Foundation: The Commandments

9410 words long.

This article will speak about the commandments more broadly. It will point out that every discussion of God's plans for us must begin with those commandments. By those commandments God will not only judge the unsaved world, He will also judge His church. Did I say will? No, that is wrong. The judgement has already begun...

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A Confession

I did not want to write this article. Many worthy people have presented vivid and actionable teachings on the Decalogue. I wrote a whole book on the subject and do not want to rehash those ideas here. Yet no edifice of knowledge can be understood without an account of its foundation. If I can't cover everything, I must at least say something. That something had better motivate readers to carry on their own study. Therefore this article will touch on two points: wrath and protection.

Wrath. The wrath of God terrifies and demoralizes the enemies of God (as it should), but when accompanied by faith, produces in the believer first repentance and second courage. Thus I will show you the wrath of God at work so that the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord may visit you. His wrath is not a chaotic, haphazard affair. God channels it into deliberate and measured actions executed at regular intervals that precisely conform to the Ten Commandments in flavor. When you see that, you will know that your life is in the hands of an impartial judge who is not asleep at the wheel. May this wake you up and challenge you to follow the Lord more closely.

Protection. It would be easy to write an essay that catalogues the myriad ways that people cheerfully violate the commandments, sometimes without knowing it. There are endless tracts about that to scold you. What we need as much as insight into our sin is insight into God's love. Paul the Apostle said in 1 Corinthians 13:7 that love always protects. Each commandment of God protects something worth protecting. Jesus said that we are to store up treasure in Heaven. Those treasures need to be protected. The Ten Commandments are the walls of the vault that protects those treasures - all of them. I will put some of those treasures on display and explain which commandment protects each of them. Once you see the protection of God, you see the love of God. When the Law of God becomes a Law of Love that law becomes glorious.

The Law is Important

The Law is the foundation of Lady Wisdom's house. In the Bible, that law is symbolized by a precious stone. Depending on your translation, that stone is either lapis lazuli or sapphire. When Isaiah promised to Jerusalem that God would rebuild her on a foundation of lapis lazuli, he meant that he would rebuild her by restoring in her the sacred place of the Law, the only true foundation of a just and secure civilization. Tradition holds that the original stone tablets that Moses carried down from Mount Sinai were carved by the finger of God upon lapis lazuli. A more certain reference may be found in Exodus 24, which describes an event that occurred just before Moses ascended Sinai to get the tablets:

Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel

went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like

a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky.

- Moses 24:9-10 (NIV)

If something is solid enough for the God of the universe to walk on, it is solid enough to be a foundation for us.

In Ezekiel 1:26 and 10:1, the prophet beheld a vision of God's throne and said that it looked like lapis lazuli. If a material is majestic enough to be used to construct God's throne, it is majestic enough for us to sit on.

The Ten Commandments (and the rest of the Law that came with it) are that foundation and that throne. Here are a few ways in which the Ten Commandments are woven into Scripture that speak to its magnificence:

• Hannah, mother of the Prophet Samuel, shaped her ten-verse prophetic prayer according to the commandments, as explored in Hannah's Song
• The Apostle Paul, when writing to Timothy, prophetically structured the ten chapters of those two letters according to the commandments, as shown in Reconciliation
• Other Prophetic clocks structured according to the Ten Commandments are identified in Commandment Clocks
• The Gospel of Matthew is structured according to the Ten Commandments when broken into fourteen imperative statements: Matthew and the Law of Christ
• Psalm 119, longest of the Psalms, extols the value of meditating on God's Law in almost every verse
• Job has prophecies of how God judges empires across all of human history in an order governed by the Ten Commandments, as shown in Job: The Course of Empires and The Meaning of the Beasts of Job

Hannah's prayer is significant. She gives seven examples of people whose fortunes were reversed. Those seven reversals conform to both the Growth and Harvest Patterns. Wrapped around the seven reversals are additional verses that bring the total to ten and match the Ten Commandments. In two key places, there are references to the number seven and the pillars of the earth, thus prophesying the existence of the Seven Pillars of Wisdom. By these stylistic flourishes we are taught that the commandments are the basis of all short term spiritual harvests and long term spiritual growth and provide the matrix for all of God's wisdom.

Job's prophecies are also significant. They prove that God has been steadily judging major world empires over the course of thousands of years. Each act of judgment is for the violation of one of the commandments and the judgments are proceeding in order. Nine of those judgments have been completed, meaning only one remains before Christ returns. The judged and fallen empires are:

• Babel - for worshiping human progress, not God
• Egypt - for idolatry
• Israel - for taking the Lord's name in vain
• Assyria - for violating the sabbath
• Babylon - for failure to honor parents
• Persia - for murder (thirteen Assyrian kings murdered, one executed, many royal family members assassinated and Haman's genocide of the Jews initially condoned)
• Greece - for adultery
• Rome - for theft (including European colonialism)
• Islam - for bearing false witness (denying that God has a Son)

Stepping back, we can list other times (also elaborated upon in my book) where God employed the schema of the Ten Commandments (sometimes supported by metaphorical echoes of the ten plagues on Egypt) to judge political and religious entities:

