By Khen Lim
Humanity’s foundation in morality is pre-established by God.
The bedrock is what we call the Ten Commandments and it is these precepts that
unveil the qualities that the Lord expects us to adopt for our lives. We take a
look at them in gist here.
Shrouded in a thickened cloud of darkness and foreboding
mystery, the entire mountain just grew more ominous by the minute. It was the
third day. And then Moses leads the people to gather at the base of the
mountain to meet with God.
Amidst the lightning, thunder and the smoke around Mount
Sinai, God descended and His glory was akin to a devouring inferno. Exodus 19
tells of God’s frightening presence so terrifying that the people quaked. Even Moses
said, “I am full of fear and trembling” (Heb 12:21). In the stillness and
silence that followed, God began to speak with a retinue of angels surrounding
Him. The world was about to be taught history’s most significant lesson in
morality called the Ten Commandments.
Beginning with the First
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God began by declaring, “I am the Lord your God, who brought
you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Ex 20:2). It might
be redundant to say that but the Israelites needed constant reminding of who
God was. His miraculous feats attested to His supremacy as the Deliverer, far
beyond any gods. He now speaks His law not only for the benefit of the Hebrews
but to honour them as the keepers of His law for the rest of humanity.
God brought ten precepts, succinct but comprehensive, to equip
the duty-bound man and to found his roots in the principle of love. In Luke
10:27 (also Deuteronomy 6:4-5), we are reminded to love the Lord our God with
all our hearts and souls and to also love our neighbour as ourselves.
Then the Second,
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In the next verse, God says, “You shall have no other gods
before Me” (Ex 20:3). God is the uncreated One. Unto Him is the Source and
Sustainer of life. It is only He who is bestowed the order of supreme reverence
and worship. Therefore we are not to invest our affections on any other object anywhere
else because to do otherwise is to lessen our love for Him.
In the subsequent three verses (vv4-6), the emphasis builds as
God reiterates that we are not to make for ourselves idols. The specific
descriptions were crystal-clear. When we apply verses 4-5 to today’s society,
it simply describes any sinful attempt to deify material objects to represent
Him. Such actions reduces our conception of God and dilutes our perception of a
perfect God. They also lead us to revere the creature and not the Creator.
Further on in verse 5, God reiterates His possessiveness of us.
In Ex 34:14, He gave Himself the Name of ‘Jealous’ because He is a “jealous God”
(Ex 20:5b). He points to the sacred relationship between Him and His people,
bringing to the fore a bespoke conception of a marriage in the making and in
that, He describes idolatry as spiritual adultery, a displeasure He would, in
His jealousy, rail against.
In the last part of verse 5, God describes how the
consequences of parental sins can be passed down the generations. Invariably we
see countless examples of how sin begets sin as parents walk their offspring from
infancy to adolescence to adulthood. Sin passes down the generations like a
perversion or a fatal disease that visits the entire family of descendants,
transmitting them as an unwanted legacy unless we fear enough to restrain ourselves
from following the deadly course of sin.
Verse 6 looks at the flipside – those who keep their faith,
those who are obedient and submissive. To those who love Him and uphold His
instructions, God guarantees blessings and lovingkindness not just to a few but
to thousands of generations henceforth.
And the Third,
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Verse 7 says, “You shall not take the Name of the Lord your
God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His Name in
vain.” Most of us know this as swearing, cursing and cussing and making false
oaths but it also extends to any manner of using God’s Name flippantly,
thoughtlessly or insouciantly. We can also show dishonour in mindless
repetition of His Name and by trivialising its significance. As Psalm 111:9 puts
it, “Holy and awesome is His Name.”
Also the Fourth,
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The fourth commandment covers verses 8 to 11, centring on the
importance of remembering and keeping the Sabbath. The Lord reminds us that we
are to labour for and complete our week’s toil in the six days leading to rest
on the seventh, just as He did after creating the heavens and the earth, the
sea and all that is in them.
