THE HISTORY
How did we get the Ten Commandments?
It was on Mount Sinai that God gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites through Moses. It was on the third new moon after the Israelites had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai...Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.” (Exod. 19:1-6)
On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled. Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently. As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder. When the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS:
(As written in the Holy Bible)
¯I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me...
¯You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
¯Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you...
¯Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
¯You shall not murder.
¯Neither shall you commit adultery.
¯Neither shall you steal.
¯Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbour.
¯Neither shall you covet your neighbour’s wife.
¯Neither shall you desire your neighbour’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour. (Cf. Deut. 5:6-21)
These words the Lord spoke with a loud voice to the whole assembly at the mountain, out of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, and he added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets with His own finger, and gave them to Moses. (Deuteronomy 5:22) These are the commandments which God gave to man to guide him to happiness in this life and in the next.
APPLICATIONS
The Ten Commandments:
(what they command and forbid)
I. I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD; YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME.
Commands: faith, hope, love, and worship of God; reverence for holy things; prayer.
Forbids: idolatry, superstition, spiritism, tempting God, sacrilege, attendance at false worship.
II. YOU SHALL NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD YOUR GOD IN VAIN.
Commands: reverence in speaking about God and holy things; the keeping of oaths and vows.
Forbids: blasphemy, the irreverent use of God’s name, speaking disrespectfully of holy things, false oaths, and the breaking of vows.
III. REMEMBER TO KEEP THE SABBATH DAY HOLY.
Commands: going to church on Sundays and holy days.
Forbids: missing church through one’s own fault; unnecessary servile work; public buying and selling; court trials.
IV. HONOUR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.
Commands: love, respect, obedience on the part of children; care on the part of parents for the spiritual and temporal welfare of their children; obedience to civil and religious superiors.
Forbids: hatred of parents and superiors; disrespect, disobedience.
V. YOU SHALL NOT KILL.
Commands: safeguarding of one’s own life and bodily welfare and that of others.
Forbids: unjust killing, suicide, abortion, sterilization, dueling, endangering life and limb of self or others.
VI. YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.
Commands: chastity in word and deed.
Forbids: obscene speech; impure actions alone or with others.
VII. YOU SHALL NOT STEAL.
Commands: respect for the property and rights of others; the paying of just debts; paying just wages to employees; integrity in public officials.
Forbids: theft; damage to the property of others; not paying just debts; not returning found or borrowed articles; giving unjust measure or weight in selling; not paying just wages; bribery; graft; cheating; fraud; accepting stolen property; not giving an honest day’s work for wages received; violation of contract.
VIII. YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST YOUR NEIGHBOUR.
Commands: truthfulness, respect for the good name of others; the observance of secrecy when required.
Forbids: lying, injury to the good name of others, slander, talebearing, rash judgment, contemptuous speech, and the violation of secrecy.
IX. YOU SHALL NOT COVET YOUR NEIGHBOUR’S WIFE.
Commands: purity in thought.
Forbids: willful impure thoughts and desires.
X. YOU SHALL NOT COVET YOUR NEIGHBOUR’S GOODS.
Commands: respect for the rights of others.
Forbids: the desire to take, to keep, or to damage the property of others.
Let us examine our hearts & soul sincerely and ask for forgiveness for not doing what the commandments have commanded us to do and for doing all that what is forbidden by them. Ask for His grace and His Spirit to follow Him as His holy people.
BLESSINGS
Blessings for Obedience to the Commandments:
If you heed these ordinances, by diligently observing them, the Lord your God will maintain with you the covenant loyalty that he swore to your ancestors;
-He will love you, bless you, and multiply you;
-He will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock, in the land that He swore to your ancestors to give you.
-You shall be the most blessed of peoples, with neither sterility nor barrenness among you or your livestock.
-The Lord will turn away from you every illness; all the dread diseases of Egypt that you experienced, He will not inflict on you, but He will lay them on all who hate you.
-You shall devour all the peoples that the Lord your God is giving over to you, showing them no pity; you shall not serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you...
-Moreover, the Lord your God will send the pestilence against them, until even the survivors and the fugitives are destroyed. Have no dread of them, for the Lord your God, who is present with you, is a great and awesome God.
-The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to make a quick end of them, otherwise the wild animals would become too numerous for you. But the Lord your God will give them over to you, and throw them into great panic, until they are destroyed.
-He will hand their kings over to you and you shall blot out their name from under heaven;
-No one will be able to stand against you, until you have destroyed them. (Cf. Deut. 7:12-24; 28:1-14)
But the Lord God also warned the Israelites against their disobedience towards the commandments letting the curses (above 30 in number) come upon them and overtaking them until they are destroyed.(Cf. Deut. 28:15-67)
The Ten Commandments are excerpts from the absolute, the perfect, law of God. This law of God is the life for us, valid for all times and for all mankind. This life, God, is everything in all things, the infinite diversity and fullness of the Being. In every principle of the law and in every commandment, it is the life, which opens up to us men through actualization and fulfilment, through our living and doing. May the one who can grasp it, grasp it and may every commandment become for him a doorway to the fullness of life – the life in God, in the Spirit of God.