A Place to Meet God and Worship

“So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve Me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.” (Exodus 20:44-46, NIV)

Worship is a very important spiritual activity. To recognize God as God, to be reverent before Him, to adore, praise and worship Him and follow Him in obedience are vital elements of a Christian’s relationship with God. We can worship God at any place we come before Him. A specific place to meet God and worship Him was a necessary element of establishing the Israelites as a nation immediately after they were released from 400 years of Egyptian bondage. You might like to consult a good Bible dictionary for how the Tent of Meeting (also called the Tabernacle of Meeting) looked and how it was used. The description of how it was built is found in Exodus 35-40. For brevity, we know that it was constructed with great care, moved and set up time and again as the Israelites went toward the Promised Land. It was important to the Israelites to know they had a specific place in the wilderness designated as a holy place, a site where they could meet and worship God. Aaron and his sons, Moses’ brother and nephews, were made priests, worship leaders. They represented God to the people and the people to God. They conducted sacrifices, prayers and other aspects of worship. The major reason for a place for worship and services of worship was stated firmly: “That I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.”

What reminders of God’s presence do I have in my life? A Tent of Meeting can be any place consecrated to God and designated as a place to worship Him. Is it at table, as the family gathers to eat, when all bow heads and someone prays, seeking God’s blessing and thanking Him? Is it at a desk, in a special chair, within a special room in the house where a ‘Tent of Meeting’ bids communion with God? Is it at an unexpected moment when an awe-inspiring sight compels you to seek God and recognize His handiwork in creation? Is your Tent of Meeting in a sick room when you recognize that God is there, available to heal, to show mercy, to comfort, to set right? Certainly it should be at the house of worship—the church building—consecrated as a place to meet God. All of these ‘Tents of Meeting’ are (or should be) as vital to our spiritual health as the Tabernacle of Meeting was to the Israelites. But the most important of all the Tents of Meeting is seen in Jesus Christ: “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling (tabernacled) among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14, NIV). Praise be to God!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Honoring the Lord on His Day

“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord, honorable, if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly, then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 58:13-14, ESV). “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118;24, KJV). “I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord.’ " (Psalm 122:1, KJV).

Today is Sunday, a day set aside for worship, for gathering in Christian fellowship, prayer, Bible study and exhortation of the Word, a day in seven to especially seek God. How holy and sacred do we count our privilege of free worship? Do we honor God by honoring his day? Or is it just another day of work, pleasure and selfish pursuits? Every day is the Lord’s day; Sunday is the day we deliberately seek Him.

Compare any church congregation’s attendance on the Lord’s Day with the number on the church roll and we see an immediate condemnation of our actions. Too often we disregard the assembling of ourselves together for worship. This is an indictment of our modern age when we give God token allegiance and go our ways with seeming disregard of what His Word teaches about remembering the Sabbath Day (or holy day—a day set aside in seven). We say we believe in and practice the Ten Commandments. Yet this one commandment—“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8, KJV)--is broken week after week by so many Christians. Read again Isaiah 58:13-14. We need to turn back from pursing our own pleasure and again call the Lord’s Day a delight! To honor the Lord’s Day is to delight Him. Note how exuberantly Isaiah expresses personal rewards for those who honor the Lord’s Day: “Take delight in the Lord…ride on the heights of the earth…I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father!” And why do these promises come true about our observance of the Lord’s Day? “The mouth of the Lord has spoken!”

I awoke early this morning with much anticipation of the Lord’s day. I will enjoy studying the Bible with Christian friends. Today at my particular church we will have the observance of the Lord’s Supper—one of our two ordinances. The Lord commanded that we observe communion “in remembrance of Him.” It is a time of solemn soul-examination, asking forgiveness, coming before the Lord with humility and deep gratitude. We gather to worship; we depart to serve. Help us Lord, so to live!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Sunday, October 31, 2010

Covet Not

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (Exodus 20:17, NIV).

