The Ten Commandments A study of the past and a look into the future. Exodus 20;3-17. The children of Isreal could not maintain a working relationship with God under the law of worship that God had laid down in the begining, so God decided to give them something simple to follow. A sets of laws that they could follow. The Ten Commandments were written for the , Jewish House of Isreal, and not for the gentiles, for at that time we knew not God and were not recognised by God as a people. This stayed the same all the way untill the Jews rejected Jesus as Christ. This study deals with the individual aspects of the commandments and their impact upon all men. 1. Thou shall have no other gods before me. This commandment came about because of the continueing rebellion of Isreal, in worshiping false gods, their people were told not to intermarry with the local peoples because of their religious practices, again the gentile race at this time knew not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, only the idol gods at the time. 2.Thou shall not make unto the any graven immage. What is a graven immage? A graven immage ,is any form of statue , made of wood, clay, bronze, gold, silver or any other substance, that depicts an animal, person, ect that people will bow down to and worship. Have you ever wondered why God, Himself, never allowed an immage of Himself to be produced for us to worship? The answer is simple, unlike the other false gods of the earth, our God is spirit and alive, He never wanted us to worship something visiable but to worship Him in Spirit and Truth. This is what seperates The Great I Am from all others. The immages of Jesus that we have today are an innacurate, portraiel of the phyiscal apperance of Jesus the man.The Bible states that Jesus had, short hair, short in stature and was not easy to look upon. There is nothing wrong using the pictures that we have so long as we dont worship them. We use them today to keep us in mind whom we are trying to become, like Jesus. 3.Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. It seems as thou, people today, wish to blashpheme Gods name as a matter of convenience and never take a second thought of the consiquences. We dont take Gods name in vain because we are called by His name, according to scripture. To down grade God is to down grade ourselves, we are made in His immage and in His likeness, we are who we are by the grace of God. 4. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy. What is the sabbath day? To most people, its Sunday, but to scripture, its any day that we choose to worship the God of the Bible. We are not to judge any man on a sabbath, a new moon or holoday(festavall). What ever day we choose, thou, must be kept a Holy Day in reverance to God and the sacrifice that Jesus had made for us. Some churches meet on Sunday, some on Wensdays, Fridays and some on multiable days of the week. Some alternate from Sunday to another day every other mounth. The Bible states that we are to meet more often as we see the day of the Lord approach. Most Churches that I attend meet three times a week. 5. Honour Thy Father and thy Mother, that thy days may be long upon the land, which the Lord thy God giveth the. I wrote the entire verse for one reason. This is the first commandment with a promise. If you look closely, a child will live longer by obeying this commandment. On the other hand, they will loose life with disobediance. Why was this commandment so important to God to give a cause and effect? Because later Jesus stated that He would be all that we needed, Jesus stated, " Who is my Mother and Brethern, Those that do the will of My Father "This commandment was important because it was the patteren for us on the worship of God Himself, He is our Mother and Father and Brother and Sister, all that we will ever need. Remember that there will nether be male nor female in the kingdom of Heavan. The first commandment with promise that will decide our length upon this earth. God is not only able to promise but also to deliever upon His promises. 6. Thou Shall Not Kill. Thou shall not destroy the immage of God. We are made in His immage and likeness and when we kill others, we destroy the likeness of The Creator. We as God, have the right to defend what He has given us. The Bible states that God has His own armory, His weapons of Self defence and of Offensive warfare. So we as christians can say that killing others must be in line with the will of God. Killing indiscremently is not allowed. Other religions state that killing can be done to all that are guilty but the innocent must be spared. This tipe of religion states that the guilty are those that are of other religions and is a contridection of Gods law, hereinto they are a false religion. Musslem for example. 7.Thou Shall Not Commit Adultry Adultry here is two different acts, the First is adultry against God, by going after other gods beside Him. Worshiping Him as a primary God and then worshiping another false god the rest of the time. What is a false god ? You can make a god out of any thing ,money, land , people, position, title just about anything. And when you lean toward these things, you commit adultry against God. The second thing here is adultry against your spouce, the physical or mental act with someone else except your mate. Jesus said that if a man( meaning male or female) lust after a woman in his mind then he hath commited adultry. The Bible deals with the subject in these two ways and also deals with the way to combat this sin. 8.Thou shall not steal. Theft is one of the major causes of people ending up in prison. In the time of the Law of Moses, a thief would be tried and if found guilty, the hand that did the stealing, would be cut off. Jesus made the way for a thief to be forgiven, . Mercy rejoyest over judgement. 9. Thou shall not bear false wittness. Today it hard to know who is telling the truth and who is telling a lie. Someone who is not under the New Covenent is not bound to tell the truth. The Bible states it this way, "The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God and neither can be." Truth not always comes forth in the court rooms,it often depends upon how much money a person has to hide the truth. Jesus warned the doctors and lawyers that, theirs is the greater condemnation. Remember the old saying, "Believe one third of what you hear and only hafe of what you see." 10. Thou shall not Covet. Covetness is longing after what belongs to someone else. Seeking to have something that you havent earned or cant afford, theift deals with this subject at times, when a person longs after something so much it leads to theift. This is not only a material posetion but also can be a person, a neighbors wife or husband, ect. Jesus gives His own interpretation of these comandments in Matthew ,Mark, Luke and John. How many can you find. The Ten Commandments are just the start of commandments that God has handed down. Love thy neighbor as thy self is another one that you can add to the list. Abstention is also listed in scripture, in Acts 15:29, 1.Abstain from meats offered to idols. 2. Abstain from blood. 3. Abstain from things strangled. 4. Abstain from fornication. The Ten Commandments open up a lot of questions that we need to address and they open up a good avenue for discussion on their relivents for us today. I hope that this guide will be of help to open up avenues of descussion with the younger christian. The Ten Commandments, a study guide. Js. ARS.
