The Ten Commandments
Does anyone care about the Ten Commandments
from God anymore?
Is it possible to observe all Ten?
What’s the big deal about the commandments anyway?
These commandments were given to Israel centuries ago, they are not for today, are they?
Let’s see what God’s Word says.
The Ten Commandments that Believers have been taught about in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, were written on stone tablets by the finger of God on Mt. Sinai and given to Moses to give to His people to follow. The story is recorded in a number of places; here, we will reference the commands in Deuteronomy when Moses repeats them to the Israelites, sojourners, and foreigners who are following Moses and the God of Heaven through the wilderness.
Adonai wrote the commandments on stone tablets not once, but twice. The first time He wrote them out for Moses, the Israelites had tired of waiting for Moses to come down the mountain and decided to make a golden calf to worship instead of waiting on God. (Exodus 32) When God completed the tablets He told Moses to go down the mountain because the people had committed a great sin. Adonai had just given Moses the commands for the people to follow while knowing all along they were at the bottom of the mountain sinning. He tells Moses He is going to destroy them, and immediately Moses intercedes for them pleading with God to turn away His anger from the people. When Moses got to the bottom of the mountain, his own anger overcame him and he threw the stone tablets to the ground and destroyed them.
In Exodus 34, God writes them out again, but this time Moses has to cut the stone tablets himself and carry them up the mountain. He had to pay the consequences for his outburst of anger, but God forgave him. God knew his heart in the matter and knew he was not being disobedient and malicious.
Why did God bother writing them out again? He loved His people, and rules are necessary. He wrote them again out of grace and mercy for His people and because they were vital to their livelihood. Without rules for order and obedience, there is chaos. This example is played out in our lives in the world today. Without God’s laws at the forefront of our life, chaos continues in our world.
What are the Ten Commandments?
After God has Moses deliver His people out of Egypt, they come to Mt. Sinai and make camp at the base of the mountain. Then God descends on the mountain and calls Moses to come up. It’s during these visits with God on the mountain, that Moses learns that God has a plan for His people.
Out of His love for His chosen people, God tells Moses that if they are careful to obey His commands and keep His covenant with Him, that they will be His own special treasure, a nation of people set apart from the rest of the world. (Exodus 19)
This message was given to all God’s followers. He didn’t choose the richest, most influential and successful nations to be His treasure. He intentionally chose the least of all the nations, the poor Hebrew slaves. They had nothing and He wanted to bless them abundantly if they would serve Him.
Back in Genesis 12, God promises Abraham that He would make a nation out of his descendants that would be like the stars and the grains of sand, too many to count. The nation God was referring to with Abraham was the Hebrew nation that had been enslaved in Egypt. God had a plan all along, a plan that no one could see, but God promised Abraham that it would come about.
It was this nation of people, along with the ones who chose to follow their God with them, that He gave the commandments too. These commandments are also referred to as, the “words.”
The extended version of the 10Cs from the Bible – CJB version with Hebrew numbers
Note what appears to be the two most important “Words” from God. They would be the ones with a huge paragraph and explanation. Remember, God wrote these with His finger. In the Hebrew language, they would have been symbols, but when God breathed them to Moses for Him to later write the Torah, God has much more to say to stress the importance of the second and the fourth ones.
א ” ‘I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you lived as slaves.
ב ” ‘You are to have no other gods before me. You are not to make for yourselves a carved image or any kind of representation of anything in heaven above, on the earth beneath or in the water below the shoreline—you are not to bow down to them or serve them; for I, Adonai your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the parents, also the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but displaying grace to the thousandth generation of those who love me and obey my mitzvot.
ג ” ‘You are not to misuse the name of Adonai your God, because Adonai will not leave unpunished someone who misuses his name.
ד ” ‘Observe the day of Shabbat, to set it apart as holy, as Adonai your God ordered you to do. You have six days to labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Shabbat for Adonai your God. On it you are not to do any kind of work—not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave, not your ox, your donkey or any of your other livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates to your property—so that your male and female servants can rest just as you do. You are to remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Adonai your God brought you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore Adonai your God has ordered you to keep the day of Shabbat.
ה ” ‘Honor your father and mother, as Adonai your God ordered you to do, so that you will live long and have things go well with you in the land Adonai your God is giving you.