First one covets; that is, desires to own something that is not his own. This is the basic sin that leads to stealing. It can also lead to excessive indebtedness, wanting something that the budget cannot afford. The character damage done by coveting is severe. Coveting is rooted in envy and wanting more than can reasonably be attained, or, most of the time, things not actually needed in the first place. The ethical health of a community depends upon mutual respect and care of property. God disdains any act of dishonesty that infringes upon one’s neighbors’ property rights. And oftentimes at the very heart of disabuse, stealing and dishonesty lies the evil of covetousness. Notice the things we should not covet: a neighbor’s mate, servants, possessions (ox, donkey, being specifically mentioned, as the Israelites lived in an agricultural society).

To quote Dr. Robert L. Cate on his exegesis of Exodus: “Ultimately the foundation of this command was the concept that everything a man possessed was a gift from God. Further, to envy what another had was to despise what you had. Thus covetousness was a rejection of God’s loving providence.” (Broadman, 1979, p. 97).

And now that we’ve walked through the Ten Commandments, one-a-day-fashion, I would like to summarize by quoting theologian Dr. Elton Trueblood: (This body of laws is) “not an outworn set of specific prohibitions, but positive principles of such a nature that a good society cannot be constructed or reconstructed without reference to them.” (Foundations for Reconstruction, Harper, 1946, p. 10). And for any who think the Ten Commandments no longer apply, or that their principles are outdated, listen to what Jesus said: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18 NIV). Whether the Ten Commandments can be displayed in public places is not nearly as important as that they are obeyed by believers. These principles for living—vertically, man-toward-God, and horizontially, person-to-person—are still the standards for which we should strive.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Saturday, August 14, 2010

No False Witness (Testimony)

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16, KJV).

The ninth commandment could be called the law against false witness (misrepresenting what one has seen or been an eye-witness to), false testimony (as in a court of law or other legal procedure), or lying (failure to tell the truth in normal speech of everyday life). The underlying principle of this commandment is that truth is expected. Anything less is too little. Dr. Page H. Kelley observed that nothing threatens the fabric of a nation more than disregard for the truth in the law courts of the land. Jeremiah the prophet spoke out very firmly about false testimony and other sins covered by the commandments relating to horizontal relationships (man-to-man) and vertical relationships (man-to-God): “Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, ‘We are safe’—safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! Declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 7:9-11, NIV).

We need to remember that words spoken cannot be called back or cancelled. Dishonest reports (like income tax, for example), slander (speaking untruths about another), exaggerating the truth (boasting) and other sins of the tongue distort the character both of the teller and of those about whom he bears false witness.

To establish and insure justice, society must be able to believe the words of its constituents. Dr. B. Davie Napier in commenting on this commandment noted: “The sense of the ninth commandment as summation is clear: in no way whatsoever may one falsify his witness, his report, even his causal conversation, about another. To do so is to violate that which a man is, and it is therefore a violation not only of the two-member, man-man relationship, but of the three-member, God-man-man community.” Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” (John 8:32). Paul added his sound advice on the subject of speaking truth: “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ; From him the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Ephesians 4:14-16 NIV).

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Friday, August 13, 2010

No Stealing

“Thou shalt not steal.” (Exodus 20:15, KJV).

We don’t have to be reminded that stealing is illegally taking that which belongs to another. In a day when one’s property was limited and sustenance often depended on flocks or tools with which to work, a law on taking the property of another was included in the Decalogue. Stability in a society was (and is) dependent upon security of life, home and property. To take property from someone is a violation of their personhood and a sin against God who is ultimately the Owner of all that we have and are. Commandment eight needs to be heeded in this modern day.

Dr. B. Davie Napier, in his book Exodus (John Knox Press, 1963, p. 88) notes: “In the biblical faith, which in multiple ways affirms that ‘the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof’ (Psalm 24:1) and which understands community finally in terms of the God-man-man relationship, to take what is another’s—be it life, person, or property—is, of course to take what is Another’s: it is to violate God.”

There are other subtle ways of stealing than just taking property that belongs to another. We can “steal” the reputation of a good person by casting innuendoes on their character, or bearing false gossip about them. We can steal by not offering a “day’s work for a day’s wage.” Too many breaks at work can infringe on time allotted to and necessary for good job performance. Or otherwise loitering or using work time for personal pursuits is certainly a form of stealing. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:28 the antidote for stealing and also gave sound advice about helping others: “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.”

