INTRODUCTION TO THE COMMANDMENTS
We all learned the Commandments. Reciting them by heart was one of the signs that we had studied. For the most part we learned them when we were children. The relevancy of the Commandments was geared to that age. A whole string of “don’ts” was attached to each one. These “don’ts” served us well if for no other reason than they kept us out of trouble.
Unfortunately, many of us, myself included, kept these wonderful gifts from God embedded into that age. We grew. The world changed and we changed. In spite of all these changes many continued to use the guidelines we learned as children . It occurred to me that these wonderful words from God were becoming old. Old in the sense that they seemed distant from the world in which I lived. This had to be corrected. A re-visiting had to take place to place them inside the ambience of my life.
I know what God said the question that came to me was: what is God saying to me now? For example, the very first Commandment: I am the Lord your God you shall not have other god before me was a statement of warning to the Hebrews. They were going into a country with other gods and they had to be careful not to replace God with gods. How does God speak that Commandment to me now? What are the foreign lands, the other gods, which draw me away from Him?
Our God is a God who is much more interested in what I do than in what I do not do. When I die it is going to be the things that I should have done and did not do rather than hiding behind the cloud of “well I did not do what you told me not to do.” , “you shall not kill” has to mean more than not taking someone’s life. To leave it simply there would imply that God does not very high expectations of me….that I simply refuse to believe.
The Commandments are God’s gift to us. As any gift they should be treasured as a sign of love, they should be used and finally they should be the well spring of thankfulness
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
What is your basic attitude toward the Commandments?
Do they have a sense of challenge, excitement in them or are they humdrum?
When was the last time you thought about them in reference to your life now?