Commandment #2: You shall not make for yourself an idol… You shall not bow down to them or worship them. For I the LORD am a jealous God… Everybody worships something. It’s what we were made for. The big question is what we will worship. Worship isn’t necessarily what you sing about, or even what or whom you pray to. Worship is…
Commandment #5 came with a promise; this one comes with a warning. “For the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” This is serious. Very serious. On the surface, this command seems to be about blasphemy, using the name of God or the name of Jesus as an expletive or swear word. These days it is sadly very common,…
This is the longest commandment by far. In our pew Bibles it covers 4 verses and contains 99 words. And unusually, it contains detail as to what the commandment means and the reason why keeping is makes sense. The answer to that last question takes us back to Creation. In 6 days God made the world, and then he rested from his…
OK kids- buckle up! This one is for you! (although your parents have a key role!) And the good news is that this is the only command that comes with a promise: “…that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” Now when this command was written, God’s people, who had endured generations of slavery, were…
This is one of those commandments which most of us imagine that we’ve cracked. After all, murdering someone is an incredibly drastic act. The problem is that Jesus widened the meaning of this commandment much further than we might imagine, and far enough to make all of us feel uncomfortable. You can read that passage in Matthew 4:21–26. Here, Jesus teaches that…