Podcasts about aramaic bible

Rev. Gaylon McDowell teaches the meaning and power of prayer and specifically the Lord's Prayer, as translated by the Aramaic Bible scholar, Dr. Rocco Errico. Rev. McDowell uses a New Thought perspective to explain Dr. Errico's prayer book, “Setting a Trap for God.” The fifth episode focuses on the Aramaic meaning of the the phrase “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” in the Lord's Prayer and how align with God's will of absolute good.  Connect with Rev. Gaylon McDowell and the Truth Transforms community on Facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rev. McDowell teaches the meaning and power of prayer and specifically the Lord's Prayer, as translated by the Aramaic Bible scholar, Dr. Rocco Errico. Rev. McDowell uses a New Thought perspective to explain Dr. Errico's prayer book, “Setting a Trap for God.” Connect with Rev. Gaylon McDowell on Facebook Find out more about Dr. Rocco Errico Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you read the Old Testament, where did the text come from? Can we trace the story of the manuscripts? The earliest complete Hebrew Bible dates all the way back to AD1008 but how accurate is it? Dr Kim Phillips from the Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University Library opens up for us his work on Old Testament manuscripts, in a glorious sweep that takes us from the centuries before Jesus all the way to the Middle Ages. Dr Kim Phillips studied Hebrew and the Old Testament at Cambridge University. In his PhD he looked at an important medieval Jewish commentary on the book of Isaiah and he has worked since on Hebrew and Aramaic Bible manuscripts from late Antiquity to the Middle Ages.

Part 3 of a series. Rev. McDowell teaches the meaning and power of prayer and specifically the Lord's Prayer, as translated by the Aramaic Bible scholar, Dr. Rocco Errico. Rev. McDowell uses a New Thought perspective to explain Dr. Errico's prayer book, “Setting a Trap for God.” Bio- Dr. Rocco A. Errico is an ordained minister, international lecturer and author, spiritual counselor, and one of the nation's leading Biblical scholars. Dr. Errico has authored many books on Aramaic as well as co-authoring more than 10 books with well-known Aramaic scholar Dr. George Lamsa. Dr. Errico is the founder of Noohra Foundation. He teaches Aramaic in Georgia. Connect with Rev Gaylon McDowell www.gaylonmcdowell.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rev. McDowell teaches the meaning and power of prayer and specifically the Lord's Prayer, as translated by the Aramaic Bible scholar, Dr. Rocco Errico. Rev. McDowell uses a New Thought perspective to explain Dr. Errico's prayer book, “Setting a Trap for God.” This second episode focuses on the Aramaic meaning of the word father and and the ancient meaning of the first line of the Lord's Prayer, “Our Father, who is in heaven.” Find out more about Rev. Gaylon McDowell here Find books and oracle card decks from MindBodySpirit.fm podcast hosts in the online store Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rev. McDowell teaches the meaning and power of prayer and specifically the Lord's Prayer, as translated by the Aramaic Bible scholar, Dr. Rocco Errico. Rev. McDowell uses a New Thought perspective to explain Dr. Errico's prayer book, “Setting a Trap for God.” This first episodes explains the ancient meaning of prayer and what it really means to pray in Jesus' name. Find Dr. Rocco Errico on Facebook Connect with Rev. Gaylon McDowell here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Friday, 23 June 2023   So Paul departed from among them. Acts 17:33   As simple as the sentence is, the translation is lacking in three ways. It says, “And so, Paul went out from their midst.”   The previous verse described the mocking reaction of some of those who heard Paul. Others had said they would hear him again on the matter. With that, it next says, “And so, Paul.”   Some texts omit the word “And” and simply say, “So Paul...” The text used by the KJV and the NKJV includes it, even if they failed to translate it. With that, it next says that he “went out.”   The word translated as “went out” means exactly that, to go or come in or out. Saying Paul departed, as with the KJV and NKJV, gives an incorrect sense of the matter. How long Paul remained at the Areopagus we don't know. Another speaker may have taken up the center position while Paul retreated from it. What he did was to go out “from their midst,” not depart entirely.   This takes the reader back to verse 22, which said, “Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus.” But he was already at the Areopagus, having arrived there as stated in verse 17:19, “And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus.” Eventually, he was given the opportunity to speak to the forum. At that time, he went into the midst of them.   Now, it is not that Paul departed, but that he has moved out of the place of speaking. He could not have departed from among them because the words of the next verse would then make no sense.   Life application: Translation matters. This short sentence will not change the world if it is incorrectly translated, but it can give the mind an incorrect sense of the flow of movement of the apostle. Here are some variations in the translation of this verse. See how widely different they are and consider how each will affect your thought about what has taken place –   NIV - At that, Paul left the Council. NLT - That ended Paul's discussion with them, BSB - At that, Paul left the Areopagus. Holman CSB - Then Paul left their presence. CEV - When Paul left the council meeting, GWT - With this response, Paul left the court. Mace New Testament - upon which Paul left the assembly. ESV - So Paul went out from their midst. Catholic Public Domain Version - So Paul departed from their midst. NASB- So Paul went out from among them. NKJV - So Paul departed from among them. Weymouth New Testament - So Paul went away from them. Amplified Bible - So Paul left them. CSB - So Paul left their presence. Worsley New Testament - So Paul went out of the assembly. NET Bible - So Paul left the Areopagus. CG - And so, Paul went out from their midst. Haweis New Testament - And so Paul departed from the midst of them. SLT - And so Paul went forth from the midst of them. A Faithful Version - And so Paul went out from among them. Aramaic Bible in Plain English - And so Paulus went out from among them. ANT - And so Paul departed from among them. GNT - And so Paul left the meeting. New Heart English Bible - Thus Paul went out from among them. Darby - Thus Paul went out of their midst. BLB - Thus Paul went out from their midst. Worrell New Testament - Thus Paul went forth out of their midst.   Depending on the source text, the Greek has either seven or eight words in it. Despite that, there are 27 different translations presented here. And this was only from checking 46 Bibles and having provided a personal translation. There are hundreds of versions that were not checked, each with its own nuances and translational preferences. If punctuation and capitalization were considered, there would be even more variations.   Some of these are so off that they are simply paraphrases. Others are incorrect in one way or another. And yet, most convey the sense well enough to be understandable. Don't limit yourself to a single version of the Bible. Rather, read a version in the morning and one at night. When you finish, grab another and start over again. Take time to consider what you read each day and reflect on the precious word that God has given us. In all things, be sure to thank God for it. What a treasure it is!   Heavenly Father, You have allowed Your creatures to translate Your word. Quite often, we have done a sloppy job of that. And yet, You have allowed it. Help us to be studious and careful about what we accept until we have really checked things out. Be glorified in our study of Your precious word. Amen.

