Do you know the Ten Commandments? How many of them can you recite from memory? According to one poll, only 40 percent of Americans can name more than four of the commandments. Can you? Let’s see. Let’s now read them together:
The Ten Commandments
- “You shall have no other gods before me.
- “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
- “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God.
- “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
- “Honor your father and your mother.
- “You shall not murder.
- “You shall not commit adultery.
- “You shall not steal.
- “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
- “You shall not covet.
Again, not everyone has the Bible down pat. I have here some actual answers that a class of students gave on a Bible test at a Catholic elementary school:
- Answer: Moses led the Jews to the red sea where they made unleavened bread which is bread without any ingredients.
- Answer: The Egyptians were all drowned in the dessert. Afterwards, Moses went up to mount cyanide to get the ten commandments
- Answer: the first commandments was when Eve told Adam to eat the apple.
- Answer: The seventh commandment is thou shalt not admit adultery.
- Answer: The greatest miracle in the bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed
BACK TO THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. They are old; real old. Our best “guessimates” place them somewhere around 1400-1500 years prior to the time of Jesus Christ. That makes them nearly 3500 years old today. And yet, in spite of their age, they are just as relevant today as they were back on the day that they were given.
The Preacher’s Outline and Sermon Bible Commentary notes that “the most important document ever written is the Ten Commandments. The influence of the Ten Commandments upon nations and societies could never be measured; indeed the importance of the Ten Commandments can never be overstressed. The Ten Command-ments have influenced the world and the civil laws of nations more than any other document ever devised.”
Maxie Dunnam in the book Mastering The Old Testament states, “I doubt if any document has influenced Western culture to the degree that the Ten Commandments have. In Western civilization, they have a position of inescapable significance. For Jews, Roman Catholics, and Protestants, this is the only formulation of religious principles held in common. The civil law of many lands has rootage in this covenant law of God given at Sinai.”
James Madison, the fourth president and the man who was known as “The Father of Our Constitution” observed, “We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
Leaving that, I find it noteworthy that each of the Ten Commandments are restated in the New Testament either in their exact words or in words that say basically the same thing. For instance, Mark 10:17-19 (New Living Translation) notes, “As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus asked. ‘Only God is truly good. But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.’”
Jesus also dealt with some of the commandments in His Sermon on the Mount.
The Apostle Paul likewise alluded to several of the Ten Commandments. Notice how this is borne out in Romans 13:8-10, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
Also, I want to point out in passing:
- The Ten Commandments are stated as moral absolutes. As such, they are meant to be kept—no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
- The Ten Commandments are written in such a way so that they apply to you and me as individuals, as well as to you and me as a community or society of people.
- The commandments fall into two natural divisions:
- The first four commandments concern our relationship to God.
- The next six commandments concern our relationship to others.
- Eight of the 10 are stated as negatives (they begin with either a “no” or “don’t”), but each implies a positive.
- No other Gods – I’ll be your God.
- No idols – You won’t need any cheap copies.
- Don’t misuse the name – Honor the name.
- Remember the Sabbath – Take time for rest and worship.
- Honor your parents – Love them. Do not mistreat your father and mother.
- Don’t murder – Respect and reverence life.
- Don’t commit adultery — You are to be sexually pure.
- Don’t steal – Respect the property rights of others.
- Don’t lie – Be honest.
- Don’t covet – Be happy as well as content with what you have.
In short, The Ten apply to every area of life.
- Religion,
- Worship,
- Time,
- Authority,
- Life,
- Purity,
- Property,
- Tongue, and
- Contentment.
As a sign of their importance, the ancient Jews recited the Ten Commandments on a daily bases as a significant part of their worship in the Temple in Jerusalem. Well, so much for my introduction.
IT IS INDEED SIGNIFICANT THAT I AM BEGINNING A SERIES OF MESSAGES ON THE TEN COMMANDMENTS TODAY. WHY? TODAY IS PENTECOST SUNDAY. It was on the Day of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit came in Acts 2. That was also the day that God gave birth to the church. Then, according to Exodus 19 and 20, Pentecost is also the day that God established His covenant with Israel. And, that covenant is called “The Ten Commandments.” The Ten Commandments were given on what we call the Day of Pentecost.
