“And God spoke all these words, saying: ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 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, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me” (Exodus 20:1-5).
These are the first two commandments the Lord commanded Israel in the wilderness. Remember, these commandments were strictly for Israel and not for the Christendom society. I believe that you know all the Ten Commandments that Moses introduced to the Israelites were engraved on two tablets by the finger of God on Mount Sinai. So, there is something I want to reveal to you here. These laws seem easy and doable when we look at them with carnal eyes but, there is no one who can do can them when we look at them with spiritual eyes.
In all these, the grace of God was on the children of Israel in the wilderness. These commandments or laws were not given to sanctify the children of Israel but to show them their sin. Let us read this, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:19-20).
Now can you see that the law only makes us aware of our sin but it cannot save us, and again it can only make us guilty before God. Now, maybe you want to argue that Paul is not referring to the Ten Commandments but to Ceremonial laws, then let us see what Paul said, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead” (Romans 7:7-8).
Paul vividly quoted one of the Ten Commandments as part of the law, and did not quote among the Ceremonial laws. In these laws, sin gained strength in us and apart from the law sin was dead. So in the days of Abraham, there was no sin because there was no law. We see this even when Abraham lied to Pharaoh and Abimelech; he was still protected by the Lord. However in this period, the Holy Spirit still showed people what was wrong.
Then what was purpose of these laws? The primary purpose of these laws was for the Israelites to know the holiness of the Lord. Why? Let us read this, “Then all the people answered together and said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do.’ So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord” (Exodus 19:8). The children of Israel here thought they could merit God’s will, then the Lord revealed to them His form and His holiness.
Immediately after this they failed, they broke the first and second commandments of God while He was even still busy writing it on Mount Sinai. Why did they make a carved image? Sin got power because they started assuming the strength from within themselves. After this, in the next chapter the Lord rolled out the Ten Commandments. When Moses came down, he broke the two tablets of the Ten Commandments because people had created a god for themselves.
Until in Exodus 19, from the beginning of their journey from Egypt with the Lord, no one died. We are talking here about over 3 million people, not even a single one of them was found to be feeble, and they were all healthy because they were walking in His grace. In the Red Sea, no one was left in it, they all passed through. The children of Israel as Pharaoh released them; they all celebrated and left slavery toward the Promised Land.
They walked in faith because they had no compass or a map, for that reason, they went straight to sea because they only knew the direction of where they came from. Now the Lord being in control of everything here, He deliberately hardened the heart of Pharaoh to follow the children of Israel. The Lord is wise, in this instance; the children of Israel would find a way maybe to the Suez Canal to bypass the Red Sea. But the Lord caused the soldiers of Pharaoh to come while they were still thinking of a way through.
The Lord wanted to show Himself to be the omniscient here, when they saw the chariots of the soldiers of behind they started crying out to Moses. I like this, because many Christians cry to pastors expecting that the Lord will give them everything from the word-go. The Lord likes it when we ask from Him each time we are in need. So the Israelites were faced with the impossibility and the enemies were marauding from behind.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “...Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea” (Exodus 14:15-16). My focus is not in this event but on the law of Moses and the grace of God. However, as I was busy reading these passages about the law, the Lord said I must pass by this story and this is what I found – fresh revelation, about the word ‘the rod’.
In the Hebrew language the word rod is maṭṭeh (מטה), in plain English it means a branch or tribe also a rod. But in a figurative sense it means a support of life, e.g. bread. What is bread? Bread in a biblical sense is always the allegory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So in essence, the Lord is saying when one is faced with a situation whereby there seems to be no way out, one must not cry but lift up Jesus. Lift Him up by praising Him and do not panic for the Lord will bring you His salvation.
So the Lord brought His salvation and the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea and none of them died there. So when Jesus came, the Pharisees had found a way to have the law manageable and they were condemning people through it. The Pharisees were able to cover their sins well through their own self-efforts works, however, only Jesus could expose them. This answers the question about why the Pharisees hated Jesus.
So when Jesus came and found that the Pharisees had holier than thou kind of attitude, He exposed them and brought the law to its prestigious level. Look at what Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgement.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of judgement...” (Matthew 5:21-22).
Another part of the law which Jesus quoted for the Pharisees is this, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28). So here Jesus is repeating the Ten Commandments and is giving brief explanations on them. In essence, He is telling the Pharisees that sin is not only overtly but also inwardly.
Jesus is bringing everyone to the end of themselves by showing them that no one can merit God’s holiness. The Pharisees were cold-hearted but it was covert, but our Lord Jesus could penetrate through so that they could see the need for a Saviour rather than thinking that they could merit God’s requirements by their self-efforts works. All that is written in the Law of Moses, Jesus is putting it in to its prestigious level where it belongs. This is, in what He was teaching them He was saying that murder is not only when you take a life of someone but even the hatred in your heart is murder.
Likewise, adultery is not only when you physical lie with the person but with just the lustful looking is already adultery. Jesus was saying to the Pharisee, ‘You are putting it outside, but I’m putting it inside.’ This answers the question why the Pharisees wanted to get Him killed because He exposed them of their sin. This is what He said, “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:3-5).
Showing other people that they could not merit God’s Law, this is what happened also: “Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying ‘Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ So Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and mother.’ And he said, ‘All these things I have kept from my youth.’ So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow Me.’ But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich” (Luke 18:18-23).
When we think we have merited the Law, there is always one thing that still lacks. This young man thought he was doing right by keeping the Ten Commandments, of course he was doing a good thing but he only put it outside. Look at what Jesus reveals to him, a hidden idolatry. Let us see what the Bible says, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).
The word mammon in the Greek is mammōnâs (μαμμωνς) which in English is avarice. The word avarice means to acquire wealth in reprehensive manner. In a nutshell, to be greedy for money to such extend that you can do anything to have it. This young man idolised money and it is clear that the way he got it was not in God’s way. When Jesus showed him what is needed from he bacame sorrowful, if he found it God’s way, he would have done what Jesus said he should do.
Do not boast on the law that you can merit it. It is impossible! Never and ever think you can perfect the law of God, only Jesus could merit it and He merited it for us. So we must be clear again in this that these Ten Commandments were not meant for us but for children of Israel. The Holy Spirit says through the apostle James, “For whoever shall keep the law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:10-11).
The law again that the Bible is referring to is still the Ten Commandments. Now the question that remains is this, are we all sinners going to hell because we cannot keep the law of God? The scriptures say, we are not saved because of our works but by grace through faith. Let us read this, “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness” (Romans 4:2-5).
This is even much clearer that we are justified by grace, in other words, it is just a favour from the Lord. We don’t deserve it! Abraham only believed God, so the same principle our father of faith got justified, has not changed. We are still going to be justified by faith. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved with your family (read Acts 16:31). We are not going to hell, but we are going to heaven to be with our Father.
Let me bring this to your attention, “For as by one man’s (Adam) disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s (Jesus) obedience many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). For us to be sinners we did nothing, even if you are a good person as long as you have not been born again you are a sinner and when you die you will go to hell. Jesus, the second Adam, through Him also when we are born again and we are made righteous. Nothing is able to take us out of our righteousness.
Stay in health by His grace and favour...
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