As you think about each of them, these rules make a lot of sense. They aren’t harsh, but following them greatly improves your quality of life.
Isn’t it because God is not honoured as God and therefore his laws are disobeyed, that misery is so widespread around us? But the promise for obedience is great: God “will be kind to our families for thousands of generations.”
Our society still exists today only because this promise is being kept to our forefathers…
Exo 20: 1-17
The Ten Commandments…
God spoke all these words, saying, I am the LORD your God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thou shall have no other gods before me.
Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image, or 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: Thou shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Thou shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shall thou labour, and do all your work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God: in it thou shall not do any work, thou, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Honour your father and your mother: that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God gives thee.
Thou shall not kill.
Thou shall not commit adultery.
Thou shall not steal.
Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
Thou shall not covet your neighbour’s house; thou shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is your neighbour’s.