If we compare Mount Sinai (the place where the Ten Commandments were given – Exodus 19-20) and the Upper Room of Acts 2 (the place where the Holy Spirit was initially poured out) we find:
- At Mount Sinai, there was the sound of the trumpet that grew louder and louder.
- In Acts 2, there was the sound of a blowing violent wind.
- In Exodus 19, there was fire on the mountain.
- In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit came with tongues of fire.
- In Exodus 19, Moses went up on the mountain to meet with God.
- In Acts 2, the gathered believers went to an Upper Room to await the promised Holy Spirit of God.
- When Moses came down off Mount Sinai to deliver the Ten Commandments, He found the people of Israel worshipping a golden calf. God became angry and according to Exodus 32:28, “ about three thousand of the people died.”
- In Acts 2, when the Spirit was poured out, 3,000 people were saved.
- At Mount Sinai, the Word of God was inscribed on tables of stone – written by the finger of God.
- In the Upper Room, God wrote the law on people’s minds and hearts. Jeremiah 31:33 promises, “‘This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.’” Pentecost is the day when God wrote the Ten Commandments on the hearts of those who loved Him.
THE GIVING OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Before Moses led the Hebrews into the desert, where were they? What were they?
For 400 years, they had served as slaves in Egypt. Please understand, all these folks had ever known was slavery. Slavery was in their hearts and on their hands. It was in their heads as well as in their attitudes.
At the time that God gave the Ten Commandments, the Israelites — some three million of them — were on their way to the Promised Land. The people thought that the Promised Land was only a few more days away. Eventually, they would spend forty years wandering in the wilderness.
One day passed into another, and then another, and yet another and finally, after a few short weeks, these Hebrews were ready to pack it all in and return to Egypt. They were hungry. Thirsty. Afraid. And a number of them had a intense dislike for as well as mistrust of Moses. It was at this low point that the motley crew arrived at the very mountain where Moses had first heard God speak to Him from a burning bush years earlier during his exile from Egypt. And it was at this point and place that God gave to the people The Ten Commandments.
Do you see the Ten Commandments as being a positive or a negative?
If I were to take a survey of the average person on the street, I am quite confident that
the Ten Commandments would not viewed in a very positive light. They sound “bossy,” and we don’t want to be bossed. They sound authoritarian and our culture resists authority.
Ron Mehl, in his excellent book on the Ten Commandments suggest that when people hear of the Ten Commandments, “They hear the clank of chains and the rattle of padlocks. They hear God saying, “You mess with Me, you step out of bounds, and I’ll fry you like a bug landing on a transformer.” Mehl goes on to add that people see God as being “a prude. God is a killjoy. God is a harsh old grandfather with a long, gray beard and bushy eyebrows who doesn’t want anyone to have any fun—ever.”
Is that how you view God? Are The Ten really some sort of cosmic party pooper?
I don’t think so. I really don’t.
Let me take you now to Exodus 19. Again, this is the chapter that leads up the giving of the commandments.
Exodus 19:2-8 (New Living Translation), “… they came to the wilderness of Sinai and set up camp there at the base of Mount Sinai. Then Moses climbed the mountain to appear before God. The LORD called to him from the mountain and said, “Give these instructions to the family of Jacob; announce it to the descendants of Israel:
‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.’ This is the message you must give to the people of Israel.”
So Moses returned from the mountain and called together the elders of the people and told them everything the LORD had commanded him. And all the people responded together, “We will do everything the LORD has commanded.” So Moses
brought the people’s answer back to the LORD.
Deuteronomy 32:11-12 adds , “like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions. The LORD alone led him; no foreign god was with him.”
I must point out several things from this precious passage.
The picture being painted is that of an eagle soaring upon the currents of the wind, bearing its young upon its wings. As such, this is a picture of…
- protection and security
- provision and supply
- care and affection
Again, I want to share a quote from Ron Mehl ‘s book:
- “‘I opened up a spring for you. . . a stream of fresh, sweet water came gushing over the parched desert floor. Do you remember, Israel?
- ‘Do you remember being hungry in that barren place, with no provisions and no supplies? I fed you every day with manna, the bread of angels.
- You faced foreign armies, enemies greater and stronger than you, but I fought for you. In the times you thought you would never make it, that you would never survive, that there was no way in the world you could endure, I was watching all the time. I stepped into your lives to save you. ‘I swooped down and bore you on veagles’ wings; do you remember?’ That is the context of the ten statements in Exodus 20:1-17.”
