So we get to that incredibly well-known moment in the Bible when God gives the Israelites His 10 Commandments. I've never been into learning about my religion until now, but I still remember learning the 10 Commandments in Sunday school when I was a little girl. And I feel like the 10 Commandments might just be the one part of the Bible that all Christians actually know. But I feel like most Christians don't realize that the 10 Commandments are accompanied by an assortment of other laws, too. And this gives me a whole new perspective on the whole story of Moses going up Mount Sinai and bringing down the Commandments on stone tablets.
In Sunday school and pretty much every learning environment I've ever been in, I was taught the 10 Commandments, and I was taught to keep them. Simply enough, not keeping the 10 Commandments was bad. But of course, I've struggled with keeping the Commandments just like every other person on Earth. I've taken the Lord's name in vain. I've never kept the Sabbath. I've lied, and I've had thoughts of "the grass is greener over there." But you know, I've always thought that if I truly made the honest effort, I'd be able to keep these particular Commandments that I've struggled with.
But the one Commandment I'm not sure I could ever keep would be to honor my father. (I could honor my mom easily, for the record.) I'm totally exposing a huge vulnerability here, but I feel a need to be honest. I don't have a good relationship with my dad. I never really have. And it got worse once I went to college, and it became disgustingly awful once my grandmother died. Without saying too much, it comes down to greed with my dad and his side of the family. I was made out to be a villain by my own family, and words were said to me that no father or family member should ever say. So how could I honor that? How could I, in good faith, honor people who would lie on and slander my good name? Surely God doesn't want His children to be weak like that. Surely God wouldn't want me to expose myself to such abuse when it could be so easily avoided.
These were my first thoughts once I read Exodus 19, which is the chapter where the 10 Commandments are given.
But then I kept reading through Exodus 21-24. And this is when I realized for the first time that the 10 Commandments weren't the 10 and only rules God gave to His people. They are followed by dozens of other laws that the Israelites had to follow. And these laws, nearly all of them are not relevant at all today. We aren't taught these laws in Sunday school. No one ever mentions these laws as something we should be following today. And for good reason, too, because these laws just don't fit with today's culture and way of life.
So why do we have to follow the 10 Commandments but are allowed to completely ignore the rest of the laws that came with them? You can't pick and choose which parts of the Bible you want to believe and follow and just blow off the rest. That's not how it works.
So now what do I do? Do I follow the 10 Commandments or not? If I do follow them, how do I make the rest of the laws relevant for me today? Is it even possible? The commentary I've been reading along with the Bible said that the 10 Commandments and the rest of the Mosaic laws are addressed many times in the New Testament. And these mentions in the New Testament apparently pertain to how Believers from then onward should view the Commandments and the rest of the Mosaic laws. I won't read the New Testament for a long time, but I am eager to get to it so I can better know just what to do.
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