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Thursday, August 12, 2010

No Adultery

“Thou shalt not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14. KJV)

The seventh commandment deals with faithfulness and commitment in marriage. Giving of this commandment marked a major step in understanding the role of the home in an ordered society. Two terms were used to denote forbidden sexual relationships. Adultery applied to sexual relationships with another man’s wife outside of marriage. Fornication is the general term referring to any or all sexual relationships outside the sacred bonds of marriage. The case for sexual purity is based on the concept that sexual capacity is a God-given gift but to be used according to His purpose and plan. The closest of human bonds, the love of a man and a woman who have committed themselves in pledge to one another was the very first institution for human welfare, set by God Himself in the Garden of Eden for His newly created male and female, Adam and Eve. We can almost hear the exclamation as Adam beheld Eve, his bride: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” (Genesis 2:23, NKJV). We hear the enduring commitment in the statement that follows: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24, NKJV).

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount had strong teachings about adultery in the heart and how marriage should be sacred and binding. (Read Matthew 5:27-32). Within the law, exceptions had been made for many of the “Thou shalt not…” commandments. The seventh commandment, likewise, had explanations that made it less binding. Jesus taught that lust is highly damaging and already a commitment of adultery in the heart. He further warned against “easy” divorce and its consequences to husband and wife.

Today, statistics are phenomenal on marriage breakups because of adultery or unfaithfulness of one partner or the other. About one-half the marriages performed in America now end in divorce. This represents a serious weakening of the social foundation of our nation. Consequences are painful not only for the couple involved but for any children within the home. Broken relationships always point to failure. Failure to recognize God as the author of marriage, and His standards of one man and one woman “until death do us part” as His plan for this covenant relationship goes against the Christian way and the law. We need to return seriously to the admonition in I Corinthians 6:18-20: “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (NKJV)

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Taking Life

“You shall not murder.” (Exodus 20:13, NKJV)

The King James Version renders the sixth commandment: “Thou shalt not kill.” The New International Version states: “You must not murder anyone.” Eugene W. Peterson in The Message Bible is to the point: “No murder.”

We all agree that murder, or taking the life of another, is extremely wrong. God Himself, the Giver of life, has power to give and take life. Human intervention in this sacred realm of snuffing out life is forbidden. Considering the commandment not to kill or murder or take a life, we are confronted with many questions, all of which are hard to answer. What about war and killing in war? Do human beings have the right to enter war and take the lives of others, many of whom are innocent and in the way of danger and death in warfare? Pacifists through time have objected by hiding from war duty when country calls. Others have volunteered or been enlisted to fight a country’s battles, and many have killed in hand-to-hand combat or with targeting the enemy with bombs. We admire our military whose assigned duties are the protection of our country and its freedoms. In biblical times, especially in the Old Testament era, God commanded the Israelites to fight the enemy and conquer the land. Notable examples of justifiable warfare are given. What about the death penalty for a crime: “a life for a life”? Ethicists still argue the point and our prisons house murderers awaiting appeals for their crime, even up to the day of the death penalty. What about the act sometimes termed “mercy killing,” or terminating life when there is no hope of quality of life because of illness and disease? Or take the pro-choice debate: Is abortion murder? “Thou shalt not kill” covers many aspects of taking human life and requires careful deliberation in each instance.

William B. Tolar, writing on Exodus in The Disciples’ Study Bible (Holman, 1988) states: “You shall not murder” forms the central reference point regarding the sacredness of life in the Old Testament. The major emphasis of the commandment is that life is a gift from God and its stewardship is to be guarded carefully. Though generally the application is that there should be no vengeful killing (i. e. murder), the statement still puts the burden of proof upon anyone who takes another’s life in whatever circumstances. To take away life from another lightly was perceived as an attempt at taking the place of God as Controller of life.” The commandment sets forth the sanctity of life. Life is a gift from God, and sacred.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Honor Your Father and Mother

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12, NKJV).

