The Ten Commandments: A Deeper Dive Commandments 4 & 5
Welcome to each of you reading this column on the Ten Commandments and its importance to each of us as we grow in our Christian lives.
It is of great interest and that Jesus talks about good trees that bear good fruit and bad trees that bear bad or no fruit.
Think about this, for are you bearing good or bad fruit in your life and are growing in your spiritual life or do you need some fertilizer to grow, say reading the Bible?
By the way, when you repeat the Lord’s prayer, have you received your daily bread? Think about this, for we need the bread given from the Bible to grow our spiritual tree. Do you want to be stagnant or do you wish to grow in your daily life.
Let us remember that God gave us the opportunity to read the most important and greatest selling book of all time which is the Bible. Read it and be fed daily or leave it and be stagnant in your growth—God has given each of us a choice.
Before I begin, we need a bit of humor from https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-life/christian-jokes-stories.html
The pastor cleared his throat as he approached the pulpit. “I’m sorry if my voice sounds a bit weak today,” he told the congregation. “There’s been some sickness going around the office, and you all know I hate to be left out of anything.”
My church held a work day, including digging holes for a garden plot. My youth pastor put it, “If you’re free next Thursday and don’t mind getting dirty, show up.”
The pastor gave a sermon on family, beginning with these words: “I’ve been a parent for about five years now. I think I’ve pretty much figured it out.”
The youth pastor walked toward us as we gathered in the church lot for the youth group service. “I’m sorry,” he said. “The only thing left is the donuts.”
After the donuts were finished, the youth pastor went to the podium and began teaching. He reminded us, “Let us hold to our confection – er, confession. I wish it was confection.”
We soon learned that our new church had an elder with a sense of humor. “At this church,” the elder said, “We follow the Noah principle of two by two. We have two Italian elders, two bald elders, and two very handsome older elders. I’m not Italian, so I’ll let you guess which group I’m in.”
After the elder spoke, the bald pastor started to speak. “I apologize,” he said, patting his head. “The power went out to my house this morning, so I couldn’t use my blow dryer. Does it look okay?”
I hope you enjoyed this bit of humor for we need a laugh or two in this day and we need some clean jokes to brighten our day.
Ah, the fourth commandment— “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, 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 on the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it.”
The number six according to the language of numbers by Destiny publishers is the number of imperfection—the “human number.” It is the number of man as destitute of God; without God; without Christ. It is five plus one, the grace of God made of none effect by man’s addition to it. Or, it is seven minus one, man’s coming short of spiritual perfection. In any case, it has to do with man. Six is also the number of labor; of man’s labor as distinct from God’s rest. Therefore, six is significant of secular completeness.
The fourth commandment has reference to all that is created; it is emphatically the number of creation. It is the number of things that have a beginning, of things that are made, of material things, and matter itself.
As for the number seven, this is the first natural division of time that is stamped by the number seven. On the seventh day God rested from his work of creation. Seven is the number of spiritual perfection.
God created man to labor for six days and to rest on the seventh as well as his family and his animals. The focus here is that man should hallow this day as God’s Day to reflect on all the past six days of the many blessing that God gave to man.
It is interesting that the Hebrew word Shabbath or sabbath means cessation and by its very meaning designates a refraining from labor, according the Digest of Divine Law.
God is not penalizing those who must work on a Sunday such as doctors, nurses and emergency personnel, but he says that man is to take one day out of six and designate that as a day of rest both physically and spiritually and to reflect upon all that of God’s blessings.
God set the example as this is a command from God showing man that he is to abide by and cease from doing any labor on the seventh day. The seventh day is designed to refocus our mind and prepare our physical body for the next six days of labor.
At the time Israel left Egypt and the Ten Commandments were placed, if one did not adhere to this commandment, they were put to death or cut off from the rest of Israelite tribe. The Israelites knew that the Sabbath was a Holy Day, not a holiday given by God as a command to make us separate from other countries.
America, should follow this commandment for we are to be separate from all other countries and here is what else would make us separate.
The Digest of the Divine Law says the following: six days to labor, the seventh to be holy; six years to plant and carry on economic activities, the seventh year to be a year of rest for the land, cessation of labor and a release from debt; seven weeks of years, or forty-nine years of commercial activity with buying and selling of land followed by the Great Jubilee, or fiftieth year when, “Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.” (Leviticus 25:10)
Think about this… As a grower, do you abide by the matter of allowing your land 1 year in seven to rest? Do you have the faith to believe that God will supply you with all your needs that seventh year and that your abundance will be so great by the sixth year that your land can rest? We are gardeners and we do let our land rest on the seventh year for we know that God will provide for us and for our land. We leave what comes up naturally for the animals and birds to eat.
Economic difficulties where we rely on other countries for our food, stripping of the land and not allowing it to rest for we disobey God’s commandment and the result is simple here in America which is poverty and destitution. We use to be called the “breadbasket of the world” and have gone to be a debtor nation or the tail of the snake.
Again, it comes down to the “blessings and curses” for God hallowed the Sabbath or made this day as holy or sacred and not a holiday.
Yes, we live in a fast world with all so much going on that we lose sight of God—six days to labor, six days to get gas in the car, plan meals, get the chores done, and six days to carry on your lives activities and on the seventh day to make time for God and make that day holy and sacred and to resist from labor of any kind.
As we come to a close on the fourth commandment, one may ask which day is deemed as the Sabbath? Six days shalt thou labor, 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 on the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it.”
God makes it very clear that six days you are to labor and the seventh day is the sabbath and you shall rest and refrain from labor. You have 144 hours to get your labor done and if you can’t get it done in those 144 hours, you best evaluate your time management.
You set aside the seventh day as the one day in seven that is holy unto the Lord and hallow that day unto him. It could be a Saturday or Sunday or any day for that matter as you are laboring six days and utilizing the seventh unto God as your sabbath.
The fifth commandment, unlike the first four commandments that deal with man’s relationship to God, is when men truly love the Lord, they will honor their parents. The fifth commandment says, “Honor thy father and thy mother; that thy days maybe long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”
Fellow Christian, we are to honor our parents for this is the first commandment which brings a promise of length of life. Can we say, as a nation, that we have honored our mother and father, thus will we be blessed of God for upholding this promise?
The digest utilizes Paul’s warning to parents, “Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.” (Col. 3:21)
When keeping the fifth commandment, this will bring a blessing and knowledge of its requirement will instruct the child or your children of their responsibility. As we look to the homelife in America, is there a lack of knowledge of God’s word? Do you, as a parent, take the time to pray with your child or read the Bible with your child? When you go out to eat, do you give thanks to God for all his blessings?
If we begin by honoring God first, read the following, (John 14:15-31)
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.
30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
31 But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.
Yes, we live in a fast world, a troubled world, and a world where we look for direction, so let us make things easier, fellow Christian, do what Jesus said… 15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. And the result by following his commandments, 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
Simple, not hard, for if you love Jesus and keep his commandments shall give us a comforter that will abide in us forever and that’s a long, long time. God has never broken a promise and allow the spirit of truth to dwell in you.
I hope you enjoyed this column as we will begin on the sixth commandment, stay tuned.
