“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 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. “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.””
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-8, 12-17 NKJV
My mother’s family was always very competitive in terms of playing board or card games. I remember that when my mother and some of her family members would gather to play “Scrabble,” the game was often interrupted by accusations of cheating. In general, the accusations proved to be true. As you may know, in the game, there are a couple of blank tiles that can be used for whatever letter you need to complete your word. Now, whereas it has no points associated with it, it can enable you to make words on squares of high value, using letters of high value, thereby racking in the points. Well, one of the competitors was notorious for turning over a regular tile and using it as a blank tile, a cheat that sometimes wasn’t discovered until after the game. Then there was the hiding of undesired letters, enabling you to pick extra letters without being detected. And, there were other ploys, and other affected games (which I don’t have space to list here). Now, this “cheating” was good-natured and usually ended with laughing. But, the fact is, many people just don’t like rules, especially when they stand between them and what they want.
Lance Armstrong is an American road racing cyclist who became an icon of the sport having won seven consecutive Tour de France races. Sadly, he was later stripped of all his titles having been found out to be central in a doping scheme. Lance wanted to win more than he wanted to follow the rules and it came back to bite him.
Sometimes rules are not followed because the assumption is that nobody else is really following the rules, so why should I be penalized for being the only standup guy? Such was probably the case with Lance’s case, discussed above.
Additionally, some rules are considered to be arbitrary and capricious. Some rules are seen as being unfairly applied. Whatever the excuse we have for breaking the rules, we probably have as many excuses as rules.
Today we find Moses receiving what we have come to reference as the Ten Commandments. It’s interesting to note that these commandments were given early in the forty year trek.
Some people think that the Ten Commandments are passé and not relevant in the Christian age.
Let’s take a brief look at what Jesus had to say about the Ten Commandments.
In one case Jesus was approached by a young ruler wanting to know what he could do to attain eternal life. Jesus offered the following answer:
“Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ””
Matthew 19:16-19 NKJV
Here we see Jesus reiterating six of the Commandments. But it doesn’t stop there.
“Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.””
Matthew 22:35-40 NKJV
Here, Jesus is introducing a system of organizing the commandments, boiling them down to two great commandments: loving God completely and loving others as yourself. Then He makes the observation that everything we need to do is a product of observing these two commandments.
But what about observation of the Sabbath? A full discussion of that question would take a lot more time than we have here, but I will offer you this. When Jesus was approached (more than once) about why His disciples “broke” the Sabbath, this was His response:
“And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.””
Mark 2:27-28 NKJV
What Jesus is saying here is that He—being the Creator of all things—determines the rules over how the Sabbath is observed. In fact, He has become our Sabbath rest. Now, this does not take away the need for God to be honored in a consistent manner by gathering with the saints. Jesus was resurrected on the first day of the week and we worship on that day. However, there are still denominations that gather on Saturday and I have no argument with them. The point is, a time must be set aside for the honoring of God in the company of other believers. With that being said, let us understand that God has said what He wants and it is our part to obey.
We know that we cannot earn entrance into God’s Kingdom by obeying any commandments. Rather, the transformation leading to eternal life comes to those who accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. But make no mistake, our Christian walk must be characterized by behavior consistent with God’s righteousness.
For today let us discover what Moses discovered:
God has rules.
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