This chapter is closely linked to the previous one   , because in it we introduce the function of the Law which is the ‘Ten Commandments’ without which sin could not be defined. For instance, man could not understand that the first commandments which says, ‘You shall have no other gods before me’ or the second which forbids idolatry saying, ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol in form of anything in heaven above, or on earth below, are sinful acts just as much as are the ones that say ‘You will not murder,’ and ‘You will not commit adultery.’ In fact, in the eyes of God, to disregard the first four commandments, are worse than the following six, for if man gives to God the honour and worship due to Him, and loves Him, the others will automatically follow. But in general, men do not realise that one’s disobedience to the first is as much a sin as is disobedience to the ones quoted, and that the judgement pronounced is death, for whatever commandment is not obeyed. 

In the previous chapter, I have clearly stressed God’s hatred of sin, for all to realise that even before the Ten Commandments were given, He punished severely the guilty, such as Cain whom God cast away from His presence, for the murder of Abel his brother, or the sins of men in the days of Noah, which He destroyed by a mighty flood, that covered the highest mountains, so that no-one could escape, and how God dealt with the depraved sexuality of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Ten Commandments are the ground on which, all civilised countries, build their civil laws and for centuries they were never altered. But never, up to this day, were men judged by human tribunals, and condemned for worshipping another god, or bowing down to an idol, not even for misusing the name of God, a sin widely practiced in human courts. Yet, these are grievous sins for which God punished severely His people Israel, making it an example, for all men to realise that God sees the breaking of any of the ‘Ten Commandments’, disobedience to God, is the child of SIN that power, rooted in man’s make up, it is that SIN that makes man a sinner, a man capable to pit himself against God, and be a rebel.

Is there a purpose at all to the Ten Commandments? Our western countries especially, have known a time of decline in morals and faith to an alarming degree. The foundations that they have inherited from previous generations, which have seen great men rise from among them to take the Gospel to many lands, have almost disappeared. Indirectly, the conversion of my parents, with all those that like them found Christ as their Saviour at the beginning of World War two, was due to a very humble man called Douglas Scott. He went to Belgium and France to learn the French language, preparing himself to go as a Missionary to the Belgium Congo, but it, pleased God to use him mightily in Belgium and France, to bring hundreds of men and woman, whole families, to receive Christ as their Saviour.  We have lived in the sixties and seventies a great departure from a way of life which was greatly the fruit of centuries of the Christian faith that made Great Britain what it was. The sweeping away of all laws became the thing of the day, drugs and promiscuity disturbed and destroyed much of human relationships. Great waves of immorality passed over our communities in the twentieth century, especially during the spell of what was called “The flower power and free love. The whole world felt the impact of those days, it has left the world what it is today immoral and ungodly. We still see an influence of evil forces creating an atmosphere of an anti-every-thing, from human rule and civil order, to faith in Jesus-Christ and fear of God. 

Drugs and promiscuities have called it a way to a so called freedom, which has by now changed completely the whole character of much of the world, especially of our western societies, and brought men to a complete slavery to Satan and his army of fallen angels. This spiritual drive has swept aside all moral restrain changing the world INTO A CESSPOOL, so much so that the following generations, up to the present, have lost the discipline necessary for the stability and progress that the people of our lands have known for centuries. We are in a spiritual state that fosters anything that is anti- God and anti-Christ, anti-anyone that tries to tell people what to do, whether good or bad. This revolt has been prophesied centuries ago, and those of us that remain faithful to the Gospel and through it in Jesus Christ the Son of God, realise that the world is living in the end times. To the majority anything that is Bible based is taboo, including the Ten Commandments, which have been the foundation of civil laws, as already stated, of all our so called “Christians countries”. His is what the apostle Paul wrote to a young pastor called Timothy:

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God ~ having a form of godliness but denying its power. The apostle Paul’s advice to true Christians in this generation is. Have nothing to do with them”. (2 Timothy 3:1-5.) Peter, the apostle adds:

“First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. (2 Peter 3:3.) The Lord Jesus-Christ said: “No-one knows about that day, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.” That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of man.” (Matthew 24:36-39.) Jesus is here mentioning His visible coming, when He return to earth with great glory to ser up the Kingdom of God, and, from Jerusalem He will rule the world! the The Bible warned Christian since, to watch and pray to save themselves from the evil of the awfully terrible days preceding His coming, for they will be days and the godlessness, that will be rampant violence just prior to His sudden return.