Episode 211 – Ten Commandments – Part 7 – Right to Life Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. Script: Do not murder. Exodus, Chapter 20, verse 13, Contemporary English Version ******** VK: Hi and welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m Victoria K. We’re grateful that you are able to join us for another episode of Anchored by Truth as we continue our series on the Ten Commandments. With us today in the studio we have RD Fierro. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. So far in this series we have covered the first 5 commandments. Today, we are going to discuss the 6th commandment which we heard in our opening scripture. RD, what are some of the big “take-aways” from our discussions on the first 5 commandments? RD: Well, I would also like to welcome everyone to this episode of Anchored by Truth. Certainly, one of the biggest take-aways that we’ve seen in our look at the first 5 commandments is that the commandments were given to Moses, the Hebrews, and us for our benefit, not God’s. God did not and does not need the commandments to improve His existence but we do. The commandments tell us how to have a better relationship with God and better relationships with other people. One of the other big ideas that we have discussed consistently is that all of the commandments can be viewed as having two dimensions. VK: For instance, the 3rd commandment says, “Do not misuse my name. I am the LORD your God, and I will punish anyone who misuses my name.” That’s from the Contemporary English Version. So, the 3rd commandment like 7 of the other commandments are stated as “do not’s.” But we can also see that the commandment instructs us to revere and respect the name of God – that we should use God’s name properly. All of the commandments that tell us to “not do” something can also be viewed as telling us to do the opposite. Similarly, the 4th and 5th commandments tell us to do something. The 4th commandment tells us to honor the Sabbath day and the 5th commandment tells us to honor our father and mother. So, we can see that the 5th commandment also means do not disrespect or dishonor our parents. RD: Right. So, understanding that the commandments all have affirmative and prohibitive aspects is another big take-away from our first several episodes. And a 3rd take-away is that the sequence of the commandments points us back to the overall story of the Bible. The first 3 commandments point to God’s personhood. God was, of course, present before He began His creative activity. The 4th and 5th commandments point to that creative activity. The 4th commandment defines the human week. So, it addresses the period of God’s creative activity. The 5th commandment reminds us of the product of God’s creative activity. God only created 2 people directly: Adam and Eve. All other people are descendants of our original parents. We honor our parents because God created our first parents in His image and then delegated a portion of His authority over creation to them. The final 5 commandments point to the sad part. The final 5 commandments remind us of the fall because without the fall none of them would be necessary. But the final 5 also remind us that as soon as the fall occurred God began a plan of redemption part of which is the restraint of sin through God’s law. VK: So, that’s a brief summary of some of what we’ve discussed in our first several episodes in this series. Anyone who missed an episode can find it on their favorite podcast app or they can go to our website (crystalseabooks.com) and listen anytime. Today, we move on to the 6th commandment which – as we heard in the Contemporary English Version – is only 3 words: “Do not murder.” This commandment seems so obvious we might wonder why God felt is necessary to include it. Isn’t it self-evident that we should never commit murder? RD: Well, we might think that but the sad history of humanity demonstrates that it was very much necessary for God to make it the first of the list of prohibited behaviors that apply to people. Let’s remember that we have the first murder in the Bible recorded in chapter 4 of Genesis which is the first book of the Bible. Cain killed his brother Abel out of jealousy. And things haven’t improved any since then. And we should make one other note about that first murder. God gave the 10 commandments to Moses and the Hebrews who were fleeing slavery and captivity in Egypt about 1,500 years before Christ was born – roughly 3,000 years after creation. During that 3,000 year period murder was not acceptable. The prohibition against murder existed right at the start. It did not just come into being when God gave the 10 commandments. VK: And Cain knew that murder was wrong. Genesis, chapter 4, verses 8 through 13 say, in part, “Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, … When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear.” Cain’s behavior clearly demonstrates he knew that murdering Abel was wrong. RD: Yes. Cain tricked Abel into going into a deserted place because he knew he was planning on murdering him. When God confronted Cain he became evasive and lied. And even though Cain complained that his punishment was severe he didn’t complain it was unjust. He knew he deserved to be punished for what he had done. If Cain had not known that murder was wrong he wouldn’t have cared whether anybody saw him do it and he wouldn’t have lied about it. But he did. Cain knew murder was wrong which means the prohibition against it existed right from the beginning of humanity and either Adam or God had instructed everyone not to do it. VK: And, sadly, we have plenty of other examples in other places in Genesis where people displayed a clear awareness of the prohibition against murder. When Joseph’s brothers planned to murder him they planned to do it in a remote location and they hid their plans. And Joseph’s oldest brother Reuben actually tried to save him. Reuben told the rest of the brothers ““Let’s not take his life,” [Reuben] said. “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben knew murdering Joseph was wrong. All the brothers did. So, the prohibition against murder did not start when the commandment was given. God was simply formally codifying an existing and well-understood ethical standard. RD: And that’s an important observation. Someone might ask why God gave Moses a commandment for a behavioral obligation that had been in existence for 3,000 years. And certainly part of the answer is that the Israelites were entering a new period of their national history. When Jacob and his family had gone into Egypt there was a group of about 80 people. A little over 400 years later there was a nation of 2 million and God was relocating that nation, His nation, to their permanent homeland. This was a new chapter in the saga of redemption. God ‘s people were going to have their own territory and therefore they needed a set of civic and ethical standards with which to govern themselves. Through the 10 commandments and the balance of the Mosaic and Levitical codes God was providing those standards. VK: Up until the exodus the Hebrews had lived in Egypt and so were living under the Egyptian civic laws. But now they were out of Egypt. They certainly couldn’t adopt any of the legal or civic codes of the Canaanites they were displacing. Those legal and moral codes contained things that were repugnant. Child sacrifice was acceptable in those cultures. Child sacrifice was certainly not acceptable to God. God wanted to be sure His people operated by a set of civic laws that reflected His holy standards – not those of the people they were displacing. The whole reason God told the Hebrews to displace the people who were occupying Palestine was because they had become so morally degenerate. In Deuteronomy, chapter 20, verses 17 and 18 God told the Hebrews to “Completely destroy a them—… as the Lord your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.” RD: Right. Through the 10 commandments and the rest of the law God was giving His people a set of civic and religious laws that reflected His holy character. So, when it came to establishing specific requirements God started with a foundational fact. God is the author of life. The first commandment that He gave to restrain man’s sinful impulses – because that’s what the last 5 commandments do – was to reiterate the importance of life, the right to life as we put it today. VK: Wow. That’s something we never think about today in all of the discussions about abortion and other cultural issues. The foundational reason all innocent human beings have a right to life is because God proclaimed that we do. And one place He proclaimed that very clearly is in the 6th commandment. RD: Yes. So, let’s sharpen our focus on what the 6th commandment says and what it does not say for just a moment. The 6th commandment does not prohibit capital punishment provided that punishment is performed by legitimate civil authorities in conformance with legitimate and appropriate (proportional) consequences for crimes such as murder or rape. The 6th commandment does not prevent Christians from serving in the armed forces that defend their nation against foreign aggression. The 6th commandment does not prohibit someone from using deadly force to protect their family, themselves, or their property from criminal assault or theft. The 6th commandment is concerned about the unwarranted taking of innocent human life. VK: And a somewhat trickier extension of the 6th commandment is that it does not prohibit a doctor from making triage decisions where the doctor may have to save one life while others go untreated. The doctor that saves one patient while they are unable to save others has not violated the 6th commandment. RD: And the 6th commandment does not prohibit Christians from issuing instructions in living wills or signing what are often termed DNR’s – “do not resuscitate” orders. Christians are allowed to refuse extraordinary medical measures necessary to prolong life if that is their choice to do so. But this is completely different from the idea of “assisted suicide” that has become popular in some countries. Suicide is self-murder so it is barred by the 6th commandment. Assisting someone to commit suicide is simply aiding and abetting murder. But where the patient refuses a drug or other intervention that might or might not prolong their life is a different matter. VK: And such decisions must always be made by the patient without pressure from people who may have ulterior motives even family members. And the patient must have access to the best medical information that is available from competent doctors or advisors. And we certainly are not trivializing the difficulty of any of these decisions. You have said that sometimes it takes the wisdom of Solomon to know what to do and even then these decisions are extraordinarily taxing. The main point though is that the 6th commandment establishes a right to life but there are times when, despite our best efforts, life can only be prolonged by intervention that is uncertain at best and will inflict suffering at worst. RD: Correct. There is a difference between us doing things that will hasten death versus doing things to prolong life. The former is prohibited but the latter is not necessarily required. Now, if the patient wants the intervention then they should receive that which they desire. At any rate it’s important to understand that 6th commandment establishes a basic right to life and the correct application of that right often requires considerable wisdom and prayer. But certainly one implication of the 6th commandment is very clear. Abortion is a violation of the 6th commandment. We often debate the question of what happens when the life of the mother is in jeopardy and there are legitimate differences of opinion on that question. All I will say is that I have very wise and mature Christian friends who differ so I think it’s a question where people need to make their own decisions. VK: So, there are some situations in today’s world where we need to seriously consider the implications of the 6th commandment. But what about in Moses’ world? Do you think that there were there similar difficulties in the Hebrews’ minds when they first received the commandment? RD: Well, certain implications of the 6th commandment that we debate today were not in debate in the days of the exodus. For instance, the Hebrews knew that the 6th commandment did not prohibit capital punishment for certain crimes because God had prescribed capital punishment in the law. The Mosaic Law required capital punishment for murder, rape, adultery, and a few other offenses. But the 6th commandment would have affected many practices that were common in some parts of the ancient world. VK: Such as child sacrifice. Child sacrifice was practiced in many of the pagan religions of that time. The 6th commandment clearly prohibited the Hebrews from going anywhere near that practice even though it was common in cultures that surrounded them. RD: Yes. And the 6th commandment had dramatic implications for other practices of that time. Most of the nations of that time were ruled by a king, emperor, pharaoh, or similar monarch. It was a common understanding in some nations that all of the property in the nation belonged to the king and the people only had control over the parts for which the monarch had granted leases. Well, in many of the ancient nations the king was considered to not only own the property but the people. So, the king could order the life or death of any of their subjects regardless of whether the subject had done anything that merited it. The same thing was true of slaves and slave owners. The slave could be executed at the owner’s whim. It might have been stupid to do so but the legal systems of the time would not have made it illegal to do so. VK: So, when God issued the 6th commandment God was drawing a clear line of demarcation between His people and the surrounding cultures – not just in the case of their religious practices but also in the case of how they were to order their society. The 10 commandments established an ethical framework for the Hebrews as they were entering the Promised Land that would make them clearly different from the cultures around them. One of the biggest ways the Hebrew culture was to be different was that value was placed on individual life. That wasn’t true just for the Hebrew people but also for slaves who had no rights in other societies. RD: For a variety of reason slavery was a common part of almost all ancient cultures. Most commonly when one nation conquered another and captured people those captured people wound up as slaves in the conquering nation. But, it was also true that sometimes people would sell themselves or their children into slavery because a famine or other disaster made it look more likely that they would eat as slaves or starve on their own. As you have noted in most societies slaves were just considered another form of property. But with the 10 commandments God began to establish the idea that all people are people and have some basic rights. The Mosaic Law put certain limits on how the Hebrews were to treat their slaves. This was a radical departure from the surrounding cultures. VK: For instance, Exodus, chapter 21, verses 26 and 27 says, “An owner who hits a male or female slave in the eye and destroys it must let the slave go free to compensate for the eye. And an owner who knocks out the tooth of a male or female slave must let the slave go free to compensate for the tooth.” Provisions like this make it clear that slaves were people who could not be mistreated in any way their owner might like. In most of the cultures outside of Israel killing a slave would not have been regarded as murder. Their legal codes would have had no provisions for addressing the mistreatment of slaves. And some cynics would say that the 6th commandment did not address that situation. RD: I know that some cynics would say that the 6th commandment did not address every conceivable situation where one human being might cause the death of another. But there were other portions of the Mosaic Covenant that did provide more nuances and did distinguish between what we would call first degree murder, manslaughter, accidental death, deaths caused by animals, etc. But the mere fact that the cynic would point something like that out points to man’s essential sinfulness. God gave a very plain commandment. Don’t murder another person. But people will then start to ask qualifying questions. What if an owner kills a slave? Is that murder? What if someone leaves a pit uncovered and someone falls in? If I sacrifice a child as part of a religious ritual, is that ok? We will pile the questions on and on. But the mere fact that we ask the question reveals sinful hearts. We ask them because we want to know the boundaries of the commandment. Why do we do that? If we simply accept the fact that God has issued a plain commandment and our intention is to obey that commandment all the possible variations don’t matter. VK: I see the point you’re making. The scope of potential violations doesn’t matter to the person who intends to be obedient. The concept of murder is pretty clear. It’s killing another human being who isn’t doing us any harm and doesn’t have any apparent intent at doing us harm. If another person is planning on hurting us, our family, or others, that’s a different situation. But if our intent is simply to obey the commandment we will not only not kill anyone else we will go out of our way to avoid causing them harm because we don’t want to run the risk of violating the commandment. It is our sinfulness that wants us to begin to develop some kind of exhaustive set of rules because we want to be able to argue that we aren’t guilty even if we wind up doing what we shouldn’t. RD: Human beings, all human beings, are prone to performing this ethical calculus which essentially asks, “how far can I go before I get into trouble?” The slave owner who understood the 6th commandment properly understood it as requiring him to value the slave’s life as much as anyone else’s. They weren’t concerned with defining limits which they had no intent to violate. Further, the owner understood that they had an affirmative obligation to protect the slave’s life and health. This was not a concept that was shared outside Israel. VK: All of this points to the need for the Lord to include the 6th commandment within the 10 and to make it the first of the behaviors that were specifically prohibited. In coming episodes we are going to talk about the others: don’t commit adultery and don’t steal, lie, or covet. But by starting with “don’t murder” God, as He always does, puts first things first. The most egregious thing one human being can do to another is to physically injure someone. As bad as the other behaviors are injuring or killing someone is worse. God started with the prohibition against murder to restrain the worst behavior first. RD: And frankly the fact that God made such plain statement about obviously harmful behaviors helps reinforce that these are authentic commandments from a holy God who has ushered His people into a new period of their national existence. VK: How so? RD: Think about it. If I started a religion and told everyone our rituals would include eating ice cream, pie, and cake and watching videos all night long, how many people would join my religion? VK: Lots! RD: Exactly. False religions promise people they will get secrets, or receive power over others, or give them permission to do anything they want to do whether it’s eating, drinking, gambling, having sex, whatever. False religions feed into people’s sinful desires and impulses. But God never did that. God’s law reflects his holy character and He wants His people to do that as well. God expects His people to be kind, careful, caring, just, and honest just as He Himself is. So, God’s commandment instruct us to steer away from things that we all know are wrong but we find ourselves drawn to by our sinful impulses. We know the 10 commandments are from a holy God because the commandments help us restrain our sin rather than telling us to indulge in it. VK: And that’s a topic we are going to continue to explore in our next episode of Anchored by Truth. If the ancient Hebrews hadn’t been like us they wouldn’t have needed the commandments to ensure they separated their behavior from those of the people they were displacing. But they were like us. So, God wanted them to begin a new chapter in their national life by having a right relationship with Him and a right relationship with each other. Sounds like a good time to go to our God in prayer. Today let’s listen to a prayer for Jesus - who is the One who understood our sin but was still willing to sacrifice Himself so we might be saved from that sin to the eternal glory of a merciful God. ---- PRAYER OF ADORATION OF THE SON VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.” If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!” (Opening Bible Quote from the Aramaic Bible in Plain English) Exodus, Chapter 20, verses 9, and 11, Aramaic Bible in Plain English When did the Ark of the Covenant disappear (allaboutarchaeology.org)

