Only the other day we talked about how God chose Moses, the hero of the Old Testament to give His commandments for His people. Even though these commandments were given to the people in the Old Testament, they still apply in essence to God’s people even today. Many so called devout Christians do not even know all of them. God wrote these specific commandments on a stone tablet! It only goes to show how serious He was. There is a power and authority on these commandments. All of us have heard so much about the Ten Commandments that we do not consider them important now. I am attempting to recap all that we learnt when we were young.
The Ten Commandments were from Exodus 20: 1-17. Take a look again…
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.
1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or 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 on 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.
3. 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.
4. 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 manservant, nor your maidservant, 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 the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
All of the above commandments are self explanatory. They are specific commands that God wanted for all of us to keep and obey without questioning. Take a close look at them. Each of them is a law that will guide us living in total harmony with ourselves and our neighbours. Violating them would surely invite the wrath of God. Many are the stories in the Old Testament of people coming into misery just for not observing them. Have we not heard “Thus sayeth the Lord” again and again?
But folks, there was a flip side to these deadly commands, have you noticed it? God sent His only begotten Son Jesus to die on the cross so that our sins were all washed away in an instant. We all know the New Commandment that God gave us through Jesus. See John 13:34… “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you love one another.” The watch word here is ‘love.’ When we truly love one another, we will not covet that which belongs to our neighbor, we will not steal, commit murder or worship other Gods.
Even so, the Ten Commandments were given by God on a stone tablet, which makes them so important. It is worth our while to remember them also all the time. It is my wish that all we Christians remember them and stand for them now and forever more.
Bible commentator: Sunder Venkataram