If it were not for The Ten Commandments, sin, that is an integral part of the character of man, and its outworking power would not appear as sins; man would be unable to know that disobedience to them is, these wilful actions against the will of God, are damnable sins, and that as the judge of all men, He has promised severe judgement! Some Christians believe that the whole world will eventually become Christian. They believe that when all the world is almost Christianised, Jesus will return to set up the Kingdom of God. In The chapter of Matthew (24), Jesus makes it plain that at His coming some will be taken and others will be left. But a full explanation of this very fundamental Christian doctrine and too big for the time being.

I must mention that not everyone has all these bad sins in abundance, sin is sin but some are worse than others, but they all abound in the whole of society, nevertheless the first four commandments are completely disregarded, so much so that there has, never been so many idols in the world, as for modern idols, there are many more than they have ever been. Much, of so called Christianity, worships idols. What Paul says to young Timothy is that the human society as a whole will manifest this ungodly spirit which will be a sign that the Return of Christ is near!  Every human being, except those that have Christ as Lord and Master, are guilty of some of them, and society as a whole manifest all of them, a sure sign of its complete corruption; even signs of a certain type of piety, is a sin, for when there is no love for God, prayers are not heard and acts of a religious character, are repugnant to Him. God is Holy and those that are His are holy, separated from such a world, by their faith in Christ. The last days will precede the Return of Christ, and the complete corrupt society of our times is a sure sign that Jesus is coming soon!  

If mankind has changed for the worse, the Bible does not change, in fact it is the only security we have left to us, and it says clearly: “Everyone who sins breaks the law, (The Ten Commandments); in fact, sin is lawlessness.” (1 John 3: 4.) That truth can never change; it stands there as a condemnation to all those who sweep away the right of God to legislate to man that he has created. Since sin and its power indwells every man and bends him to its will, it has left him without hope. We have proved, in our previous remarks, that God is not weak in dealing with sin and sins; He punishes severely each one, because sin manifests man’s rebellious nature to God and to His sovereignty.

Yet God never ceases to call men to repentance, to forsake sin and return to Him, through the only way that He has opened, which is Jesus Christ who said: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Me.” (John 14:6.) Sin, as a power, has infiltrated man’s entire make up and it manifests itself by various acts of wickedness, which start with refusing to honour, worship and obey God. In the case of Cain, it was murder. In the case of man’s condition before the flood, it was mainly violence and a “penchant” to rebel against God, which led to a complete moral breakdown. Nevertheless, in those days, the full corrupting character of sin was not truly defined. Sin was rooted much deeper in man’s heart and soul; it is subtle and very intricate. Hence, sin and its true character were not defined, not until God gave the Ten Commandments.

When God spoke to Moses from the fiery bush, he named the Hebrews: “his people” which then was captive in Egypt, saying to Moses “Moses! Moses! And Moses said: Here I am. God said: Do not come closer, take off yours sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. Then he said: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. At this Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. The Lord said: I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt, I have heard the, crying out because of their slave drivers.” (Exodus 3: 1-7.) It is here, that we find it so refreshing to see another side of God’s character. He cares, He sees and He is touched by the cry of HIS PEOPLE. In all generations, we find men who believed in God and obeyed him. His Elects, were known of Him even before the creation of the world, all these chosen men, chosen by Him, have been and are in the world today. God called them, and still does, though the preaching of the Gospel, Jesus first preached His Good News, to His people, the Jews, and his disciples, converted Jews, Jesus sent to preach His message to  the Gentile nations, up till now, His servants preach the Good News, the Gospel everywhere. 

Before Jesus went back to Heaven, He said to His disciples: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the world.” (Matthew 28:18-20) Such men are called: “the people of the Lord”. As we read the Bible, we discover details of the character of God, we find revelations that reveal his hatred of sin, but also his love for the sinner; yet it is in Jesus-Christ, his Son, that he gives the complete revelation of himself. God loves his people, those he redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.

If one does not accept the teaching of the Bible one’s life has no real purpose. It is unbalanced and undisciplined. It is like a household having children without values, doing what they want, bringing it finally to its very destruction. Our governments today, realise that a lot of the problems in our societies are due to parents that have lost control of their children, the same applies to the world at large, the disobedience of mankind to the Law of God, is driving humanity to destruction! Youngsters, we call Hooligans, completely disorderly, if unchecked would destroy everything in their way. Multiply it a million times, or more and you have a small picture of   how God views mankind.  

Yet men never satisfied, looked and sought for an answer to their existence. Rejected by God they began to seek protection and deliverance from their enemies in idols. They made them from stone, wood or metal, they all were ugly and awful representation of what they wanted their god to look like, they invented god’s without number those they worshipped, non-existent divinities, bowing to them they sunk so low as to offer as blood sacrifices their own children! The eternal future of men that wilfully disobey God will be awful! Men, to this day, do not realise that behind every idol, there are evil spirits, seeking the worship of man, created in the image of God. 

