The Ten Commandments

1. Introduction

Over three thousand years ago Jehovah the Creator of the mighty universe, personally descended on mount Sinai in the desert of Arabia and wrote with His own hand the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone. The event is recorded in Exodus chapters 19 and 20. The Ten Commandments are the Divine code of conduct for the entire human race. They are holy, perfect and immutable. Ever since that memorable day in the desert, every true prophet, priest, apostle, evangelist and teacher of truth has upheld the Ten Commandments. No spiritual leader or congregation worthy of Truth would dare teach or believe otherwise. Stewarton Bible School considers it a great honour to place on the Internet the Ten Commandments of Jehovah the Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel.

Obey the Ten Commandments and you will attract Yahweh's blessing: blessing in basket and store, blessing in the womb and in the community. Break the Ten Commandments and you will attract His displeasure and curses. These two options are detailed in the Bible. We ignore them at our peril.

Deuteronomy 11: 26: Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
27: A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day:
28: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.

Deuteronomy 30: 19: I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.

The Ten Commandments are the constitution of the mighty universe. They spell out in plain language how we humans should behave. They define right and wrong: or in Bible terms - righteousness and sin. Much as we humans value our intelligence and freedom, no earthly parliament, congress, senate, cabinet or legal body is qualified to legislate on moral issues. Moral issues are the domain of the God Almighty. Only He has the moral stature, the knowledge, the wisdom and the authority to legislate on human morals. Parliaments have for generations tried to make moral laws that would bring peace and prosperity to their people. But they have all miserably failed. The whole world is in turmoil. All its laws conceived and penned by human beings have failed to bring peace on earth. The reason is plain: we humans just do not have what it takes to legislate on moral issues. We may try: but we will never succeed.
Why not?
The answer is because man's interests are selfish, our judgements are faulty and our experience limited. Only God can define good moral behaviour: behaviour that will produce peace, happiness and prosperity on earth. That is why the Almighty came down to earth and personally wrote the Ten Commandments for the benefit of the human race. The Ten Commandments define right and wrong moral principles and actions; on which hang the other spiritual laws absolutely essential to the welfare of the human race. The Ten Commandments are quoted below for your benefit: just in case you do not have your own copy. Download this file: for it is - without any doubt - one of the most important on the Internet.

I now quote from Exodus 20: verses 1-17, with each commandment NUMBERED for your benefit.

2. The Ten Commandments

"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.

ONE: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
TWO: 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.
THREE: 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.
FOUR: 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.
FIVE: Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
SIX: Thou shalt not kill.
SEVEN: Thou shalt not commit adultery.
EIGHT: Thou shalt not steal.
NINE: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
TEN: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's"

3. Written with the Finger of God

So important are the Ten Commandments that Jehovah (Yahweh) did not even trust His servant Moses to write them. He wrote them himself - with His own finger - on two tablets of stone.

Exodus 31:	18: And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
Deuteronomy 9:	10: And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

4. The Ten Commandments are Eternal

According to Jesus Christ, this law is scheduled to outlast the present universe. The spiritual principles they express are as eternal and unchanging as the Almighty Himself. In his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus categorically stated that the law of God will outlast the present universe. No one should presume to teach otherwise.

Psalm 111:

7: The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure.
8: They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.

Matthew 5:

17: Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
18: For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
19: Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

5. The Consequences of Sin?

According to the Bible "Sin is the transgression of the law." Comparatively few people are aware of this fact; but any lawyer will tell you that "ignorance of the law is no excuse." A judge may extend leniency because of a person's ignorance, and in virtually every fair law court on earth that is what good judges do: but ignorance of the law is really no excuse. It is the same with the law of God. Ignorance is no excuse. This is an age of information. The time has come to take a close look at the Ten Commandments and to repent of sins committed in ignorance or knowingly. Failure to do so will be catastrophic, because the Day of Judgement is fast approaching and the penalty for sin is death - eternal death!

1 John 3:	4: Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
Romans 6:	23: For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Bible details the Almighty's terms to all people. Briefly they are:

Repent and turn away from sin and you will be forgiven. You may die the first death; but you will be raised at the resurrection to live in paradise for all time.
Persist in sin and you will die. This means that on the Day of Judgement you will be sentenced to the second death - eternal annihilation. You will be as though you had never existed.

This is an extremely serious ultimatum. Nothing in all the world can compare with it. So do not ignore these facts. If, after looking at the Ten Commandments, you find that you have been breaking them, then turn to the Stewarton Bible School's Gospel Library. There you will find information on how to seek forgiveness and be saved.

SBS Divine Law

Author: David B Loughran
Stewarton Bible School, Stewarton, Scotland
1996 ... Reformatted: December 1999

Deuteronomy 11:	26: Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; 27: A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: 28: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
Deuteronomy 30:	19: I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing* and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.*