Ten Commandments - revisited

Here Moses reminded the Israelites of the Ten Commandments. There have been many controversies on these Ten Commandments from the time when Moses first received them and had to break the stones on which they were written to the modern times of the debate of the Ten Commandments in American schools. If we take these commandments as they were written perhaps it will become clear to us.

Interesting to note that the first four commandments is about our relationship with God, the fifth is relationship with our family, the last five relates to social justice as we live in a society among many others. Does God expects us to follow them all? Well think about it slowly. God knows everything about anything. He knows we cannot perfectly fulfill all the commandments all the time. So really, what was God thinking? What was he trying to do? Throughout the ages, it has been hijacked by well meaning or perhaps conspiratorial agents masquerading as religious leaders, forcing these commandments as law on the general population - with the end effect of giving God a bad name.

Think back to God's point of view. God gave these commandments to show the Israelites and others the proper way to live with Him and with each other in society. It is to reveal God's perfect standard and man's inability, no matter how well meaning, to follow God's standard. Yet we are expected to try to follow and use them as a guidelines. The ultimate reason is to point to Jesus, the only perfect Man/God who showed us how to live, obeying all the commandments and also how we all need Him since we fall short of God standard (see Romans). In the meantime, to keep it simple, think about this from v32:

"Therefore you shall be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess."


Deuteronomy 5

The Ten Commandments Reviewed

 1 And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. 2 The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive. 4 The LORD talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. 5 I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the LORD; for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain. He said:
       6 ‘I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
1       7 ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.
2       8 ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 9 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 10 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
3       11 ‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4       12 ‘ Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
5       16 ‘ Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
6       17 ‘You shall not murder.
7       18 ‘You shall not commit adultery.
8       19 ‘You shall not steal.
9       20 ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10       21 ‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.’
22 “These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.


The People Afraid of God’s Presence
  

28 “Then the LORD heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me: ‘I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. 29 Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever! 30 Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” 31 But as for you, stand here by Me, and I will speak to you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I am giving them to possess.’
32 “Therefore you shall be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.