The most awful perils of idolatry are seen in God’s destruction of the Tower of Babel. Men are only allowed to go as far as God allows them to, to stop them in their downward race into darkness He intervened, and burned the Tower and spread men all around the globe. It was not long after the flood that the descendants of faithful Noah became worse that the men which God destroyed by the Flood! It is from that chaos that God called Abraham. With Abraham God began a completely new way of dealing with men and relating with them directly, they walked by faith, expecting the fulfilment of His promises. God called Abraham to leave his country and his father’s house. He separated and took him out from amongst the idolaters, by sending him to journey to the land of Canaan where was born his son Isaac, the first of a new people. 

These men, Abraham Isaac and Jacob, were the patriarchs of Israel. They talked with God and heard his voice, enjoying an intimate relationship with Him, and walked before Him. Meaning that they followed Him believing that what He told them was true, they took God at His word: “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went,even though he did not know where he was going. By faith (trust) he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country, he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise, for he was looking forward to the city with foundations; whose architect and builder is God.” (Hebrew 11:8-10.) Their faith caused them to treat everything as temporary, tents sufficed for men who saw further than Palestine, the promised land was out of this world! 

This is why their God, who is still the same God, is forever known as: ‘The God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob’. Circumstances led the family of Jacob, seventy of them, to settle in Egypt, where after four hundred and thirty years in it, they became a nation of about two to four million people. They became the slaves of the Egyptians, to deliver them from slavery, God sent Moses, as stated previously. Much could be said about their miraculous exit from Egypt, and how God destroyed, in one sweep, the army Egypt, which was a mighty empire at the time of their deliverance. Their greatness came through the wisdom of Joseph, who, when sold by his brothers was the youngest son of Jacob. Enough to say that they were led by God to the Promised Land, to Canaan!

On their journey after a month Israel reached the Desert of Sinai. There God called Moses on the mountain to give to him two tablets of stone on which were written, by the finger of God, the Ten Commandments. These Ten Commandments were given to teach His people the full character of sin and disobeying them, any of them, deserved death, yet forgiveness of sins became possible, for the first time in the history of mankind, an animal, mainly a lamb, was to be sacrificed for their sins, and by its death it atoned for the sinner, meaning that the sin of the individual or the people, were forgiven, but not until a sacrifice was made and blood was shed. Because the Israelites were sinful men, like all the other people, steeped in idolatry, worshippers, to a great degree, of the gods of Egypt. God knew that they would not be able to obey immediately His commandments, so He instructed Moses to establish various sacrifices which had various reasons to teach God’s people the seriousness of sins, and that blood had to be shed for sins to be forgiven, and save the guilty person from death. That sacrifice was a substitute and died instead of the guilty person.

Through the Israelites God wanted to instruct the pagan nations that sins can be forgiven and must be forgiven and for that purpose the Bible says: “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. God says: “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Hebrews 10:22.) So Together with these commandments God gave laws about the treatment of servants, personal injuries, the protection of properties, directions about social responsibilities. Moses gave His people laws on justice and mercy, the observance of the Sabbath and three annual Festivals. These laws together with the Ten Commandments were to be kept rigorously, but a sin sacrifice was only necessary when one of the Ten Commandments was broken.

The Ten Commandments have their origin in that awesome encounter of God with Moses on Mount Sinai.  It was an awesome manifestation of God as recorded in the Book of the Exodus, which is the second of the Old Testament: “On the mourning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Mount Sanai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in a fire. The smoke billowed up from it like the smoke of a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered Him.” This manifestation of God is quite unique in Bible, which is also called ‘God’s Holy Word’ and ‘The Scriptures’. God was about to give one of His great gifts to men, the ‘Ten Commandments’. They were going to be given to teach men how God hates sin and that men had to fear Him, for this is how He will reveal Himself to men in the judgement day, and here on Mount Sinai, the story tells us that God takes sin very seriously, in fact He is its greatest enemy, and He will, eventually, destroy every trace of it, together with the devil! He is determined to eradicate it totally. God is Holy, and through obedience His people will also be holy!

So, God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

1. You shall have no other gods before me. (Or beside me)

2. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or     on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of their fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations, of those who love me and keep my commandments.

3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses my name.

4. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall you labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant nor maidservant, nor your animals, nor the aliens within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

5. Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord God is giving you.

6. You shall not murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal. 

9. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.

