ONE-YEAR JOURNEY OF THE BIBLE
Day 25 - Exodus 20-22 (The Ten Commandments)
“You shall have no other gods before Me. "You shall not make for yourself a carved 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; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God... "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain..."Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ..."Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. "You shall not murder. "You shall not commit adultery. "You shall not steal. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. "You shall not covet ...anything that is your neighbor's." (Exodus 20:3-17)
Did you know that there were two sets of tablets of stone upon which the Ten Commandments were written? The first set were handed directly to Moses by God with the writings by God on both sides of the tablets. Those tablets were thrown on the ground by Moses (yes, it happened!) in front of the Israelites in his anger at them for making a golden calf and worshipping it when Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain in meeting with God. Later, God told Moses to cut his own tablet so that God can write the same commandments as in the first set of tablets.
When God says something as when He speaks to one of His prophets who records it and it becomes part of the Scriptures, it is the Word of God that demands obedience from all His creatures. When God Himself writes His commandments on tablets of stone and twice at that, common sense dictates that God is trying to place added emphasis on those commandments. Interestingly, God of all ten commandments, God repeats the first two, which is about making and worshipping idols, right after He gives the ten in Exodus 20:23. Again, common sense tells us the gravity God places on idolatry.
Are you guilty of bowing down to a “carved 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?” (Exodus 20:4, 5) No amount of rationalization can spare you from being guilty of violating the first two commandments if you keep any idol in your home and bow down to it. Think about it, will God accept whatever reason you might have in praying to an idol? Will He consider your reason/s an exception to the first two commandments? Why not ask God to show you if the carved image you are bowing to is an exception to His commandments? If you are truly sincere, God will reveal the truth to you.
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