Faithbase

Good morning and welcome to thinking about the Bible today we continue to think about God's law and we're going to pick up where we left off remember we talked about the covenant sequence the covenant structure God is sovereign he has a hierarchy of order he has law he has blessings and punishment or sanctions and there is continuity to the covenant those are the five points of the covenant so we pick up now with the second telling the second expression of that outline in verse 13 of Exodus 20 you must not murder why is that what does that have to do with God's sovereignty with God as the transcendent well humanity both male and female are created in the image of God and so to attack humanity in that form to try and destroy humanity is at the same time an attack on God himself through his his creation through his image humanity here on earth both again male and female so that's the first point again we're repeating the sequence of the covenant here the second you must not commit adultery has to do with the hierarchy of order and representation now this may not seem so clear right off the bat but what you need to realize is that in the beginning God created Adam and from Adam he created Eve which was a very special very unique way of creating everything else that God created he created from the earth from the stuff that he had previously created in this case he took something that was finished and split it in half you might say and made this these two separate beings male and female humanity and so the rejoining of those two is a rejoining of humanity it is through that rejoining that God's kingdom is most fully expressed as that family is a man and woman and their children and so forth it is that representation of God that is that very important representation of God that is attacked through the sin of adultery so that's why the second the second point of the covenant sequences is referenced here the third you must not steal has to do with ethics has to do with law and law the law of God is the opposite of a manipulative way of living those who adhere to God's law when it's written on our heart we want to do what it says we want to do it the Lord tells us to do those who disobey God's law are trying to manipulate reality and make it what they want it to be apart from God's way of doing things so that's why this you must not steal is a representative of that that kind of behavior trying to change things according to your own standard I'm going to take from them and keep it for myself as I'm going to change the the state of reality in my own fashion so that's the the the third point you must not testify falsely against your neighbor is the the fourth point again reiterated again so here we're talking about sanctions we're talking about blessings we're talking about punishment and when we read this it should bring to mind a courtroom setting doesn't have to be in a courtroom but in a courtroom setting you are testifying in order to assure a proper outcome of the judicial system and someone can be blessed by your words or they can be punished because of your words so if you testify falsely you are bringing punishment upon somebody or attempting to maybe it's just in the courtroom of the neighborhood or whatever the rumors begin to fly so that has to do with blessings and punishment and finally the last one the continuity don't covet your neighbor's house wife servant donkey or anything else because to take from them to covet is to want what they have and to take from them is to damage their ability to have the continuity of the Lord's blessings to have the continuity of that covenant relationship so we've we've rushed through this very quickly but what what I want you to think about today as you think about God's laws to think about this covenant sequence and how it appears twice in the Ten Commandments will see you again tomorrow may God bless you