Episode 210 – Ten Commandments – Part 6 – Family First Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. Script: Respect your father and your mother, and you will live a long time in the land I am giving you. Exodus, Chapter 20, verse 12, Contemporary English Version ******** VK: Hello! Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m Victoria K. We’re so happy that you are able to join us for another episode of Anchored by Truth as we continue our series on the Ten Commandments. In this series we want to remind people that the 10 commandments were given to us to enable us to live better lives. God is perfect in every way. God did not need the 10 commandments to make His life better. But we do. This was true for the first people to hear the commandments 3,500 years ago, the Hebrew people who were part of the exodus from Egypt. And it remains true for us today. To help us think through the reasons we continue to benefit from the 10 commandments, in the studio we have RD Fierro. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, so far in this series we have covered the first 4 commandments. Today, we get to the 5th commandment which some scholars see as a transitional commandment. Why is that? RD: Many commentators have divided the 10 commandments into 2 groups called “tables.” We’ve mentioned that in a couple of episodes in this series. Often the 1st four commandments are considered the first table of the law. Their purpose is to help us have a better relationship with God. The last six commandments are often called the 2nd table. Their purpose is to help us have better relationships with other people. So, in this two table division the 5th commandment is the start of the second table. Some scholars actually believe that that is how God divided the commandments when He wrote on the stone tablets mentioned in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. VK: But of course we have no way of knowing that for sure. For a while, the stone tablets on which God wrote were stored in the Ark of the Covenant. But the Ark is last mentioned in scripture in Second Chronicles chapter 35. That reference tells us that King Josiah asked the Levites to return the Ark to the Temple where Solomon had originally housed it. There is no mention as to why the Levites had removed the Ark in the first place, nor is there any indication as to whether or not the Levites acquiesced to King Josiah's request. King Josiah reigned in Judah 640-609 BC. RD: There is a mention of the ark in the book of Second Maccabees, chapter 2, verses 1-8. That reference says that the prophet Jeremiah was given a divine revelation to take the “tent” and the ark to “the mountain which Moses climbed to see God's inheritance. When Jeremiah arrived there, he found a room in a cave in which he put the tent, the ark, and the altar of incense; then he blocked up the entrance." The “tent” was the portable tabernacle that the Hebrews had used in the desert during their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. The mountain would likely be Mt. Nebo which is mentioned in Deuteronomy 31:1-4. Second Maccabees is, of course, part of the Apocrypha and is not accepted as being canonical by much of the church. At any rate even if the Maccabees reference was accurate we still have the ark disappearing from history before the Babylonian captivity which would mean the tablets disappeared over 2,500 years ago. VK: Fortunately for us the content of what was written on the tablets has been preserved for us in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. So, even though we don’t have the physical tablets we know what they said. RD: Yes. And as you mentioned the 5th commandment is often seen as a transitional commandment since it ushers in the transition from the 1st table to the 2nd table. And the content of the 5th commandment links the content of the 2 tables. The first table is focused on God but ends with a commandment that is centered around how we are to structure our weeks – 6 days for work, one day for rest and worship. The 5th commandment is focused on the first institution created by God for man’s benefit – the family. So, the 5th commandment is the beginning of all authority structures for man. VK: God, of course, is the ultimate authority. In the Garden of Eden God delegated authority to care for the garden and the animals to man. God made man His steward over creation. Now, in the 5th commandment God expressly delegates the authority over the family to the father and mother. Now we might want to note that this authority structure had been in place since creation. The authority structure did not begin when the commandments were given. But when God said to “respect your father and mother” he was reiterating the validity and importance of the familial authority structure. He was also ensuring that the Hebrews understood that the principle that children must respect their parents isn’t just for the benefit of parents. It has benefits for the children as well. RD: The 5th commandment is often referred to as the first commandment with “promise.” God says there is a specific benefit attached to obedience of the 5th commandment. VK: In our opening scripture which came from the Contemporary English Version of the Bible the commandment was phrased, “Respect your father and your mother, and you will live a long time in the land I am giving you. The New King James Version puts the 5th commandment this way: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.” In other words the Lord is tying respect or honor for fathers and mothers to longevity. But scholars are not in agreement about whether the longevity in view is for the individuals or whether it is more of a promise to the nation that if Hebrew children will obey their parents the nation will survive for a long time in the land to which they are journeying. RD: And there’s probably a bit of both ideas in view. Commentators sometimes remind us that ideas such as the one contained in the 5th commandment are “principles” not “promises.” In other words, God isn’t providing a guarantee that just because a child is obedient to their parents the will have a long life. We know from our own life experiences that even obedient kids can die far too young from accidents or disease. But it is also true that if a wise parent gives their children cogent advice which the child follows the child is far more likely to avoid an untimely end. I had a friend of mine tell me that his father had told him before he entered West Point that “nothing good happens after midnight on Saturday night.” His dad was simply telling him that getting home safely early would keep him out of a lot of mischief. It was good advice then and it’s good advice now. VK: But we also don’t want to overly secularize the intent of the promise in the 5th commandment. James 1:17 tells us that every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of light. God can and does intercede in the lives of His children and, while it is not absolute guarantee, as a general rule God will entrust more blessings to those of His children who have demonstrated they can handle them. There’s an old saying that “most men can handle poverty, but there are precious few who can survive prosperity.” God is not a distant or disinterested Father. We can’t be absolutely sure why He does anything. As Isaiah, chapter 55, verse 9 tells us, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” But, generally, God blesses His obedient children. We shouldn’t dismiss the idea that God will take note of which of His children follow His commandments and a longer life is certainly one blessing God can confer even if the world seems arrayed against that possibility. RD: Yes. So, certainly one idea that is contained in the 5th commandment is that children should be obedient to their parents. But just as the accompanying idea of longevity is not an absolute promise, the 5th commandment does not require a son or daughter to be blindly obedient to their parents. There is an unspoken idea in the commandment that the parent has an obligation to not demand that their child do anything that would violate any of the other commandments or any of God’s other principles or laws. VK: In other words if a father told a child to go rob a bank the child is under no obligation to obey that instruction just because it came from the father. Robbing a bank would violate the 8th commandment against theft. RD: And a daughter should not abort her unborn baby just because her parents insist that she do so. That would violate the 6th commandment against taking an innocent human life. We could give a lot of specific examples of times that a child would actually dishonor their parents if they followed an instruction literally. So, one way to make a general statement is that the child should honor their parents’ instructions provided those instructions are not immoral, illegal, or unethical. VK: So, one of the major ideas that is contained in the 5th commandment is that children should be obedient to their parents. But you have said that that is not the only idea mandated by the 5th commandment. As you have said, our compliance with the 5th commandment will mature as our lives, and those of our parents, progress. What do mean by that? RD: Well, when we are young our parents take care of us. But there may come a time when we must take care of our parents. So, respecting and honoring our parents means that if, and when, that time comes we must be prepared to do so. VK: What you are saying is that if we are fortunate to have parents who live long enough to become elderly, at some point they are going to require the assistance of their children. They may need help with tasks around the house, getting to the doctors or other appointments, driving, etc. They may also need help with managing their money or finding assistance for living conditions. RD: Correct. Many people will be self-sufficient into their 80’s or even 90’s but some parents might have health issues and need help sooner. Just about anyone who lives long enough is going to need some kind of help. It may be a not or it may be a little. And the first people who should step up and provide that help are the kids. And as a service to our listeners we want to warn them about a particular kind of danger that arises for too many of the vulnerable elderly these days: financial exploitation. VK: Financial exploitation is a particularly dangerous form of danger that has arisen in the past few decades. And it can take various forms. Sometimes it is unscrupulous salesmen or contractors who know that many elderly people need help and don’t know where to find it. And they know that often times elderly people are lonely and if they find someone who will just listen to them they will overpay for goods and services. Sometimes it’s because the elderly just don’t know what prices are reasonable any more. Sometimes it’s a deliberate scam like selling an elderly person over-priced cleaning equipment, charging way too much for simple home repairs, or just selling things the persons doesn’t need. But there is a truly reprehensible form of financial exploitation that has become all too common in the US because of the way we pay for long term care such as nursing home. RD: You’re thinking of the way in which some kids will deliberately impoverish their parents in order to transfer the payment burden for long term care from the family to the government. VK: Yes. We don’t have anywhere near the time to cover this subject in detail, but because of the US federal regulations for the Medicaid program the federal government will pay for nursing home care for impoverished elderly patients. The intent of the program is noble but in practice it establishes a perverse incentive. I’ve seen cases where the kids say to mom and dad, “if you transfer all of your money and assets to us then when you need to go to a nursing home the government will pay for it. That will ensure we get your money and can use it to help keep you more comfortable.” Sadly, in many, many cases that’s not how it works out. RD: No. It’s not. Our purpose on Anchored by Truth is not to provide advice on either families or finances. Our purpose is to demonstrate the inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of scripture. But we can’t pass over the implications of the 5th commandment and not provide this warning. Government programs are intended to help the truly vulnerable. So, any set of children who are suggesting that their parents divest themselves or their life savings, home, property, or anything else just to make sure they qualify for long term care paid for by the government are violating not only the 5th commandment but also the 8th and 10th commandments at a minimum. VK: The 8th commandment prohibits stealing. And that’s what you’re doing when you artificially manipulate your parents’ financial condition to shift a burden from the family to the government. And the 10th commandment prohibits coveting the property, or anything else, of someone else – including anything that belongs to your parents or the government. RD: We’re certainly not saying that it cases of genuine need and qualification it may be necessary for loved ones to get long term care paid for by the government. The purpose of these programs is to alleviate suffering. Having had a lot of experience with them I’m not sure they accomplish that objective but that isn’t our focus today. Our focus is to make sure that people understand that as our elders age and need support the 5th commandment makes it mandatory that children do the best they can to provide that support. Not everyone can do everything. But the point of the 5th commandment is that we must do what we can. We must not ignore the plight of our parents and we can’t shuffle the burden off on others. VK: And, as a general principle, our Christian faith means that we should be prepared to assist, as we are able, those who have been like fathers or mothers to us, even if the biological relationship isn’t strictly parent child. Aunts, uncles, certainly grandparents, but even older neighbors may have been important as we grew up and they should not be forgotten or ignored when they need help. I know that you spent over 5 years visiting one elderly man in a nursing home reading the Bible to him because he was blind. And you took him quite a few meals of the kind that he had no access to because he was poor as well as having numerous physical disabilities. RD: I did after someone brought his condition to my attention. And I know that we are all busy with needs and plans of our own but there will come a time when most of us will need help. We used to say that “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” was the Golden Rule. At any rate, we want people to understand that being obedient to the 5th commandment has implications beyond just doing what your father and mother tells you to do. And we ignore this commandment at our own peril. VK: Every stable society that has ever existed has been built on a strong family structure. And this is one area where the commandment that God gave to the Exodus Hebrews actually corresponded to the society they were leaving. There are records of Egyptian philosophers admonishing their society that obedience to parents was not only right and proper but that it would be good for the children. In fact, one of their philosophers actually noted that obedience was linked to longevity. RD: One of their sages, Ptah-hotep, said "The son who accepts the words of his father, will grow old in consequence of so doing;" He also said, "The obedient son will be happy by reason of his obedience; he will grow old; he will come to favor." So, this helps to illustrate that even the pagan societies of the time of the Exodus connected familial strength with health and longevity. Now a lot of modern commentators assume that the promise conveyed in the 5th commandment was not personal, but national. But there are other verses in the Bible that indicate that there was at least some level of individual blessing in view. VK: For instance, Ephesians, chapter 6, verses 1 through 3 say ” Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’—which is the first commandment with a promise— ‘so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.’” Ephesians, of course, is in the New Testament so it was written about 1,500 years after Moses wrote the book of Exodus. But after all that time the Apostle Paul still saw an element of individual benefit being tied to children being obedient to their parents. And the Apostle Paul reinforced that tie to individual behavior and benefit by following those verses with verse 4 which says, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” RD: Right. The Apostle Paul made it clear that the 5th commandment does not give license to parents to abuse their kids or treat them in such a way that it inspires disrespect rather than respect. It shouldn’t be necessary to say it but the 5th commandment goes hand-in-hand with the fact that God expects parents to love, guide, and provide for their children. But, and this is a big but, even if parents fail in their obligations children may still not disrespect them. We need to notice that the promised individual blessing for respecting our parents is to the children and not to the parent. VK: And that is peculiar to modern listeners, isn’t it? We hear an admonition to “honor thy father and mother” and think that the instruction is for the parents benefit. And certainly parents are partially in view. But the benefits of godly children obeying godly parents goes mostly to the children. That’s counterintuitive in our society. RD: We started out noting that the 5th commandment is a transitional commandment. The first 4 commandments are about honoring God and His creation ordinances. The 5th commandment is a transition from focus on God to focus on man – and, just as in the Garden of Eden, the first thing that God transitions is His authority. Sequentially, God made man after He had made everything else because God was preparing creation for the creature He intended to make in His image. Immediately after making man, God gave man delegated authority by telling Adam to name the animals. God knew Adam wouldn’t find His perfect partner among the animals but God let Adam find that out for himself. And once Adam had discovered this God completed His creative activity by making Eve. Eve’s creation completed creation. VK: Now that’s something you don’t often hear people talk about. God didn’t stop creating until He had created Eve. It’s like the old joke. God made man but knew He could do better so then He created woman. RD: Right. Man and woman were both necessary for God’s created economy and His plans for the created order. God only created 2 people directly but God delegated His authority to those 2 and all subsequent human authority has proceeded from the initial delegation. So, in the 5th commandment God ratifies to Moses and the Hebrews that His original delegation is still in effect. Within the family the parents possess God’s delegated authority. God always promises blessings for obedience so he continues that pattern in the 5th commandment. When children respect, obey, and, in time, take care of their parents, God will continue to convey blessings. VK: Even in the human realm no one should expect to be blessed by disobeying earthly authorities. Disobey your boss and you can expect to be fired. Disobey the law and you can expect to have trouble. Disobey God and He has no reason to layer blessings on you. But, of course, there are people who are in rebellion against God but seem to be blessed. RD: That’s a subject for a longer discussion. It’s a mystery that evil can seem to prosper for a while? But Proverbs, chapter 24, verses 19 and 20 tell us, “Don’t fret because of evildoers; don’t envy the wicked. For evil people have no future; the light of the wicked will be snuffed out.” But as you noted we certainly should not expect to be blessed by God if we are disobedient to God. And for those who might say they are not interested in God’s blessings – they’re fine with the other fellow – well, that’s a statement so foolish it betrays an ocean sized ignorance. God gave us the 5th commandment and all the commandments so that we would know how to not just enjoy life now but for eternity. This life is only preparation for what comes next. The saddest people of all are those who think that this earth is all that there is because by the time they realize they trifled with transcendent truths it will be too late. Not anything much sadder than that. VK: But there’s no reason that anyone who listens to Anchored by Truth needs to fear for their eternal destiny. The 10 commandments are just another form evidence of a simple but profound truth - salvation is available the moment we realize that the Bible is the inspired word of God and Jesus is our Savior. This sounds like a great time to go to God in prayer. Since Mother’s Day is right around the corner today let’s listen to a prayer for our mothers and let’s always be quick to show honor and respect if we are so fortunate as to still have our mother present with us on this side of eternity. ---- PRAYER FOR MOTHERS’ DAY VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.” If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!” (Opening Bible Quote from the Aramaic Bible in Plain English) Exodus, Chapter 20, verses 9, and 11, Aramaic Bible in Plain English When did the Ark of the Covenant disappear (allaboutarchaeology.org)

