And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.God exists, He said so, and the Bible records that He said so. The Bible records in many places that God wants to interact with us, and He wants for us to interact with Him. This is recorded in His greatest commandment to us as well as the first four commandments of the Ten Commandments. All of God's commandments are to be followed by us. The Bible gives prescribed punishments for violations of God's commandments. The punishments appear severe to modern sensibilities, but were undoubtedly necessary and appropriate in the times when they were first applied. Today, the Biblical punishments associated with the violation of a commandment can be used by us to gauge the importance a commandment and its associated topic. As we shall see, all of the commandments are indeed very important. Many of us have found that God's commandments are useful to us in leading happier lives. There are intrinsic rewards that come from the world itself for following God's commandments, and punishments for disregarding them. It does not take much imagination to envision the egotists, the ungrateful, the murders, the adulterers, the thieves, the liars, and the covetous of the world, being unhappy. I am the LORD your God you shall have no other gods before me As the one and only God of the entire Universe, God is the most important and valuable entity known to the Universe and is, as its creator, more important than the Universe itself. God has said that He is the only God and that He knows of no others. As an intelligence that is able to create the Universe and comprehend all thoughts of all people simultaneously, we realize that He is able to conceive any theory of alternate Universes that any human could conceive. As the ultimate power inside and outside of our Universe, we also assume that God would be able to perform any experiment that He could conceive to determine the existence of alternate Universes or gods. Further we acknowledge that God has said there are no other Gods and believe Him to be absolutely truthful to an extent beyond our comprehension. Finally, as components of God's creation we acknowledge that whatever God has not accomplished, we will not be able to accomplish ourselves. This leaves the possibility of other "gods" irrelevant to the maximum and most extreme definition of irrelevancy. Therefore, God understanding His value to us, and His eminence within all the Universe, commands that we acknowledge that He is indeed God. This commandment, as are all of the commandments, is a statement of truth that we must acknowledge to be in the truth. To be untruthful is at odds with God and unacceptable to Him. A Biblical punishment for violating this commandment was to leave the punishment to be carried out by God; who warned of our demise for such a violation (Deuteronomy 30:16-18). Under certain circumstances, a punishment for the violation was for the offender to be killed (John 19:7). You shall not make for yourself any graven image Since God is our only God, worshiping anything, or anyone, other than Him is foolishness because it is untruthful. Our finite knowledge makes sound reasoning a challenge from the start. By adding untruthful information, as though it were truthful, can only cause us greater difficulty. Although the detrimental effects to ourselves of worshiping false gods is of concern, the other, and more significant, problem with worshiping false gods is that it is an insult to God. Whenever we choose to insult God, we are setting ourselves against Him and that is a loosing proposition for us every time. A Biblical punishment for violating this commandment was to kill the offender (Exodus 22:20). You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain A name is a symbol which represents something other than the symbol itself. A name is by definition associated with the thing being named. Taking God's name, "in vain," means that we are attributing little or no value it. When we degrade His name we insult God; a loosing proposition for us every time. We may be in the habit of speaking, "or mind," about others when they are not present. God is always present, and our mind, our beliefs or faith, are exactly what God is telling us are relevant. Therefore, when speaking our mind, we should be in a place, mentally, where God is regarded, truthfully by us, the way God wants to be regarded. God is more real than reality and He is the ultimate truth. We therefore would benefit by tuning into the universal truth as best we can. A Biblical punishment for violating this commandment was to kill the offender (Leviticus 24:14, Zechariah 13:3). Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy God works. God rests. We work. We should rest. This is another case of our beliefs being important to God. God commands a day of rest as a reminder of how God works, and how our lives work. There are practical aspects of a day of rest that are overlooked in many societies. Of course there is the basic rest, that we appreciate. But we must also remember that all things come from God. We have a tendency towards materialism. This tendency of ours is destructive if it is not restrained (it has even been labeled "affluenza" to indicate its almost disease like quality). We become more and more willing to sacrifice the truly meaningful things in our lives for things that are meaningless. In the past, "Blue Laws," were used to prohibit business on Sunday. The only thing left to do on Sunday was to rest, or visit with friends, family, neighbors, or engage in a recreational activity. It is now hard to imagine such a situation today; especially for those of us who are trying to get ahead. Over time, we have apparently not focused on the positive effects, and now Blue Laws are essentially nonexistent, and a great deal of business transacts on Sundays. The defense we offer is that we still can do all of the things that we could when businesses were closed, but now without the down side. This would be true if we had the strength to resist the temptation of simply doing what we do every other day of the week. That is forgetting the sabbath day, treating it as every other day, and loosing something valuable (as God said, even holy) in the process. A Biblical punishment for violating this commandment was to kill the offender (Exodus 31:14). There are accounts of not observing this commandment without punishment (Matthew 12:1-8, Mark 2:23-28, Luke 6:1-10). |