The Bible says in Deuteronomy 5:6, I am the
LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of
bondage. This verse is the introduction to the Ten Commandments.
This verse is therefore an explanation of why we should try to obey the Ten
Commandments. God has done something for those who believe: God brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of
bondage. Everyone who has been saved by Jesus
was taken from bondage by the grace of God. There are many ways in which
unsaved people are enslaved to the sin inside themselves and enslaved to the
world around them. Human beings are enslaved to sin because they cannot stop
sinning. Sin has a hold on them. Jesus said in John 8:32, You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Jesus made it clear what kind of bondage He was talking
about because Jesus said in John 8:34, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
People who are not saved are in
bondage because they have been captured by Satan. Satan is the great deceiver.
He has deceived the world, and Satan holds captive the minds of those who do
not believe. It says in Second Timothy 2:25-26, In meekness instructing those
that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the
acknowledging of the truth;
[26] And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil,
who are taken captive by him at his will. The slavery involves
blindness to the truth. The ideas, philosophies, and false religions of the
world have trapped people. The entertainments, the music, the pursuits, and the
priorities of the world have captured people.
The only escape from all these things
is through faith in Jesus. Once you have escaped the enslavement and the guilt
and the blindness, you understand the love of God and you will want to obey His
commandments. The first commandment is in Deuteronomy 5:7, Thou shalt
have none other gods before me. This means that we shall not have
any other God before His face. Our God is a jealous God. He wants His love and
devotion returned by those for whom He has done so much, including sending His
Son to die on the cross. When you love someone, you want them to love you and
only you. God is no different.
The second commandment is found in
Deuteronomy 5:8-10, Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of
any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is
in the waters beneath the earth:[9] Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto
them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation
of them that hate me,[10] And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that
love me and keep my commandments. God told believers
not to make any graven image, or any
likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the waters beneath the earth.
Of course, the heathen did that very thing. As a matter of fact, it was and is
very common to have images. Why doesnt God want believers to make images of
Him? For one thing to have an image of God denies the true nature of God. God
is a Spirit. No one has seen God at any time. No one even knows what Jesus looked
like. To have an image takes the attention away from God, and puts the focus on
the image. An image is made by the hands of man, and so it is impossible for
that to represent God. God made all things. To have an image that is made by a
created being (man) that looks like a created animal or anything else is the
exact opposite of the truth of things and where all things came from. It is no
wonder that God said to human beings in the second commandment, Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any
likeness of any thing.
After the Lord gave the second
commandment, He gave a warning. If the all-powerful, all-knowing, and
everywhere present God says not to do something, then there is a good reason
for it. People had better pay attention. There will be terrible consequences to
those who disobey Gods commandments. This is the law of retribution or we
might say the law of consequences. That is how the law works. Whenever you
break Gods law, you will suffer Gods punishment. That is why God said in
verse 9, for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them
that hate me. The consequences of sin can be so great that those consequences
endure for many generations. The best example of that is death. Death came into
the world because of the sin of Adam and Eve, and death is still here to
afflict us all who live thousands of years after Adam and Eve.
Thankfully, our God is a merciful God.
Mercy is when Jesus does not give you what you deserve. God knows that we are
weak and sinful, and He loves to show us mercy. Jesus died on the cross so that
He could show us mercy. That is why God said in verse 10, And shewing
mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. Notice that
experiencing Gods mercy is tied to loving God and keeping His commandments.
That is because true belief in Jesus involves turning from sin and turning to
the Lord. No one has true Biblical belief unless they also desire to serve the
Lord. That is why John the Baptist said to those who came to him without such a
desire in Matthew 3:6-8, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing
their sins.[7] But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come
to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you
to flee from the wrath to come?[8] Bring forth therefore fruits meet
for repentance: To repent means to change ones mind from a person not
desiring to serve Jesus to one who does desire to serve Him.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy 5:11, Thou shalt
not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him
guiltless that taketh his name in vain. This is the third of
the Ten Commandments, and it is closely associated with the first two. It is
all about having respect and honor for God. If you respect God for who He is
and for what He has done for you, then it will be shown in your speech. If you
do not respect God, then that will also be shown in your speech. Many sins are
committed by improper speech, such as cursing, or gossiping, or talking in a
filthy way with dirty jokes, or lying. But the worst of all improper speech is
to use Gods name without respect. That is sin: a great sin.
