Ten Commandments - A Beginning

Greetings Dear Reader,

When I read through the Ten Commandments in Exodus as I did recently I wonder how well they communicate to the young men and women that hang out at my children’s home.  Please do not misunderstand me.  I see each of these as commandments that carry true weight today.  I also understand that the language dose not communicate as well as it should.  I have decided to polish up my rusty language skills and view them in light of the world in which people walk.

As I do this I wish to measure them against my heart so that it can be further softened to God and his love for me.  On the outset the approach to these words requires what every approach to God requires.  No matter how you dress it up or what you try to add to it, approaching God requires only one thing.  It is the thing that is hardest for some and easy for me.  Exodus chapter twenty begins with, “Then God spoke all these words.” 

To continue after that moment requires faith.  To accept anything that comes next requires that one believe that there is a God and that he has standards for us.  Were one to hear these words the way those people heard them in the desert it might sound much different.  They heard something like this, “Then Elohiym (the God who is all and one) lead the way by commanding that we follow all these words in our hearts.” (Exodus 20:1 ATT)

I realize that seems to have a lot more in it than the simple phrase that one usually sees in this part of Exodus.  It is, however, much closer to the meaning of those ancient words in the ears of ancient Hebrews.  It seems that the application for me is that as I approach a deeper study of these commandments and their place in my life that I must do so from the same perspective as any other approach to God.  I must do so in faith.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."