However many pounce on Jesus’ saying in Mark 2:27, claiming
that, “the Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath.” People take
this out of context in justifying working in deference to honouring the
Sabbath. While the caring of the sick and the infirmed understandably cannot
stop, needless labour or deliberate ignorance and negligence for commercial
expediencies is unacceptable to God and must be avoided.
Isaiah 58:13 (NASB) says, “If because of the Sabbath you turn
your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a
delight, the holy day of the Lord honourable, and honour it, desisting from
your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word.”
This commandment is best remembered as a memorial to His
Creation of the world and therefore is another affirmation of His undeniable Creator
role in our humanity as opposed to whatever false gods. The Sabbath is taken as
our opportunity of allegiance to God.
Then comes the Fifth…
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Verse 12 tells us to honour our fathers and mothers but it is
more than just that. God has placed a tacit responsibility in ordaining parents
to take charge of their children particularly during their early years,
moulding and shaping them, inculcating God-given values and teaching them
obedience, loyalty, love, piety and godliness. And in so doing, anyone who
rejects the authority of his parents will also be denying God His authority.
However trying the relationship with the parents may be, children in all their
years must remain respectful, submissive and obedient, showering them with love
as the roles are reversed, where the young must now care for the old.
However the commandment has an additional meaning. As the
second part of the verse says, “…that your days may be prolonged in the land which
the Lord your God gives you.” Ephesians 6:2 states specifically that this is the
(first) commandment with a promise. As the Israelites at that time were expecting
to enter Canaan, this was a pledge to obedience and to longevity and
fruitfulness in the Promised Land. God promises that in an exchange (that unfortunately
did not happen), He would have granted the Israelites a life free of the curse
of sin.
Followed by the Sixth…
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In less than a handful of words, this terse but succinct
commandment tells us to simply not murder. We are not to take lives
premeditatedly or deliberately. We are not to deprive others of their lives out
of evil intent. This includes all acts of harmfulness with the intent to injure
or shorten lives, to express physical violence out of vile hatred and an
indulgence of any dark passion as well as wilful neglect of the needy or
sufferer, depriving them of proper healthcare.
And a Seventh…
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In the seventh commandment, committing adultery isn’t just
confined to the actual physical act. Jesus had also given us a lesson of the
far-reaching extent of the law of His Father, declaring that even lewd thoughts
or appearances are no less sinful than the forbidden deed itself. In other
words, God’s call for purity defines not just an exterior life that others can
see but also an internalised discipline where all secreted intents, ideas and
feelings are to be expurgated even if they are unseen or unheard.
Also an Eighth…
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Verse 15 is also another that describes personal obligations
of a type that is beyond what the words tell us literally. Beyond
straightforward stealing implying theft and robbery, the eighth commandment also
forbids hijacking and kidnapping, dealing in slavery, short-handling and any
act that results in the misfortune of another owing to fraudulence.
Including the Ninth…
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Verse 16 uses the term ‘bear false witness.’ In relation to
one’s neighbour, it means we are not to deceive by way of falsehood. We are not
to be someone who aren’t. We should not overstate our intentions, insinuate
something that is incorrect, exaggerate to the point of deception or to project
an impression that is misleading. We are forbidden from misrepresenting,
slandering or conveying harmful innuendos, backstabbing, telling tall tales
with spurious intentions.
And finally the Tenth
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Verse 17 is complex. In some interpretations of the Ten
Commandments, this verse is categorically three sub-instructions dealing with
the neighbour’s home, wife and any of their possessions including helpers and livestock
including beasts of burden.
In the Jewish Talmud as well as the Protestant version, the
final commandment strikes at the heart of evil (covetous) desires. Google’s
definition of the word ‘covet’ is simple and effective enough and that is, ‘to
yearn to possess or have (something),’ which is another way of saying, ‘to
crave,’ ‘to hanker after’ or ‘to hunger for.’ All of these tend to point
towards a person’s seemingly desperate longing for something or someone who doesn’t
belong to him.
* * * * * *
Note: Subsequent sermons in the next number of months at Hosanna EFC
will focus specifically on each and every commandment in greater detail.
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