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#979 - Exodus 20 – Ten Commandments · The Bible Study Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio The Bible Study Podcast, Episode nine seventy nine. Today,
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  Speaker 1: The Bible Study Podcast continues the study of the Book
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  Speaker 1: of Exodus with chapter twenty, the Ten Commandments. Welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the Bible Study Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Kristensen. We're
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  Speaker 1: going to talk about the Ten Commandments today on the
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  Speaker 1: Bible Study Podcast. But first a word from this sponsor.
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  Speaker 1: These may be familiar to you, and I would be
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  Speaker 1: surprised if they are not. This is a section that
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  Speaker 1: isn't actually labeled in the text itself as the Ten Commandments,
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  Speaker 1: but that's certainly what we call it by and it
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  Speaker 1: is not the full law. There were whole books that
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  Speaker 1: are going to be written about that here coming up.
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  Speaker 1: But it's a nice summary of things that God cares about,
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  Speaker 1: and we would have I have to say that God
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  Speaker 1: cares about these things, maybe over some other things. And
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  Speaker 1: it starts like this, and God spoke all these words.
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  Speaker 1: I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out
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  Speaker 1: of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall
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  Speaker 1: have no other gods before me. You shall not make
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  Speaker 1: for yourself an image in the form of anything in
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  Speaker 1: heaven above, or on earth beneath, or in the waters below.
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  Speaker 1: You shall not bow down to them or worship them.
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  Speaker 1: For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous god,
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  Speaker 1: punishing the children for the sin of the parents to
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  Speaker 1: the third and fourth generations of those who hate me,
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  Speaker 1: but showing love to a thousand generations of those who
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  Speaker 1: love me. And keep my commandments. You shall not misuse
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  Speaker 1: the name of the Lord your God. For the Lord
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  Speaker 1: will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. Remember
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  Speaker 1: the Sabbath by keeping it holy. Six days you shall
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  Speaker 1: labor and do all your work. But the seventh day
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  Speaker 1: is the Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it
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  Speaker 1: you shall not do any work, neither you nor your
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  Speaker 1: son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor
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  Speaker 1: your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For
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  Speaker 1: in the six days the Lord bade the heavens and
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  Speaker 1: the earth, the sea, and all that is in them.
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  Speaker 1: But he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord
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  Speaker 1: blessed the sabbath day and made it holy honor your
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  Speaker 1: father and your mother, so that you may live long
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  Speaker 1: in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
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  Speaker 1: You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery. You
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  Speaker 1: shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against
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  Speaker 1: your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You
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  Speaker 1: shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male or
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  Speaker 1: female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs
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  Speaker 1: to your neighbor. When the people saw the thunder and lightning,
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  Speaker 1: and heard the trumpet, and saw the mountain in smoke,
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  Speaker 1: they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and
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  Speaker 1: said to Moses, speak to us yourself, and we will listen.
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  Speaker 1: But do not have God speak to us, or we
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  Speaker 1: will die. Moses said to the people, do not be afraid.
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  Speaker 1: God has come to test you, so that the fear
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  Speaker 1: of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.
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  Speaker 1: The people remained at a distance while Moses approached the
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  Speaker 1: thick darkness where God was. Then the Lord said to Moses,
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  Speaker 1: tell the Israelites this you have seen for yourself, that
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  Speaker 1: I have spoken to you from heaven. Do not make
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  Speaker 1: any gods to be alongside me. Do not make for
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  Speaker 1: yourself gods of silver or gods of gold. Make an
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  Speaker 1: altar of earth for me, and sacrifice on it your
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  Speaker 1: burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Your sheep and goats and
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  Speaker 1: your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored,
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  Speaker 1: I will come to you and bless you. If you
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  Speaker 1: make an altar of stones for me, do not build
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  Speaker 1: it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if
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  Speaker 1: you use a tool on it. And do not go
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  Speaker 1: up to my altar on steps or or private parts
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  Speaker 1: may be exposed. That last one is a little weird,
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  Speaker 1: But I read on past the ten Commandments there. But
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  Speaker 1: this is the whole chapter of chapter twenty. But let's
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  Speaker 1: jump back to the ten Commandments. First of all, we've
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  Speaker 1: got to put this into context. In my country. In
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  Speaker 1: the US, we talk a lot about the importance of
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  Speaker 1: the Ten Commandments, and there's debate whether we should have
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  Speaker 1: ten commandments and schools and ten commandments in courtrooms and
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  Speaker 1: all of those things. And I do believe the Ten
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  Speaker 1: Commandments give us an idea of what pleases and displeases God.
