Читать книгу The Grand Sweep - Large Print - J. Ellsworth Kalas - Страница 39

EXODUS 19–20; PSALMS 31–32

Week 5, Day 3

Out in the wilderness there is a mountain called Sinai. It is not the tallest mountain in the world, but it may well be the best known. Israel had been on the road long enough to know they needed the structure of law. Even the best and most careful drivers need a line to show which is their side of the road, and a sign to indicate who will stop at an intersection. Life together requires boundaries.

Although this law was to deal with the most practical issues, it was not ordinary; it was the gift of God. Moses made this clear by establishing restrictions of many kinds so the people would understand that Sinai was holy ground.

The Ten Commandments come from a basis of God’s right and our debt. So they begin, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (20:2). God has a right to our loyalty because of the deliverance we have received. The degree to which we are at peace with God’s commands is probably directly related to our sense of his salvation.

The first four commandments regard our direct responsibility to God; the last five our duties to our fellow human beings; the fifth, the command to honor our parents, is a kind of bridge between them. But the responsibility to God comes first; as a philosopher has said, if there is no God, then anything goes.

PRAYER: Help me, I pray, to know with the psalmist that your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path; in Christ our Lord. Amen.

In what order would you place each of the Ten Commandments if you were listing them by importance? Justify your order.