Advanced Level, Block 4, Week 35: The Breaking of the Tablets of the Law (2)

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Advanced Level, Block 4—Wilderness

Week 35
The Breaking of the Tablets of the Law (2)

Point to Emphasize: We must realize and admit that we break God’s law.

Reference Reading: Exodus 19:1-3; 20:1-21, footnotes 11, 121; 24:12; 32:1-6, 15-19, footnotes 11, 191; Gal. 3:24a, footnote 241

Memory Verse: You shall follow Jehovah your God; and you shall fear Him, keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and hold fast to Him. (Deuteronomy 13:4)

Story Sample

Today we will cover the other five commandments that were written on those stone tablets.

  1. “You shall not kill.”
  2. “You shall not commit adultery.” This means that a man and a woman should be married to only one another and be faithful to each other.
  3. “You shall not steal.”
  4. “You shall not testify with false testimony against your neighbor.” You shall not lie.
  5. “You shall not covet.”

We won’t get into number six and seven today but what about eight. You shall not steal! OH, you think, “I have never taken anything from a store without paying for it. I haven’t stolen anything in my life!” But, I am sure you are mistaken. What about taking a peek at someone else’s paper in class to get the correct answer from it? That is stealing an answer. It is on someone else’s paper. It does not belong to you. But you stole it and put it down on your paper. This is a sin! It is breaking God’s law. And I would find it almost impossible to believe that you have never done it.

Then comes number nine. You shall not lie! The simple example above shows that not only do we steal, we lie, too. You just stole the answer from someone else’s paper and then you turned it in as if it were your own. That is lying to the teacher. The test has your name on it, but that answer should have someone else’s name by it. This is a silent way to lie. Or you passed a note in class and it was picked up by the teacher. The teacher asks, “Who wrote this note?” No one says anything. By staying silent you lie. You have sinned by breaking law number nine. Of course, we often tell a lie. Maybe your parents ask if you finished your homework and you lie and say “Yes”, even though you still have one or more questions to answer. Sometimes, it is the first thing that pops out of our mouth. We need to admit that we lie. Once we admit it to ourselves, we had better clear it up with the people we lied to.

Now, to a big one…number ten. You shall not covet. Are you envious that so and so already has a phone and you don’t? Or are you envious that your friend has the latest and greatest video game, but you are stuck with last year’s game? Then what about that skateboard, bike, or scooter that so and so has that is so cool? Are you already dreaming about what you will buy when you grow up? All these break the last commandment. It is a sin to be envious of others. It breaks God’s law. And when we sin, we should admit it. Admit it to yourself and to God that you are envious of things that other people have.

We may wonder why Jehovah gave His people the law—these Ten Commandments. One reason He gave it was as a protection, a guard for them. This example will help us understand this. If you have a little puppy, you want to make sure that it can’t get out of your yard. You make sure it can’t jump over the fence or wiggle under the fence. And you make sure that the gate is locked. You do this because you know it is not safe for your puppy to be out of your yard. You love your puppy and don’t want it to get hurt or lost, so you guard it with a fence and a locked gate.

God knew that many things were harmful to His people. One way to keep them safe was to give them the law. If they stayed within the parameter (like a fence) of the law, they would be kept for Him and no harm would come to them. God wanted to safeguard His people.

The law is a safeguard for us also today. There are lots of things that can cause harm to our body. There are lots of ideas and ways of thinking that are against God’s law. These ideas and ways damage our thoughts and our love, even direct us away from God. Our being under God’s law keeps us for Himself. Our having today’s kind of idols carries our thoughts and love away from God. Our yelling at our parents harms our heart. When we break God’s laws, we sin against Him and it is harmful to us in ways we may not yet understand. This is why it is so important at this time in our lives to know that we need to pay attention to God’s law. We need to know and to admit it when we break any of God’s laws. When we admit that we have broken His law, then we can be guarded and guided by Him. Today would be a good time to talk to our God about all we have spoken about. It would be good if you then go and talk it over with your parents, too.

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