• Each of the first ten generations of humans (on Cain's side) broke a commandment, in canonical sequence, prompting the flood
• Each of the first ten chapters of Genesis gave an example of breaking a commandment, in canonical sequence, prompting the fall of Babel
• Eqypt endured ten plagues, most of which match the corresponding commandment, such as the seventh plague of hail stones matching the seventh commandment against adultery, whose ancient punishment was stoning
• Israel was judged (or on occasion blessed and her enemies judged) for violations of each commandment. For Judah, the tenth plague on the firstborn was the death of Christ, the firstborn over all creation, at the hands of those who coveted his power
• Christian Civilization as a whole was judged according to the commandments, with the sixth plague of boils being recapitulated as the Black Death, which had boils as a symptom. This was in punishment of the church's growing violence (crusades, inquisition, etc).

While writing this article, I discovered another instance where history tracks the commandments, as God has exercised judgment upon my own beloved Protestant Church.

No Person, Nation or Religion is Exempt

God judged Egypt, Babylon, Greece and Rome. He judged Israel and Judah. He will one day judge the whole earth. Before then, Christians must face the sobering fact that God also judges the church. The Lord is an impartial judge.

When I became a Baptist, there remained a trace among my new co-religionists of the virulent anti-Catholic bigotry that once gripped all of Protestantism. Many reformers, theologians, pastors and lay people denounced the Roman Catholic Church, associated it with the harlot of Revelation, and gleefully prophesied its eventual destruction by God. When I found my first Commandment Clock, it spanned the whole of the church age from the time of Christ's birth until his return. Signature acts of judgment against the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches were easy to fit into that outline of history. They are real - but the ease with which I found that clock shows my bias. Over a year has passed since I found the other commandment clocks. Only now have I found one that speaks of God's wrath against the Protestant Church for breaking the commandments - or in some instances, blessings for keeping them. Pride is worst in those who have been elevated to the highest office. Being persuaded that Protestant theology is closer to the truth than the alternatives, it follows that the worst pride imaginable could only emanate from Protestant sources.

The obvious choice of year to start this clock would be 1517 AD, when Luther nailed his ninety-five theses on the church door. Instead, I chose 1450 AD because of its proximity to another church shattering event, the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD.

To discover and demonstrate a prophetic clock based on the Ten Commandments, you need to choose a corporate entity (a nation, civilization or religion), pick a start year and and end year, divide the era in ten equal parts, then match events in each historical era to the corresponding commandment. In many of the prophetic clocks covered in my books or on this website, there are in the Bible text riddles that spell out the start event and period in years for the clock. I have not found such riddles for this one. Furthermore, there were several possible start years. I settled on the start year numbered below (1450 AD) by trail and error; it was not the most obvious yet possessed the best match to history. Using as the end year 2280 AD (consistent with many other of the clocks) you arrive at a period of 83 years for each commandment.

The following clock is still ticking. Three acts of judgment remain. I will not speculate what those events might be, because if the church repents, the judgment will rebound against her enemies. Here is how things have gone so far...

1450 - 1533 AD: One God for One Church

The First Commandment calls on people to worship one God. If we were united in true worship of the one true God, our church would be united as well. The sign of our failing to keep this command was the tearing of Christendom into pieces. In 1453 AD, Constantinople fell and millions of Eastern Orthodox believers died, were enslaved or forced to convert to Islam. The next shattering event was the Protestant Reformation which began in 1517 AD, incited by Martin Luther. The lack of unity that Christians were hiding inside now manifested itself for the world to see. In 1529, near the end of this era, Luther penned the great hymn "A Mighty Fortress is our God". Sadly, Christians sang this hymn as they marched to battle against other Christians.

1533 - 1616 AD: Idols of Silver and Gold

The Second Commandment against idolatry is one that the church violated with gusto. This era saw the rapid conquest of the Americas by Spain, Portugal, England, the Netherlands and the other European colonial empires. In 1532, a year before this era began, Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incan Empire. The 1530's and 1540's would then become the peak decades for extracting silver and gold from the New World. The Spaniards and others hauled vast treasures of silver, gold, iron, animal pelts, and new foods from the New World. In their place they left disease, slavery and death. On the one hand, those empires were exacting God's vengeance against pagan nations. On the other hand, by letting those treasures become idols in their hearts, they stored up God's wrath against themselves. The Wars of Religion and other conflicts that sprang from the Reformation killed tens of millions in Europe and spilled over into the Americas as well. God detests idols.

1616 - 1699 AD: The Name of a New Lord

The Third Commandment tells us that we are not to take the name of the Lord in vain. That means we are not to arrogate His authority to serve our own ends by making false prophecies or abusing religious authority in other ways. Worse than this is to make God's Name - His Word - of no effect by denying its divine origin, truthfulness, power and authority over our lives. In this era, the philosophers of the Age of Reason lay siege to the underpinnings of philosophy and set up human reason as the new God. They took up arms against the faith that in the yera 1616, the first of this era, placed Nicolaus Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (written in 1543) on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, forbidding faithful Catholics to read it. Spinoza denied that the Bible was of divine origin. Hobbes in his book Leviathan called for the establishment of authoritarian forms of government, laying the groundwork for the totalitarian regimes to follow. Descartes ripped empirical knowledge and divine ends from his philosophy. The Lord of these new thinkers was Rationalism, not Jesus Christ. The punishment for these crimes was that we must live under the systems that they created.