ו ” ‘Do not murder.
ז ” ‘Do not commit adultery.
ח ” ‘Do not steal.
ט ” ‘Do not give false evidence against your neighbor.
י ” ‘Do not covet your neighbor’s wife; do not covet your neighbor’s house, his field, his male or female slave, his ox, his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’ “ Deuteronomy 5:6-18 CJB
An abbreviated version pulled from the Truth
- I am Adonai, your God
- You shall have no other gods before Me
- Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain
- Remember the Sabbath
- Honor your father & mother
- Do not murder
- Do not commit adultery
- Do not steal
- Do not bear false witness
- Do not covet
Are the 10Cs relevant today?
What good are they? Why do I need them?
God tells a story of the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37. In this valley of dry bones, God tells His appointed prophet, Ezekiel, to pray for the dry bones; prophesy breath into them so that they can live again and be His people. God says for him to cry out to the wind, to the Holy Spirit for these bones to live. God wants to put His Spirit in them so that they can live a life of peace with Him. He wants that for you also.
He knows and sees that His people are suffering and searching for love and joy that only He can give them. Sadly, they are looking to the world to fill those needs. In His Word, He calls it “going back to Egypt,” meaning going to the world for help instead of turning to Him. He continually tells His followers not to go to the world for help, not to go back to Egypt where He just rescued them from slavery. They choose not to listen. They give into fear and keep going back to what they know, and think it’s easier, but they find no hope there. Most humans think God is mean and scary, or they choose to be in denial that He exists in an attempt to act like they don’t fear Him. If they have never been taught who God is, it’s likely they don’t fear Him. They have no idea of their Creator and the source of love that is available to them.
“Moshe answered the people, “Don’t be afraid, because God has come only to test you and make you fear him, so that you won’t commit sins.” Exodus 20:17 CJB
For the lost, dying, and dry bones, the Father wants you to pray for them until your dying breath, or theirs. Don’t give up on them, no matter how dry those bones are.
His commands that He blessed His followers with, give direction and order for your life so that you can fear and obey your God and serve the purpose for which He created you. In this state of obedience, there will still be painful moments, tests and trials, but there will be peace and joy as He walks through every step of life with you. He loves you so much; His heart hurts for you. He says in His Word, oh that they would obey me, all would go well for them. (Deuteronomy 5:29)
Trust God and His commands, they are a gift from Him to you.
What does God expect from me?
To love Him, and follow His commands. Simple. Easy to understand commands. The two lengthy commands in the full version from God’s Word tell you not to put any other god’s before Him and to rest on the Sabbath/Shabbat. It’s doesn’t get any easier than that. For those who need further understanding and to know why, He had Moses break it down for you in the second and fourth ones. Those are easy to understand and very important to Him. So important, that He repeats them throughout the entire Bible.
When does a parent repeat themselves? When it’s important! Can you remember things you have said to your children repeatedly, or anyone you are responsible for, because it was vitally important to their safety and well-being? That’s what God does for His children, He keeps His instructions simple and repeats them over and over, then says, remember, remember, remember! It’s for your safety! The very things you say to your children for their good – that are ignored, happened with God as well. His children continued to ignore His commands and warnings.
As good parents do, they reach a point where they have to discipline to get attention and attempt to correct the unacceptable behaviors. That’s what your good, good Heavenly Father does for you.
Just as parents create rules for their children, your Heavenly Father created rules for your safety and wellbeing. God expects you to be obedient and follow Him in all His ways.
But it’s impossible to follow all the commands, no one’s perfect
Sorry, no; that excuse is not correct. According to God, it is indeed possible for you to follow all of them. Think about it,
He created you to love Him and follow Him,
so why would He give you commands that you couldn’t follow?
“This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, and it is not beyond your reach.” Deuteronomy 30:11 NLT
Many argue, do I have to follow all the commands? I’m a good person. I go to church, I volunteer to serve at church and in the community when possible, I read a devotional most days, I donate to charity, I’m better than most sinners.
Then there are those who don’t read the Bible because their argument is that it has been re-written so many times, that “it can’t possibly be the original word of God anymore,” rather, “it has become man’s opinions.” That theory has been de-bunked so many times over the years and the Bible has been proven every time to be the infallible word of God, yet these ones are determined to “die on that mountain” so to speak, that the Bible is not God’s words.