Episode 209 – Ten Commandments – Part 5 – Rest is Blessed Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. Script: … Six days you shall serve and you shall do all your work: And the seventh day is the Sabbath to LORD JEHOVAH your God; … Because for six days LORD JEHOVAH made Heaven and Earth … and he was refreshed in the seventh day; … Exodus, Chapter 20, verses 9, and 11, Aramaic Bible in Plain English ******** VK: Hello! Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m Victoria K. We’re happy to be with you for this episode of Anchored by Truth as we continue our series on the Ten Commandments. In this series we are focusing on several key ideas such as the fact that the commandments were given to help us understand God more deeply as well as live better lives. This remains as true today as it was for the ancient Israelites who first heard the commandments 3,500 years ago. Today RD Fierro is with us in the studio. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, what other big ideas are we focusing on in this series? RD: Well, you’ve just mentioned two very big ideas. Many people view the 10 commandments as if they were a sort of set of speed limit signs. They see the commandments as saying “don’t do this or that” in the same way they view a speed limit sign as saying “don’t drive faster than 45 miles an hour.” And certainly, like speed limits, the commandments help us to keep away from foolish behavior. But the commandments are and do so much more. Properly understood the commandments help us understand the overall plan of redemption much more deeply. VK: Why is that? RD: Many commentators have divided the 10 commandments into 2 groups called “tables.” VK: We mentioned that in the first episode of this series. Often the 1st four commandments are considered the first table of the law. Their purpose is to help us have a better relationship with God. The last six commandments are the 2nd table. Their purpose is to help us have better relationships with other people. RD: Right. That’s a very common way of looking at the commandments. But I have a slightly different way of segregating the commandments. VK: You would. How do you divide the commandments? RD: I think the 10 commandments can serve to remind us of God’s overall plan of redemption. The 1st three commandments are all concerned with God’s nature and personhood. God is a personal being – an exalted, infinite personal being. The 1st three commandments remind us that God is self-existent, infinite and spiritual, and guard our perceptions of His nature carefully. The 4th and 5th commandments remind us of God’s creative activity. Number 4 reminds us that God created everything that exists in 6 regular 24-hour days. And number 5, which says to honor our fathers and mothers, reminds us that God man as the only creature in all creation that bears His image. God created the first father and mother. Those are the only two human beings God created directly. VK: All other people have been born as natural descendants of Adam and Eve but God personally created our first parents. So, in a very real way all subsequent parents have a direct link back to God’s creative activity. And we’ll get more deeply into the 5th commandment in our next episode of Anchored by Truth. RD: And the final five commandments all remind us of the effects of the fall and the need to restrain the behavior of fallen human beings. In a certain respect we see the need for the five commandments in what happened in the Garden of Eden and the immediate aftermath. VK: Well, God had told Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil but they did so after being tempted by Satan in the guise of the serpent. So, Adam and Eve took fruit that didn’t belong to them. That’s stealing. And we hear from Genesis, chapter 3, verse 5 that part of the temptation included covetousness. The New Living Translation puts it this way. Satan said, “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” Satan tempted Eve by telling her that she could be like God. And Eve succumbed. Verse 6 says, “And even The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it.” Adam and Eve coveted being like God and that led to the theft. RD: Yes. An idol is anything that we prize more than God and idolatry in the Bible is often represented by adultery. Idolatry is spiritual adultery. So, when Adam and Eve prized “being like God” more than obedience to God they committed idolatry and spiritual adultery. And when God confronted them they hid and became evasive. Evasion is a form of deception or lying. And, of course, not too long after Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden we hear of the first murder when Cain killed his brother Abel in chapter 4 of Genesis. So, there in the 2 chapters that follow the description of creation you have examples of the need for all of the last 5 commandments. VK: That’s interesting. God existed before He created anything. The first 3 commandments apply to Him personally. The next 2 apply to His creative activity. The 4th which we are going to talk about today is about the period of creation, 6 days of creative work followed by a day of rest. The 5th commandment is about the product of creation. Man was God’s highest part of the created order because man is the only created being who is described as being created in the image of God. The first five commandments would have been just as reasonable and applicable if the Fall had never occurred. But, the last five commandments are only necessary because of the Fall. RD: Creation, fall, and redmeption. It’s a seemingly simple story but if we don’t understand it we really won’t understand the Bible. The Bible is a single book about a single story and that story is creation, fall, and redemption. And the 4th commandment is very straightforward about reminding us about that single fact. VK: We heard one version of the 4th commandment in our opening scripture. That version came from the Aramaic Bible in Plain English. Here is how the 4th commandment reads in the Contemporary English Version. “Remember that the Sabbath Day belongs to me. You have six days when you can do your work, but the seventh day of each week belongs to me, your God. No one is to work on that day—not you, your children, your slaves, your animals, or the foreigners who live in your towns. In six days I made the sky, the earth, the oceans, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested. That's why I made the Sabbath a special day that belongs to me.” That’s Exodus, chapter 20, verses 9 through 11. So, in giving the 4th commandment, God Himself takes His audience straight back to His creative activity. RD: Yes. And we learn several important things from that fact. First, we learn that God did, in fact, create the world in 6 ordinary 24 hour days. Dr. Jonathan Sarfati spoke extensively about this in our series that we called The Truth in Genesis. VK: Dr. Sarfati is the lead scientist for Creation Ministries International. He has a Ph.D. in both physics and chemistry and he is such an accomplished chess champion that the plays up to 12 players simultaneously – while they can see and he is blindfolded. And the Truth in Genesis series is available from our website, crystalseabooks.com. RD: Correct. Some people have tried to say that the 6 days of creation were actually just indeterminate periods, possibly quite long ones, but this view does not make much sense in light of what God tells us in the 4th commandment. In the Contemporary English Version that you just read God says “You have six days when you can do your work, but the seventh day of each week belongs to me, your God.” God certainly didn’t mean that we are to work for 6 indeterminately long periods followed by a 7th equally indeterminate period of rest. God is clearly referring to 6 24-hour periods when He is describing the period of the week in which we are to work. This is the only thing that makes sense for how human beings can actually work. Yet God directly links His creative activity to that same period. VK: The point is that if we accept the creation period of God’s work as being 6 24-hour periods there is no tension with the 4th commandment. But the moment we start trying to bring a different interpretation to chapter 1 of Genesis we have to begin fashioning bizarre explanations for how that translates into the plain requirement of the 4th commandment. RD: So, one important concept that comes through the 4th commandment is the ratification of the creation narrative contained in chapter 1 of Genesis. And when God gave the 4th commandment He knew all of the later craziness that would be attributed to Genesis, chapter 1, so in giving the 4th commandment God “killed two birds with one stone.” He both prescribed the requirement that one day of the week was to be devoted to His purposes as well as stating clearly that the first chapter of Genesis is to be accepted as literal history. But another fact that we learn from the 4th commandment is that God considers rest to be as important within His economy as work. VK: That’s a lesson so many of us need to learn – or re-learn - today. In our day and age our lives tend to be filled with constant activity. It may not all be working for compensation but it seems like one requirement or another constantly grabbing our attention and demanding that we do something. In our culture and economy we treat the need for rest as a weakness, but it is not. God built a rest period into His design for creation right at the start. God rested on the 7th day and that made it special. Genesis, chapter 2, verse 3 says, “God blessed the seventh day and made it special, because on that day he rested from his work.” That’s also from the Contemporary English Version. You know it is interesting that day 7 was the only day that the Bible calls “blessed.” RD: Right. So, let’s make a couple of points very clear. First, God did not need to rest because He got tired. God is omnipotent and infinite. He never gets tired and nothing that He has done, including creating the universe, was hard on Him. God “rested” to set the pattern for us to follow, not because He needed to take a break. VK: And we know that God rested on the 7th day for our benefit because in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 2, verse 27 it says: “Jesus finished by saying, "People were not made for the good of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for the good of people.” RD: That’s from the Contemporary English Version also. Other versions say, “the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath.” The 7th day is blessed in part because it is the day we are to rest. And let’s think back to the people who first heard the message that they were to rest one day out of seven. The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for a long time – likely decades. I doubt that the Egyptians had been overly concerned about ensuring that their Hebrew slaves got an appropriate amount of rest. VK: Taking one day off out of seven would have been a revolutionary thought to the Hebrews who had just left an extended period of slavery. The first chapter of Exodus tells us that the Hebrews were “oppressed” and that they were being forced to build storage or treasure cities for the Pharaoh. It’s likely that they were expected to work just about every day during which it was physically possible to perform hard physical labor. When Moses told the Hebrews that God wanted them to rest one day a week, that news must have been as revolutionary as it was welcome. RD: And a second point that we need to notice is the timing of God giving the Hebrews this command. Exodus, chapter 19 tells us that God first gave the commandments to the Hebrews in the 3rd month after they had left Egypt. This ratifies the authenticity of the historical setting. During the first two months of the Hebrews journey out of Egypt they were steadily moving away from their former captors. If God had told them to sit down and rest when they were still close to Egypt the people would have been nervous and anxious that the Egyptians would have tried to recapture them. VK: Which Pharaoh and the Egyptian army had already tried to do once before the Israelites were miraculously delivered by the parting of the Red Sea. The Hebrews knew that they were not safe if they were too close to Egypt. So, God led them quite a distance away before He delivered the law. By that time they probably needed a rest and the news that they were going to get one every week was probably very welcome. RD: Right. And a third point that we need to note is that God called his creative activity on 5 of the first 6 days, “good.” But He called the 7th day “blessed.” Now, one of the reasons it is blessed is because it is a rest day for us. But another reason, probably the biggest reason, it is blessed is because the Sabbath is the day we are to turn our attentions away from the demands of the world and turn them to the ultimate source of all Blessing, God. VK: And that is something else that we forget about in these excessively busy days – our need to refresh ourselves by focusing on God. Jesus’ half-brother, James, reminded us in the book named after him in James, chapter 1, verse 17 that “Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father who created all the lights in the heavens.” We forget that we need to consciously turn to God to get the help that we need to handle what life and this world throw at us. The Bible is filled with encouragement for us to turn to the Lord and allow Him to carry our burdens. One of the best known verses for that is 1 Peter 5:7 which tells us “to cast all our cares on Him because He cares for us.” So, a second reason the 7th day is blessed is because it among all the days is the one that is supposed to be specifically dedicated to the Blesser. RD: Yes. So, let’s look at all of this in the context of the 4th commandment. God had just delivered His people from slavery in Egypt. Beyond the initial delivery God had miraculously protected them from the Egyptians’ attempt to recapture them and in the process of doing so God had destroyed the bulk of the Egyptian fighting force. This would have relieved the Hebrews, at least somewhat, of the worry that the Egyptians might make another attempt to bring them back into slavery. So, by the 3rd month they are starting to feel more certain that they really are headed for a new future – one that would have been impossible to envision just a few months earlier. And now God is giving them His instructions for what that new future will look like. It must have been a bit of a relief to know that God did not expect them to enter a new period of slavery when they arrived in the Promised Land. In fact, God expected them to rest one day a week and be refreshed by remembering Him. VK: And for the Hebrews who had just experienced the physical delivery focusing on Him would have been a different experience than it is for us. They had seen God’s power “up close and personal.” They knew, or should have known, that God had a special concern for their welfare and well-being. And they had had many experiences with physical manifestations of God’s presence and attention to them – the miracles in Egypt, the pillar of fire, and the column of cloud. For us, sometimes our awareness of God may seem a bit abstract. We know God exists but our primary knowledge of God comes from the testimony of the creation and the Bible. But for the Israelites who had just come out of Egypt their awareness of God had been fortified by God’s direct intercession in their lives and in physical manifestations. RD: Right. For us the 4th commandment is certainly important but for the Hebrews who first received it, it would have generated a set of emotions and reactions that it is hard for us to relate to. But certainly one benefit to us of the fact that God had so powerfully intervened on their behalf was their preservation of the testimony of what had occurred to them. They created an enduring record in part because God had made His presence unmistakable. And in making His presence unmistakable He ensured that we would be as aware of His commandments as the first recipients were. And there’s one final point that we should note about the 4th commandment before we close for today. VK: What’s that? RD: Let’s consider for a moment why we use a 7-day week. We know why we mark our lives off by days. That’s the length of time it takes the earth to revolve around its axis once and we see the beginning and ending of days in cycles of light and dark. And we know why we use a 365 day year. That’s the length of time it takes the earth to make a complete revolution around the sun and the sense of using the solar cycle for our year is validated by how it affects food production, the varying need for shelter and protection, and the behavior of animals. And the same thing is true for a month that is approximately 30 days. That’s based on the period of the moon’s rotation around the earth and that generates visible manifestations as in the variance in tides. But why do we use a 7 day week? VK: I see what you’re getting at. There are no astronomical or celestial manifestations that are tied to the week. It’s not the period of the rotation of the sun, moon, earth, or even of any lesser stellar bodies like planets or stars. Nor, do the plants or animals exhibit any particular behaviors based on whether it’s the first or last day of a week. Bears may take the winter off but they don’t take weekends off. So, the reason we use a 7 day week is based entirely on the Bible’s description of God’s creative activity. And it is interesting that the 7-day week has been accepted so widely around the world, even in many different cultures that don’t particularly make the Bible the centerpiece of their cultural or religious beliefs. RD: At different points of human history other subdivisions of the month have been used. The ancient Romans had a 10-day “week” for a while and gradually moved to the use of an 8-day week. The ancient Egyptians divided the months into three weeks – the workweek was nine days long, followed by one day of rest. Interestingly enough, even the ancient Greeks and Persians used a 7-day week which many scholars believe they adopted from the Jews after the Babylonian captivity. VK: Which is peculiar in and of itself because the Jews were a conquered and captive people. It’s pretty rare that the conquerors begin to use the customs of the conquered. But that seems to have happened in the case of defining a week. RD: Right. But, of course, there was a good reason for them to do it. God established the 7-day week because of the period He used for creation but of course God designed man such that a one day or rest in 7 was necessary for healthy, fulfilling, and productive living. As you noted earlier people today tend to think they can ignore this basic fact but we do so at our own peril. God knew we needed rest to live joyful lives. He designed humans and the calendar system to give us that rest. He set the example, and, of course, he ratified that basic wisdom in the 4th commandment. VK: And frankly, we need a relationship with God even more than we need rest. Nehemiah 8:10 tells us that “the joy of the Lord is [our] strength.” Was Nehemiah just being poetic or was he telling his audience a basic truth. Human beings have both a body and a soul and spirit. The body won’t be healthy with an unhealthy spirit and God is the only source of spiritual health. And many people have discovered God will let our physical health break down to remind them of the need to maintain a connection with Him. RD: As we have said in every episode in this series, God gave us the 10 commandments for our benefit. And we cannot ignore God’s transcendent truth and expect to prosper. That includes the truth that we need to give our bodies appropriate physical rest and we need to give our spirits the spiritual rest that comes from casting our cares on the One who cares for us. We all have burdens. We are either going to carry those burdens or we are going to place those burdens on the only other Person who has offered to share our yoke: Jesus. The choice is our but to live joyful, peaceful, and productive lives we must honor God by honoring the Sabbath He created for our benefit. VK: We can and should turn to God because He always knows what’s best for us. And as a truly loving God He wants what’s best for us even if we don’t always know what that is. The 4th commandment protects us because it tells us that our God is a God who is concerned enough about us to want us to properly care for our bodies and spirits. So, this sounds like a great time to go to God in prayer. Today let’s listen to a prayer for Christian missionaries - those who carry the good news about God’s care for us to all the world. ---- PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.” If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!” (Opening Bible Quote from the Aramaic Bible in Plain English) Exodus, Chapter 20, verses 9, and 11, Aramaic Bible in Plain English Evidence for the Bible (creation.com)

Life Group questions:Our key verse: Hebrews 12:2 (Aramaic Bible in Plain English) - And let us gaze at Yeshua, him who is The Author and The Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was his, endured the cross and ignored the shame, and he sits upon the right side of the throne of God.1.    Take away: a.    What struck you the most about this teaching? b.    What was your biggest takeaway? 2.    Glory: a.    In your own words, what is the glory of God? b.    Give examples of things that demonstrate His glory? 3.    Shame: a.    In your own words, what is shame? b.    What are the consequences of shame? c.     Do you have shame? If so, what are you going to do about it?4.    Jesus bore our shame: a.    What seemed like the most shameful thing that Jesus bore for us? Talk about why?5.    We might share His Glory: a.    Rom 10:11 says that anyone who trusts Jesus will “never be put to shame.” Talk about what that means. b.    How is that possible? c.     How does a Christ follower rid themselves of that shame?