1699 - 1782 AD: A Delightful Sabbath Rest

The Fourth Commandment to rest on the seventh day needed no marketing team in this era. Exhausted, terrified by agitators predicting the end of the world and by the memory of the wars that had so recently savaged the continent, many felt desolate. Thus the faithful of this era turned to God for rest. They kept the sabbath by turning to the Lord in repentance, prayer, and quiet reflection. The Pietism Movement in Europe lasted from 1675 to 1740. One artifact of this movement was the Geistreiches Gesangbuch, a hymnal assembled by Johan Anastasius Freylinghausen and first published in 1704 AD. Pietism was followed by the Methodist Revival in England (1738 and after) and the Great Awakening in America (1730's - 1760's). Then in 1781 AD, America won a decisive victory over Great Britain at Yorktown. It would soon become a place of rest for refugees from all over the world.

1782 - 1865 AD: The land the Lord your God is giving you.

The Fifth Commandment teaches us that if we honor our father and mother, "that [our] days [will] be long in the land that the Lord [our] God is giving [us]." The land that was given was America. By the millions people began to flock to the shining city on a hill. Refugees from oppression, famine and poverty found a place where they could live in hope and freedom.

1865 - 1948 AD: Thou Shalt not Commit Genocide

The Sixth Commandment forbids murder. In this era, monstrous crimes against humanity were committed, many by Christian nations. The era begins with the final year of the American Civil War, God's judgment for tolerating slavery. In the succeeding years we have these genocidal atrocities:

• United Kingdom and Australia against the Aborigines (over 270 massacres over 140 years)
• United State policies toward its indigenous peoples (wars, forced marches, and reservations)
• Belgium against the peoples of the Congo (1885 - 1908)
• Germany against the Namibians (1904 - 1907)
• the Ottomans against the Armenians (1915 - 1916)
• the Soviet Union's Holodomor against the Ukraine (1932 - 1933)
• the Japanese Rape of Nanjing (1937)
• the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews (1941 - 1945)
• and so many more that I have not the heart to keep listing

God's judgment against the Christian empires and nations was exacted through the two World Wars, Influenza epidemic and the oppression of Communism. Millions died. Empires were dissolved. Territories were stripped away. Then in the last year of this era, the world became ashamed. First, Israel became a sovereign nation once again. Second, The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the United Nations on December 9, 1948. Sadly, this did little to stop Rwanda, East Timor, South Sudan, Darfur, Viet Nam, Cambodia, and all the rest.

1948 - 2031 AD: Glorying in the Shame of Adultery

The Seventh Commandment forbids adultery. This is our era and we lost no time justifying our debauchery. In 1948, the first year of this era, Kinsey published his first report, on male sexuality, to be followed a few years later by another on women's. The subsequent sexual revolution of the 1960's shredded all cultural norms and protections. The moral insanity that this unleashed continues to grow and fester every year with no end in sight. Early on it took a disease like AIDS to exact a physical toll against the immoral. Now children willingly submit their bodies to be mangled and their future happiness to be pushed beyond reach. These sins thus deliver self-inflicted judgment. When will people come to their senses?

2031 - 2114 AD: Against Theft

The Eighth Commandment forbids theft. I do not know what God will do to judge the church for this sin, but stripping us of our wealth seems likely. We seem to be headed for a time of great persecution against Christians. The world covets money. If they get the chance, they will take and take and take until there is nothing left.

2114 - 2197 AD: Against Lying

The Ninth Commandment forbids lying. There are many ways to punish a person for lying but the worst is to take away the truth. The truth of Jesus Christ can save you. It is one thing to be offered this truth and reject it. What happens when it is nowhere to be found? What happens when you know you are dying and you run from door to door and absolutely nobody knows the way of salvation?

2197 - 2280 AD: Against Coveting

The Tenth Commandment forbids coveting. The surest way to torment the covetous is enable them to acquire the things that they covet, only to have those things poison and destroy them.

There is Hope

All those judgments were designed by God to correct and purify the church, to call her to leave this wicked world and its entanglements. They were not designed to destroy us. In every era, there have been some who heed the warnings and turn away from evil and to God.

In the other prophetic clocks I have discovered, apart from the start or end year, it is uncommon for the start and end years of the eras to fall on critical events related to the themes of the governing pattern; such events can fall anywhere during the era. This clock has several such events, which bolsters my confidence that the pattern is real and the date ranges close to the mark. These events were Pizarro's capture of Inca gold, victory in the American Revolution, the conclusion of the American Civil War, the founding of a new Israel, the United Nations' passage of the covenant against genocide and Kinsey's report on sexuality. God arranged events so that a patient student could trace these seasons of judgment and learn to fear his Name.

