The Ten Commandments

Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 give us the story of the Ten Commandments.

After God freed the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt, they traveled through the desert and camped in front of Mount Horeb, where God had spoken with Moses through the burning bush. God called Moses to the mountain for forty days and forty nights. He gave Moses instructions for the tabernacle and the offerings. On the final day He gave him two stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, the highest and most holy laws of God.

While Moses was on the mountain, the Israelites had become impatient. They gave up on him and asked Moses' brother Aaron to build them an altar so they could worship. Aaron collected gold from all the people and built an idol in the shape of a calf. They held a feast, during which they bowed down to worship their new idol. When Moses returned from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, he became furious over their idol worship. He crushed the tablets to pieces at the foot of the mountain and then destroyed the golden calf by burning it.

Once the people learned from their sins, Moses chiseled two new stone tablets identical to the originals.

Similar to the Israelites who became impatient and untrusting of the Lord, so do we today stray from the guidance provided by the Ten Commandments. We sin with reckless abandon. We lie and steal and commit adultry without even second guessing our actions. Sometimes it takes actions of unparalleled righteous anger, such as Moses' crushing of the tablets, to teach the sinners their wrongdoing. When I see the sins of pornography and sexual deviance, or I see the false gains of those underserving of acclaim, I must call for such an act of righteous anger. Join me in making a statement against such wrongdoing.