Episode 208 – Ten Commandments – Part 4 – A Name Above All Names Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. Script: You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain … Exodus, Chapter 20, verse 7, Legacy Standard Bible ******** VK: Hello! Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m Victoria K. We’re so happy that you are joining us today on Anchored by Truth as we continue our series on the Ten Commandments. In this series we are not only thinking about the commandments themselves, but we are also discussing the fact that the commandments are historically and culturally reasonable. The commandments were given to an Israelite nation that was in transition from being in bondage to a pagan nation to preparing to start their national life anew in their own land. Despite the fact that the commandments are firmly set in place and time, however, they are nevertheless transcendent ethical principles that are relevant to us and to our lives even though 3,500 years have passed since Moses first brought them down from the mountain. To help us think through all of this we have RD Fierro in the studio. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, the Ten Commandments really are amazing aren’t they? RD: Yes, they are. As you’ve said the Ten Commandments made perfect sense to the people to whom they were first given. And they made sense in light of the cultures and nations that existed in the 15th century B.C. in the Mid-east. So, it is remarkable when you think about it that pronouncements made to ancient Hebrews of the Exodus generation continue to be so important and relevant today. This means that in the Ten Commandments we see a truly amazing body of expressed wisdom, which, of course, heightens our confidence that they were given by an omniscient and omnipotent God. That was true of the 1st and 2nd commandments which we looked at in our last couple of episodes and it will be just as true for the 3rd commandment which we are looking at today. VK: When we looked at the 1st commandment we saw it made good sense for it to be number 1 because it reminded the Hebrews of a simple but profound fact. There is one and only one True God who created everything. So, no one should ever dishonor that God by attributing worship to any lesser being, creature, or part of the creation. Similarly, the 2nd commandment reminds us that that Creator is Spirit who dwells in unapproachable light. No one has ever seen His essence. No one will ever see His essence during this phase of redemption’s story. As such, there is no way anyone could ever make a meaningful representation of the One True God. So, we must not try. Trying to depict God would mean that we are imposing our ideas on a Being whose “… ways are far beyond anything [we] could imagine” as Isaiah 55:8 says. That is just as disrespectful of God as attributing worship to anyone or anything other than Him. RD: We see a theme in the first 2 commandments that is continued in the 3rd. God wants to know us to know Him. But because we are limited, finite, and sinful creatures we can only truly know God if we are willing to set aside our own misconceptions about Him. We don’t have to employ our imaginations to know who God is because God has given us His special revelation to guide us into having a proper relationship to Him. VK: The Bible is that special revelation. That is the reason that becoming familiar with the Bible is so very important. RD: The first three commandments are complimentary. The 1st commandment, clearly establishes the principle that we may only properly accord worship to the God who made everything. The 2nd commandment begins a series of instructions that tells us how we are to incorporate that principle into our daily lives. And that guidance begins quite sensibly by warning us not to attempt to redefine that unlimited, holy Creator by creating representations of him or by ascribing His majesty to any part of the created order. VK: Assigning divinity to a part of the created order was common in the time of the Exodus and it was particularly common in the religious worship of the Egyptians. For instance, the Egyptians often conceived of their god Amun-Re [AH-MOON RAY] as the sun god. Worshipping the sun or the moon were common motifs in the pagan religions of the ancient Mideast. RD: The 3rd commandment continues that general theme of telling the Hebrews and us how to ensure that we don’t dishonor God. The 2nd commandment tells us not to create any images or representations of God. And the 3rd commandment tells us to be very careful with God’s name. In our opening scripture, which came from the Legacy Standard Bible, we heard a common version of how the 3rd commandment is framed. We are not to take God’s name “in vain.” VK: Other versions say that we are not to “misuse” God’s name. For instance, the New International Version says, “NIV You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God.” The Amplified Bible puts it this way. “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain [that is, irreverently, in false affirmations or in ways that impugn the character of God]; for the LORD will not hold guiltless nor leave unpunished the one who takes His name in vain [disregarding its reverence and its power].” RD: Yes. So, as commentators have considered the implications of the 3rd commandment, some commentators have construed the 3rd commandment fairly narrowly. VK: As an example, the famous Bible commentator, Charles John Ellicott said this, “Most modern critics regard the phrase used as forbidding false swearing only; but some think that it forbids also “profane” or “vain swearing.” RD: But other commentators have seen the 3rd commandment as having broader implications. VK: The Reverend Joseph Benson who also wrote a famous Bible commentator was in this camp. Reverend Benson wrote this: “We take God’s name in vain, 1st, By hypocrisy, making profession of God’s name, but not living up to that profession. 2d, By covenant-breaking. If we make promises to God, and perform not to the Lord our vows, we take his name in vain. 3d, By rash swearing, mentioning the name of God, or any of his attributes, in the form of an oath, without any just occasion for it, to no good purpose, or to no good. 4th, By false swearing, which some think is chiefly intended in the letter of the commandment. 5th, By using the name of God lightly and carelessly.” So, which camp are you in? RD: I’m in the camp that says that in all the commandments God was giving us general principles but He expressed those principles in very specific behavioral requirements. We need to be concerned about both the specific and the general. In the 3rd commandment God was definitely prohibiting the use of His name in swearing or cursing. You’d almost think that this kind of a commandment wouldn’t be necessary. But it is, because swearing and including God’s name in curses is unfortunately such a common practice. And of course this is objectionable because men should never involve God in profanity. But, as I’ve said, I also think that God was continuing the theme He started in the first two commandment of ensuring that we know how to properly relate to God. VK: And properly relating to God means that we accord God the respect, reverence, and honor that is due to the Royal Sovereign of the universe who created everything that exists. That includes not attributing God’s majesty to anything lesser and not trying to impose our limited concepts on an infinite God. The 3rd commandment extends that line of reasoning by telling us to be careful with God’s name. RD: Correct. But one of the things I wanted us to think about today is why the 3rd commandment is centered around respect for God’s name. By phrasing the 3rd commandment the way He did I think that God was making some very important points. VK: Such as... RD: Such as the overall relationship of God’s name to His attributes and majesty. The Bible uses multiple names for God throughout scripture but the one in view in the 3rd commandment is Yahweh in Hebrew or Jehovah in Greek. As we’ve discussed before on Anchored by Truth this is the personal name of God which God gave to Moses in the encounter at the burning bush. Yahweh means “I am” so this name points to God’s self-existence or what theologians call the attribute of “aseity.” In using this name God continues to remind His people that He alone is self-existent and this is not a quality that any other creature or being shares. VK: It reminds me of the demand we hear expressed today when someone says that they want their “props.” If lowly human beings can expect to receive appropriate credit or recognition how much more reasonable is it for the Lord of the Universe to expect that. RD: Right. God has phrased the 3rd commandment in such a way that even sinful human beings can see the reasonability of it. God alone is self-existent. God alone created everything. Since God created everything He obviously rules everything. Therefore, we should not disrespect God by abusing His name in either cursing, lying, or making vows we will not keep. That’s one fundamental thought in the 3rd commandment. VK: And even, as you say, sinful human beings should be able to understand that. If someone walks into a room and calls someone “Joan” rather than “Jane,” either Jane or someone else will quickly correct them for their error. We will not only correct others who call us by the wrong name we will correct them if they mispronounce our name. Even sinful human beings tend to be very concerned about the proper use of their name. Why do you think that is? RD: Because names are related to two things that are very important to us: identity and relationship. Our identities are linked to our names. Names are not only the way in which we are distinguished in the world and society but they are the means by which we think about ourselves. I have seen kids who were named after one of their parents asked to be called by a different name once they are old enough to be more than just someone’s son or daughter. VK: It is true that names are an absolute key to how people relate to the world. We can think of any number of celebrities who have taken enormous pains to either create a special name for themselves or change the name they were using in order to be more identifiable or distinctive. We won’t start naming names here today but it wouldn’t be hard to come up with a long list very quickly of politicians, sports stars, or entertainment celebrities who have spent a great deal of time, money, and occasionally legal resources defending their name. And that’s not just true in today’s world. Even in Moses’ time the elite of that time like the Pharaohs were careful about ensuring their people knew their names and honored them. Similarly, there are monuments all over Egypt bearing the scars where one pharaoh would attempt to obliterate the name of the preceding pharaoh by having the predecessor’s name chiseled off buildings and temples. I guess when you think about it even sinful human beings are pretty protective of our names. RD: Yes. Our names are how the world identifies us and we identify ourselves to the world. But names are not just important to our identity in the world names also play an important part in our relationships. For instance, it is very common with families or other small groups for people to be assigned nicknames – a name that signifies to the parties using it a special relationship. This is particularly common where a husband and wife have a special name for each other and they will call their kids names that no one else is allowed to use. VK: Well, it’s for sure that in our day if your mother ever called you by your entire name you knew you were in big trouble. But I take your point. Grandparents are often called special names by their grandchildren. Grandmothers might be “Granny,” “Me-mah,” “Grandma,” “Ya-ya,” or a host of others. Grandfathers might be “Paw-paw,” “Granddad,” “Big Daddy,” etc. And it’s not uncommon for grandparents to call their grandchildren names that would be offensive from anyone else. And even beyond families giving nicknames out is common in a wide variety of settings such as sports teams, military units, business offices, restaurants, and so forth. When you begin to think about it a lot of life revolves around names. RD: Yes. And the same thing is true of a title which is a kind of a name that is used in organizational or cultural systems. Just think about the number of titles the British use for their various categories of royalty. There’s a big difference in whether you call someone “your grace,” “your lord,” “your majesty,” “your royal highness,” etc. And the same thing is true in business. A “chief executive officer” is different from a “chief operating officer” and the CEO will quickly correct you if you forget. In restaurants there’s a big difference is many places between a “chef de cuisine” and a “sous chef” and someone working in the kitchen better know the difference. Titles, like names, are important to their holders and title holders expect the rest of the world to pay attention. VK: And in God’s case many of His names also serve the same function as earthly titles but in a far more exalted way. Two of the most common names for God in the Bible are “Yahweh” and “Elohim. [EL-OH-HIM]” As we’ve said “Yahweh” means “I am.” “Elohim” means the “supreme one” or the “mighty one” but there are times when these two names are combined and when they are they are translated as “Lord God.” So, while Yahweh or Jehovah is God’s personal name it can also function as a part of a title that helps us appreciate God’s uniquely exalted role in the universe. No other being would ever, could ever, come close to being the “Lord God.” RD: Right. So, all of this helps us to see more clearly why the 3rd commandment has a central focus around being careful with God’s name. Even in our earthly world and circumstance names play an unduplicated role in how we relate to our world and society. Names are a central element of our own identities and they play a key role in how we relate to other people. We are careful about how other people use our names and some people are downright defensive about it. That was true in Moses’s day and time and it remains true today. VK: And, frankly, the role and importance of our names to our identities and for our humanity has a dark side as well. One of the ways tyrannical governments have tried to dehumanize people is by taking away names and substituting numbers. One of the quickest ways to destroy people’s self-esteem is to prohibit them from being called by their name and reducing them to just a number. This is a tactic that has been employed by some of the most repressive regimes that have ever tried to subjugate others. RD: Right. It is easy to see how all of this is relevant to the 3rd commandment. If our names are important to our identities then surely we can understand that God has a greater right to expect us to be careful with His name. And there is another consideration for why the 3rd commandment is very important. VK: Which is ... RD: In the ancient world the ability to assign names, or sometimes even know a name, was considered a source of dominion and power. VK: Well, that is consistent with a pattern that God established from the earliest moments of creation. Naming things was something that God did right away. Genesis, chapter 1, says in part, “And God said, ‘The light shall be’, and the light was. And God saw the light that it is beautiful and God separated between the light unto the darkness. And God called the light the day, and the darkness he called the night, … And God called the dried land, Earth, and the assembly of waters he called, the Seas …” As soon as God began creating things He began naming them. God created light, land, and the seas. Then God named them. And God clearly exercises dominion over them. We would know this, if by another way, from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 4, verse 41. This was the episode where Jesus calmed the Sea of Galilee and the disciples in the boat exclaimed “… even the wind and the waves obey him.” RD: Exactly. God exercises dominion over the creation that He created and then named the elements of that creation. And when God created man in His image God made man His steward and granted man dominion over the animals. Genesis, chapter 1, verse 28 tells us that God said to Adam, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the Earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the Sea, and over the fowl of Heaven, and over cattle, and over all animals that creep on the Earth.” God confirmed man’s dominion over the other creatures when God brought the animals to man and told Adam to name them. VK: Genesis, chapter 2, verse 19 says, “And LORD JEHOVAH God formed from the Earth every animal of the wilderness, and every bird of Heaven, and he brought them to Adam to see what he called them, and everything that Adam called them, each living soul, that is its name.” These quotes have been from the Aramaic Bible in Plain English. RD: In other words the ability to name things implies dominion and control. So, when we begin to misuse God’s name we begin to do something really horrible. We, unwisely and impertinently, imply that we have power over God. VK: That, of course, is just silly. No one and nothing in all the created order has, or could have, power over the all-powerful God. RD: No they couldn’t. But when we use God’s name in a manner He hasn’t endorses that’s tantamount to what we are doing. God doesn’t, and won’t permit, His name to be used flippantly, irreverently, or in connection with vain or profane oaths or curses. The prohibitions of the first 3 commandments all harken back to what transpired in the Garden of Eden. God gave Adam and Eve dominion over the animals and told them to tend the garden. He only gave them one restriction. Don’t eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But Satan tempted them by saying “if you eat of that tree you will be like God.” And Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation. And ever since they did people have been succumbing to the temptation to want to set God’s commandments aside in favor of their own judgment. The first 3 commandments are warnings to not repeat Adam and Eve’s error and sin. VK: God gave us the 1st commandment to remind us of some very important truths. God is the Creator. He made everything. He upholds creation through His own power. Because He made everyone and everything He is the righteous sovereign. We must guard against giving praise or glory to any imitators or lesser things. God gave us the 2nd commandment to ensure that we don’t succumb to the temptation that is so common to people by letting our eyes and imaginations lead us astray. Making an image in a physical world requires using matter and energy and establishing boundaries or limits. God is Spirit so He can’t be replicated or represented by anything physical. God is infinite. He certainly doesn’t have any physical limits. And the 3rd commandment warns us not to attempt to assert dominion over God or His requirements by misusing His name for our own corrupt purposes. As you said, all of this takes us straight back to the garden. RD: God gave us the 10 commandments for our benefit. We human beings have a propensity to get ourselves in trouble. And even if we don’t do anything foolish, in a fallen creation trouble will find us. So, who would you rather have come to your aid – a limited God who is subject to the boundaries of what we can draw and sculpt; a God who isn’t righteous enough to avoid participation in vain vows or profane oaths; and a God who is ok with being set aside for a lesser creature. Or would you rather be able to turn to a God who is majestic and powerful and who refuses to allow anything or anyone get in the way when He wants to provide salvation and deliverance? When it comes down to it I think we all want to be able to turn to the God of the Bible not a God we retooled to suit our own fancies. VK: We can and should turn to God in prayer because He always knows what’s best for us. And as a truly loving God He wants what’s best for us even if we don’t always know what that is. The first 3 commandments protect us because they tell us that our God is a God who is able to deliver us no matter what situation we have created or find ourselves in. So, this sounds like a great time to go to God in prayer. Today let’s listen to a prayer of adoration for the God that is holy, righteous, perfect, and powerful – and who ensures that we understand that by loving us to keep us away from false images and idols.. ---- PRAYER OF ADORATION OF THE FATHER VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.” If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!” (Opening Bible Quote from the Aramaic Bible in Plain English) Exodus, Chapter 20, verse 2, Aramaic Bible in Plain English Evidence for the Bible (creation.com)