The history and prophecy related to God's judgment of empires is meant to do more that intrigue and entertain, it is intended to show that God takes His commandments seriously. He pours His power into upholding them. He shapes the history of civilizations by them and also the course of human lives, through the Growth and Harvest Patterns that structure all our days. We must look at the commandments seriously. They were given so that we might become free and remain free, not live as slaves.

What lies beneath the Law? Love!

If the commandments are the foundation of Lady Wisdom's house, it seems foolish to ask what sits under them. What could possibly be under the bottom? The question makes better sense if we ask what comes not under but before the Law. Why was the Law established? What was God's purpose in giving it?

About two decades ago, I wrote some fantasy novels set in the afterlife in a city called the Courtlands, a sort of purgatory. While world building for those novels, I realized that I needed to design a court system to process all the dead people and decide where to send them. Not being a lawyer, I cast about for where to begin. I still remember my thought process. I came up with a chain of questions that led me to my answer.

Q: What is the purpose of the law?
A: To uphold a moral code.

Q: What is the purpose of a moral code?
A: To defend what is valuable.

Q: What is valuable?
A: The heavenly treasures that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 6.

Q: And what are those heavenly treasures?

I spent years searching my heart and the Scriptures to make up a list of those treasures. I wrote The Endless Hunt to share my findings. My methodology was to find places in the Bible where Jesus, a prophet or apostle used language to strongly emphasize the importance of some quality, value or behavior. I whittled the results down to a list of ten, then found two more to make a total of twelve. These spiritual values can be grouped into four larger themes:

• identifying (our being: The Fear of the Lord, Eternal Life, The Glory of God)
• establishing (our relationships: authority, work & rest, family)
• nurturing (our expression: love, courage & protection, wisdom & justice & truth)
• flourishing (our fulness: happiness & generosity, freedom, peace & joy)

All that effort was expended to look afar, find the treasures, bring them close and then try via induction to wrestle them into a framework so that I could grasp them. It is likely that I missed some treasures, so having broad categories is useful. It helps me bridge the gap with some catchalls, the unknown things that establish and nurture us and enable us to flourish. Once I had my list, I could design an abstract yet coherent legal system to defend them. This effort was fruitful because it disclosed to me what the most important of the treasures is: the Glory of God. That prompted me to undertake a three-year long fast in search of God's glory.

The astute will say that if I had only trusted the traditions of the church, like the Shorter Westminster Catechism, it would have saved me time and trouble:

• Q. What is the chief end of man?
• A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

My answer is that sometimes you have to do the work yourself. With the "Greatest Commandment", the "Golden Rule", "the most excellent way" and myriad other superlative statements circulating the church, climbing to the top of that mountain was arduous. However, from the mountain top it is easy to see down. Having found these treasures scattered throughout the Bible it is possible now to see how all of them can be defended by one compact set of laws, the Ten Commandments. Had I started years ago by going in the other direction, from commandment to treasure trove, I would have come up short. You need to understand the commandments very well before you can see all that they protect. That I could not do. Now I am learning how. Here then are a few ideas about what treasures each commandment protects.

I. A God of Freedom

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 slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me."

- Exodus 20:1-3

Freedom. In the preamble, we learn that a primary goal of the Law is to preserve the freedom that God's wonders, the plagues against Egypt, purchased for Israel. Therefore the first treasure that is protected is freedom. If you observe history, more gods tends to align with more obligations, hence less freedom. Worshiping one God is therefore not a burden, it is a blessing.

Truth. The first words reveal another treasure. "God spoke" is a powerful truth; it guarantees that the commandments are true and perfect. Thus those who keep the commandments protect the truth.

A Journey Home. If you take the preamble along with two of the commandments they tell the story of a journey. In an eery echo of my thoughts, the song I am listening to as I write - "One Day" by Cochren & Co - has these words:

One day we'll be family standing hand in hand,

And we will see the promised land;

We will see the promised land.

Hallelujah!

That journey is from Egypt (in the preamble) to the promised land of the fifth commandment, "the land that the Lord your God is giving you". How long would that journey last? The generation that crossed the Red Sea with Moses fell into idolatry when they forged the Golden Calf. What was the punishment for idolatry? The second commandment tells us that God would visit "the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me..." How long is one generation? It varies in the Bible, based on context, but for Solomon's Celestial Clock and several others, a generation is 120 years. It was about three and a half generations from the crossing of the Red Sea to the anointing of King Saul. It was exactly four generations (480 years) after the people left Egypt that Solomon began to build the temple, as given in 1 Kings 6:1. Thus it was between the start and end of the fourth generation that Israel enjoyed its greatest peace and prosperity; the people were at home and secure. Thus the origin of the journey, its duration and an indicator of the destination are all given. It is a prophecy that promised the people a home. A home given to you by God is a thing to treasure.