10. You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.

All these commandments were guidelines for this people, which have just come out from slavery to the Egyptian Pharaoh and his citizens. God wanted them to know that they were His people and that as such they had to learn a new way of life under His Lordship. One of the main things that he made with them is a covenant, which had the Law as the main charter for them to walk with Him and live under His sovereignty. They were sinners and they had to learn what it was, and sin had to be revealed so that they could deal with it and master it, by obeying the Law, the Ten Commandments. God knew that they would not be able to do it, and that disobedience was a sin which endangered their good standing before Him, committing a sin was an offense that carried a severe punishment, which was death. This indeed was a new way of life. Nevertheless, to forgive them and cleanse them from the polluting effect of sin, He instituted a whole series of offerings, one of which was an offering for sin, which required the sacrifice of an animal, and that by the death of it and the shedding of its blood, their guilt would be atoned, forgiven, thus, they were enabled to continue living in His presence! This was God’s way of forgiving their sin. This is what is written ‘When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the Law to the people, he took the blood of claves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll: and all the people. He said: This is the blood of the covenant; which God has commanded to keep. In the same way he sprinkled the tabernacle and everything used in the ceremonies. In fact, the Law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.’ (Hebrews 9: 19-22) It was all symbolic of what Jesus would do for the redemption of those that would believe on Him!

God made of way of forgiveness, which spoke in advance of His love which Jesus His Son would manifest fully, not only for the Jews but to the whole gentile world. The very fact that God revealed Himself so vividly, and gave them The Ten Commandments, made of Israel a very special People, with them alone, The Almighty God spoke and made of them a people that became the envy of all the nations. They all heard of how God delivered them from Egypt, how he led them through the desert to the promised Land, and that they, as a people, were invincible as long as God was with them; so, a great fear took hold of them, because no-one could resist them! 

These instructions were given to change them from the life style they learned among the Egyptians, when they lived under the oppression in that idolatrous land were sin was rampant and unchecked, for centuries they suffered brutality, murder and the killing of their own children. They saw plainly how far an idolatrous society can degenerate who wilfully disobeyed their conscience, which is the laws of God written in the heart of every person that comes into the world. The children of Israel were a people called to live under the shadow and in the presence of a Holy God, a God that could not tolerate sin, but had to punish it. Nevertheless, the power of sin that drove men into all sorts of evil actions was not truly known, and thus far sins were not defined and declared illegal, this God did by the giving of the Ten Commandments. 

The life of men is, generally, built and lived, in various relationships, which starts firstly between man and his Creator, then between man and his nearest relations, such as a wife, a husband, children, families to which they belong, and finally with society at large. To preserve all these relations and enhance their depth and warmth, was best done among people that understood the destructive power of sin. In our days, we live, what the Bible calls, sinful lives that portray a lot of selfishness, injustice and pride. Today people rarely get very close to anybody. The word love is very superficial and it has taken, in the main, a very sexual tone. During my fifty years in the ministry of the Gospel, I discovered how many homes are unhappy, and how many children, under marital tension, grow unbalanced. There is mistrust among people, whether in marriage or partnerships, and many now change partners two or three time in their lifetime. Couples that have much to be grateful for and should be happy building happy homes, split up, for stupid reasons and go their own way. It would be an ideal society if we all had the kind of relationship God intended us to have, with him, in homes and between citizens at large and all the people of the earth: A true harmony between all nations under one God! But because the Laws of God are disregarded, and His existence put in doubt, people through sin are showing how destructive is mankind, ruled by the power of sin. Man is not an animal and never was, yet for him to live properly as a man, and save his life, he must honour God. God always desired to have a people that have a solid relationship with him and by obedience and submission to his will, create a perfect society, which, with the blessings that He promised to them, would show forth, to the rest of the world, how happy and fulfilled are the people of which He is God. Just before they entered to conquer the Promised Land of Canaan, which God promised to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as an inheritance, God said to Israel:

“If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands that I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on the earth.

All these blessings will come upon you if you obey the Lord your God. You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock ~ the calves of the herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. The Lord will send a blessing on yours barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord will bless you in the land he is giving you. Do not turn aside from the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.” (Read Deuteronomy 28:1-14.) Under the Covenant of Grace some of the things have changed, but sin is sin, and when people are not right with God, then things go from bad to worse!

But sadly, Israel, as a nation missed, the mark, and still today, rejected by God they still suffer for their rebellion to the Lord of the whole earth., especially for rejecting their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. But in the purpose of God, Israel will still bring great blessings to the world, when at God’s appointed time, it will return to Him and accept that His Son, Jesus Christ, is the Messiah that they crucified, the Anointed King! (Romans 11: 12-15.) From Jerusalem, Jesus-Christ the Son of the living God, will reign as the King of kings and Lord of lords. Therefore, the purpose of the Ten Commandments is to reveal the true potential of the destroying power of sin, and that God alone knows how horrible it is. Nevertheless, the Bible has proved that no man can master sin, so read the next chapter.