Episode 207 – Ten Commandments – Part 3 – Visual Idolatry Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. Script: You shall not make … any image or any form that is in Heaven from above or what is in the earth … or what is in the water beneath the Earth: You shall not bow to them and you shall not serve them because I AM LORD JEHOVAH your God, a jealous God … Exodus, Chapter 20, verse 4, Aramaic Bible in Plain English ******** VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. We’re glad that you are able to be with us today. Today on Anchored by Truth we’re continuing our series on the Ten Commandments. In the studio we have RD Fierro who is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, you wanted to undertake this study of the Ten Commandment because you think that people either take the Ten Commandments for granted or dismiss them entirely. What do you mean by that? RD: The Ten Commandments are clearly one part of the Bible with which even non-Christians have some familiarity. The Ten Commandments are clearly one of the most recognizable parts of the Christian faith. But as Shakespeare warned us “familiarity breeds contempt.” By that Shakespeare meant that when things are excessively familiar with them we can lose our appreciation or respect for them. And I think that’s the temptation that confronts many Christians with respect to the commandments. We hear about them so much – and many of them make so much common sense – that I think we start to miss the amazing revelation they contain. Conversely, unbelievers hear the first commandment about not worshipping any other god but the True God and they then dismiss the commandments are just being so much “religious nonsense.” But what happens with either view is that we want up not paying much attention to the commandments. Either the familiarity or the disdain winds up diminishing the commandments importance in our lives. But if we will just stop and take a few minutes to look at the commandments, what they say, why they were necessary to the Exodus generation, and what they still mean today we see a truly amazing body of expressed wisdom. VK: And of course increasing our own wisdom is one of the principle reasons we need to become familiar with the Bible. We are certainly not discouraging familiarity with the Ten Commandments or any other part of the Bible. But what we are saying is we shouldn’t let our familiarity tempt us to look past the value that is in the commandments. As we’ve noted before on Anchored by Truth when you first hang a new poster or picture on your wall you see it every time you go into the room. But after weeks, months, and years go by you scarcely notice it. Probably the only time you really pay attention to it is when someone new comes to visit and tells you how nice the picture is. You see the picture then but you haven’t for weeks or months before that because it was just a part of the background. RD: And that’s what we want to do with this series on the Ten Commandments. We want people to notice them again and maybe for the first time realize that the Ten Commandments contain evidence of the necessity for them and evidence that they were legitimate pronouncements by an almighty God to a people who were travelling to a new homeland after a 400 year sojourn in a foreign land – with the last several decades having been in slavery. And the 2nd commandment is a great example of those two observations. VK: The 2nd commandment is found in Exodus, chapter 20, verses 4 and 5. We heard these verses in our opening scripture today from the version of the Bible called the Aramaic Bible in Plain English. Here are those same verses from the New International Version. “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. “You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.” So, what is the first thing that you want us to notice? RD: Well, first let’s note that the 2nd commandment and the 1st commandment are complimentary. The 1st commandment, “you shall have no other gods before me” establishes the bedrock principle that there is one and only One True God – the God of the Bible. The 2nd commandment begins the series of instructions that tells us how we are to incorporate that principle into our daily lives. And it is founded on a simple, plain, and practical observation about human beings. VK: Which is ... RD: That human beings are visual creatures. We have 5 senses – sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing. But unless someone loses their sight the vast majority of people learn the most about the world around them through their sight. Or said, slightly differently – and a little ominously – our eyes can get us into more trouble than our other 4 senses put together. VK: Well, that thought deserves a big “amen.” And the Bible even points that out. In the New King James version Proverbs, chapter 27, verse 20 says “Hell and Destruction are never full; So the eyes of man are never satisfied.” It’s pretty significant that the same verse that tells us that the eyes of man are never satisfied is packaged with the observation that Hell is never full. RD: Yes. We take in a lot of information through our vision, through our eyes. So, it makes perfect sense that when God began telling people how to avoid violating the 1st commandment He gave a command that had a strong visual component. God prohibited His people making any representation of Him for a wide variety of reasons but certainly one of the most important was because it is so easy for people to get misled by things they see. The widespread scourge of internet pornography is graphic evidence that an appeal to the eyes is the source of a lot of mischief. And one form of mischief that has plagued mankind for thousands of years has been rampant idolatry. Let’s remember that God gave the Ten Commandments to His people during the period of the Exodus when they were just emerging from living in a culture that worshipped, by some counts, over 2,000 different gods. Egypt was awash in gods and goddesses and certainly the Hebrews were well familiar with that religious system and with how those gods and goddesses were represented. VK: Pretty much anyone who has ever watched a movie or TV program about ancient Egypt knows that the Egyptian pantheon of gods was represented visually. And these representations were not just limited to temples or religious settings. The Egyptians put pictures of their gods and goddesses in all kinds of settings and buildings and even in hieroglyphs. And they know that one of the most common motifs for representing their gods was with figures that had the body of a human but the head of an animal. RD: Quite right. Horus was a falcon-headed man. Sekhmet was lioness-headed woman. Anubis was a jackal and Hathor was a cow. But sometimes the Egyptians just used human figures to represent a god. Amun-Re, the sun god and king of the gods, was quite often just represented by a male figure. But the use of images as part of pagan worship was by no means limited to the Egyptians. Most of the pagan religious practices of the other nations around the Israelites used iconography as part of worship. Iconography just means making an image or totem for use in worship. Often the images or totems were human type figures but the use of animal images was quite common. The Babylonian god Dagon was a fish-god and Heqet, an Egyptian fertility goddess, was represented as a frog. VK: So, when God prohibited the Israelites from making images He was prohibiting a practice that was commonplace in Egypt, Canaan, and the vast majority of the Middle East. Making and using visual idols is far less common today, though it is not unknown. Even in our day and age Satanic figures are often represented as human figures but with the head and horns of a goat and often with eagle-type wings. But, still, today we don’t see nearly as many god-type idol images as the ancient Israelites would have. RD: Correct. So, today we might almost think that the 2nd commandment is unnecessary but it certainly is not. Because one of the other functions of the 2nd commandment is to remind us that God must not be represented by any image because God cannot be represented by an image, statue, or anything tangible or visual. It would be impossible for any human being to create an image of God because no human being ever has or ever will see God – at least until after Christ returns and we have a new heavens and earth as described in Revelation, chapters 21 and 22. VK: The first reason human beings cannot make a representation of God is covered by 1 Timothy, chapter 6, verse 15. The New International Version of that verse says, “the King of kings and Lord of lords, … is immortal and … lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.” So, Paul tells us that no one has ever seen God or can see God. This is particularly significant coming from Paul who at one point in his life had been “caught up to the third heaven.” We learn that from 2 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 2. A common interpretation of the term “third heaven” is that the first heaven is the sky where birds fly, the second heaven is what we call “outer space” where the stars and stellar bodies exist, and the third heaven is the heaven which contains the throne of God. So, if Paul, who had been transported either by vision or physically, to the third heaven said no one can see God Paul would know what he was talking about. RD: Furthermore, we know from John 4:24 that God is “spirit.” The New Living Translation put it this way. “For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” So, we add to the fact that anytime we might want to create an image or a sculpture we would have to have some kind of a physical image to work from. In God’s case there is nothing physical to work from to begin with. God is spirit. Now, a word of caution here. We sometimes use the word spirit like we use the word “ghost.” And we think of ghosts or spirits as being sort-of wispy, flimsy bits of semi-transparent puffs of smoke. To us ghosts or spirits are insubstantial. So, when we hear that God is spirit we can somehow get the impression that God is like a hologram that you might see but you could put your hand through. Nothing could be further from the truth. VK: We think of the universe we can see and touch and our world as being solid. In actuality most atoms are small bits of matter separated by a lot of space. But to us our world is “real.” And we think of the spirit realm as somehow being unreal. But Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 3 reminds us that “we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.” That’s from the New Living Translation. Or at you put in your book, Doors of Destiny, “the unseen created the seen and someday will lay claim to its own.” While the words become difficult the truth is that God and the angelic realm is more “real” than our physical realm. The point is we must guard against the temptation to think of God, who is spirit, as somehow being less substantial than our tangible world. God is immeasurably more substantial than anything that exists in our universe. RD: So those are two simple reasons why human beings are incapable of creating any kind of a representation of God. No one has ever seen or will see God and we have no way of portraying a spirit meaningfully. The Hollywood versions of ghosts and spirits may be fine for movies but they would be entirely inaccurate and disrespectful when it comes to God. The 2nd commandment was given to us in part to guard us from treating God lightly or disrespectfully by trying to employ our imaginations in creating some image of Him. The 2nd commandment reinforces our awareness of the spiritual nature of God by steering us completely away from doing something it would be impossible to do in the first place. But there is another one of God’s attributes also shows that the 2nd commandment makes perfect sense. VK: I already know what you are going to say. One of God’s most fundamental, and obvious, attributes is that God is infinite. 1 Kings, chapter 8, verse 27 puts it this way. “The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you.” That verse comes from the dedication speech that Solomon gave at the dedication of the temple he built in Jerusalem. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, felt compelled to acknowledge God’s infinitude even as they had just built a magnificent building to honor God’s majesty. RD: Yes. God is infinite. That’s a way of describing God by saying what He is not. God is not finite. But if you tried to make an image whether by drawing, sculpting, or any other way the first thing that you must decide is where to start. And the moment you drew your first line or chose a block of marble you’re automatically working with a limit. But doesn’t have any limits other than those that come from His own righteous character and those have nothing to do with anything physical. As human beings our minds can’t really even conceive of the infinite. We are finite and we can’t escape or finitude. So, to keep us from making any sinful attempts to drift into sinful ways of thinking God just said, “Don’t. Don’t try to make an image of me. It’s impossible to begin with and any attempts you might make would only demean my majesty.” VK: And God also wanted to prevent another temptation which was common in the ancient world which was to assign a form of divinity to an object or creature. Many of the ancient cultures worshipped stellar objects such as the sun or moon. Among the Canaanites Shemesh was the sun god and Yareah was the moon god. Baal was the storm god and Yam was the sea god. And we have already talked about the fact that some cultures used living creatures as representations of their gods or goddesses. But, again, doing anything like this would make all of the same errors that we have already discussed. RD: Yes. In man’s limited mind you can see how someone might envision the sun, which is an impressive and life giving body, as somehow being divine. And that’s how some ancient peoples viewed it. But in the Bible the sun is just another created object fully subject to God. God certainly didn’t need the sun for His creation. He created both light and life before He made the sun the source of light to illuminate earth. In many pagan mythologies the sun was the master but in the Bible the sun is always just another one of God’s servants. The 2nd commandment helped the Hebrews coming out of a pagan culture with hundreds of gods to not bring their pagan errors with them. That’s one of the reasons God gave the Israelites the commandments at the start of their journey to the Promised Land. He wanted them to begin the new stage of their national development on the right foot. VK: The Ten Commandments are initially contained in chapter 20 of Exodus which is the 2nd book of the Bible. Then, they are repeated almost identically in chapter 5 of Deuteronomy which is the 5th book of the Bible. The Bible has 66 books so both the giving of the commandments and their reinforcement are fairly early in the revelation of scripture. And it is interesting to note that throughout the rest of scripture you never see the 2nd commandment violated. We have several descriptions of incidents where men were given visions that included some sort of divine encounter or even a divine figure on a throne. But there is never any attempt in any of those inspired reports any attempts to describe the Being on the throne. As Paul said the most we ever get is some kind of an image of a person that is obscured by transcendent light. RD: Yes. We have descriptions of what you might call the throne of God in Isaiah, chapter 6, Ezekiel chapters 1 and 10, Daniel chapter 7, and Revelation chapter 4. But in none of the descriptions of those encounters is there ever the least attempt by the inspired writer to describe the person they see in their vision. VK: Daniel, chapter 7, verses 9 and 10 are good illustration of what we’re talking about. “I watched as thrones were put in place and the Ancient One sat down to judge. His clothing was as white as snow, his hair like purest wool. He sat on a fiery throne with wheels of blazing fire, and a river of fire was pouring out, flowing from his presence. Millions of angels ministered to him; many millions stood to attend him. Then the court began its session, and the books were opened.” That’s from the New Living Translation. And you followed that pattern when you wrote your throne room scene for your allegorical adventure book The Prodigal’s Advocate. Here is what you wrote. “There was a royal figure on the throne. At least that’s how I thought of what I saw. Of the royalty I had no doubt; but to call the One I saw a figure is another injustice. The Person I beheld was so infinitely glorious that He overwhelmed my mind merely by His presence. I suppose you might say He appeared in some ways to be in the center of a cloud of radiant white light; but that would be like comparing a candle flame to the sun.” RD: Yes. It wouldn’t just be wrong to try to describe God in His essence, it would be blasphemous. That was something I definitely wasn’t going to do. But God has obviously felt that was important as He unfolded His revelation through scripture to give human beings enough of a glimpse of His majesty and glory to let us know that there was an awfully good reason to put the 2nd commandment in place to begin with. And it’s interesting to note that even when the 2nd Person of the Trinity took on a human nature and body, which obviously could be seen, that there are still no descriptions of that body in scripture. We have 4 gospels about the life of Jesus and others like Stephen and the Apostle Paul saw the risen Christ but not a single writer or reporter ever attempted to describe what Jesus looked like. VK: That’s something we don’t think about. In just about every book you ever read the first thing the author does is tell us what the hero or heroine, or villain for that matter, looks like. We’re always told whether they are tall or short, blonde or brunette, skinny or fat, or whatever. But no Bible writer throughout the gospels or New Testament ever tried to tell us anything about the appearance of Jesus. RD: And I think that takes us back to the fact that human beings are easily tempted by sight and image. If the Bible told us how Jesus looked I have no doubt that throughout church history some people would have tried to adjust their appearance to try to look more like him. If Jesus had been tall and we knew that, tall people would feel better about themselves. If we knew he had a particular color eyes, we would have been fascinated by that. Our eyes and imaginations get us into lots of trouble. God knows that. So, right after He told the Hebrews not to worship anyone or anything other than Him, he began telling them how to guard their hearts. Don’t try to create any images of me. VK: This, of course, does not mean, as some have asserted, that God is opposed to art or visual beauty. God commanded that some images such as cherubim and certain kinds of fruits be used as part of the decorations in the temple itself. Some people have taken the 2nd commandment to such an extreme that they try to condemn all art. But God wasn’t telling us not to create images of created things or angelic beings. He told us not to worship those images and not to imagine that somehow that His spirit or nature would ever be part of any created thing. God was guarding the nature of our worship to prevent us from drifting into idolatry and sin. And as we discussed last week God gave us the 1st commandment to prevent us from worshipping lesser things or beings. Because if we worship the lesser we will only injure ourselves. RD: Absolutely. God has made it plain that we to come boldly before His throne, the throne of grace. That’s Hebrews 4:16. Why, if are invited to enter the grandest throne room of all, the grandest throne room possible, would we ever want to settle for anything less. God is the only source of power anywhere and He wants to be available to us. That doesn’t mean that God gives His children anything and everything they ask for. That would be silly and dangerous. We often ask for things that aren’t good for us. God is not a heavenly vending machine. VK: A heavenly vending machine, really? RD: Well, that’s how we want to treat Him sometimes. At any rate, God wants what’s best for us and that’s the thrust of the 1st, 2nd, and all the commandments. God is trying to get us to start thinking correctly about Him and how we are to relate to Him because if we do that our lives will be built on an unshakeable foundation. But to think correctly about God, and to correctly relate to God, we must obey God and that starts with only worshipping Him in truth as well as spirit. If we follow the commandments faithfully that will happen automatically. VK: God gave us the 1st commandment to remind us of some very important truths. God is the Creator. He made everything that we see and He upholds it through His own power. Because He made everyone and everything He is the righteous sovereign and we must guard against giving praise or glory to any imitators or lesser things. God gave us the 2nd commandment to ensure that we don’t succumb to the temptation that is so common to people by letting our eyes and imaginations lead us astray. This sounds like a great time to go to God in prayer. Today let’s listen to a prayer for the renewal of the church so the church may once again be the light of truth to a world desperate in its darkness. People are hungry for the truth and God’s people possess the truth but we must be steadfast enough to share it during trying times like these. ---- PRAYER FOR RENEWAL OF THE CHURCH VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.” If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!” (Opening Bible Quote from the Aramaic Bible in Plain English) Exodus, Chapter 20, verse 2, Aramaic Bible in Plain English Evidence for the Bible (creation.com)

