life-changing positivity if we live within their bounds!
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. – This command has aspects which are definitely related to our relationship with God – almost totally disregarded by the Western world, particularly if you see that it is meant to be weekly! But, if kept, there are lots of good things for the family, the work force and society.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. – In Genesis a man was told to leave his parents and become a unit with his wife. That does not contradict this ‘command’, and we all are wise if we respect the other side of the coin! This is dealt with in the whole Bible by telling the parents to have the perfect balance between love and authority, discipline and mateship!
13 “You shall not murder. – Cain set a bad example with the first recorded sinful act after Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God! I wish that people would recognize the humanity of the embryo. And somehow sort what is a just war and an unjust one – for soldiers can be ordered to commit murder even by ‘droning’ these days!
14 “You shall not commit adultery. – This is so clear! The Bible is so clear about marriage relationships. Sexual urges, which are meant to be so pleasurable if followed under the God-ordered way, If Satan controls and people’s fallen nature run riot, out of control they are so society wrecking! In many circumstances male and female both need to learn that the word ‘No’ is so necessary!
15 “You shall not steal. – This applies to a lot of things – goods, ideas, someone’s reputation!
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour. – Lying and gossiping are the two most obvious things which we are all faced with! But it is so important in the media, in courts, in business as well as at a personal level!
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” – The breaking of this last of the ‘ten commandments’ is the backbone of most advertising these days. Advertising should be for information but it seems to me that much of advertising’s aim is to persuade people to buy what they don’t need and often leads them to be the sort of people that God doesn’t want us to be! The purpose of this commandment is to see that His work advances and to highlight ‘Loving our neighbours as ourselves’. The Bible talks about letting justice flow down like a river. Narcissism doesn’t have any positives in God’s scheme of things!
18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” – Does fear of God mean knocking knees and shaking limbs or does it mean awe, respect, submission?
Proverbs 7: 1-3 – My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;
bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. –Is this only the voice of Solomon or do we hear God in the background? Or is it the foreground?
Prayer: Thank You God for giving us such so simple but profound ‘laws’ to live by.
As I read it! 