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  Speaker 1: So leaving the politics out of it for a moment,
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  Speaker 1: whether it's appropriate or not to put it in schools
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  Speaker 1: and courts and things like that, let's just look at
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  Speaker 1: what these were four and then how they apply to
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  Speaker 1: us as predominantly gentile Christians. So most of the people
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  Speaker 1: who listen to me here are not Jewish. And we
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  Speaker 1: have to remember that at some point when the Church
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  Speaker 1: was given a sign from God that it was okay
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  Speaker 1: to be gentile and Christian. We're talking about Acts ten.
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  Speaker 1: You can go back to the study we did on
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  Speaker 1: Acts to read more about that. They said you didn't
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  Speaker 1: have to be Jewish to be Christian. They understood that
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  Speaker 1: God was revealed to gentiles, and they basically exempted gentiles
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  Speaker 1: from whole portions of the levitical law, which I think
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  Speaker 1: we're going to get to here coming up. But the
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  Speaker 1: thing I need you to know is that basically the
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  Speaker 1: Church understood at that time and sense that you don't
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  Speaker 1: have to be Jewish to be Christian, and therefore a
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  Speaker 1: lot of the laws may not apply. Now. There was
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  Speaker 1: no specific instructions from the Council of Jerusalem when they
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  Speaker 1: tried to figure out what gentiles needed to do that
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  Speaker 1: we needed to follow the Ten Commandments. That was not
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  Speaker 1: the one rule they came up with. They came up
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  Speaker 1: with the rule is don't eat meat, sacrifice to idols.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think that means that these are not valid
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  Speaker 1: or that these are not still things that please God
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  Speaker 1: or displease God. But just remember that context here is
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  Speaker 1: we're saved by grace through Jesus, and not by doing
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  Speaker 1: or even not damned by not doing these. But these
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  Speaker 1: are the things that please God. And so we start
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  Speaker 1: with I'm the Lord your God that brought you out
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  Speaker 1: of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall
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  Speaker 1: have no other gods before me. That is the most
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  Speaker 1: important one, and that is the one that we have
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  Speaker 1: the most trouble with. Here in the Book of Exodus
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  Speaker 1: and in the Bible, and probably in our lives, we
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  Speaker 1: can easily put other things before God. In our lives.
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  Speaker 1: It's not likely to be an idol. It's not likely
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  Speaker 1: to be a ball or an asher a pull, as
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  Speaker 1: it's going to be with the Jewish people who start
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  Speaker 1: interacting too much with their neighbors once they come in
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  Speaker 1: the Promised Land. But it can easily be money or
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  Speaker 1: fame or other things that get more important. How people
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  Speaker 1: see us can be more important. That can become a
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  Speaker 1: god to us. So God number one in all things
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  Speaker 1: is the first one. No other gods before me, not
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  Speaker 1: just religions and things like that. But nothing else is
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  Speaker 1: more important. Love the Lord your God with your whole heart,
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  Speaker 1: your mind, your strength. Okay, and then you shall not
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  Speaker 1: make yourself an image in the form of anything in
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  Speaker 1: heaven above or on the earth below. You should not
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  Speaker 1: about in and worship them for the Lord your God.
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  Speaker 1: I'm jealous God. So that's really we can say that
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  Speaker 1: kind of part of that first one. Here. No graven images.
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  Speaker 1: How you know these? Remember they weren't numbered in the
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  Speaker 1: original version here, so you might group them differently than
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  Speaker 1: I would. Doesn't really matter. The numbers are not important.
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  Speaker 1: The ten is not important in the Ten Commandments, is
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  Speaker 1: not in the text. It's something we added later, So
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  Speaker 1: don't get hung up on it because it's not important.
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  Speaker 1: But what we learn from here is that God doesn't
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  Speaker 1: want us worshiping other gods, right, doesn't want us worshiping
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  Speaker 1: other things either. Right, You can't make for yourself. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: let's say a golden calf, just in case that might
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  Speaker 1: come up here in the future and worship it as
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  Speaker 1: a god, because that would be wrong. That would be
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  Speaker 1: putting something else before God. Now we talk all about
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  Speaker 1: these graven images things this that you can't make an
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  Speaker 1: image in the form of anything in heaven above or
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  Speaker 1: earth below. I have drawn pictures of my house, even
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  Speaker 1: in kindergarten. I'm not concerned about that offending God, even
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  Speaker 1: though that is an image of something on earth beneath,
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  Speaker 1: because really the point of this is you shall not
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  Speaker 1: bow down to worship them for either Lord your God.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a jealous God, right, That is the whole point
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  Speaker 1: of this. Is no other gods, which is why we
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  Speaker 1: lump this as part of that first commandment. And then
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  Speaker 1: you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God,
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  Speaker 1: for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses
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  Speaker 1: his name. This one, I think is more subtle and
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  Speaker 1: more dangerous and more confusing than we take it to be.