Were the Jews the only ones given a home? No! Consider the early church. Three generations after Jesus was born (ca 4 BC) would be 360 years later, or 357 BC. Four generations after his birth would be 477 AD. Christians were persecuted by Rome for centuries, but then it stopped with Constantine's Edict of Milan in 313 AD. That reprieve would become permanent when Nicene Christianity became the state religion of Rome after the Edict of Thessalonica in 380 AD. That was near the beginning of the fourth generation. Our earthly home is not permanent, so Rome fell in 476 AD, at the very end of that generation. Of course Europe would generally remain the church's home for the next millennium. So the commandments promised the church a home where it could grow and flourish and even defined the era when that would happen.

Next, consider the Protestant Church. In the clock given earlier in this article, the period for an era was 83 years. If you advance three generations (249 years) from 1450, you land on 1699 AD. If four generations (332 years), then you reach 1782 AD. The major spiritual event in the fourth generation was revival, with the rise of the Methodists and the American Great Awakening. During the latter years of that fourth generation, the American Revolution was fought, ending in its last full year. America was to be the new home for the Protestant Church (and the Jews!), a haven of religious liberty from which God's plan to spread the gospel to the whole earth could be launched.

Yes, at the right time, God always provides a home for His people.

Purpose. This is not a trivial observation! The commandments are not static rules to be followed. They have a direction. They point to a goal. They supply purpose to our lives. Having a God-given, eternal purpose, not one of the vain and temporary human plans for life that Solomon named and discarded in Ecclesiastes is an immensely wonderful treasure. This idea of the commandments supplying purpose is worked out in Matthew and the Law of Christ .

II. The Fear of the Lord, Wisdom, Courage & Spiritual Treasure

“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 or 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 the fourth generation of those who hate me,

but showing steadfast love to thousands of

those who love me and keep my commandments."

- Exodus 20:4-6

In Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus tells us that there are earthly treasures that moth and rust destroy. Those are the treasures that people make into idols. That tells us what this commandment is really about. It is about discovering what are the heavenly treasures that Jesus urges us to pursue and seeking them with our whole heart.

The Lord threatens to visit generations of iniquity upon people for disregarding this commandment. Of all the commandments, this is the one phrased in the harshest terms. This command is meant to elicit fear. Scripture tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 9:10), of knowledge (Proverbs 1:17), and that we are to "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecclesiastes 12:13) Consider the immediate response of the Jewish people after these commandments were delivered to them:

Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning

and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking,

the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off

and said to Moses,

“You speak to us, and we will listen;

but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”

Moses said to the people,

“Do not fear, for God has come to test you,

that the fear of him may be before you,

that you may not sin.”

- Exodus 20:18-20

Moses tells the people not to be afraid. What gives? This is the mysterious nature of the Fear of the Lord. It is one of the Seven Spirits of God named in Isaiah 11:2. When you cooperate with that spirit, it triggers a chain of events. That fear teaches you wisdom, that wisdom turns you away from sin, which leads you to holiness, which protects you by God's favor, and in the end builds you up in courage so that you need not fear. Recall the battle for Jericho. The people of Jericho melted with fear (Joshua 2:8-14) because they had heard about the miracles done by God for His people. Rahab took in that fear, helped the Hebrew spies escape, and as a consequence she and her whole family were spared after the city fell. She was embraced by Israel and became mother to an ancestor of King David.

The Fear of the Lord leads to courage! This commandment and all the rest are the guarantors of this courage. This commandment breaks the spell that the world's tawdry treasures hold over you and enables you to recognize true treasure. This commandment does not list all those heavenly treasures, but it names the one that counts:

GOD'S STEADFAST LOVE

III. Authority & Forgiveness

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,

for the Lord will not hold him guiltless

who takes his name in vain."

- Exodus 20:7

Too few people understand this command. Using curse words is a trivial violation but by no means the worst. God's name is imbued with His authority. The one who rightly speaks a word received from God must be heard and obeyed. The false prophet who speaks lies that God has not spoken to them steals that authority and enslaves people to their will. The priest or minister who by guile or folly interprets the Bible in a false manner does the same. This is worse than atheism, for the atheist listens to no one and is not led astray by false prophecies.

This command protects a treasure of first importance: God's authority. It also teaches us to respect the other authorities that God has set over mankind. The opposite of taking God's name in vain is to revere and bless it. If we need an example to follow, besides Jesus Christ there is no better guide than Job. Satan tried to get Job to curse God, but despite those unjust torments, this is what happened:

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head

and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said,

“Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return.

The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;

blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Job 1:20-21

Job accepted that God had the authority to treat him as he did and in the end that saved him. In the end, God called upon Job's three friends to offer sacrifices and beseech Job for forgiveness. If the curse for dishonoring God's name is to be found guilty, the blessing for revering God's name is forgiveness. Forgiveness is the treasure that this command protects. Forgiving words from our lips become treasures to the ones whom we set free.

IV. Wisdom, Purpose, Significance & Peace

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor, 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, you, or your son,

or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant,

or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea,

and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.

Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

- Exodus 20:8-11

The fourth commandment is the most complex one. It alone consists of three imperatives, (1) to keep the Sabbath holy, (2) to work six days, and (3) to not work on the seventh day. If the fifth commandment declares God's authority over space ("the land that the Lord your God is giving you"), this commandment declares His authority over time. The ability to control time, sovereignly plan out events, and predict the future are attributes belonging solely to God, as told us by Isaiah:

Remember this and stand firm,

recall it to mind, you transgressors,

remember the former things of old;

for I am God, and there is no other;

I am God, and there is none like me,

declaring the end from the beginning

and from ancient times things not yet done,

saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,

and I will accomplish all my purpose,’

calling a bird of prey from the east,

the man of my counsel from a far country.

I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;

I have purposed, and I will do it.

- Isaiah 46:8-11

A careful reading of Ecclesiastes reinforces this idea. The deepest wisdom is tied up with the understanding of God's plans for history. Our confusion over how to interpret Revelation is proof that the Church has not yet acquired this depth of wisdom.

Alone among the commandments, this one shines forth the mystery of the Trinity. Keeping the Sabbath Holy is the domain of the Holy Spirit. Working six days is the domain of the Father, our Creator. The Father is the one whose discipline teaches us good habits. He roots out the thorns and thistles of distraction so that our time is well spent. Lastly, the Son calls us to rest with God in peace. That is because Jesus is the Prince of Peace who said these comforting words:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,

and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me,

for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and

you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

- Matthew 11:28-30

By this commandment, God ennobles work. He sets His majestic power in creating an entire universe alongside our humble toil. Solomon lamented the futility of our temporary achievements, saying:

There is no remembrance of former things,

nor will there be any remembrance

of later things yet to be

among those who come after.

- Ecclesiastes 1:11

Yet when we join God in the Sabbath, he connects our work to his. He blesses our efforts with eternal significance, if we labor with love, patience and humility to spread His fame and His love abroad. God grants us the treasure of an eternal purpose. He has set eternity in our heart. (Ecclesiastes 3:11) By keeping the Sabbath and submitting to God's plans for our time, we protect that treasured purpose. We also show love for others when we relieve them of the burden of serving us.

In the Law Pattern, there are two blessed outcomes. The second is peace with our neighbor (which springs from the Tenth Commandment against covetousness). The first is peace with God. For decades I wrestled with anxiety. By many lessons and missteps have I slowly approached that peace which will be perfected in Heaven. This commandment is the invitation to peace and our obedience is its protector.

V. Family

“Honor your father and your mother,

that your days may be long

in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

- Exodus 20:12

Many of the commandments indirectly protect the family, but this one celebrates it. The seven negative ones name things not to do, one (the fourth) mixes prescription with proscription, but only two are positive and tell you what to do. The first tells you to honor and worship one God. This fifth tells you to honor your parents. Notice that it does not tell us to worship our parents as some religions do.

God protects families. God wants us to do the same. As Ephesians 6:2 points out, "this is the first commandment with a promise". I tell you, God keeps His promises. There was a period of years when my father and I didn't get along. That began to change as we each got older. Then when my mother died, by God's grace, something changed in me. Days before mom died, I lost my job. My wife and I had significant debt, no retirement savings, and three daughters about to enter college. After the funeral, my normal anxiety over my family's problems could have swallowed me up as usual, but it didn't. My dad had just lost his wife. I knew he needed someone to help him during his grieving. That was when I remembered the wish he had often repeated for at least a decade, a wish that had fallen on my deaf ears. He wanted to make one last trip to New York City before he died. He wanted to see the city where he was born and visit his relatives on Long Island. Without him saying a thing, I made the arrangements, got my three daughters together, and drove four hours to see my dad in upstate New York. We drove him down to New York, walked through Central Park, visited the Metropolitan Museum and took a boat tour on the Hudson, past the Statue of Liberty. Then we went to the beach at Fire Island, where he took our family when we were kids. We celebrated his 90th birthday with his niece and sister-in-law. He said it was the best vacation he ever had. That was how I honored my father, by honoring his wishes and being with him when he needed me most.

Weeks later, he contracted a near fatal case of Anaplasmosis and I spent weeks with him at the hospital. It was a suggestion that my wife Tina made to the doctor to search for a tick-borne illness that saved his life. How did she know to suggest that? She knew because she had honored him for years with a patient ear every time he called and I was still at work. She knew by heart all his symptoms, medical conditions and medications and saved his life multiple times because of that knowledge - and she is not even a trained medical professional. That is what honoring parents is all about.

How did God honor His promise in the commandment? A few days after my dad got out of the hospital, I found a new job, a contract for Akamai. It was an easy job and the pay was okay, but not enough for us to get out of debt. That was a mercy, because losing one parent and nearly losing the other in the same season was a lot to handle. I didn't have the emotional energy for a challenging job. The contract lasted about six months, then I had to look for another job. My next position was at Shell Oil. I have now been there for over seven years. It is the best place I have ever worked. The people I work with are great and have supported me when my family suffered other problems over the years. The pay is great and has helped us pay down our debt. Lastly, one project for which I designed the software algorithm was wildly successful. It helped save the corporation more money than I will earn in a hundred lifetimes. That project will likely go down as my most significant career achievement. It was by far the most difficult piece of work I have ever finished. I am convinced that this success was due to God honoring His promise. I honored my parents and he blessed me with the opportunity, perseverance and skill to succeed at something way beyond my knowledge and ability. That is the land that the Lord my God has given me.

