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NASB | Hebrews 8:13 When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Hebrews 8:13 When God speaks of "A new covenant," He makes the first one obsolete. And whatever is becoming obsolete (out of use, annulled) and growing old is ready to disappear. |
Bible Question (short): Why did God give ten commandments? |
Question (full): A short, sweet, poignant statement was made by one Radioman2, #77737, on 03-09-03, that everyone in the church should read and ponder. It says that the Law of Moses consisted of hundreds of commandments, not just ten. Do we know why there is so much focus on ten of the commandments? Everyone who uses the term Ten Commandments or who lifts up a plaque with that Decalogue on it, should think about it. That includes me. I have one on the wall in my office. The question is, Why ten? And I am not interested in knowing the spiritual significance of the number. I would like to know why those ten are special, above the other hundreds that are recorded. I do not know if it is true that there are 613. I did not take the time to count them. But I am certain there are more than ten. When Jesus was asked which is the greatest commandment (Matthew 22) he quoted two. What is interesting to me is that the second one he quoted is not one of the ten. The command to love our neighbor is not one of the Ten Commandments. And yet someone reading here is upset because they think this writer is minimizing or seeking to eliminate that commandment. It is because we have giving so much prominence to the ten. I do not know what the Ten Commandments are supposed to represent. They are certainly not all that the Jews were supposed to keep. The command to love the neighbor is not in Exodus 20 and it is not in Deuteronomy 6. If someone points out that it is in one or both of those places I will come back red-faced and apologize for missing it. As far as I know that commandment is recorded in Leviticus 19. It is not a part of the Ten Commandments, and yet Jesus said it is one of the greatest. Leviticus also contains many other commandments that I did not take the time to count. And yet I hear Jesus saying that those two commandments encapsulate all of the Law. Paul seems to go a step further when he says (Romans 13) that there is only one commandment. But I do not think he is going a step further. The two go together. If we love God, then we keep his commandment. And his commandment is that we love one another. Something within us protests that we can love God and not love our brother, but God says no. If you have done it to your brother you have done it to God. I suspect that it goes both ways, that hating your brother is hating God, but we should not digress to go into that here. Some of us make such a fuss about keeping the Sabbath and what meats to eat, and yet we do not take time or care to love. We talk about the Ten Commandments and miss the one. Think about your own feelings now. Can you answer the question with love in your heart. Then tell us why there has been such a focus on ten of the commandments, and not the six hundred, and not the two, or the one. I see that the Bible itself mentions the Ten Commandments only three times. The first time was when God gave them. The other two times it refers to the time that he gave them. I say that God might have said just three things. 1. I love you (And I have shown it in so many ways). 2. I want you to love me (And show it by trusting me and obeying me). 3. I want you to love one another (Do nice things for one another). But we have gotten focused on the letter and lost sight of his heart. It seems to me that God put forth Ten Commandments only as a representative sample, to keep our attention. But there is much more, and it goes much deeper. But what do you say? |