The Old Testament Prophet Samuel had told King Saul that God wanted the Israelites to go to battle against the Amalekites and completely destroy and annihilate them and everything they owned…but Saul and his men disobeyed and brought back the best livestock, which Saul tried to justify, by saying they were going to “sacrifice them to the Lord”. God’s reasoning behind the total destruction of a people group and everything they owned was, first… obedience, and secondly, to remove the lure towards idolatry by decimating the source. What the Lord wants more than anything from us is a relationship with Him…not a religious act.
Author: kezha1
A Christian mother, grandmother, and retired nurse living in Illinois. Called into a ministry of encouraging others to find their ultimate plan and purpose in life through Christ.
Hebrews 1:3 ” The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word.”
Another beautiful word for radiance is effulgence…God’s splendor was emitted through Jesus, showing us a perfect expression of God’s Divine essence. In John this is spoken about…Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.” And John wrote, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Lord came to uphold all things by the strength of His spoken Word. Jesus was fully divine…and fully human, giving us just a glimpse at what our Heavenly Father was like.
Proverbs 21:9 ” Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.”
Elsewhere in Proverbs it’s written, ” The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.” Constant angry nagging, strife and conscientiousness will wear anyone down to the point they just need some peace and quiet…and maybe the writer of this Proverb found it on the roof! But it doesn’t say much for the wife left down below to simmer in her wrath. And it surely doesn’t say much about the home-life for children who have to grown up in that type of toxic environment.
Numbers 22:23 ” When the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in His hand , she turned off the road into a field.”
Balaam was a Pagan Prophet, whose name meant devourer or glutton, who God chose to use. As he traveled on donkey-back, three times the Angel of the Lord stood in the middle of the road with a drawn sword, and three times his trusty little donkey turned away from the oncoming danger…and each time Balaam beat her for what he perceived was misbehavior. It wasn’t until she just lay down in the road that Balaam went berserk, beating her with his staff. At that moment, the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth and she spoke, reminding him that she had never behaved like this before…and then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he finally saw what she had been protecting him from all along. The Angel of the Lord said to Balaam, “If she had not turned away, I would have certainly killed you by now, but I would have spared her.” It’s hilarious to think that the little donkey was far more righteous than Balaam in God’s eyes!
Exodus 20: 17 ” You shall not covet.”
The final Commandment talks about covetousness…the excessive, uncontrolled, and selfish desire or greed for something. When we covet something or someone it’s usually forbidden or unrighteous in God’s eyes…and we have forsaken Him to satisfy our desires. Jesus spoke of this in Luke 12:15 when He said, ” Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” In other words, we need to be content with what we have…not in what we think we must have.
Exodus 20: 16 ” You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”
The ninth Commandment deals with slander…giving a false statement maliciously that damages a person’s reputation. But this Commandment can also include something as insidious as a simple bit of gossip that gets out of hand and smears someone’s good name and reputation in the process. The Lord would want all our dealings with friends and associates to be above-board and without fabrication. Rebuilding a reputation after it’s been maligned falsely is sometimes almost an impossible task.
Exodus 20:15 “You shall not steal.”
The eighth Commandment states that we must not dishonestly take another person’s property without right or permission. There are many variations when it comes to stealing…from swindling, to embezzling, misappropriating, extorting, or defrauding. But stealing can also be as simple as using office supplies at work for personal use, or shoplifting an item in a store. One of the biggest reasons someone will take something that doesn’t belong to them is that they justify and rationalize that they deserve it, or that it won’t be missed, or that the company owes them. But making up excuses in our minds still won’t change the fact that we’re stealing.
Exodus 20: 14 ” You shall not commit adultery.”
The seventh Commandment deals with relationships…whose inside and outside of marriage. The Levitical Law was very detailed in the certain types of relationships God forbid…these included close family members and acquaintances. But Jesus took this one step farther from Old Covenant Laws, when He told His Disciples in Matthew 5:27, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Lust is a very slippery slope that has taken many a person down a road they really didn’t want to travel. I guess the writer of Proverbs 6:32-33 knew something of this when he wrote, ” A man who commits adultery lacks judgment, whoever does so destroys himself, his shame will never be wiped away.”
Exodus 20:13 ” You shall not murder.”
The sixth Commandment deals with the unlawful killing of a human being with deliberate malice, either expressed or implied. But in Matthew 5:21, Jesus speaks about those whose anger towards others is subject to judgment also. Rage, wrath, or even resentment towards someone long-term can be almost as damaging as killing them outright …and living under that constant emotional strain of being victimized by someone else’s anger can make a person wish they’d just die and not have to endure it anymore. We don’t have to stab someone in the back to kill their Spirit…our angry words will do that.
Exodus 20: 12 ” Honor your father and your mother.”
The last six Commandments are focused on our relationship with others. I’ve heard it said that you can pick your friends…but you can’t pick you family. We can’t choose who gives us life, and maybe for some, it was a very difficult childhood growing up with parents that weren’t the best at it…or were absent all together. How then can we put our heads around the concept of respecting and esteeming someone who really doesn’t deserve to be honored. Showing respect to any other human-being shows our personal character and integrity, not necessarily theirs. By being that bigger person, we can move on to make our lives better. As it says, “Honor your mother and father, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.”
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