10 Commandments for Dummies

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“Blessed are those that keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart. Psalm 119:2

So, for the past couple of weeks, we’ve been learning about the Israelites and their journey out of Egypt. They were slaves – God rescued them without getting their feet muddy. They were hungry – God feed them manna falling from the sky. They made a gold statue out of earrings – God forgave them after his temper cooled down.

Basically we have Moses, his brother Aaron and a couple of other old guys trying to lead 400,000 (give or take a few) rebellious, stubborn – and might I add probably obnoxious – teenagers across a desert to the promised land. God helps them out at every turn. He gives them just ten basic rules to help them govern themselves. EPIC FAILURE…..not once – but TWICE!

Hop in the hot tub time machine and fast forward a bunch of years where we find Jesus (God’s son) who was sent to ONCE AGAIN, rescue a nation of people. He chooses twelve disciples, normal every day kind of guys, who could sometimes be really dense…..in Matthew 15:15 Jesus said “Even after all this, are you still so foolish?” I kind of envision a train the trainer concept. Jesus knows he is not going to be in human form forever – so he has to find and tutor the next round of “managers” who will train the next round and so forth and so on.

Aaannnd – fast forward again two thousand plus years. The world still isn’t doing so great with the whole ten commandment deal. Lots of idols, earrings and pit bull parties from what I hear. Face it – we are ALL sinners. The really, really good news is – Jesus knew that we were going to fail. So he dummied it down to the bare bones…..because some of us (this girl) have a hard time remembering where we put our car keys…..let alone TEN rules.

Jesus gives us just one rule; one kind of summary commandment. One simple instruction that – if we can get it right – automatically help us follow the BIG TEN. He doesn’t erase the other commandments – but He gives us just ONE…..hoping that this time we can at least try to get it right.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength……and love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31

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