Exodus 20.
JUST ten rules did God give the people for them to keep and never to break, if they were to be His people. Everyone was a good rule, but the trouble was that the people had bad hearts, and so they never kept them; they broke them all. The laws of our
country, and I suppose every country that has good laws, are copied, though perhaps not directly, from these ten commandments, and if everybody obeyed them, we would not need policemen, or jails, or soldiers and fighting ships.
“Thou shalt have no other gods before Me,” said the first rule. And why should they turn to any other person or thing from the One who had loved them, and pitied them, and with a mighty hand had delivered them from the power of Satan’s king, Pharaoh, and who was now taking them so wonderfully across that terrible desert to a grand country He had planned for them to have for their very own?
The third commandment, or rule, in verse 7, forbade swearing. Does God take notice of all the swearing that is being done nowadays? I am sure He does. He will not hold him guiltless who uses His name that way. I hope that none of you who read “Messages of Love,” and believe in Jesus never swear.
The fifth commandment, ver. 12, “Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee,” is another that I am sure God would have us attend to more than we do. It is sad to see so many children, and older ones too, disobedient to their parents. God sees that too; nothing escapes His eyes. Do you honor your parents?
In the sixteenth verse of the 19th chapter we read that the people were so frightened that they trembled; they had not heard yet what rules God was giving Moses, but the longer they stood there under the mountain, the more frightened they became, and pretty soon they removed as far as they could from the place. The only way anyone can be happy in the presence of God is in just telling Him, “I am a sinner. I can’t earn salvation by keeping the ten commandments, or doing anything else. I deserve to go to hell.” If they had spoken that way, God would not have given them these good rules and told them that they must keep than if they were to remain His people. Why did they not say to God, “Only let us go on as we have so far. Thou must do everything for us, or we shall never reach Canaan”? The reason was that they thought they could do a lot for themselves, and did not need to depend entirely on God. Perhaps, indeed, they thought they were pretty good people. Yes, I think they did, and that is why God was proving them, as the twentieth verse says, —giving them a trial to show them that they were not good at all, but just sinners hike ourselves, needing a Saviour.
Last of all, in this twentieth chapter, the people were told to make altars of earth, though they might be made of stones, but not chiseled or hammered stones, on which to give offerings to God. No work of ours would He allow. If we have to do with Him, it is because of what He is, and His work altogether. There could be no steps to the altars either for that was like getting nearer and nearer to God by our own efforts.
“Just as I am—without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bid’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come!”
This is God’s way for sinners to come. Have you come to Jesus, dear reader?
ML 03/12/1922