Episode 206 – Ten Commandments – Part 2 – Ultimate Authority Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. Script: I AM LORD JEHOVAH your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt mine … Exodus, Chapter 20, verse 2, Aramaic Bible in Plain English ******** VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. We’re so happy that you are able to join us today. And we pray that you be blessed as you pursue a closer fellowship with our Lord Christ Jesus. Today on Anchored by Truth we’re going to continue the new series we began last on our last episode. Today in the studio we have RD Fierro who is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, this new series that you launched is on the Ten Commandments which, surely, is one of the most familiar parts of the Bible. Even people who are not Christians have some degree of familiarity with the Ten Commandments. Why did you want to do a series on the best-known parts of the Bible? It seems like that would be a section for which not-much-explanation would be necessary. RD: I decided we needed to do a series on the Ten Commandments precisely because it is so familiar. The Ten Commandments are so familiar to Christians, and even to our broader culture, that I think most people think that they understand them. I’d almost go so far as to say many people take them for granted even if they agree with them or trust in them. But today there are a lot of people who will dismiss the 10 commandments out of hand because, in their minds, they will say that nothing that was written 3,500 years ago can be relevant to our lives today. VK: That, of course, is a silly or dangerous attitude because the 10 commandments contain prescriptions that are obviously very important to our daily lives like “you shall not steal” or “you shall not commit murder.” I don’t think very many people want to live in a society where those two commandments don’t apply. RD: No, they don’t. But they would tell you that we don’t need the Ten Commandments to tell us not to murder or steal because we have civil laws that prohibit them. And it’s true that we do have civil laws that prohibit murder and theft. But what few people ever think about is the basis for our civil law or the basis for any law at all. And from just the standpoint of human existence that’s a question that is very important. And while we don’t think much about what provides the basis for the establishment of human law the people who founded America certainly had no doubts about the foundation for all human government. VK: You’re thinking about that most-famous of the documents that founded the United States, the Declaration of Independence. And of course probably no part of the declaration is better known than, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men …” RD: Yes. The Founding Fathers began all of their reasoning about government by going back to the beginning. VK: And not to the beginning of the settlements in America but to the beginning of everything. That’s why that phrase “endowed by their Creator is so relevant and instructive. They could have just said “endowed by God” but they didn’t. They specifically used the word “Creator.” RD: Yes. The overwhelming majority of the Founders were devout Christians who understood that God was sovereign. And they understood that God’s sovereignty derived from the fact that He had made everything. God didn’t just create people, though that fact is certainly important when it comes to talking about government. God created everything. The opening verse of the Bible tells us that. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” If we don’t understand that simple fact it is impossible to build a coherent worldview. VK: The term “heavens and earth” is what is called a merism. A merism [MARE-ISM] is a figure of speech that combines two opposites as a way of making an all-inclusive reference - such as saying “I searched high and low” for a lost object. When the Bible uses the term “heavens and earth” it is a way of saying God created everything that exists. It was essentially the Hebrew equivalent of what we call the “universe.” RD: And we see the echo of the first verse of the Bible in the introduction that God makes to the Ten Commandments that we heard about in our opening scripture. VK: I noticed that you selected the version of Exodus, chapter 20, verse 2 from a version of the Bible we’ve never used before on Anchored by Truth. This version came from the Aramaic Bible in Plain English. You obviously chose that for a reason. RD: Indeed. Most versions or translations of the Bible like the New International Version or the English Standard Bible translate that verse as “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt.” But we do Anchored by Truth as either a radio show or a podcast episode so we don’t have a visual. In the NIV or the ESB the word “Lord” in those versions is in all capital letters which is the way those versions indicate that the Hebrew word they are usually translating is “Yahweh” which is the personal name for God. VK: We learn that “Yahweh” is God’s name from Exodus, chapter 3, verse 14 during the famous encounter of Moses with God at the burning bush. Moses asked God what name he should give when the Hebrews in Egypt asked who had sent him. God said to say “I am who I am.” Tell them “I am” has sent you. The word for “I am” is “Yahweh.” By saying that His name was “I am” God was telling Moses, and us, that God is self-existent. He possesses the power of existence unto and by Himself. God is the only Being that is self-existent. Human, animals, and even angels all derive their existence from Him. No one and nothing but God is self-existent. So, while many of us miss the big point of the name God gave to Moses the Hebrews of Moses’ day would not. “Yahweh” was such a sacred name among the ancient Jews that they wouldn’t speak it. The often just said “the Name.” The Greek version of “Yahweh” is “Jehovah.” RD: Exactly. So, that’s why I used the Aramaic Bible in Plain English. That translation makes it plain that before God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses he was using the name for Himself that made it very plain why He possessed the authority to issue commandments. God may command human beings, and all creation for that matter, because God made human beings and all creation. Again, we’re back to a basic fact. God gets to tell people and the universe to behave because He made everything. VK: And, frankly, even Christians tend to gloss over that introductory statement when we read that part of the Bible. But we shouldn’t. In that simple introduction to the commandments God is revealing a great many things – the first of which is “I have every right to issue the commands I’m giving you because I made you. Your very lives and existences are entirely dependent on me.” That’s not something we like to think about in our day and age is it? RD: No. We are so surrounded by evolutionary and uniformitarianism ideas that even Christians drift away from an inescapable, bedrock fact that God, Yahweh-Jehovah, has complete authority over us and all creation because He made it and us. We understand in earthly affairs that the ability of a “lord” to exercise control over others is limited to only the sphere in which that lord possesses authority. VK: I need to listen to and obey the orders of my boss but I don’t have to obey the boss of the business next door. State governors govern in their state but the moment they leave their state nobody in the neighboring state is subject to their authority. Even the grandest king or emperor who ever ruled in human history had a limited sphere of authority. No human being, ever, had authority over the whole earth. But God does have authority over the whole earth and every human being that has ever lived because God made the whole earth and every human being that has ever lived. God has control over creation in the same way a painter has control over their painting or a sculptor may create the sculpture as they see fit. I see why you wanted to address this subject before we moved on the substance of the first commandment “you shall have no other gods before me.” RD: The first commandment is not just reasonable but righteous because of this introduction. God prohibited the worship of other gods because frankly there are no other “gods” that are remotely similar to Yahweh, to the great “I am.” The God of the Bible is unique and distinct. He alone is infinite, omniscient, omnipotent, etc. Human language cannot describe the perfections of the One True God. So, it is reasonable and righteous that we should never accord worship to any lesser person or being. Idolatry is wrong because it takes the respect which rightfully belongs only to the God of the Bible and gives it to something else. VK: And even in our own experience we know that ascribing credit or glory due to one person to another is wrong. If a team wins their league championship and displays the trophy, that’s right and fitting. But if another team came and stole the trophy and claimed that they should be celebrated because they had the trophy none of us would say that is okay. There is even a prohibition in our laws to stop people from claiming credit for military service or decorations if they didn’t earn them legitimately. We call that “stolen valor.” When a human being worships someone or something other than the God of the Bible it is the ultimate case of “stolen valor.” No one and nothing rightfully deserves the praise and worship that God deserves because no one and nothing has created anything ex nihilo [EX KNEE-HILL-O]. RD: We say that God created ex nihilo which means God created the universe out of nothing. He did not use any pre-existing matter or energy which He just shaped into the creation we see about us. Creation ex nihilo means God created everything that exists by the ineffable power that only He possesses. So, when ascribe worship to any lesser thing we are denying, or attempting to deny, a simple truth. Nothing would exist, or could exist, apart from God. So, if we are going to give praise and thanks we should always give that praise and thanks to the One responsible for our ability to do that. This is such an important point but when we read the commandments or even think about them it’s something we tend to skip or gloss over. VK: Usually when we think about the Ten Commandments we think about them in terms of being rules or regulations that govern our behavior. We know that we are not to worship other gods and I suspect that most Christians think that this a commandment that they are obeying if they just go to a “Christian church.” But as we have been discussing the force and effect of the first commandment goes beyond just saying that we participate in our worship service in the right kind of building. RD: Yes. All true and acceptable worship must begin with a correct apprehension of God. We must start out with a solid understanding of God as He reveals Himself in the Bible because it is so easy as limited creatures to drift into worshipping a god of our own choosing or making. Especially in our day and time we have a tendency to diminish God’s holiness and righteousness in our conception of Him. We are uncomfortable by the way that God has expressed that holiness and righteousness in His commandments and we are uncomfortable in the uncompromising nature of His sovereignty. Especially in the modern west where we prize civil democracy and free choice we have begun to think that God somehow has an obligation to accommodate our ideas and concepts of how He should structure the world. Nothing could be more foolish or dangerous. VK: You have often said that “God is not a scared teenager.” By that you mean that God is not sitting around on a sort of wispy cloud wishing desperately that we human beings will accept Him, think well of Him, and worship Him. To the contrary, every single encounter any human being had with even the barest glimpse of God in the Bible shows that the human was struck with awe and amazement with even the teeny bit of God they could apprehend. The encounter described in Isaiah, chapter 6 is a perfect example. Verses 1 through 5 say, “In the year that Uzziah [UH-ZAI-UH] the King died I saw LORD JEHOVAH sitting on a throne, high and exalted, whose robe filled his temple. And Seraphim … were calling, … “Holy, holy, holy, LORD JEHOVAH of Hosts, for all of the Earth is filled with his praises!” And the doorposts of the door moved … and the house was filled with smoke … And I said “Woe to me, for I am overcome with astonishment, because I am a man of defiled lips and I dwell among a people whose lips are defiled, and my eyes have seen The King, LORD JEHOVAH of Hosts!” This quote is also from the Aramaic Bible in Plain English. RD: Isaiah was a priest from a very important family. He was an honorable man from the highest ranks of Hebrew society. Yet, he was so overcome with the recognition of his own sinfulness when confronted with the immediate presence of God’s majesty that he pronounced “woe” on himself. Isaiah probably guarded his worship carefully and he was probably as faithful to upholding the first commandment as any human being who ever lived, apart from Jesus, but he was devastated when he came into contact with the Lord. Can you imagine how he would have felt if he had ever worshipped any of the false gods that were commonly worshipped in the nations that surrounded Judah? Isaiah’s experience brings the necessity of the first commandment as a commandment and to be the first commandment into sharp focus. VK: As people and as Christians we routinely ask God for things we need – healing, jobs, help for kids or grandkids, meeting financial needs, etc. And we should do that because 1 Peter, chapter 5, verse 7 tells us to, “cast all your cares on God, for he takes care of you.” And you spent some time in your book Purposeful Prayers thinking about how important it is for us to understand the relationship between God’s nature and our needs. This quote is from Purposeful Prayers. “Many people spend too little time considering the nature of the object of their prayers. This is unfortunate because even the most beautiful prayer prayed by the sincerest person to an unworthy object would be a futile prayer. An inanimate or non-existent object cannot hear a prayer, much less respond to it. The Bible, particularly the Old Testament, is filled with admonitions about the futility of praying to inanimate objects that have neither eyes to see, ears to hear, nor the power to move. But beyond the futility of praying to an unworthy object is a more serious problem. Because prayer is communion with God, and therefore part of worship, it would be an act of idolatry to direct prayer to an unworthy object. The first of the Ten Commandments … is number one for a reason.” RD: Yes. God put the command not to worship anything or anyone other than him first because to do so would not only be offensive to Him but also because it is detrimental to us. God alone is sovereign and our observations of the universe tell us this. The alternative to God having created the universe is that everything and everybody came from nobody and nothing. The alternative to God creating mankind is that some random atoms collided one day to produce molecules and began a process that generated a being with 30 trillion cells each of which contains an information storage system more sophisticated than any information system ever created by that 30-trillion cell being. VK: In other words, the system that created the being reflects more intelligence than the being it created possesses. But the system doing the creation is itself unintelligent. Hmmmm … seems like there’s a problem there. RD: Indeed. And the first commandment encapsulates all of those thoughts even though it does not go to the point of elaborating on them. The first commandment is a model of brevity. From an informational standpoint the first commandment is an information scientist’s dream. It conveys hundreds of instructions that benefit its intended recipient in just 8 or 9 English words. In doing so, it gives evidence that it was framed by an omniscient mind. Anyone who is familiar with the civil laws that are common today in most “developed countries” knows that we will spend hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of words conveying even simple concepts. States have hundreds of pages that essentially cover nothing more than ideas like “you shall not steal.” Today, we have to define the terms “theft” and “steal.” Then we have to list all of the kinds of activities that might be considered theft. And we have to differentiate between loaning and borrowing and theft which gets into the idea of whether the thief intended to deprive someone of their property permanently. VK: You’re giving me a headache but we take the point. But, of course, there were other legal codes in Moses’ day that didn’t exhibit the bureaucratic complexity of the legal codes of our day. For instance, the Mosaic law has often been compared to the law collection of Hammurabi, an Ammonite/Babylonian king who ruled between Abraham and Moses. RD: Yes, they have been. And that helps confirm the historicity of the Ten Commandments. But there are significant differences between the Mosaic law and those of Hammurabi: The laws of Hammurabi address at least nine gods. Moses worships only one. The exalted reputation and wisdom of Hammurabi is in focus, whereas Moses received no credit for the laws of God. Hammurabi is the author of his laws. Moses received his as a revelation from God. The laws of Hammurabi have no reference to the moral qualities of the gods. The Mosaic laws are a reflection of the holiness of God. There are clear rules for the punishment of crimes in the laws of Hammurabi, but there is no provision of forgiveness, since the gods have little interest in morality. In the Mosaic laws, sin is primarily an affront to the character of God, but repentance and sacrifices for forgiveness and reconciliation are inseparable from the law. VK: And the laws revealed through Moses clearly have an Egyptian background, especially with the first commandment. The Egyptians worshipped over 2,000 gods. So, it makes sense that God told Moses that the Israelites were to have “no other gods before me.” But the fact that there are some similarities with other legal codes of that time but that the Ten Commandments were clearly distinct from the surrounding cultures means that the most reasonable conclusion is that the laws and religion of Israel were uniquely revealed to Moses by God and reflect his plan for salvation that began in the garden immediately after the fall of Adam and Eve. RD: The nature and structure of the Ten Commandments is consistent with the state of human history and governments at the time Moses received them from God – not quite 1,500 years before Jesus was born. But the distinctiveness of the commandments also reveals that they were given to a people that was in the process of transition. When the Hebrews went into Egypt to escape the famine there was only about 80 or so of them. When they left Egypt they had grown into a true national people of approximately 2 million. It was time for them to receive a formal legal code to govern their society with its new attributes. VK: God had clearly given the substance of much of the commandments even to the first family. Cain and Abel knew they had to worship God and bring sacrifices to Him to atone for their sins. That’s what led to the first murder. But in the many centuries between Cain and Abel and Moses oral transmission of God’s requirements for them was sufficient. But had been sufficient for a small group of related tribesmen was not sufficient for the nation that God intended to build in the Promised Land. So, the delivery of the Ten Commandments makes sense in light of the people, the culture, the prevailing state of the nations at that time, and with God’s characteristic concern that His people know how to live productive and joyful lives. RD: Absolutely. Next week we will move on to the 2nd commandment and we’ll see that it makes as much sense for that commandment to be number 2 as it makes for number one is to be number 1. And we will also see that the 2nd commandment makes sense culturally, morally, and historically. And as we said last week and want to continue to emphasize the reason God gave the commandments to His people was to improve their lives not just because He was sitting on a cloud one day and decided it was time to issue regulations to His people. VK: Sitting on a cloud, really? RD: Really. VK: At any rate, the big idea that we wanted to introduce today is that God gave us the 1st commandment to remind us of some very important truths. God is the Creator. He made everything that we see and He upholds it through His own power. Because He made everyone and everything He is the righteous sovereign and we must guard against giving praise or glory to any imitators or lesser things. By doing that we will not only please Him but we will make our own lives better because when we turn to Him we turn to the One who can actually help in times of need. This sounds like a great time for a prayer so today let’s listen to a prayer for the celebration of Easter – the day our Lord rose from the grave proving the Father’s complete satisfaction with the sacrifice that makes our salvation possible. ---- PRAYER FOR EASTER VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.” If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!” (Opening Bible Quote from the Aramaic Bible in Plain English) Exodus, Chapter 20, verse 2, Aramaic Bible in Plain English Evidence for the Bible (creation.com)