I trust that my days will also be long, but even if they are not, I am content. Thanks to the care my wife and I showed to my dad (and the considerable help of my sister and brother), he lived another five years and we got to celebrate his 95th birthday. The love by which we honored him ensured that his days in the land were long. When you treasure your family, those extra years are precious.

VI. Life & Protection

“You shall not murder."

- Exodus 20:13

Murder. Genocide. Killing in self defense. Abortion. Infanticide. Suicide. Euthanasia. Capital punishment. War. Honor killing. Medical rationing for the elderly. Every one of these has its proponents, but only some are defensible before God. All you need to do is find a philosophical argument that denies the humanity and dignity of a given group or individual and you can convince yourself that taking their life is acceptable. That is why to obey this commandment, we must protect both life and dignity. Love always protects, therefore we must always protect life.

The sudden unjust ending of a life is not the only thing we must protect against. What is life but time on this world? We must also protect people from things that shorten life.

Human life is precious, but there is something that is more precious. Eternal life is worth more than this earthly life. Assaults against the gospel message like persecution and forbidding people to share their faith must be resisted. We must protect the right to lead people toward saving faith or all that work that we do in saving mortal lives will be for naught.

VII. Loyalty & Glory

“You shall not commit adultery."

- Exodus 20:14

The sequence by which God has arranged the commandments is pure genius. There is the two-part division into commands to love God and love neighbor. There is the clever way that there are ten commands - which is man's number - and also fourteen imperatives - which is twice the divine seven that represents the Spirit, again with seven that describe our obligations to God and seven to men. There is the way that the first seven imperatives match the Harvest Pattern and the second seven match the Growth Pattern.

By the ordering as commandments, the law against adultery is seventh. By the ordering as imperatives, this one is tenth. This reveals how important this command is both to our human relationships and our relationship with God. Since both the divine and the human numbers govern it, we are made to expect that it has application to both. Throughout Scripture, adultery is used as a metaphor for breaking the covenant by worshiping other gods, most poignantly in Hosea. Of "the Twelve" (the so-called Minor Prophets), Hosea is listed first. This marks adultery as a specially heinous offense to God. Why?

By severity, adultery is first a breach of loyalty, second, an expression of false worship. However, by the order of events, it is a corruption of worship that leads to the disloyal actions of sexual immorality. When we lust for a woman or a man who we have no right to unite with, that is a debased form of worship. The typical progression when a person succumbs to lust is:

• through the eyes, one party shows beauty intentionally or unintentionally which solicits desire, while the other party sees beauty and desire is awakened,
• through the ears you hear agreeable words, like praise or sympathy which encourage one to proceed and make plans to go farther
• then touch and the other senses, when the affair is consummated.

With sexual immorality, unlike other sins, the whole of a person is involved. This behavior comes closest to worship in how it focuses the attention of a person on something that they admire and desire. Because the eyes are usually the starting point, this tells us what is the spiritual value that is being counterfeited. It is the glory of God. The chief end of man is to glorify God. That means that we are to intentionally place ourselves before Him in worship to pursue His glory and then respond with gratitude and obedience to that glory. Any competition for His glory, however debased, short-circuits that worship. It severs us from our purpose for existence. The light that should guide us to joy it makes into darkness.

When I was a teen, I gave the baccalaureate sermon at a local church for my high school graduation. I preached on Jesus' command to be salt and light from the Sermon on the Mount. The illustration I used was of malicious scavengers who once prowled the coast off along the shores North Carolina. They carried lanterns and walked the beach hoping to trick a sea captain into thinking that their lantern was the nearby lighthouse. If the captain was fooled, he would run his ship aground. Then the scavengers would loot the ship, claiming right of salvage. Those thieves used light, which is meant to guide a person to safety in the dark, instead to deceive and lead them into harm. I urged my classmates not to use the light from their lives to lead others astray but to lead them to safety.

That is what adultery is. It uses glorious things from God's creation to lead people to harm, instead of the safe harbor of a faithful and lasting marriage free from scandal and deceit. It also leads people away from the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ. That is the only light, the only glory, the only true romance that can lead us to the safe harbors over Jordan, on Heaven's shores.

In speaking of the marvelous sequence of God's commandments, we can say one thing more. We can follow the last seven in reverse:

• (Ten) In our heart we begin to covet our neighbor's success.
• (Nine) Through gossip, slander and false accusations, we begin to cut our neighbor down.
• (Eight) We move on to stealing his property.
• (Seven) Then we seduce his wife.
• (Six) Finally, like Claudius in Shakespeare's Hamlet, we kill our rival and take all that was once his.
• (Five) In the process, we have destroyed a family and robbed them of all honor.
• (Four) There shall be no Sabbath rest for such as these, only the rest of the grave.