The first four commands concerned man’s relationship to God, or what scholars sometimes call the vertical dimensions of the covenant. The last six, commandments, five through ten, have to do with relationships among people, or the horizontal dimensions of the covenant. The fifth commandment, “Honor thy father and thy mother” (KJV) is usually considered to be children’s attitudes toward and relationship with parents. But inherent in the commandment is also society’s regard for elders, and well-ordered family life. The commandment includes not only respect, honor and care for parents, but also proper regard toward and care for elderly people within the community.

In many societies, when people became old and useless, they were sent out to die. Jesus condemned the religious leaders of his day for the practice of “Corban,”—that is, having dedicated to God a portion of their resources so that they could evade the important responsibility of caring for parents (Mark 7:9-13). Paul reminded Christians that this commandment is the first with a promise (see Ephesians 6:2). The reward for responsible care and respect of parents is longevity “in the land which the Lord…is giving you.” This is not so much long life for the children who so honor their parents (although this may be so). Rather, it promises longevity and stability for a community or nation that has built into its laws due respect and care for its senior citizens. Also wrapped within the commandment are the expectations that parents bring up children in a responsible manner. A strong commitment is involved to the members within a family—parents to children, children to parents. Written into this commandment of honoring parents is the foundation for a stable and enduring society.

I grew up in a community which took this commandment seriously. I was brought up to respect, obey and honor parents and grandparents. Both by precept and example, I sought to instill this love and respect for parents and elderly in my own children and grandchildren. The result has been a close bonding of family—extending to the larger family of cousins and other relatives. I recall an incident from my later teen-age years that made a strong impression on me. I was a charter student at Truett McConnell College, and often went to churches to speak on behalf of the college. I was with my pastor, a trustee of the college, and his wife, from Fairburn, GA where I had, with him, spoken about the new college. Returning, we approached Atlanta and saw the gold dome of our state capitol shining in the late afternoon sun. Rev. Claude Boynton said (in essence): “To see the dome of the capitol tells us that this is the seat of state government. But I say, even stronger than the government of any state or any land are the homes within that government entity. You have heard it said, ‘The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.’ Our state and nation can be no stronger than the strength of its families. In the years that lie ahead, family values will be diminished in America. That will begin a sad decline in the fabric of our free country. We cannot get away from God’s way concerning families: “Honor your father and your mother,that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.’ ”

As I thought often about that “teachable moment” when I traveled with my beloved pastor and his wife, and how he used a visual representation of the state capitol’s dome to relate to the fifth commandment and its importance, I knew that he was helping to prepare me for my eventual role as a responsible citizen and parent. We honor our own parents and our upbringing by the lives we live, for we “reflect on our raising,” as our mountain vernacular states. Today, thank God for godly parents and their influence and, if you are a parent or grandparent, for the privilege entrusted to you to rear children in the way they should go.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Monday, August 9, 2010

Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.

“Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:8-11, KJV).

The first four commandments are concerned with man’s relationship with God and God’s with man. We have seen how the first denotes God’s identity, the second His nature, the third His name. The fourth honors His day. Read the second giving of the law in Deuteronomy. The one about the Sabbath, or 4th commandment is contained in Deuteronomy 5:12-15. There, deliverance from Egyptian bondage is given as a reason for remembering the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, God first provided manna from heaven to feed the wilderness wanderers. As this blessing kept sustaining them, they were to gather enough on the sixth day to last through the Sabbath so they would not have to work on that day. In the Exodus account, the Creation is the focus. God spent six days creating all that He made. On the seventh day He rested. He gave it as a day of rest for mankind, knowing that in the cycle of work, he needed a time apart from the week of work to be refreshed in body, mind and spirit, and a day specifically for worship, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.”