••• Bible Study Verses: Luke 8.43-46, Matthew 15.21-28, Luke 7.6-10, Hebrews 11, Genesis 1, Isaiah 7.14, Malachi 3.10, John 4.24, Hebrews 11.3 (Aramaic Bible in Plain English) . ••• “We ought; my friends, to be extremely careful of our faith—both of its rightness and of its strength, First of all: when we consider the position which faith occupies in salvation. Faith is the salvation-grace. We are not saved by love; but we are saved by grace, and we are saved by faith. We are not saved by courage, we are not saved by patience; but we are saved by faith. That is to say, God gives His salvation to faith and not to any other virtue. It is nowhere written—he that loveth shall be saved. It is nowhere recorded—that a patient sinner shall be saved. But it is said, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" Faith is the vital part of salvation. If a man lacks faith he lacks everything” Charles Haddon Spurgeon July 1, 1855 † . ••• “And the apostle said unto the Lord, increase our faith" Luke 17:5, KJV . ••• How did the sick lady get healed by Christ Jesus? ••• What is the conviction of faith? ••• What is the action of faith? ••• What is the persuasion of faith? ••• What is a commendation of faith? ••• What is a challenge of faith? ••• What is the supernatural link to the only living invisible God? ••• What is the currency of heaven? ••• Why do real estate developers cast a vision? ••• How do you provoke the Almighty God to respond to your prayers? ••• What is the biblical meaning of faith? ••• What evidence do we have that we can trust our Creator God? ••• What are 3-reasons why faith is so powerful? ••• Are you going to ask our Creator, The Lord Christ Jesus for a double portion of faith this year? ••• Pastor Godwin Otuno expounds on this and much more on the exciting journey of Fresh Encounters Radio Podcast originally aired on January 15, 2021 on WNQM, Nashville Quality Ministries and WWCR World Wide Christian Radio broadcast to all 7-continents on this big beautiful blue marble, earth, floating through space. Please be prayerful before studying The Word of God so that you will receive the most inspiration possible . ••• This Discipleship Teaching Podcast is brought to you by Christian Leadership International and all the beloved of God who believe in it's mission through prayer and support. Thank you . ••• Study Guides at: https://shows.acast.com/fresh-encounter-radio-podcast/episodes . ••• Exceeding Thanks to Universe Creator Christ Jesus AND photo by Oladimeji Ajegbile Photography, Ibadan, Nigeria, and Peter Heeling Photography, (http://paypal.me/peterheeling), Nieuw Annerveen, Drenthe, The Netherlands, art direction by gil on his mac . ••• † New Park Street Pulpit Volume 1 . ( https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/the-necessity-of-increased-faith/ ) .••• Broadcaster's Website: http://www.lifelonganointing.com/ . ••• RESOURCE: https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/kjv/john.1%20 . ••• RESOURCE: https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/ . ••• FERP220115 Episode #207 GOT 220115 ep207 . ••• A Biblical Study on Faith . Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/fresh-encounter-radio-podcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Understanding one of the most compelling verses in all of scripture, Isaiah 28:21, and the strange work of God. •English Standard Version •For the LORD will rise up…to do his deed—strange is his deed! and to work his work—alien is his work! •Christian Standard Bible •…to do his work, his unexpected work, and to perform his task, his unfamiliar task. •American Standard Version •…his strange work, and bring to pass his act, his strange act. •Aramaic Bible •his strange works, and to do his acts, his strange acts. •Brenton Translation •his wrath shall deal strangely, and his destruction shall be strange. •Douay-Rheims Bible •that he may do his work, his strange work: that he may perform his work, his work is strange to him.

Dr. Chris Dost is a biblical scholar, language expert, and pastor. He has a gift for discussing incredibly complicated (but important!) topics in Biblical scholarship in a clear way without sacrificing depth.  Our conversation covers a number of topics: languages, Targums, BHQ (the newest immense project of comparing Hebrew and translation language manuscripts of the Old Testament), and more. If you want a deep dive into these subjects, this conversation will do that and get you interested for more. We finish with a fascinating study of Genesis 1 talking about the Hebrew and Aramaic translations that connect to the New Testament story. Chris has recently started a great resource on YouTube called "Biblical Languages & Literature" where he teaches on biblical languages like Hebrew and Aramaic as well as modern languages like Arabic and Hebrew. He also does deep dive studies of biblical passages, hosts interviews and more. Check below for a more detailed bio and links to his books and YouTube page.  Chris Dost Bio: Dr. Christopher Dost is the Pastor of Northville Baptist Church.  Holding three master's degrees, as well as a Ph.D. from the Jewish Theological Seminary, he is a specialist in the field of the transmission of the Hebrew Bible, and he is the author of Jesus' Bible: A Concise History of the Hebrew Scriptures and The Sub-Loco Notes in the Former Prophets of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Additionally, he is trained in numerous ancient and modern languages, including Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian, Spanish, and Arabic. Dr. Dost served as a member of the translation team for Accordance Bible Software's Targum English Translation of the ancient Aramaic Bible, and he has contributed to Biblia Hebraica Quinta, the new Hebrew Bible being produced by the German Bible Society. Dr. Dost formerly has served on the Bible faculty at Sacred Heart University, Alliance Theological Seminary, and Seminario Bíblico Alianza in Ecuador, and he currently serves as a visiting instructor at and Bethlehem Bible College (Bethlehem, Palestine) and The Jewish Theological Seminary (New York, NY). You can learn more about Dr. Dost by visiting his YouTube Channel, Biblical Languages & Literature. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/matthew9793/support

Here is the list of the different translations for Psalm 5:3. In the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly. (NIV) In the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. (ESV) In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch. (NASB) In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. (KJV) At daybreak I plead my case to You and watch expectantly. (Holman) At dawn I shall be ready and shall appear before you. (Aramaic Bible in Plain English) In the morning will I order my prayer unto Thee, and will look forward. (JPS TANANK 1917) At morning I set in array for Thee, And I look out. (YLT) In the morning I lay it before You and wait. (Robert Alter) It is dawn, YaH, hear my voice, morning has come as I place my prayer before you, trusting that you will answer. (Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi) God, hear my voice in the morning, for each dawn I offer my prayer before you and wait. (Pamela Greenberg) O my Beloved, in the morning you hear my voice; throughout the day, I offer myself to you; I wait for you in silence. (Nan C. Merrill) YHWH, as you said “let their be light” as you again today there is light, you hear the voice you gave me, as the light dawns, I am present to you, and I wait. (Lukas)

Episode 25 Show Notes The contemplative music in this episode is composed, performed, & produced by Sean J Stevens & is inspired by the hymn “Doxology”. The meditation in this episode is inspired by the passage Colossians 3:11-14 according to the ESV, NIV, NLT, GNT, NOG, Aramaic Bible in Plain English, & KJV. In the case of verse 11, themes from other writings from Paul, such as Galatians 3:28 are included in the meditation. If the Harkening Deer is a ministry you would like to support financially, you can do so at www.patreon.com/HarkeningDeer

Aramaic Bible scholar and translator Dr. Rocco Errico will be interviewed about his book Aramaic Light on the Gospel of John.

Episode 18 Show Notes:The contemplative music of this episode was composed, performed, & produced by Sean J Stevens & was inspired by the hymn “Nothing But The Blood”. The scripture passage which inspired this meditation is Ephesians 1:3-10 & is more or less a recitation of the New Living Translation, but some of the wording & themes are also inspired by the following translations: English Standard Version (ESV), New International Version (NIV), Good News Translation (GNT), King James Version (KJV), & the Aramaic Bible in Plain English. If the Harkening Deer podcast is a ministry you would like to support you can do so at https://www.patreon.com/harkeningdeer

Episode 5 Show Notes: The Hymn this contemplative song is inspired by is “Nothing But The Blood” & is composed, performed & produced by Sean J Stevens. The scripture passage is Romans 8:1-2 from the Aramaic Bible in Plain English. For some background information on the Hebrew name Yeshua & how it became translated to Greek, then Latin, then English, to the name we know today as Jesus, here is a link with some helpful information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshua If the meditations of Harkening Deer podcast is a ministry you would like to support you can do so at https://www.patreon.com/harkeningdeer

STREGTH WHEN YOU NEED IT MOST. HOW DO YOU HANDLE TOUGH TIMES?  WHERE DO YOU GO  AS BELIEVERS?  WE HAVE LEARN TO WAIT FOR GOD'S PRAYER  AND FAITH FIRST!  The LORD is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will thank him. Aramaic Bible in Plain English Lord Jehovah is my helper and my protector, for my heart is confident in him and my flesh flourishes, and with glory I shall praise him. GOD'S ... Psalm 28:7 Howcee Productions Gospel "Bringing Families Communities and Churches Together" Music gospel music. What is gospel music? What is the common factor in all gospel music? that is sang played written regardless of what genre. The answer God (The Father) The Son (Jesus) The Spirit (Holy Spirit The Holy Ghost The Comforter) We play all style of music in one place. We will cover all elements of the human being. We will minister to the whole man. Come join us. In "Bringing Families communities and Churches Together" Support for Howcee Productions Gospel  @ paypal.me/FreddieCollinsHoward Thank you. "Host" Freddie C. Howard

Author discusses what is in the first century gospels used by the Jewish Christians in Israel and Egypt, such as, the Gospels of Thomas, James, Mary and Philip, Dialog with the Savior and Thunder Perfect Mind. Steven also discusses the Aramaic Bible, the first churches, The Essenes, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Kabbalah and what happens at the Council of Nicea to create the New Testament. These other gospels explain how Jesus was showing us the Way to find The Kingdom of Heaven that Lies Within us - which is enlightenment. Based on Steven Sadleir's book on Amazon Christ Enlightened, the Lost Teachings of Jesus Unveiled. 

Aramaic Bible scholar Dr. Rocco Errico, the author of the book Let There Be Light: The Seven Keys, will be interviewed about true Christianity and what Jesus really taught. 

International Version Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again." New Living Translation Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God." English Standard Version Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Berean Study Bible Jesus replied, "Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." Berean Literal Bible Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, except anyone be born from above, he is not able to see the kingdom of God." New American Standard Bible Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." King James Bible Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Holman Christian Standard Bible Jesus replied, "I assure you: Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."" International Standard Version Jesus replied to him, "Truly, I tell you emphatically, unless a person is born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God." NET Bible Jesus replied, "I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Aramaic Bible in Plain English Yeshua answered and said to him: “Timeless truth I am telling you: If a person is not born again, it is impossible for that one to see the Kingdom of God.” GOD'S WORD® Translation Jesus replied to Nicodemus, "I can guarantee this truth: No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." New American Standard 1977 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Today's guest is Dr. Rocco Errico, founder of the Noohra Foundation. Dr. Errico is in expert in Aramaic Bible interpretation, Near Eastern culture and psychology, and the teachings of Jesus. The show will focus on the power and relativity of Jesus' message.