Then there are some of these same people who won’t read the Bible, that say, “well, I don’t trust the Bible to be true, but I follow the Ten Commandments.” That makes no sense for many reasons, two of which are: 1. If you don’t believe the Bible is real, why would you follow the Ten Commandments? 2. There’s no way you are following all Ten!
Why would you follow commands from a book you don’t believe in?!?
Either you believe it’s the Bible or you don’t. Which is it?
When you finally reach a point in your life when you have hit rock bottom and have had enough of what this world (Egypt) has to offer, and you choose to return to God and repent of your sins, it is then that He will forgive you and help you obey all His commands. Remember, He says it’s not to hard. He will help you. As you study His Word daily, cover to cover, it will become easier to follow every command as you develop a longing to please your Heavenly Father. It’s in this obedience to Him that you will find His indescribable peace and joy.
An exercise for Believers that want to obey God
For this scenario, let’s say that you believe in the Bible as the Living Word of God. Now, looking at the full version of the commands above, or go to your Bible, (Deuteronomy 5) and write them out on a piece of paper. This exercise is scriptural. In His Word, God told each of the kings that were appointed by Him, to write out the laws every year so that they would “remember.” (Most of them disobeyed this command too.) Now they were commanded to write out over 600, for this experiment, you only need to write out the Ten.
This exercise can literally change your life. God will speak to you when you write these out, and it is then that you will be surprised to discover how many you actually follow, and how many you don’t.
It’s easy to immediately say with “pride” when questioned how many you follow, “I don’t murder or steal.” Well, that’s two out of ten. Let me run just one scenario by you though, have you ever walked out of a store and realized you weren’t charged for something, or you forgot to scan it because it was on the bottom of your cart or accidentally hidden behind your bag or something? When you realized it, did you go back in and return it, or did you reason why it was ok to keep it and go on home? If you went home with it, you stole it. Maybe not intentionally, or maliciously, but you stole it. So you have just disobeyed number eight, my friend.
Humans are great at generalizing and justifying their actions and making excuses as to why what they are doing doesn’t really apply to the commands. That their “little” sin isn’t that big of a deal in the scheme of things. Study through reference Bible’s and you will learn what more God is saying in each of these Ten when you search His Word. You will find in an in-depth search that adultery isn’t just sex outside of marriage. Self-righteous people who like to judge those who have had an affair, are quick to say, I’ve never committed adultery! Well, guess what? Adultery is so much more than an extra-marital affair. If you will do your Bible research and find out what all God considers adultery you will be shocked as you realize that it’s not all about improper sex and that you have also committed adultery, according to God, and you didn’t even know it. Take a breath. God knows your heart and you can repent and be forgiven and ask Him to show you His way so as not to do it again. Do your own Bible research.
Which are the most important commandments?
It’s not likely that God gave us any commands that aren’t important. God doesn’t speak meaningless chatter . When He speaks, it’s ALL important! Nowhere in scripture does it say, pick and choose what works for you. We have choices to follow Him, or not follow Him. When we choose to follow Him, we don’t get to decide which commands we want to obey. God states clearly over and over and over in His Word to obey “all” His commands.
Here is just one place God says to obey all His commands. The people tell Moses they want Him to talk to God for them. (Mitzvot is the Hebrew word for commands-plural) And notice here that God instructs Moses to tell them all 600 commands; that is: the Mitzvot, laws, and rulings.
“You, go near; and hear everything Adonai our God says. Then you will tell us everything Adonai our God says to you; and we will listen to it and do it.’ “Adonai heard what you were saying when you spoke to me, and Adonai said to me, ‘I have heard what this people has said when speaking to you, and everything they have said is good.
Oh, how I wish their hearts would stay like this always, that they would fear me and obey all my mitzvot; so that it would go well with them and their children forever. Go, tell them to return to their tents. But you, stand here by me; and I will tell you all the mitzvot, laws and rulings which you are to teach them, so that they can obey them in the land I am giving them as their possession.’ “Therefore you are to be careful to do as Adonai your God has ordered you; you are not to deviate either to the right or the left. You are to follow the entire way which Adonai your God has ordered you; so that you will live, things will go well with you, and you will live long in the land you are about to possess.” Deuteronomy 5:24-30 CJB
You can hear God’s heart for you in this passage, “oh how I wish”. He loves you and wants you to return wholeheartedly to Him so that He can care for you.