Over time, the Jews had made so many additional rules to apply to and interpret the Ten Commandments that observing the Sabbath had become burdensome. Many rules stated what could and could not be done on the Sabbath. Jesus declared, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Following the resurrection, which occurred on the first day of the week, Christians made it (our Sunday) the “Sabbath”, or day of worship and rest. In Exodus: Called for Redemptive Mission (1977), Dr. Page H. Kelley wrote: “What a blessed privilege to observe the Lord’s Day! When we do so, all of life falls into the rhythmic pattern of meaningful work and festive rest. On this special day out of seven we lay down our strengths and achievements at the feet of Him who created us for His praise and His adoration. In a sense, the Sabbath expresses the essence of all the other commandments, both in its religious as well as its social meaning.” The seventh day, whether observed as the old Sabbath or the Lord’s Day (the first day of the week) is devoted to God. But all of our time is sacred, a gift from God and to be used for His glory. Is that hard to do? We have to admit it is. But God stands ready to help us order our days for Him, precious and to be used to glorify God, who “made the Sabbath” and every day for our use and stewardship.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Sunday, August 8, 2010

Take not the name of the Lord in vain.

“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.” (Exodus 20:7, KJV).

The first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” has to do with the identity of God, who He is, the Great I Am, Sovereign, Lord, Creator, Sustainer, the Ultimate in Godship. The second commandment, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images,” has to do with God’s Nature, so omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient it cannot be represented by any visual image or artistic rendering from nature. He is Spirit, and we must worship Him in spirit and in truth, not by some representation we see or make and conceive it to be in His likeness. The third commandment has to do with God’s Name and how we reverence it above every name and do not take it in vain (as in a curse) or dishonor it. Paul wrote about Jesus, the name above every name, who came to show us the Father: “Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11, NIV). Now or later, every person shall bow to the name that is above every name. Is it not far better to voluntarily honor, adore, and hold in reverence that Name now than to come in due time to acknowledge it, at a time when the opportunity for salvation may be past?

Name has a deep meaning. “To name the name” is to appropriate and command the power of the person named. When we take God’s name in vain, as in a hasty curse or a thoughtless, “My God!” for mere exclamation, we dishonor the Name of God and the Person of God whose name we have used wrongly. And then there are those who, in the name of God, seek to bring under their use the power of Deity to bring credit to themselves. This is another wrongful way to use the name of God.

The third and most important aspect of taking the name of the Lord in vain is with our own identity to His name. We are told in Acts 11:26: “And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” To be identified with the name of Christ by being called Christians (little Christs) puts a heavy weight upon our own identity. We take the Lord’s name in vain any time we conduct ourselves in an unChristlike manner. To discredit Christ’s name, which we bear by our relationship to His saving grace in us, is to deny his Lordship in our life, to bring shame upon Christ. When we dishonor His name, we dishonor His person. Let us be true to His name in us!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Saturday, August 7, 2010

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:3-6, KJV).

Today we consider the second of the Ten Commandments. Akin to the first, limiting worship to one God (“Thou shalt have no other gods before me”), the second one tells us that the God we worship is not to be represented by images. No visual aid or physical likeness of God is to be made. The Creator cannot be pictured by anything which He Himself has created. Jesus clarified this point when he taught: “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24). When Moses taught the people about God making His covenant with them on Mt. Sinai, he said, “You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain…Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of the words but saw no form; there was only a voice…Therefore, take good heed to yourselves. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure” (Deut. 4:11-12, 15-16, NIV). In all the archaeological finds of the Hebrew people, no image of God has been uncovered. The word of the Lord not to make graven images was generally obeyed except when they went after pagan gods.

But what if we make images to worship--not “graven,” or from artistic renderings of what we perceptualize God to be like? God forbids our making anything a god other than Himself. He is a “jealous” God, one who treasures His relationship with believers (His children). That word can also be rendered zealous, meaning He will hang onto us with tenacity as His beloved children. He is so worthy of our worship that there is no need to set up any other representation to worship and obey. He alone is worthy, honorable and “our Father.” If we do replace the one true God, whether by idol worship, putting something ahead of our adoration of God, or through sheer neglect of worship and service to Him, our sins of apostasy will be visited on our children even to the 3rd and 4th generations. Someone has wisely observed that we are only one generation away from paganism if we fail to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. If they see us worshipping idols, whether images made by hands or some pursuit which we love more than God, they, too, will follow our ungodly example. We should ever guard against that apostasy. Yet if we are faithful to God, that blessing, too, will benefit our children and point them to faith in Him.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Friday, August 6, 2010

Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me

“And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:1-3, KJV).

