Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.
When you read you begin with "A-B-C"
When you sing you begin with "Do-Re-Mi" (Sound of Music)
When you live you begin with "T-E-N"
That is, the Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments was given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai after He led the Hebrews out of Egypt, the place of slavery. Yet, despite their new-found freedom, they were still very much in bondage, a bondage which is the source of all bondage and slavery and that is sin.
Sin is as old as, well, sin. It has been around since almost the beginning.
We know from the Book of Genesis that on the seventh day, God rested from work. The final item on His list that week was to create Woman from the side of Adam whom Adam called "Eve" which means "mother of all the living." Prior to the creation of Eve, God gave to man the fruit of all of the trees of the garden - except one - and He warned man that he would die should he eat of it. How many days, weeks, months, years went by, we do not know, but we do know that at some point, Eve fell prey to the half-truths of Satan. Taking the form of a serpent, he tempted Eve into eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She ate of the fruit of which they were forbade. Then Adam ate... and the rest is history, a very dubious and painful history.
From the moment they ate of that fruit, they began to fall into a place where they were no longer free. Why? Well, the One who had created everything out of nothing, the One who knows the purpose and meaning of each and every part of creation for He made it, had given them clear direction and warning. "Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, lest you die." Whenever we purchase a new appliance, cellphone or automobile, there comes with it a set of instructions put together by the manufacturer for use - how to use to its optimum performance (that is, to use it for its intended purpose ) and how not to use it in to prevent breakage, injury or even death. The freedom lies in the fulfillment of purpose. Well, God did the same thing with us, with Creation. He gave Adam and Eve (us) life and placed all of creation in our care, providing instruction on how to care for it and prevent harm. Yet, they had rejected what the Creator told them. They did not heed His warning, but instead listened to a creature like themselves with whom they really had no relationship. Consider that for a moment. In the Scripture, we are told that in the afternoon God would walk in the Garden with Adam and Eve. Imagine that. God would walk with them. Can you imagine walking with God? Literally? No, you cannot; nor can I because we are so far from the incredible place that Adam and Eve were in. I imagine He would tell them all kinds of things - He shared His Knowledge and taught them. He shared everything with them. He would laugh with them. Compare notes with them as they learned about all of the creatures for which they were caring. They had friendship. A relationship. God loved them and they loved God. There was unity and peace. Yet, in spite of this, they did not heed His warning and by doing so, they rejected Him. They were so enamored with God, so wanting to be like Him since He is so awesome. Yet, instead of waiting for Him to grant them His divine life, they snatched it. They forgot about Him, His love, His generosity, their friendship.
Immediately, a heaviness came over them. They were frightened, saw that they were naked and were ashamed of it. They began to point fingers at each other and blame each other for "The Fall." That was the beginning of the man's penchant for corruption and weakness, culminating in death. In Scripture, we first see death in the murder of Abel by his jealous brother Cain.
And so it goes.
Since that time, mankind has been quite adept at falling over and over again. It is as if he walks wearing a blindfold and with ankles tied together. Stumbling and bumbling he goes. It is as if sin comes so easily, so naturally....
And so it does.
Many years later, when God had called His chosen people out of the land of Egypt and gave them the Ten Commandments, He did so, not only so that they would be physically free of the weight of slavery that was upon them, but that they would be truly free - of sin, from death and to know, love and serve God, to one day, share in His divine life.
This divine life, this relationship, which was broken in The Fall, had to be restored and renewed. There was much that had occurred between The Fall and Exodus - so much sin, so much degradation, covenants made and broken. Sodom and Gommorah. The Flood. Abram called by God to have ancestors as "numerous as the stars in the sky." Abraham and Isaac. Jacob and Esau. Joseph and Egypt. Along the way, as God called individuals, He led them higher to a place where He could one day call a people His chosen to be a light to all the nations and people of the world. An unlikely and disliked people to be a city on a hill. It is to them, the Hebrews, that God first revealed Himself as "I Am" and gave the foundation of freedom and stepping stones to Divine Life - The Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments are a summary of what we are to do and what we aren't to do. Pure and simple, the basics of happiness and freedom.
The first three are about God and our relationship with Him. They are primary and essential for it is only fitting that we should first love Him, Creator and Father:
I am the Lord your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me.
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Keep holy the Lord's Day
The next seven are about how to behave towards others:
Honor your mother and your father.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet another's wife/husband.
You shall not covet another's goods.
These commandments, given by God, written by His own finger, outline what, if left to our own devices and design, we would do naturally. He ought to know. After all, He is the Creator and knows us from within and without. Psalm 139 (1-7):
LORD, you have probed me, you know me:
you know when I sit and stand;
you understand my thoughts from afar.
You sift through my travels and my rest;
with all my ways you are familiar.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
LORD, you know it all.
Behind and before you encircle me
and rest your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
far too lofty for me to reach.
Where can I go from your spirit?
Once Adam and Eve chose equality with God over love by eating the fruit, all of creation was placed under the weight of rebellion, not wanting to know God's design but one's own. "My Way" became humanity's theme song and all of creation under us groans as we stumble and plunder our way through.
When left to my own design, when doing it "My Way" I will lie or cheat or steal or covet or commit adultery, even murder... and I will not honor my parents...if anything stands in the way of my way.
If I do not wish to be humiliated, I will lie or cheat in order to protect myself. If I really want something and I don't have the money for it, I may steal or at least covet it. If I am feeling lonely in my marriage, I may desire to have the spouse of another. If I feel that someone has done me wrong or threatens my preferred way of living, I may outright murder him.
These behaviors, when we are challenged, have a likelihood of being exhibited if there isn't any "restriction" or boundary set and the end result of each of them is, to varying degrees, negative - even to the point of death. There isn't anyone who is reading this post who hasn't done one of these things, with the possible exception of murder - the intentional taking of another's life. Our desires, our way can become the very center of our lives. What I want/think/feel becomes, well, god. This can be a momentary occurrence or a tapestry woven over a lifetime which I will come to justify or become hardened to, alienating others and distancing myself from the very One who fashioned me in my mother's womb. "You formed my inmost being. You knit me in my mother's womb." (Psalm 139:13) In the moment or over a long series of moments, we can and will resort to our way; we who are not the manufacturers, write our own manual. This is the very thing that the Ten Commandments tells us we will do, warns us against.
So, when I see the list of the do's and don't's of the Ten Commandments, I see very much myself, focused on myself and what I want need/desire regardless of the other. It's all about me. I see what I will do without God and concern for my neighbor. Each time I ignore the warning, as my first parents did, I become more distanced from the Creator who made me with a design and purpose and those around me whom He has given me to love. I become more bound to me, pointing fingers at those around me and I hide myself from view. I become less able to enjoy relationship with God and realize His divine life which was what He intended for Adam and Eve - for all of us - from the beginning. I become less able to relate to my loved ones and fellow human beings. I become less caring of creation which He placed in my care. I become something that I wasn't designed to be, something for which the user manual doesn't exist. I re-enact The Fall over and over again.
Our Lord, being a generous God Who cannot be outdone in generosity, in the Ten Commandments gives us the truth and the remedy, the do's and the don't's and if we follow, we come out of hiding and begin to learn the basics in living a life of happiness and freedom. We go back to the beginning - a very good place to start.
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