Relax. Don’t allow the thought of 600 commands to overwhelm or intimidate you. Let me put those into perspective for you. God created approximately 600 laws for His followers, that are clearly stated in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. These laws are for our good according to God.
The United States government alone has more than 30,000 statutes that have been enacted since 1789. I’m not going to comment on the 30,000.
I will say that God’s laws are living, relevant to your life today, and will determine where you spend eternity. However, it’s important to note that many of the 600 Biblical laws were directed to the Levitical Priests. Do your own research here.
So let’s get back to the Ten that God wrote with His finger on stone tablets for us. These are NOT too hard to follow, so write out the full version on a piece of paper, in your journal, or you can type them up if you like. It’s the exercise of going through them word for word with God that will change your life.
If this is your first time to commit to God to follow Him wholeheartedly in all His ways, and you still feel overwhelmed about what to do and want to get it right as you choose to be obedient to God and His commands, here’s a suggestion. If you don’t know how or where to start, start with #4. The command with the longest explanation from God to rest on Sabbath/Shabbat. Your Heavenly Father is giving you permission to rest once a week! Why do humans not want to rest? They burn the candle at both ends day in and day out and complain about being so exhausted, but they won’t accept one of the beautiful gifts that God gives them, rest. We live in a society where people feel guilty if they rest. God is trying to bless you and give you what you need, when will you say yes?
Resting on Sabbath is not only a command, He is giving us permission to tell the world, “Nope! Not today. I’m resting and reconnecting with my Heavenly Father.”
It is when you rest in Him and reconnect and allow Him to speak to you during your Sabbath, that you will begin to see and learn how to obey the all His commands. He will teach you what to do and how to do it. You don’t have to figure out anything alone.
He has another gift for you that you may not realize, the Holy Spirit. Jesus sent Him to us when He ascended into Heaven. The Holy Spirit is our teacher.
“As for you, the Messianic anointing you received from the Father remains in you, so that you have no need for anyone to teach you. On the contrary, as his Messianic anointing continues to teach you about all things, and is true, not a counterfeit, so, just as he taught you, remain united with him.” 1 John 2:27
Jesus simplifies the process
When asked in Mark 12, Jesus says, the two greatest commands are these:
“Yeshua answered, “The most important is, ‘Sh’ma Yisra’el, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad [Hear, O Isra’el, the Lord our God, the Lord is one], and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your understanding and with all your strength.’
The second is this: ‘You are to love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other mitzvah greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31 CJB [Mitzvah is Hebrew for command – singular]
Did you know that the first four of the Ten are directed towards obedience to honoring God and the last six are directed at how you are to live your daily life with others?
By Jesus making this statement, He is not re-writing or re-ordering God’s commands. Remember, Jesus can only speak what His Father says. (John 12:49) What Jesus is doing here is separating the first four from the last six, but combining all Ten into two.
Clever, huh? The Pharisees were trying again to trip Him up here; didn’t work.
The point God and Jesus have pointed out to us is that all His followers are expected to obey these commands, all Ten. They are not to hard to follow and the Holy Spirit will help us. They were given to us out of indescribable love for us for our protection. We are set apart from all the other nations by these commands. That should make you feel loved and special. You ARE worthy!
Following His commands will change your life in such a way, that you will wonder why you waited so long to turn back to Him and follow so that He could create in you a new heart, a heart for Him to fulfill the purpose He created you, to love Him with all your heart, mind, and soul, and to spread His love to others.
“The new self allows no room for discriminating between Gentile and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, foreigner, savage, slave, free man; on the contrary, in all, the Messiah is everything. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with feelings of compassion and with kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another; if anyone has a complaint against someone else, forgive him. Indeed, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive. Above all these, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together perfectly; and let the shalom which comes from the Messiah be your heart’s decision-maker, for this is why you were called to be part of a single Body. And be thankful—let the Word of the Messiah, in all its richness, live in you, as you teach and counsel each other in all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude to God in your hearts. That is, everything you do or say, do in the name of the Lord Yeshua, giving thanks through him to God the Father.” Colossians 3:11-17 CJB