In addition,
- God forced the Egyptians to free Israel from slavery.
- God miraculously lead them through the Red Sea and then drowned the Egyptian army that was pursuing them.
- God lead them with the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.
Whatever they lacked, God provided. Again, it was as though they were being carried along on the wings of an eagle.
Next, the Lord added in Exodus 19:5-6 (NIV), “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” Here the Lord is making a very special promise to His people. If they would only obey His covenant, His laws, they would be special “treasures” to Him. The Hebrew means select, choice, prized, precious, something held dear.
The passage shows us that the one who obeys God, who keeps His Commandments, is….
- God’s personal possession
- God’s precious treasure
- God’s choice property
Note that God was not to be the property of Israel, but Israel was to be the property of God.
The Lord owns as well as oversees the entire universe. As such, He could have chosen any people to be His holy and treasured people. But He chose Israel. Why? Deuteronomy 7:7-8 gives us the answer: “The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
Simply stated, God chose and delivered Israel out of His great love for tiny and insignificant Israel.
Deuteronomy 7:6, “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.”
Psalm 135:4, “ For the LORD has chosen Jacob to be his own, Israel to be his treasured possession.”
I want you to understand, this is the context of Exodus 19 and 20. This is the spirit and affection that prompted the Ten Commandments.
- God wasn’t against the people; He loved them.
- He wasn’t trying to stamp out their fun. He was trying to fix it so they could and would REALLY live life to the full!
Centuries after those days in the Sinai, the Lord told the prophet Hosea, “When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your fathers, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.”(Hosea 9:10) What are grapes in the desert and early fruit on the fig tree? They are considered delicacies. That is how the Lord saw the Israelites.
One commentator wrote, “In the Ten Commandments, the Lord penned one of the most profound love letters of all time…a reminder of His eternal love. He wrote it with His own hand, the very finger of God.”
The people understood the message. They got it. As a result, they made a resounding commitment to obey God.
Note, now, they had not yet been told the terms of the covenant. The Ten Command-ments had not yet been spelled out. Nevertheless, the people had come to understand that God loved and cared for them; therefore, they knew that His commandments would be holy, just, and good.
So, in essence, they were ready to sign on the dotted line. In today’s terms, they were ready to make a commitment.
Now back to the question. Did the Lord deliver these people out of four hundred years of slavery in Egypt, did the Lord bear them upon on eagle’s wings, did the Lord covenant with them that they would be His treasures; His very own people in order to browbeat them and brutalize them with some set of harsh commandments? I think not.
Or to put it another way, if the Lord loved them and proved it by His care and concern, then why in the world would He turn from being a serving, sustaining, and giving God to a selfish, demanding, do it-my-way-or-the highway kind of God? Why in the world should we see the Ten Commandments as anything but a tender love letter?
IT IS NOW TIME FOR THE GIVING OF THE COMMANDMENTS. After three days of preparation and purification, the people have a God moment. The Lord shows up amidst a terrifying display of thunder, fire and noise. The experience is so intense that
the people, actually thought they were going to die! In the midst of all of this, the congregation tells Moses to go climb Mount Sinai on his own and to come back and report to them what God has to say. Moses ascends the mountain. Then in what has to have been one scary moment, the hand of God hews out two tablets of stone and from out of the blue comes this long finger and with it God starts to write out what the Hebrew text calls —the “Ten Utterances” or “the Utterances of the Covenant”. This was the previously agreed to covenant.
Let’s move now to Exodus 32:1, “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, ‘Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’”
Moses had been gone for 40 days. “When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.” (Exodus 32:19-20)
The people had violated the first and second commandments of the covenant before the ink had dried on the stones – so to speak.
Exodus 19:5 begins with these words, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant….” The Lord had said that If they kept the covenant, they would be greatly blessed; if they broke the covenant, they would be condemned. As a result of their sin, about 3000 people died that day – and more were to follow.
THE TEN TODAY
Sin still has consequences. Read the daily news. You will find stories of one person
after another who thought they would be the exception to the rule. That the consequences of sin would by-pass them. They would get a free pass. Not so.
I read a story a while back about Chi Chi Rodriguez, the famous golfer. He was driving down the street with his friend, going a lot faster than he should have been. A light changed from yellow to red up ahead of him, and he zoomed right through it. Didn’t even slow down.