Controversy has raged about the Ten Commandments for some time. Once prominently displayed in public buildings in America where the laws of the land are administered, a hue and cry has arisen about how such displays are a breach of the separation of church and state and are unconstitutional. The vocal minority has overruled the silent majority and the basic tenets of a Christian nation are no longer held in high esteem as a part of life and practice.

Regardless of the controversy, the Ten Commandments are still intact and provide a framework of conduct for those who believe in the Sovereign God and seek to follow His precepts. God gave the commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” After their Exodus from Egypt, where in that culture the Egyptians worshipped sun, moon, the sacred bull, the Nile River, and other entities set up as gods, Jehovah God spoke to Moses and told him to declare to the people, “I am the Lord thy God.” God had led them out of bondage. The people were to be reminded of their dependence upon and allegiance to the God who delivers. As they progressed toward and conquered the Promised Land, where the occupants also worshipped multiple pagan gods, the Israelites were to remain faithful to God the Almighty, Deliverer and Sovereign.

The Ten Commandments were given by God to the leader of the Israelite nation, Moses. They were intended as the major guide for life as it ought to be lived.
Though set as the nation’s standard for faith and practice, the commandments are, in turn, to be obeyed by each individual. For nations of God-seeking and God-fearing people since ancient Isreal’s time, the Ten Commandments have been the basis of law and order. But it is on a personal and private level that the commandments are exercised. The first is powerful and initial to all the others: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Jesus gave new meaning to the commandments. Hear Him as He teaches the disciples and us: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-39) Today, love, honor, praise, obey and adore God.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Thursday, August 5, 2010

Wisdom and Righteousness vs.Sin and Folly

“The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death. The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked. He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.” (Proverbs 10:1-5, KJV) [Read Proverbs 10].

Beginning with Proverbs 10 and continuing through chapter 22, the wisdom sayings cover well the subject of one’s right response to wisdom and the earthly consequences resulting. Likewise wisdom or righteous living is starkly contrasted to the consequences that come from following after sin and folly. Ancient thinkers evidently observed the orderliness of the world and recognized that living in harmony with certain laws of God and of nature brings good to those who follow this way. Given in the familiar poetic form of Hebrew parallelism, the positive statement and result of following wisdom are compared to the foolishness and suffering of following folly. For example, this is a known fact and should, therefore, form a way of life: “A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is the grief of his mother” (Proverbs 10:1). And so the wise advice continues, covering almost every subject the sage can think of and giving sound advice to those who need to choose the righteous way over the foolish way.

The major subject of chapter 10 of Proverbs is that the righteous enjoys blessings but the wicked suffer greatly. Involved in this sage advice is a lot of practical living. We know that harmony in the home comes from love, nourishing and proper instruction from loving parents. A result is that the son then makes his father glad (we could say makes parents glad, but in the days of Solomon, the emphasis was upon a male-dominated society). On the other hand, a non-obedient and foolish son brings great grief upon a mother. This instruction undergirds the command of God: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12).

“But what about when bad things happen to good people?” we want to ask. The emphasis of Proverbs 10 is always positive on the side of righteousness. What if a person follows wisdom’s ways and lives a righteous life, but things do not always turn out in a prosperous manner? Think of Job and all he lost, and the condemnations his ‘friends’ leveled at him because of what they considered his sin and folly. We must remember in our consideration of Job that he never lost the “fear of the Lord,” and as Proverbs emphasizes, that is “the beginning of wisdom.”

These parallelisms and contrasts in Proverbs offer centuries of observation in living the God-fearing life. They prove true in the majority of cases but may not be true in every case. They should not be used to condemn ourselves and others if we do not reach a certain standard of blessings and prosperity. In each of these proverbs, on a variety of subjects and situations faced in the course of normal living, we have the ideal in perseverance, courage, integrity, and right living. The rewards are the care and presence of God and respect from those among whom we live. Without fail, these proverbs teach that we are to reach toward our maximum potential in living the righteous life. When we seek God and follow His way, joy, fellowship and satisfaction result. And after all, these are our ultimate goals, not worldly prosperity.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Thursday, July 8, 2010