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  Speaker 1: So we talk about it as if it means I
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  Speaker 1: shouldn't use Jesus name, for instance, as a swear word. Well,
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  Speaker 1: I don't think you should, but I think it means
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  Speaker 1: more than that. Let's say we have two people, one
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  Speaker 1: young man who is cursing and he is using Jesus
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  Speaker 1: as a swear word. Don't think that that pleases God.
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  Speaker 1: And somebody else who is a minister or a religion
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  Speaker 1: person who is saying things that are wrong and misleading
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  Speaker 1: and sending people in the wrong direction away from God.
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  Speaker 1: And says that I am telling you this in the
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  Speaker 1: name of Jesus and telling you this because God revealed
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  Speaker 1: it to me. That would also be misusing the name
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord. Which of those do you think would
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  Speaker 1: be more important to God? I don't think it's just
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  Speaker 1: that swearing thing. I think when we think of this
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  Speaker 1: as swearing, we're really not getting the heart of the matter. Here.
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  Speaker 1: Would I misuse the name of the Lord? If I
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  Speaker 1: call in the name of the Lord, I present something
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  Speaker 1: as being of God's authority, the name of somebody meant
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  Speaker 1: their authority and power. Think of it as if God
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  Speaker 1: were a king. Okay, so you've got rules against miss
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  Speaker 1: using the name of the king. Okay, well, certainly that's
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  Speaker 1: going to cover things like if I say, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the King such and such should go to hell, that
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  Speaker 1: would probably get me in trouble. But if I present
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  Speaker 1: myself as an ambassador to the king and I say
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  Speaker 1: the King wants you to do this, and you do that,
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  Speaker 1: and then you find out that the King didn't say that,
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  Speaker 1: that's going to get me in all sorts of trouble.
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  Speaker 1: That's treason. That's not a you get lashed kind of offense.
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  Speaker 1: Even in the Middle Ages. That's a you get strung
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  Speaker 1: up kind of offense. So which of those do you
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  Speaker 1: think is more important to God? Remember the sap day
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  Speaker 1: and keep it holy. Here's another one. We have some
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  Speaker 1: trouble with what does it mean to keep the Sabbath? Now?
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  Speaker 1: The Jewish scholars spend a lot of time thinking about this,
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  Speaker 1: And if you have a friend who is conservative Jewish,
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  Speaker 1: then they have rules that have been handed down to
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  Speaker 1: them in terms of light switches that can't be turned
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  Speaker 1: on or off on Saturday, the Sabbath. And you might
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  Speaker 1: have these days things that go into automatic mode on
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  Speaker 1: the Sabbath, like elevators that go up and down because
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  Speaker 1: nobody is allowed to push a button to call them.
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  Speaker 1: You might see these in Israel or someplace like that. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: So Jesus had some trouble in fact with how people
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  Speaker 1: understood the Sabbath, and we have to remember that when
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  Speaker 1: we look at this, because what he said was the
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  Speaker 1: Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
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  Speaker 1: I'm say it again because Jesus said it. So it's
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  Speaker 1: important the Sabbath was made for man, not man for
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  Speaker 1: the Sabbath. And so what he was saying is the
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  Speaker 1: big point of this is that you need rest. That
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  Speaker 1: Sabbath is something that is good for you. So all
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  Speaker 1: those little rules about what you can and you cannot
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  Speaker 1: do might be missing the point. It's not saying that
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  Speaker 1: you should do everything on the Sabbath, but that you
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  Speaker 1: need rest. Now, Christians started celebrating on Sunday and not Saturday,
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  Speaker 1: and that was their holy day because Jesus rose from
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  Speaker 1: the dead on Sunday. Were they violating the Sabbath by
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  Speaker 1: not worshiping on Saturday, Well, they didn't think so. They
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  Speaker 1: were still getting rest. They were still worshiping God. And
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  Speaker 1: that is the heart of this commandment, is that we
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  Speaker 1: worship God. We set aside time to worship God, and
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  Speaker 1: that we also rest, that we take a break. We
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  Speaker 1: need breaks. It's something that we need and God knows,
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  Speaker 1: and so that think of this commandment that way. The
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  Speaker 1: next one, I think is a little more obvious, as
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  Speaker 1: are some of the rest of them. Honor your father
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  Speaker 1: and your mothers so you'll live long in the land
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  Speaker 1: the Lord is giving you. So treat your parents with
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  Speaker 1: the respect they deserve. Now that's a tricky one because
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  Speaker 1: you may think they don't deserve your respect. But because
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  Speaker 1: they are your parents, they deserve some respect, and that's it. Period.