Yes, the Lord knows how sin grows in the human heart like a cancer and has laid it bare for us to see. We must see. Then we must fix our eyes on Jesus so that the inglorious lure of sin does not captivate our eyes and shipwreck our faith. This commandment does not protect the Glory of God, for nothing can diminish His glory. Instead it protects our ability to see that glory, benefit from it and share its blessings with others. It protects our families by strengthening our loyalty to the ones we have covenanted to love.

VIII. Generosity

“You shall not steal."

- Exodus 20:15

There is something that is true of all the commandments but it makes sense to emphasize it here. When we do not steal, whom do we protect? We protect our neighbor. The law is not primarily to enrich me, it is to keep me from exploiting and defrauding everybody around me.

When this law is not busy keeping my covetousness restrained, it is up to something noble. The eighth commandment carves out a place for hope. What hope is that? The hope that if my possessions are kept intact, by the inner working of God's spirit, I may learn to give. Money and possessions are of no value to God and at the same time they are of ultimate value. When we hoard them, steal them and squander them on sinful pleasures, they are worthless. When we give them to widows, orphans and the poor, our gold and silver become true gold and true silver. That is how earthly treasures are transmuted into heavenly treasures. And that is one way that this commandment protects the treasure of generosity.

There is one important caveat. Long ago there was an occasion when I contributed to a charity but my heart fought me as I wrote the check. Gifts only become eternal treasures if given with pure motives. I knew my motives were mixed, so I did something about it. In the Bible and throughout history, people who offer gifts to God often attach a petition. Even in our giving we are needy. God knows this and is gracious. So it was with Hannah, mother of Samuel and others. I searched my heart and knew what I should pray for. I prayed, "Lord, make me a generous man." And so he has. Even so, I continue to pray that same prayer to this day.

What will you pray for?

IX. Truth & Justice

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."

- Exodus 20:16

In progress...

X. Happiness & Contentment & Joy

“You shall not covet your neighbor's house;

you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant,

or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey,

or anything that is your neighbor's.”

- Exodus 20:17

After I dropped my daughter off at work, I queued up Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. By the magic of modern tech a data drive in the cloud sends binary pulses of electricity to transmitters that bounce data streams off a satellite, into my phone, which send them to my car speakers to play sounds that enter my ear drums, travel up the auditory canal and into my appreciative brain. About three quarters of the way through, the bass starts to play the main theme. Then the violins take over. The solar glare is terrible as I drive towards Boston, so I have to squint my eyes to keep from getting in an accident on I-93. That is why I have to fight back the tears when the trumpets explode and the orchestra launches into the Ode to Joy. My heart floods with emotion every time I hear that trumpet blast. Joy! To me, they are the promise of the last trumpet, when raptured souls meet their savior and all becomes joy forevermore.

This commandment protects my neighbor from my ill will, but it does so much more. It calls me to a life of gratitude and contentment. It directs me to look not to my neighbor but to God my provider, Jehovah-Jireh, for my supply. Years ago, I was writing a section for one of my books. The topic of the chapter was happiness and I was stumped. What did I know? I was at the hair dressers where my daughter Danielle was getting her hair done. With the noise of the hair dryers to drown out my voice, I started to sing some of my favorite hymns. As I sang, a feeling began to rise within me. That feeling was happiness. Before long, my heart swelled with a sweetness that cannot be described, only received and cherished. God gave me no words to describe happiness that day, he gave me the thing itself. I was not happy over any small accomplishment or glad tidings. I was happy for no reason and for the only reason: the Holy Spirit of God was shining unexpected favor upon my soul just so that I would have something to say that day. What wonderful news! Any heart in any situation at any moment can be touched by the grace of God and flooded with happiness. He is its true source; you need no counterfeits. Then with that happiness ruling your heart, you can be generous to your neighbors. You can turn coveting to giving and multiply the world's joys instead of spoiling them. If you do that, you can join the chorus. Whether baritone, tenor, alto or soprano, you can sing your own Ode to Joy - and make me cry. Please, just not when I am driving on I-93! They don't call it the Southeast Distressway for nothing.

The Glory of God

We are taught in the Shorter Westminster Catechism that "the chief end of man ... is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever." Every time we violate any commandment, we blind ourselves to the glory of God and we deprive our unsaved neighbor from seeing the reflection of the glory of God shine forth from our lives. Every time we obey the commandments, we recognize, acquire and protect the heavenly treasures that Jesus urges us to pursue. We remove the basket that covers our lamp stand and let our light shine before men.

The Law was delivered amid a fearful spectacle. The Fear of the Lord is given not to destroy us, but protect us. What do I fear most? I fear not being able to enter into the forever-joy that is promised. That would be an infinite loss. That is what God labors to prevent. That is why His love is so precious. Paul said that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. That promise is a great treasure. It takes the fear out of our fear of God. In the hands of Christ, the terrifying Law becomes the solid rock on which we stand, a sure foundation which can never be shaken. All that is required of us is that we stand on it to the end. Praise God! This strength to stand comes not from us. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.