His friend almost had a coronary. He looked over at Chi Chi and sputtered, “Chi Chi, what in the world are you doing? You went right through a red light! Don’t you stop for red lights?”
“My brother taught me to drive,” Chi Chi replied, “and he doesn’t stop for red lights. So I don’t stop at red lights.” And sure enough, a little farther down the road the pro golfer approached another intersection and blasted right through the red light.
His friend was a nervous wreck by then. “C’mon, man!” he said. “You’re gonna get us killed. What in the world are you thinking of?”
Chi Chi repeated, “My brother taught me to drive, and he doesn’t stop for red lights. So I don’t stop at red lights.”
Driving a little farther, they came to an intersection with a green light. This time, Chi Chi put on his brakes and stopped, nervously looking both ways.
“Why are you stopping now?” his friend asked. “This is a green light.”
I know,” Chi Chi said. “My brother might be coming!”
We’re all pretty good at changing green lights into red lights and red lights into green lights, aren’t we?
God can see the whole city map of our lives; He sees every intersection we will encounter for the rest of our life. He knows that hurt and destruction and death await those who speed carelessly through life with contempt or indifference toward His Word. And one wrong choice can set us off on a road from which there is no easy return.
Back to Pastor Ron Mehl. He wrote: “Just a few days ago a young woman sat in my
office, in despair over what had transpired in her life through addictions to heroin and crack. I said to her, “If you had it all to do over again, what would you do differently? Would you change anything?” “Yeah,” she said, looking up at me. “I came to a place in my life where I made a choice. It was like coming to a road and seeing a sign that said, ‘Don’t go down there’…but I went down there anyway. It’s not difficult at all to realize exactly where it was that I made my mistake.”
No doubt, she sped though one of God’s red lights.
Have you ever broken one of God’s commandments? Have you ever told a lie? Ever? Have you ever taken something that didn’t belong to you? Let’s say you find a purse with $350.10 in it. What if you returned the purse and all of its contents except for that one single dime? Wouldn’t that mean that you took money that was not yours to take? Have you ever looked lustfully at a member of the opposite sex? Have you ever desired something that belonged to someone else? The Bible calls that coveting.
Or tell me put a positive spin on this. Let’s say that you are a good person. That you keep nine of the Ten Commandments on a fairly regular basis. Wouldn’t you feel pretty good about yourself? I mean, you would certainly stand out above most other people. Right? Nevertheless, what about that one broken commandment?
James 2:10 (Contemporary English Version) says, “If you obey every law except one, you are still guilty of breaking them all.” To illustrate what the writer is saying here, imagine I have a glass container. On the outside of this glass jar, you can also see that the numbers one through ten are written on the outside. The numbers represent the Ten Commandments.
Imagine me asking you to take a hammer and hit the number 3. The number three again represents the third commandment — “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God.” Before you hit the vessel though, I want you to break the number three without breaking the rest of the jar. Ready? Let’s do it.
Pastor, that’s impossible. It is? Let’s try it anyway. We’ll see.
As you can imagine, you can’t break one without breaking them all. That is what James is saying. You see, the Ten Commandments were not ten separate commandments. Rather they were all interconnected. They were ten points to the one law of God. James is saying that these commandments are so inter-related that in breaking one, you are actually guilty of breaking them all.
In conclusion, 1 John 1:9 therefore states, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Have you broken the laws of God? Even one of THE TEN? If so, do you need forgiveness?
If, as you read or listened to this message, you felt the pull on your heart to respond to God. Today, you would acknowledge, “Lord, I need Your forgiveness. I’ve fallen short of Your desires, and even though I try, I cannot fix this on my own. I need You.” If that is you today, know that the Lord is waiting for you with open arms. He loves you. So, if you want to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, repeat this prayer wherever you are…
“Lord, thank you for sending Your Son to die on a Cross for my sins. I know that I have sinned, and I need Your forgiveness. It is Your forgiveness alone that can save me. I believe that your Son shed His bled for my sins so that I am now able to live for You. Thank you for your grace and mercy. Change my heart Lord that I may live for you. Amen.”
If you prayed that prayer then Scripture says heaven rejoices over your commitment today. If you are in need of a Bible or a Bible study, we encourage you to contact one of our pastors. In fact, if you have made this commitment today, please contact one of the pastors as we would like to pray for you and your faith in Christ. Have a blessed day!