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  Speaker 1: You shall not murder. That one we think is fairly obvious,
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  Speaker 1: although Jesus said, remember, if you hate your brother, you're
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  Speaker 1: really already slipped into murder. Do not commit adultery. If
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  Speaker 1: you look at a woman with lust, Jesus said, you've
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  Speaker 1: already committed adultery. So he made some of these more difficult.
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  Speaker 1: But remember the point of these is a lot of
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  Speaker 1: the things from twelve down have to do with not
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  Speaker 1: our relationship with God, but our relationship with one another,
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  Speaker 1: our relationship with the parents there in terms of honor,
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  Speaker 1: your and your mother, and then obviously your relationship with
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  Speaker 1: others is going to be affected if you're murdering, committing adultery,
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  Speaker 1: or stealing. Right, if I take stuff from you, you're
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  Speaker 1: not going to think as highly of me. We're going
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  Speaker 1: to break that relationship. If I pledge myself to be
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  Speaker 1: married and promise to be married for the rest of
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  Speaker 1: my life and then start sleeping with other women, I
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  Speaker 1: guarantee you it will affect my relationship with my wife.
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  Speaker 1: And I don't even mean if she knows about it.
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  Speaker 1: I mean it's good affect it anyway and not in
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  Speaker 1: a good way. You shall not give false testimony against
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  Speaker 1: your neighbor. Does this just mean in court? Could it
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  Speaker 1: also mean over the back fence when you're gossiping about somebody.
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  Speaker 1: Could it mean on social media when you're saying somebody
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  Speaker 1: did something and you really didn't even look it up
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  Speaker 1: to see if it was true and didn't spend any
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  Speaker 1: time on it. Isn't that also false testimony? Because who
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  Speaker 1: is my neighbor? Jesus drew that bound really wide when
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  Speaker 1: he was talking to a pharisee who wanted to know
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  Speaker 1: who wasn't his neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house.
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  Speaker 1: You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or as male
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  Speaker 1: or female servant, or ox or donkey, or anything that
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  Speaker 1: belongs to your neighbor. There's a bunch of commandments in there, basically,
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  Speaker 1: be content with your stuff, with your life, with your lot,
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  Speaker 1: because living with covetness, jealousy, wanting what you have sometimes
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  Speaker 1: just because you have it. That's what it looks like
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  Speaker 1: when you're three, right, My favorite toy is whatever toy
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  Speaker 1: you've got, And sometimes as adults we act like three
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  Speaker 1: year olds. It's not great when you see it in
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  Speaker 1: a three year old. It is really, really, really not
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  Speaker 1: great when you see it in an adult. And covetness
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  Speaker 1: can also break community when I can't be happy for
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  Speaker 1: your success, whether it's because you won the spelling bee,
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  Speaker 1: or you got the promotion, or you got the new car,
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  Speaker 1: whatever it might be, that breaks the relationship and breaks community.
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  Speaker 1: When people saw thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet
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  Speaker 1: and saw the mountain, they trembled with fear. They basically say,
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  Speaker 1: I don't really want to hear ton again. Could you
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  Speaker 1: just be an intermediator for us, because this is scary stuff.
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  Speaker 1: They're standing remember as this is happening at the foot
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  Speaker 1: of the mountain Mount Sinai, and they don't want to
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  Speaker 1: do it again. And Moses said, God's you know, don't
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  Speaker 1: worry about it. God did this so that you will
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  Speaker 1: be afraid of the Lord and will keep you from sinning.
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  Speaker 1: And then again he talks about idols again, idols and altars, altars,
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  Speaker 1: how to build them. We don't build altars these days,
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  Speaker 1: but it's interesting. Don't make it out of cut stone
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  Speaker 1: because tools will deface it. We don't have to build altars,
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  Speaker 1: so we don't worry about it. Don't have steps, or
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  Speaker 1: your private parts may be exposed. Apparently underwear is not
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  Speaker 1: a thing at this time, which I think is the case.
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  Speaker 1: Just an important safety tip there. But the big thing
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  Speaker 1: there is no other gods, nothing else more important than God.
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  Speaker 1: Doesn't just mean idols in a traditional sense. And with that,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to end this episode of the Bible Study Podcast.
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  Speaker 1: If you have any questions, send an email to Chris
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  Speaker 1: two x at gmail dot com, or better yet, leave
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  Speaker 1: a comment on this episode at the Bible Study podcast
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  Speaker 1: dot com. And as always, thanks so much for listening.
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  Speaker 1: I want to take just a second to thank the
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