It says in Deuteronomy 5:12-15, Keep the
sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee.[13]
Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work:[14]
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do
any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy
maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy
stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may
rest as well as thou.[15] And remember that thou wast
a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out
thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy
God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day. The Sabbath Day is
Saturday. Christians in the first century did not keep the Sabbath Day in the
way described here because Christians began meeting on Sunday, the first day of
the week. The Sabbath is the last day of the week. Jesus rose from the dead on
Sunday, and so meeting on Sunday morning is a good memorial to the resurrection
of the Savior. The Christians of the first century probably realized that the
Sabbath Day observances were a key part of the Old Testament law. Remove the
Sabbath Day observances and you have removed the law. The work of the priests,
and the animal sacrifices, and the temple ceremonies occurred on the Sabbath
Days. The required feast celebrations were special Sabbath days, and they were
all integral to the law. It says in the New Testament to Christians, You are not under law, but under grace.
We do not keep the law and therefore
we do not keep the Sabbath Day, at least not in the way that it was kept in the
Old Testament. Jesus was condemned for doing His miracles (His works) on the
Sabbath. That is one of the problems with trying to define for others what can
or cannot be done on any day of the week: you end up condemning things that
should not be condemned. If something is good, it can be done on any day of the
week. That is what Jesus taught. It says in John 5:16-18, And
therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had
done these things on the sabbath day.[17] But Jesus answered them, My
Father worketh hitherto, and I work.[18] Therefore the Jews sought the
more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also
that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
If Jesus could work on the Sabbath(Saturday), so can we.
Notice Deuteronomy 5:15. Concerning
the Sabbath, there is something that we are supposed to remember. We are
supposed to remember that God saved us. We did not do anything at all to save
ourselves. We performed no work, and we did no deeds to gain salvation.
Salvation is by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus did it all.
His work purchased our salvation. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy
God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm:
therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day. You are
keeping the Sabbath Day, if you remember the Lord and rest in His finished
work. As Jesus demonstrated for us in the days of the New Testament, it is not
so important that we cease from work on the Sabbath Day, but it is important
that we remember where is our rest. We rest in Christ.
The Bible says
in Deuteronomy 5:16, Honour thy father
and thy mother, as the Lord hath commanded thee; that thy days may be
prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the Lord thy
God giveth thee. This is the only one of the Ten Commandments that is addressed
to the parent-child relationship, and it is a command to the child and not to
the parent. Most of the Christian parenting teachings that we often hear put an
emphasis on what the parents are responsible to do in raising their children,
giving the impression that the parents and what the parents do and how the
parents punish will decide how the children will turn out. The Ten Commandments
does not do this. Of course, the parents do have responsibilities such as to
reward, to punish, to teach the Word of God, to love, and to provide for the
children a secure and safe environment. But the fourth commandment tells the
children what they should do. It is very
simple. Children are told to honor their father and their mother. The New
Testament gives a very similar commandment to children who have Christian
parents in Ephesians 6:1-3, Children, obey your parents in the Lord; for
this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is
the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou
mayest live long on the earth. The most important factor in deciding how
children end up is not the parents at all: it is the children themselves. The
children will make decisions just like every human being. And the decisions
that the children make will determine their destiny. A child that is rebellious
to his or her parents will not learn to live under authority, and such an
attitude will carry over to other situations where they need to be under
authority. A rebellious child will likely have trouble with police and other
civil authorities, with teachers, with supervisors on the job, and in their
spiritual relationship with God. In other words their lives will be messed up.
It will not be well with them, and the odds increase that they will live a
much shorter life than they could have lived. If you refuse the advice of
someone who loves you and is wiser than you, then you will not end up in a good
place. Many children have turned against their parents and blamed their parents
instead of honoring them. Turn to the Lord while you have time.
___________________________________________________
Copyright; 2015 by Charles
F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved