Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments, Part IX – The Sabbath is a Delight

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For many people, the Sabbath is a time to dwell upon those things for which they think they do not otherwise have time, and it seems that their thoughts are upon everything but that upon which they should be dwelling. We can be sanctified through Sabbath observance only if we are dwelling on sacred themes. If we are only observing a 24-hour period because that is what the commandment says to do, not recognizing the spiritual impact that the Sabbath is to have upon our lives, and merely using it as a time to dwell upon anything and everything for which we think we do not have time otherwise, we are not going to be sanctified. God wants us to be sanctified on the Sabbath day.

Interestingly, most of us talk most about that which we know the most. When the mind is focused on secular pursuits the majority of the week, you would think that it would be a delight to leave those things behind and on one day of the week think and speak on sacred themes. But so often this is not the case. We come to Sabbath School and the worship service, but even there we have trouble dwelling on sacred themes. If we are spending time during the week with that thoughtful, contemplative hour on the life of Christ, as we have been told to do, our minds will not have trouble redirecting and focusing when it comes to the Sabbath School and church services, because we will have an abundance of materials upon which to dwell.

A problem comes if we are not spending time in Bible study and prayer during the week and we decide that we are going to sleep in and not attend church or Sabbath School on the Sabbath. If this is the case, yet we still call ourselves Seventh-day Adventists, whom the Lord loves and in whom He delights, we are only fooling ourselves. If the Sabbath is the only time we have for some kind of spiritual fulfillment, then we most definitely need to be in church.

In many countries outside the United States, the lives of the people are very difficult and filled with just trying to eke out a living. When Sabbath comes, many of them are at Sabbath School by 8:30 in the morning. They start singing and preaching and praying, and they continue singing and preaching and praying until the sun sets on Saturday night, because this is the only time they can recharge their spiritual batteries. It is far better to acquire some kind of nourishment than no nourishment at all.

Sabbath Reform

“There is need of a Sabbath reform among us, who profess to observe God’s holy rest day. Some discuss their business matters and lay plans on the Sabbath, and God looks upon this in the same light as though they engaged in the actual transaction of business.” Evangelism, 245.

What goes through your mind on the Sabbath day is of great significance. The Bible says that as a man “thinketh in his heart, so [is] he.” Proverbs 23:7.

A number of years ago, one of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s schools was showing a film on skiing. This was in the days of the old 16-millimeter movie projectors, and the film that evening included two spools. The man who brought the film to show to the students and staff at the academy owned the ski lodge where they would go to ski. Of course, he took the opportunity to do a little promoting, trying to bolster his business. The first spool of film was shown, and while the second spool was being loaded, he wished to say a few complimentary words to the staff of the school concerning the young people who attended there. He said, “First of all, I want to compliment you on your young people. I think they are tremendous. You know,” he continued, “on Saturday afternoons they drive up to the ski lodge, but they sit in their cars until the sun goes down. They will not even go on the ski lift until after the sun sets.” The principal of the school did not feel complimented at all. He, as a matter of fact, was quite embarrassed that this kind of activity was being observed.

We need to think about this for a moment. We need to ask ourselves, How are we keeping the Sabbath? Is the Sabbath such a delight to us that we hate to see it go, or has it become burdensome for us, and we anxiously await the setting of the sun, so we can again go about our own activities?

The Sabbath is the Lord’s special time with us. If we cannot wait until it is over, we will never be happy in heaven, because the whole atmosphere in heaven is directed toward the worship of God.

Anxious for Sunset

The idea of being anxious for the sun to go down is not something new with us. This was the same problem that ancient Israel faced. They could not wait for the sun to go down, so they could be about their business. It even got to the point where they were bringing goods and setting them up outside the gates on the Sabbath day.

The situation is not a whole lot different today. A number of people, particularly in the Evangelical world, are looking to Israel and saying, This is a fulfillment of prophecy. God is blessing these people. They are His people, even though they are not keeping or observing the Sabbath day in Israel. Yes, they shut everything down on Saturdays. If you were to go to Israel on any given Sabbath, you would see that everything is closed down. On some streets there are even barricades so the traffic cannot go up and down the streets. But as sundown nears, the shopkeepers are inside their shops, ready for the whistle to blow indicating to all that the sun is set. When the whistle blows, the shades on the shop windows go up, and the carts go out into the streets, and they begin selling their wares again. This is the kind of thinking that pervades Israel today, so, regardless of what people may think prophetically, they are not living in harmony with even what they have written on the statute books. Where are their minds? Certainly not on the Sabbath.

Where are our minds at times? Are they on the Sabbath or on secular pursuits, the dollar, and self? Ellen White tells us, “The fourth commandment is virtually transgressed by conversing upon worldly things or by engaging in light and trifling conversation. Talking upon anything or everything which may come into the mind is speaking our own words.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 703.

We can converse on the Sabbath day. We can greet one another. We can make inquiry as to their well-being and the welfare of their family, but it is not the time to carry on light, jesting, joking kinds of conversation or deal with business matters.

Two Points

  1. The easiest way to keep the Sabbath and to keep the conversation on Sabbath topics is to converse with true Sabbath keepers. Although we are to spend some time in doing good deeds for those who may be of the world, too often we use this as an excuse to go to the homes of non-Sabbath keepers and spend God’s holy time visiting on Sabbath afternoons. One of the easiest ways for us to trample the Sabbath is to visit with relatives who are not Sabbath keepers. It is certain that they are not going to be speaking on sacred themes. Sabbath is not the time to visit unconverted relatives who do not realize the true keeping of the Sabbath. Leave that for another day of the week. If you are a Sabbath keeper, you will want to have Sabbath conversation.
  2. Included in not speaking our own words is not hearing other words spoken that are not Sabbath orientated. This means that we should not watch or listen to worldy, non-spiritual programs on our radios and televisions, and any materials that are not Sabbath orientated, such as newspapers and worldly magazines, should be put away.

Many Seventh-day Adventists feel that it is not a problem to sit at home on Sabbath afternoons and watch television, as long as it does not affect anybody else. But if we are going to follow what the Scripture has to say, we should not only guard the words that we speak but also the words that we hear.

Necessary Rebuke

“Ministers of Jesus should stand as reprovers to those who fail to remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. They should kindly and solemnly reprove those who engage in worldly conversation upon the Sabbath and at the same time claim to be Sabbathkeepers. They should encourage devotion to God upon His holy day.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 704.

If there are Sabbath keepers that we are to rebuke because their conversation is not on Sabbath issues, it should be done “kindly and solemnly.” Great emphasis is to be put upon “kindly.” We need to make sure that, as we encourage someone in his or her Sabbath observance, it is done gently and kindly. One of the ways that we can gently and kindly rebuke someone, as far as conversation on the Sabbath, is to take charge of the situation. When the conversation is going in a direction other than sacred themes, you may say something such as, “By the way, I do not mean to change the subject, but the other day I was reading in Patriarchs and Prophets about . . .” If you make the rebuke in that way, it will be done in kindness, and they will not feel that you are shaking a finger right under their nose.

Repairers of the Breach

Some may think that this is getting down to some pretty fine points of Sabbath observance. Well, perhaps so, but the Lord has spoken to us on these issues through the Bible and through the counsel of Ellen White. Therefore, we cannot lightly set these things aside. God sent them to us for one purpose and for one purpose only, and that is because we are called to be reformers. We are called to be repairers of the breach. (Isaiah 58:12.) This verse has been specifically applied to the hole that has been knocked in the Sabbath. We are to repair that hole; we are to restore the old paths upon which we are to be walking. The reform message that has been given to us needs to be carried out in our being the kindest, the most courteous, and the most thoughtful people in the world. We also need to be true to the mission to which God has called us. In doing that, we will find that the Sabbath is going to be more meaningful to us because we understand its principles.

If the Sabbath is to be a delight, then we need to delight ourselves in the God of the Sabbath. If we delight ourselves in the God of the Sabbath, we are then going to have true understanding of what the Sabbath is all about and the blessings that are in it for each one of us.

Thorough Bible Students

“Every position of our faith will be searched into, and if we are not thorough Bible students, established, strengthened, settled, the wisdom of the world’s great men will be too much for us.” Selected Messages, Book 2, 386. That is quite an awesome statement! When you consider it, you will understand precisely the reason why we are lingering over Exodus 20:8–11 and Deuteronomy 5:12–15. Both of these passages of Scripture deal with the Sabbath, the fourth commandment.

Unless we are “thorough Bible students,” unless we are established in the faith and have incorporated these truths into our hearts and into our minds—so we are prepared, when called to appear before magistrates and in legislative courts, to give an answer for our faith—the wisdom of these men will overwhelm us. One issue with which we must really come to grips in the last days is the issue of the Sabbath and Sunday.

Inspiration does not say that the test will be over whether or not we have stolen, lied, committed adultery, or built graven images. Those things are important, and I am not trying to minimize them in the least, but they are not going to be the confronting focal point. We will be confronted over the issue of the Sabbath and Sunday.

When asked why we are keeping Saturday, the seventh day of the week, instead of Sunday, the first day of the week, we must be able to give an answer. We will need to be able to defend the observance of the seventh day of the week.

New Testament Only

What would you say, what kind of a response would you give, if you were called before a panel or before a group of Sunday keepers, and they asked, “Can you defend the observance of this day you keep from the New Testament only? We know that Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 talk about the Ten Commandments and about the Sabbath day, but we are New Testament Christians.” In that circumstance, you will need to give a definitive answer from the New Testament.

Perhaps you would remember Hebrews 4:9: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” But is there more to New Testament Sabbath observance than this passage? Even though you may know New Testament texts to argue against the sacredness of the first day of the week, it is not enough to just do away with Sunday keeping. Establishing Sabbath keeping from the New Testament is really the issue. Can we establish Sabbath keeping from the New Testament?

Jealous of Jesus

We know, as we near the end of the world and the approach of Jesus’ Second Coming, that the devil will move to convince the world that the seventh-day Sabbath is history and that Sunday, the so-called Christian Sabbath, is to be reverenced and observed as God’s rest day. We see movements even now taking us in that direction, but we know from the Word of God that these things are nothing more and nothing less than the workings of the devil. The devil hates the Sabbath, because he hates Jesus.

Why does he hate Jesus? He hates Jesus, because he is jealous of Jesus. Satan’s jealousy is motivated by the fact that Jesus is much better than he, and he hates that fact. Recognizing this, he would want, in a moment, to do away with Jesus and to take His place, if he could. He has tried that on more than one occasion.

“I will be like the most High,” declared Lucifer before being thrust out of heaven. Isaiah 14:14. Do you know who the “most High” was to whom he was referring? Jesus Christ. He wanted to take Jesus’ place and, ultimately, take the whole throne of God.

But since the devil cannot touch Jesus, he has determined to attempt to try to obliterate anything that would serve to remind a follower of Jesus about Him. That is why it serves the devil’s end to try to obliterate the Sabbath, because the Sabbath reminds us of Jesus Christ. It tells us so much about Him.

Developed from Ignorance

It is often said that the New Testament does not teach about the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath. It is also said that when Christ and the apostles brought the gospel message to us, they did not give any teachings about the Sabbath. The Sabbath is really downplayed and virtually ignored, as far as New Testament teachings are concerned, so people conclude that they are justified in believing that the Sabbath is not really a Christian institution and has very little to do with Jesus’ plans for our lives.

Such a concept as this comes entirely out of the sophistry of human intelligence, which is nothing more than ignorance. It does not come as a result of Bible study. The New Testament has its own Sabbath theology, and, indeed, it is quite a well-worked-out Sabbath theology.

Jesus had a lot to say regarding the Sabbath. In fact, it was the subject of several of His discourses that are recorded for us in the New Testament. A number of people have the idea that if something is not stated in the New Testament, then we do not have to pay much attention to it. If stated in the Old Testament, it had its life, but that life is now past, and we no longer need to deal with it.

The Sabbath is just such an issue, but it is going to play such an integral part in the scheme of last day events that it is taught throughout the Gospels and in the teachings of Jesus.

Problem of Observance

The problem has always been the observance of the Sabbath. In Old Testament times, consider Elijah on Mount Carmel. What was the issue? It was the Sabbath. (See 1 Kings 18.) Many people do not understand that this event concerned the Sabbath—whether the people were going to worship Baal, the sun god, or whether they were going to worship Jehovah, the God of the Sabbath day. That was really the issue. When John the Baptist came with his Elijah message, it was a message about the keeping of the Commandments of God. It was an issue between the traditions of men and the Commandments of God.

This is why God raised up the Seventh-day Adventist Church—for the purpose of bringing back the truths of the seventh-day Sabbath. This is why its message is called the Elijah message, because it is an issue over the worship of God on the Sabbath or worship on Sunday.

Old Testament Sabbath

As far as the Sabbath is concerned, in the Old Testament, we see there that God is described as the Maker and the Owner of the Universe, the One who initiates the covenant with His people. The Sabbath in the Old Testament describes God’s authority. It shows us the right God has to own us as His people, the right He has to make His people whole again. It describes God as the Maker and the Restorer, the One who sanctifies, and it is the Sabbath that becomes the hallmark. It is the Sabbath that really identifies God as the Maker and the Owner, and it is the covenant of God.

So the Sabbath, in the Old Testament, gives God His authority over His people. It ascribes to Him all authority that is in heaven and in earth. It ascribes to Him the sole proprietorship of the universe. Why? Because He created it all, and the Sabbath is the hallmark—the sign or the seal—of His creative ability as God. He is the One who is in charge of it all; the One who has the authority over all things.

Arbitrary Argument

It is for this reason that some have argued against the Sabbath, saying that the fourth commandment is so arbitrary. If you looked to common sense, what is known as natural law, there is good reason for all of the other commandments. It just makes good sense, for instance, not to kill someone, because, for one reason, whoever is killed probably has a surviving relative who will come to kill you in revenge. It makes good sense not to steal from someone, because they may come after you and take back what was stolen from them plus some of your possessions. So natural law tells us that there is common sense in these commandments.

From an historical point of view, there is what is called The Code of Hammurabi. The stone containing this code was discovered through an archaeological dig. It is dated as a contemporary with the times of Abraham. The interesting thing about The Code of Hammurabi is that most of the laws that we find written in the Old Testament, such as the laws of Moses, are contained in it, yet the stone has been dated centuries before the time of Moses. So many have declared that Moses was just a lawgiver. They say that he came up with these laws, patterning them after the lands around him.

From an intellectual point of view, one could almost fall for this explanation, because there is evidence that would tend to support this idea, if it were not for the Sabbath. The Sabbath, located right in the middle of the Ten Commandments, is a declaration that the commandments are beyond human wisdom. The validity of the Sabbath cannot be argued from any of the natural laws. Some have tried, but God has arbitrarily said that the week shall be seven days long, that the seventh day shall be the day in which we shall turn our eyes to Him, acknowledging that all things come from Him, and that He has all authority over all things.

That is arbitrary. That is God’s divine implant. That is God’s divine insignia in the Law of the Ten Commandments. This proves to me, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that this law has a divine origin, because what man would have thought up a law like that, giving everyone a day of rest during the week, that governs man’s time so fully? It has to be of divine origin. It turns our eyes totally to God for its source and for its appreciation.

God’s Sabbath Activities

You and I know that we should not do anything on the Sabbath, right? The fourth commandment says that we should not work on the Sabbath, so most of us do as little as possible. Some do not even make it to church on Sabbath morning, because they are trying to do as little as possible.

The Bible does say that God rested on the Sabbath, but is that accurate? (Genesis 2:2, 3.) It says that God rested on the Sabbath from His work of creation. The Bible does not say that God rests on the Sabbath.

“Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the Lord thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates: For [in] six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:9–11. [Emphasis supplied.] Note that rested is the past tense form of rest.

Remembering that we are studying how to better understand the Sabbath in the New Testament, it is important for us to get the point that the Sabbath is an institution that has more to teach us than the fact that God rested on the Sabbath day after creating the world. As important as it is to know that God did His work and that He finished His work, it is also important to know that the Sabbath has to teach us something today—currently, right now—about the authority and the work of God.

If we believe that we may someday soon be called to give an answer for why we are keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, that Old Testament Sabbath, when all of the rest of the world is keeping Sunday, then we must have a biblically founded explanation that not only satisfies us but also satisfies those who are making the enquiry. We must be “thorough Bible students” now.

To be continued . . .

A retired minister of the gospel, Pastor Mike Baugher may be contacted by e-mail at: landmarks@stepstolife.org.

The Ten Commandments, Part X – New Testament Sabbath Observance

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The New Testament theology concerning the Sabbath does not talk about God’s rest, but it deals with His Sabbath work. That may take us off guard as Seventh-day Adventists.

Most Christians reading the New Testament theology about the Sabbath say to themselves, “God’s idea of Sabbath rest is completely left out of the New Testament; therefore, the Sabbath rest is unimportant to New Testament believers. We can go out and work and do as we please on the Sabbath.” Is that the way it is?

When we are called to stand before legislative assemblies, in halls of justice, or in royal courts, as a witness for the King of kings, the questioners will have great skill and expertise in fashioning questions to confuse us. They may ask a question such as, Can you show me in the New Testament where God rests? What are we going to say?

In this study, we will see that the Sabbath is set on a firm foundation, because the authority of God does not only establish it in the Old Testament, but the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ also establishes it in the New Testament.

Jesus and the Sabbath go together. From Nehemiah 9, we know that it was actually the Lord Jesus Christ who came down on Mount Sinai and gave the Ten Commandments. So Jesus and the commandments are like a hand and glove. They go together.

Lessons from Jesus

John 5 reveals what Jesus has to teach us relative to New Testament Sabbath theology. He teaches it in a very distinct way.

“Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep [market] a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.” Verses 2–5. He had been sick for a long, long time.

I have been preaching for over 30 years. The time seems to have gone by in a flash, but as I contemplatively look back on all those years, it has actually been a long time! I cannot imagine what it would have been like to have lain in an impotent condition, having had someone else look after me for those 30 years plus 8 more. But that was this man’s portion.

“When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time [in that case], he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?” Verse 6.

The impotent man, with great faith and belief in Jesus, appealed to Him to be healed. Is that what it says? No! It was not that way at all. There is a reason why we find this healing miracle take place without one mention of faith being exercised. There is a reason for everything in Scripture, and through this story, Jesus wanted to teach something about the validity of the seventh-day Sabbath.

What would your response have been if you had been lying in a condition such as this man had for 38 years? If your vocal cords could have moved at all, you would most certainly have said, “You better believe it! Yes, indeed!”

“The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.” Verse 7.

The man never made it into the pool in time. Now, I ask you: Where was this man placing his faith, in the One that was talking to him or in the pool of water? He was placing his trust and his faith in the pool of water. He thought that if he could just get down into that water, he would be healed. Jesus did not even seem to blink an eye or hesitate at his answer. He simply commanded, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” Verse 8.

“And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.” Verse 9. Ah, here it is! Here is what Jesus wants to teach us about the Sabbath!

The Plot Sickens

You have probably heard the saying, “The plot thickens.” Well, in this case the plot kind of sickens. Notice the reaction to this man’s healing.

What do you suppose would be the reaction if someone came into your church that you knew to have been suffering a physical malady for years and told the story of how he or she was made whole? There would be jumping up and down and rejoicing; there would be smiles on everyone’s faces. You would rejoice with the person. Not so in those days. Not under those conditions. There were spies all around.

“The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry [thy] bed. He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk?” Verses 10–12. Oh, how they wanted to know who this man was. What was His name? Was He registered at the local synagogue?

When I was in the Philippines, the leaders of the organized Seventh-day Adventist Church learned that my travel companions and I were there. They broadcast a daily radio program, and when they learned that we were holding meetings, they announced on their radio program that we were fakes. They warned the people that we were not registered with the General Conference, so we were fakes, and the people should not attend our meetings. I was so glad they made that announcement! Do you know what happened to the attendance at our meetings? The people came! They wanted to know why we were there.

The Pharisees wanted to know who this man was and whether or not He had any authorization for telling this man to break the Sabbath by taking up his bed. Verse 13 says, “And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in [that] place.”

“Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole. And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.” Verses 14–16.

Some of these Pharisees and others found this man walking with his bed on the Sabbath. They were distressed that such a thing should happen on the Sabbath day! They were delighted to learn that Jesus had commanded him to do this, because now they had an excuse to kill Him. They had been watching Him for a long time, but they had not been sure that He was the One that had performed the miracle. Now they had verification. They had heard what had happened, and now they had all that they needed to stop Him and to silence Him permanently. They wanted to slay Him.

So they sought Jesus out with that “we caught you this time” expression on their faces and accusations on their lips, “But Jesus answered them, My Father worked hitherto, and I work.” Verse 17.

You would think that would be enough to stop them somehow, but interestingly they did not just seek to slay Him now, they “sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but had also said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” Verse 18.

Our Example

It is interesting to note that in the ministry of Jesus, the start of all of His troubles and the pretext that was used against Him concerned His Sabbath instruction and His example. The Jews sought to persecute Jesus because they thought that He did not properly regard the Sabbath.

We need to know and to understand the setting and the application of these truths because we are going to face them again in the end of time. We need to have an understanding of New Testament theology regarding Sabbath keeping because, in the end of time, the pretext that will be used against God’s people will be their Sabbath keeping. If we follow Jesus and keep the Sabbath, the devil and his followers will come after us just like the Jews of old came after Jesus. They will seek to slay us. If we foil their plans on one account, they will seek all the more to slay.

When confronted with the Jews’ accusations of, “Why are You working? Why are You teaching people to work on the Sabbath?” Jesus could have said, “It was not really work at all. What I did was legal. After all, this man had to take his bed home, and how did you expect him to get it there? His actions were excusable, under the circumstances.”

But Jesus did not answer them in that way. He just said, “My Father worked hitherto, and I work.” Verse 17. He did not make any excuses.

Many Christians have used this verse in an attempt to justify their actions, to excuse their working on the Sabbath. Does this make Sabbath work acceptable? No, it does not, because there is another dynamic in this passage. If we try to take something out of its context to make it say what we want it to say, we are in serious trouble. The context here is establishing New Testament teaching relative to Sabbath observance. The works performed by the Father and Son on the Sabbath are not justification for us to work on the Sabbath.

Verse 18 continues this story with, “The Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath [in their estimation], but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” Jesus knew what He was saying, and the Jews knew what He was saying. That made them hate Him all the more. You see, we can never use this argument, ever, that the Father works; the Son works; therefore I am going to work also. If we use that argument, it is tantamount to saying that we are equal with God. Jesus understood that. The Jews understood that. It simply would not be true for you or me, but for Jesus it was true, and the Jews hated Him for it. They could not accept a Messiah that was Divine. They did not want that kind of Messiah.

Jesus’ Sabbath Work

If Jesus worked on the Sabbath, what kind of work did He do? What do His acts teach us about the Sabbath that we do not learn from the Old Testament? The gospels give us a few occasions of Jesus’ Sabbath work.

We will first look at an event given in Matthew 12: “At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw [it], they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.” Verses 1, 2. The word corn applied to wheat, rye, oats and barley. This explains the circumstance that they rubbed it in their hands to separate the grain from the chaff. (Luke 6:1.)

We find here the same issue all over again. In John 5, the situation involved the healing of a man who had been in that condition for 38 years. It was not lawful for him to pick up his bed and carry it home on the Sabbath, according to the Jews. Here the disciples are in the grain fields, plucking grain to eat, and the Jews say that this is not lawful for them to do either. Why did the Jews make this charge? Is it wrong to eat on the Sabbath? No, this is not the issue.

The disciples broke two laws, as far as the Pharisees were concerned, by harvesting and threshing on the Sabbath. The harvesting was the picking of the grains, and the threshing was the rubbing of the grains between the hands and the blowing away of the chaff so that the kernels could be eaten. The Jews felt that a double sin had been committed. Now they had the disciples right where they wanted them!

They came to Jesus with this accusation, and He said to them, “Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungered, and they that were with him; How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the showbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?” Verses 3–5. The word profane means “to make common.” As used in verse 5, profane means to treat the Sabbath as another working day; this is what the priests were doing; yet they were found blameless.

Jesus brings into focus the crux of this whole issue in verse 6: “But I say unto you, That in this place is [one] greater than the temple.”

Jesus is using His Sabbath work to establish His authority. We cannot use the Sabbath to prove our authority. The Sabbath proves our subservience, and we are to relate to the Sabbath in that way. The Sabbath establishes the authority of God. It proves that we are creatures and that He is the Creator. The Sabbath, when rightly understood, always proves and elevates the authority of Jesus, which He was never able to establish with His people in Old Testament times.

Recognized Authority

In the Old Testament, Jesus wanted to establish His authority over His people, and the Sabbath was the mark or distinction of recognized authority. This was only accomplished by a few small revivals that took place.

As we read this passage in Matthew 12, one thing comes through very loud and clear: Jesus is saying that He is greater than the temple. The Jews loved the temple. They adored the temple. They worshipped the temple. The temple was where the Ten Commandments were kept, and right in the middle of all that was the Sabbath commandment. But Jesus says that there is Someone greater here than the temple.

If the temple can be served without blame by work that is done on the Sabbath, then Who can be served on the Sabbath without blame? Jesus is teaching that He can be served on the Sabbath without blame. His work must go on, and His work can be done on the Sabbath without blame. This is what He is teaching through this story.

Verse 7 continues, “But if ye had known what [this] meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.” In other words, “My disciples are innocent of the charges you are making. They are not guilty. You do not understand what the Scriptures are trying to teach you, or you would not be making these kinds of charges in this case.”

And then, in verse 8, Jesus says, “For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.” What He is really saying is, “I have authority.”

Use of the Sabbath

Another passage similar to this is Mark 2:27, 28: “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.”

Can we use the Sabbath, according to these verses? If so, for what purpose? We can use the Sabbath to lift up the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is how Jesus used it throughout the New Testament.

There were spies watching the disciples walking through the grain field, ready to accuse them. Jesus gave the disciples permission to pick and to eat the grain, and He defended them fully in what they were doing against the spies’ accusations. What kind of Sabbath work is Jesus doing here?

What does eating accomplish? It accomplishes several things. If we look at this from a spiritual standpoint, we see that eating nourishes and sustains the body. This becomes more impressive when we realize that Jesus taught in parables. “Blessed [are] they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6.

So two uses of the Sabbath are the establishing of the authority of Jesus and the nourishing of the body of Christ. Jesus is teaching about His work on the Sabbath.

The Bible tells us, in Colossians 1:17, that in Jesus everything consists or is sustained. It is His authority to sustain, and the Sabbath work of Jesus lifts up His authority to sustain all of His creation. The New Testament theology of the Sabbath then points to Jesus as the sustainer of all that is in this world.

Half-Whole

Immediately following the report of the disciples harvesting grain on the Sabbath is another example of Jesus’ works on the Sabbath. In this next story, we find Jesus in church. He has gone through the cornfield and is now in the synagogue. Matthew 12:9, 10 reads, “And when he [Jesus] was departed thence, he went into their synagogue: And, behold, there was a man which had [his] hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him.” In Mark 3:1, 2, this same report is recorded, and that passage tells us very specifically that this occurs on the Sabbath day.

What would you expect Jesus to do when confronted with the situation of the man with a withered hand—ignore it? Or would you expect Jesus to do something to help this man? There were people in the synagogue that knew enough about Jesus to know that He would do something about it. They knew His character well enough that they were certain He would relieve this man’s affliction. Of course, they hoped that He would do something, because they then could accuse Him yet again of breaking the Sabbath. These people were waiting to accuse Jesus of doing something that was good, so they could do something bad to Him, or at least have the authorities do something bad to Him. According to the traditions the Jews had developed and heaped around the Sabbath day, it was wrong to practice the healing arts on the Sabbath day.

“And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift [it] out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days. Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched [it] forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.” Matthew 12:11–13.

Imagine that man being confronted by Jesus, having heard the stories about Him. He was perhaps thinking, “If I stretch forth my hand, Jesus will reach out and touch it, and it is going to be changed.” But he did not have to wait for Jesus to touch his hand. He stretched forth his hand, and as it stretched, it kept straightening, because it was healed in the process. He acted out his faith. The hand that had been withered became as strong and healthy as his other hand that was not withered.

Jesus gave physical wholeness to this man. He took this man who had the use of only one-half of his capacity, and He made him whole. He made him complete.

What a wonderful work it was that Jesus did here.

The work of Jesus on the Sabbath day is a wonderful thing. The Sabbath is a wonderful time to experience what God has in store for us. Jesus loves to take half-whole people, on the Sabbath, and make them whole. Do you feel that you are only half a person? Is there part of you that is nice and another part that is not so nice? This story tells us that Jesus uses the Sabbath day to bring wholeness. It marks Him as the Creator, because the Sabbath is a memorial of creation, and it marks Him as a memorial of re-creation.

To be continued. . .

A retired minister of the gospel, Pastor Mike Baugher may be contacted by e-mail at: landmarks@stepstolife.org.

The Ten Commandments, Part XI – New Testament Sabbath Observance

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Paul gives his testimony in 11 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” This is the work that has to be done in us before Jesus can come back again.

There are many Seventh-day Adventists who have given up the seventh-day Sabbath. There are multitudes more who are considering such action. Perhaps even now they are in the valley of decision as to whether they should continue to keep the Sabbath or whether they should give up the Sabbath. We know that before the end comes, the majority will give up the Sabbath. They have no regard for the plan and the purpose of what the Sabbath is all about or they would not even consider such a thing.

Yet, as the Sabbath is given up, and many start keeping Sunday, they think that everything still is all right between them and the Lord. They go to church and convince themselves that God does not really care on which day they worship. They are missing the whole concept of the Sabbath.

They see the Sabbath couched in the Ten Commandment Law that says, “Just do not do any work. Do not. Do not. Do not.” They have no concept of what the Sabbath is really designed to do and what God intended for the Sabbath, right from the very beginning of time.

Position of Authority

We, as Seventh-day Adventists, love to quote from Ezekiel 20, and I would like to share with you some things that are found there. We want to look at the context of what is being said, more than just the proof texts, because there is a flow that comes through it that we need to understand. It is, in fact, a heart cry of God on behalf of His people.

“Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which [if] a man do, he shall even live in them. Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I [am] the Lord that sanctify them.” Verses 10–12.

Notice that there is a sanctifying process that takes place, as far as the Sabbath is concerned and the recognition of the God of the Sabbath.

“But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which [if] a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them. But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out. Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given [them], flowing with milk and honey, which [is] the glory of all lands; Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.” Verses 13–16.

Now, tell me who was in command of God’s children, according to verse 16?

Issue of Authority

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3. Any god that is recognized before Me is a god of authority, because I am to hold the highest position of authority over you. The Sabbath is a sign of that fact.

What was the thinking of the children of Israel at this juncture? They wanted to follow their idols. They wanted someone other than the God of heaven to have authority over them.

So what we see coming to pass in the passage of Ezekiel 20 is an issue of authority. “Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness. But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols.” Verses 17, 18. In other words, come back to Me; come back under My authority once again. “I [am] the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them.” Verse 19. In verse 12, God is speaking to the first generation; in verse 20, He is speaking to the second generation.

“And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I [am] the Lord your God.” Verse 20. God is declaring that He is to have authority in your life. There is no other god that can do for you what the God of heaven can do for you.

Rebellion

“Notwithstanding,” Verse 21 says, “the children rebelled against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them, which [if] a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted my sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness.”

Through all of recorded history, during the reign of sin, it has been a determined response of God’s children to be in rebellion against Him, even though they have believed that they were in harmony with Him. This is why Sabbath and Sunday become such a tremendous issue in the last days. It is a matter of who is going to rule in your life. There is nothing else of any consequence. Whether you accept Jesus Christ only as Saviour or as Lord and Saviour is really the issue.

Jesus loves it when we come to Him and accept Him as Saviour. But that is only half of the issue. The rest of the issue is, Who is going to rule your life? Whom are you going to serve?

The Sabbath points out all of this. This is why the Bible identifies the 144,000 as virgins. (Revelation 14:3, 4.) They have a pure faith. They recognize the authority of God in their lives. Jesus is the only One who has the authority to perform the type of work that is necessary to fit us for the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus’ Purpose

Jesus never caused trouble needlessly. He was always like oil on troubled waters. He was always very diplomatic. He never went out of His way to stir up trouble, even when He performed activities to bring attention to the Sabbath. He came to magnify the law and to make it honorable. He said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Matthew 5:17.

In every Sabbath story, Jesus “got in the face” of those people whom He knew would be upset with what He was doing, yet He continued anyway. It was important for Him to show that the Sabbath—indeed all of the Ten Commandments—although written in stone, also needed to be written in the heart. “My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: write them upon the table of thine heart.” Proverbs 3:1, 3.

Establish Authority

Why did Jesus do these things on the Sabbath? He did not do them to aggravate or to upset; He did these things to establish His authority as the God of heaven.

Another Sabbath story is recorded in Mark 1:

“And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught.” Mark 1:21.

Where was Jesus on the Sabbath day? He was in the synagogue. He was in church. Never do you read of Jesus staying at home on the Sabbath day because He was too tired to go to church. If anyone had a right to be tired, it was Jesus, but, interestingly, He was always in church on Sabbath.

“And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.” Verse 22. Jesus impressed His authority upon those with whom He came in contact.

No Authority Over You

If you are going to church on Sunday—not on the seventh-day Sabbath—Jesus does not have authority over you. What He desires to take place in your life cannot occur if you are not meeting with Him on the Sabbath day.

The sanctifying process that the Sabbath is designed to do cannot reach its culmination in producing the 144,000 who are pure in their faith unless they are Sabbath keepers.

This is not to say that Sunday keepers will not be saved. Ellen White makes that very plain. “Many have died conscientiously observing the first day of the week as the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. These will not be condemned, because they followed the best light they had. They will not be held responsible for light which they never received.” Review and Herald, January 5, 1886. Those Sunday keepers will only be saved because they lived up to all the light they had. This is why it becomes so dangerous for a Seventh-day Adventist, a Sabbath keeper, to abandon the seventh-day Sabbath and begin keeping Sunday. They know better, and they will be held responsible for what they know.

An Unclean Spirit

Jesus was teaching the people, we are told in Mark 1, and the people were astonished at what He was saying, because He taught them as One having authority. And, then, “There was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit.” Verse 23. There was a man in church on the Sabbath who was possessed of demons!

According to Bible teaching, people who are possessed of demons may be in the church on the Sabbath.

So often we find ourselves making excuses for what the devil is doing. Often, especially in the present time, we learn about individuals who have gone berserk and killed people. We have read about the incident at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, where two students shot and killed one teacher, twelve fellow students, and injured twenty-four others (April 20, 1999). Scott Peterson of Modesto, California, was found guilty of murdering his wife and unborn child (December 2002). Then you have perhaps heard about Andrea Yates of a Houston, Texas, suburb who drowned her five children in the bathtub, and then pleaded insanity (June 2001).

Inviting Demonic Possession

Then there was a teenage boy who slashed and stabbed his mother and then shot several of his classmates with a gun. He said that demons told him to do it. (Luke Woodham, Pearl, Mississippi, October 1997.) Interestingly, he tried to plead insanity at his trial. As a result, thousands of taxpayer dollars were spent in an effort to show that this young man was insane. Perhaps the more accurate picture was that he may have been responsible for his own insanity, because he invited demons to come in and take control of his life.

Do you realize that there are young people in our schools today who are going through just such experiences? Their attire is a sign of attracting demonic possession. It is called gothic dressing. They paint their lips and fingernails black; they dress in all kinds of weird clothing, and they tramp around school.

Such displays are pervading the school systems, yet people wonder why many young people are going berserk.

Devil Attacks

If you think for a moment that, because you are a Christian and have given your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, you are free from the harassment and oppression of the devil, you are only fooling yourself. Some experiences in the life of Ellen White testify to just the opposite.

At the time of one experience, she was 82 years old. She had lived for the Lord the majority of her life and had settled the issue of her salvation decades before this instance took place.

“Since coming to this meeting [biennial session, Pacific Union Conference], I have passed through a strange experience. One day, after appearing before the conference to read some matter to you, the burden that was upon my soul continued to press upon me after I returned to my room. I was in distress of mind. That night I could not seem to lose myself in sleep. It seemed as if evil angels were right in the room where I was. And while I was suffering in mind, it seemed as if I was suffering great bodily pain. My right arm, which through the years has nearly always been preserved from disease and suffering, seemed powerless. I could not lift it. Then I had a most severe, excruciating pain in the ear; then most terrible suffering in the jaw. It seemed as if I must scream. But I kept saying, ‘Lord, You know all about it.’

“I was in perfect agony. It seemed that my brain and every part of my body was suffering. At times I would rise up, and think, ‘I will not lie here another moment.’ Then I would think, ‘You will only arouse those who are in the house, and they cannot do anything for you.’ And so I kept looking to the Lord, and saying, ‘Lord, You know all about this pain.’ The suffering continued, at times in the jaw, then in the brain, and then in other members of the body, until nearly daylight. Just before the break of day I fell asleep for about an hour.

“My arm is all right this morning. Legions of evil angels were in that room, and if I had not clung by faith to the Lord, I do not know what might have become of me. . . .

“I shall never be able to give you a description of the satanic forces that were at work in that room, . . . but since standing before you the next morning, I have had no suffering.

“Light has been coming to me that unless we have more evident movings of the Spirit of God, and greater manifestations of divine power working in our midst, many of God’s people will be overcome. Satanic agencies will come in, as they came to me. But we cannot afford to yield to the power of the enemy.— Manuscript 25, January 28, 1910, ‘An Address to the Workers Assembled at the Pacific Union Conference.’ ” This Day With God, 36.

Reading this makes the hair prickle on the back of my neck. If it does not have the same effect on you, it should, because it tells us that if we begin to even dabble with the devil and if we become lax in our Sabbath keeping and in our relationship to our Lord, the devil may come in and overwhelm us.

Ellen White was not dabbling in anything and yet the devil sent legions of angels to try to overwhelm her and overcome her so that her work would be stopped.

What do you suppose is happening in the church today? Who do you think it is that comes in and drives the Spirit of God out of the church? There have to be willing subjects in order for this to happen. Those subjects are not agonizing with the Lord for deliverance as Ellen White was.

Do not ever let anyone tell you that the devil does not have access to you, as a Christian. We must be on guard every moment. The devil is going to be after us constantly until we either die or are delivered by the voice of God.

Dealing with Demons

This instance in Mark is the first time we see Jesus confronted with demonic possession, and it takes place in the church on the Sabbath day. Just the presence there of Jesus caused this unclean spirit to cry out, saying, “Let [us] alone.” Apparently there was more than one demon involved.

“What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.” Mark 1:24. The interesting thing we learn from this portion of Scripture is that when demons are in the presence of God, they have to tell the truth!

“And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.” Verses 25, 26.

Those who have never dealt with any kind of demonic presence may think it is just an ipso facto kind of experience. You just tell them to leave and they have to leave. It is all over and done with, and you go merrily on your way.

According to what we read in Mark 1, it was no ipso facto experience with Jesus. Verse 26 tells us that this demon left the man after it cried with a loud voice and tore him.

Authority Established

Verses 27 and 28 continue, “And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine [is] this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him. And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.”

The authority of Jesus Christ comes through again concerning His Sabbath work. That which He has desired to establish with His people from the time of the Garden of Eden will happen as each one of us comes to the point in our lives where we say, “I want nothing more, nothing less, than for Jesus to have the authority in my life.” That will find its manifestation in the keeping of the Ten Commandments of God and the establishing of the faith of Jesus in our lives so that we can live for Him. In no other way can it happen.

Whether or not we are a part of that is up to us. But at some point Jesus is going to have enough authority in enough lives that it will become a reality, and purification will take place. Perfection will become a reality, and the Holy Spirit will be poured out without measure. Events will go like a whirlwind, and we will see Jesus come in the clouds of heaven.

—To be continued.

A retired minister of the gospel, Pastor Mike Baugher may be contacted by e-mail at: landmarks@stepstolife.org.

The Ten Commandments, Part XII – It Will Go Well With You

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In this series on the Ten Commandments, we have previously studied the first four commandments (Exodus 20:3–11), and we are ready to begin the second table of the Ten Commandment Law. The first table deals with the vertical relationship between God and us. The second table of the law deals with the horizontal relationship between our fellowmen and us. As mentioned in a previous article, the first table of the law came into practical application when God created Adam. The second table of the law came into practical application when God created Eve. The second table of the law is a very important aspect as we deal with our horizontal relationships.

The first table tells us how we are to worship God; the six commandments of the second table teach us how we are to treat one another. So often, religious people concentrate on the first table. Many theological discussions take place about how we are to worship God, but there are not many that make the application as to how we are to treat one another. It is part of God’s plan to regulate human relationships so we will be able to appreciate and love one another, as we love God and ourselves.

The first commandment of the second table reads: “Honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” Deuteronomy 5:16.

Reading this commandment in Exodus 20, we see that it is a little bit different, just as the Sabbath commandment is a little bit different between Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” Exodus 20:12. Do you see the difference? The difference is that Deuteronomy 5 says that if you honor your father and your mother, not only are your days going to be prolonged, but also it will go well with you.

Falling Apart

In my ministry as a pastor, I have observed that a lot of fracturing is taking place in families today. Once stable and strong relationships are no longer as strong as they once were. There is a little saying, “The family is falling apart at the seams,” and, certainly, this is true.

What is the reason for this dissolution? The reason is that we are in violation of the fifth commandment. As we go through this study, we hopefully will be able to better understand what is involved with this commandment that says, “Honor thy father and thy mother.”

Respect for parental authority and obedience to parental law is the foundation of all order and organization. The fifth commandment deals with this. Another old saying that holds an abundance of truth is this: “As goes the home, so goes society, the nation, and the world.”

The family is the most important and fundamental unit in society and in government. In a speech given over two years ago, President George W. Bush, the forty-third president of the United States of America, emphasized the importance of the family and the home, and the significance that it consist of one man and one woman, a husband and a wife. He is determined to see that this is established and set, even going so far as endorsing a Constitutional Convention to pass an Amendment to the Constitution to establish it. This belief is in harmony with Scripture.

Families today are falling apart. I do not believe that there has been a time in earth’s history when there have been such large Social Service Departments to take care of homes that are falling apart at the seams.

Obedience to Lawful Authority

The first commandment of the second table, or the fifth commandment of the ten, is in a special position in the order of the total ten. Surely this placement is no accident, but divinely placed. Family relationships constitute the beginning of all human relationships that are set forth in the second division of God’s Law. In its broadest application, it deals with obedience to all lawful authority, in that formative part of life when characters are molded and destinies are determined.

Considering the nature of parenthood, parents, in many ways, stand in the place of God to their children until they reach the age of accountability. Then the children can transfer their accountability to God because He is ultimately the One to whom they are responsible in the final end of all things. Yet, there is still the force of the commandment that says to “Honor your father and your mother all the days of your life, so it will go well with you.”

In the earlier years of a child’s life, the parent is to that child what God is to the parent—the Lawgiver, the Overseer, and the Provider. The fact that the attitude of the child toward the parent determines his attitude toward God in later years gives the fifth commandment a double significance.

A Broader Application

When the home life is Christ-centered, the children are almost certain to fulfill both tables of the law and to respect both divine and human authority. This commandment has not just a literal application to mom and dad, but it has a spiritual application that forms the attitudes and the characters of how people relate to life from childhood to adulthood.

If children are brought up in a home where proper parental authority is exercised and where good and righteous commandments from the parents are handed down to the children, they will incorporate those into their lifestyles. They are going to relate to all other issues of authority in their lives in the right way.

This is why the commandment says, “Honor thy father and thy mother, so that it will go well with you.” Not only will it “go well with you,” but also your days will be prolonged. This is a promise from God! This is the first commandment with a promise.

Another evidence of the importance of this commandment is the fact that parenthood is a co-partnership with God in the work of creation. Reproduction is a form of creation. What greater honor could God bestow upon human beings than to share with them the power to perpetuate His creative works? If you stop and think about this, you realize that parenthood is an awesome responsibility. This is something that is not being taught to young people today.

Holy Function of Parenthood

One of the reasons, I personally believe, that God called the Seventh-day Adventist Church into existence was to bestow upon its members insights and situations where they could teach their children how to become better parents. It had to start at some point in time.

If you actually look at what was transpiring in the days when God called the Seventh-day Adventist Church into existence, you will see that parenthood and the kinds of relationships between fathers and their children that would give a right example to the children was almost nonexistent. So the children grew up with a very warped understanding of what it meant to be a parent.

So God gave counsels for us so the next generation, having exercised those counsels, could put them into practice and be better equipped to be parents. If the fifth commandment was understood, as God wanted it to be understood, not only would it affect children, but it would affect parents as well.

The realization of the holy function of parenthood will place marriage on a moral elevation that is seldom recognized in this world of sin. It will give sacredness to family relationships that will ennoble and dignify the marriage institution.

Human Relationships

While the law is divided into two tables of Ten Commandments, it is really still one law, the Law of God. Even though the second table deals with human relationships, its commands are nevertheless the commands of God, and we need to understand that the commands of God do not deal with just the first four commandments. They deal with the last six commandments also.

When we are called to give an account in the judgment, according to Matthew 25, one of the questions that will be asked is, “How have you related to those around you?” This commandment establishes that on a firm foundation.

Whole Duty of Man

Since this command is the command of God, it carries the same penalty for violation. Violation or transgression of the Law of God, the Bible says, is sin, and the wages of sin is death. (1 John 3:4; Romans 6:23.) Anytime we sin against man, we also sin against God who created man. Our ultimate responsibility, then, is to be obedient to God as defined in these ten principles.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 says, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this [is] the whole [duty] of man.” If we could really understand the first commandment and the fifth commandment, our lives would be revolutionized. We would have greater insight. We would have greater courage. We would have greater determination in our service to God and in our service to our fellowman. This is the whole duty of man.

A Matter of Being Perfect

Because the true relationship between parents and their children is based on the relationship between God and the human family, children should honor their parents, who symbolize God to them during the earlier years of their lives. While no parents in this world of sin are entirely perfect, they are usually more perfect than their children, if for no other reason than maturity. If parents are not a notch above their children in terms of maturity and righteousness, they have disqualified themselves as parents. They should always be better than their children because they have to set an example to their children.

Under most circumstances, parents are usually more perfect than their children, and that is a reason they deserve respect and courtesy from their children. Children owe their very existence to their parents. I have heard children say, “Well, I did not ask to be born.” No, they did not, but if they can ever get beyond this stage of development, they will appreciate life for what it is. They will find meaning and purpose in service, not only to God, but also to their fellowman.

My father once told me, “If you can just get a child past 17 years of age and keep him or her stabilized, he or she will usually come out on the other end pretty well.” There is a lot of wisdom in that.

One of the best ways to keep a child stabilized is to be an honorable parent. It is quite a responsibility, but a number of people do not even understand what it means to be a parent, let alone an honorable parent. In spite of this, children still owe their very existence to their parents; they are made in their image, inherit their characteristics, and depend upon them for things that sustain life.

Included with Honor

How could there be a more binding obligation of honor than that which children owe to their parents? Honor involves much more than just being obedient and doing the parent’s will. It includes affection as well.

Do you realize that there are many residents in nursing homes who never have a visitor? Oh, how I wish that was not the case. I wish that every child who has a parent in a nursing home would go to visit him or her on a regular basis.

Honor includes affection. Honor includes respect. Honor includes human reverence. Honor means to hold in high esteem because of recognition of superiority. Can you see how God placed these concepts in this commandment?

Magnify the Law

Jesus came, the Bible says, to magnify the law and to make it honorable. (Isaiah 42:21.) In the days of Jesus, there was no honor, no recognition, and no reverence of parents when they became old. They were just put away. There was given no high esteem or recognition of superiority.

Parenthood has been established by God and is, therefore, divinely ordained. He has placed this command concerning parents in the Ten Commandments because it is something that God foresaw as a need for the human family.

Family Government

As God’s representatives, parents are given divine authority to rule the family government.

Many people have problems with the Federal Government or their State Government. They do not want this or any other authority over them. Do you know why? Because they never had the proper government at home as a child. They were never taught the proper relationship to authority at home.

The lack of regard for authority, whether parental, civil, or divine, is the greatest evil of this modern world. One reason for this is the fact that ministers have preached for so long that the law was nailed to the cross. The prevalent message has been, we do not have to keep the commandments anymore; they were nailed to the cross. Now, after decades and decades of time, people believe this message, and we are reaping the results of this erroneous preaching.

There was a time when the Ten Commandments were strongly upheld and believed by the Protestant world. Every missionary sent out to other lands had the desire to not only present God but also to present the plan of salvation and God’s requirements of His people. They taught that the Ten Commandments were binding upon every soul in the world because that would be the standard of the judgment.

Then Seventh-day Adventists began to preach that the law is still binding, and specifically so as it is centered in the fourth commandment that says, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” When the Protestant preachers, who had been upholding the law all these years, heard this preaching and felt the guilt and condemnation that came from their breaking the Sabbath day, they began to search for an answer, some solution that would soothe their own conscience and allow them to continue on as they always had. The only solution, the only answer, they had was that the law has been done away with, nailed to the cross. Truth was replaced with error. And as this philosophy began to be accepted, we can see that the next generation began to slip, and the words of the apostle Paul rang out loud and clear: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, . . . .” 11 Timothy 3:1, 2. In what time are we living? We are living in the last days.

We must guard ourselves very carefully that we do not find ourselves beholding and becoming like the maxims of the world, following the world’s traditions where we are taught that God’s Law no longer makes a difference; we should just do the nice thing. Situational ethics reign. We must guard ourselves against that, so we do not fulfill the prophecy we just read, given by the apostle Paul.

Respect for All

While the fifth commandment applies primarily to the honoring of parents by their children, in a broader sense it includes respect for all that are in positions of leadership and authority. Children should be taught to respect their schoolteachers. This is something that is on the skids today. The teachers know it, and the children know it. When children at large get into trouble at school today, they tell their teachers that they do not have to mind them because this is what their mothers tell them.

What example is shown to such a child? What is the home setting of such a child? This is the child that will ultimately find himself or herself incarcerated behind bars. Any sociological investigation will reveal that most individuals are in prison today because they have had faulty parental guidance in their formative and early years. They have not learned to honor authority and respect the laws.

Children should be trained to respect their teachers because, in fact, the teachers stand in the place of the parents while they have the children under their tutelage. Teachers also have superior knowledge and experience in thought, speech, attitude, and conduct. Honor is to be shown to whom honor is due, which includes all who are superior in position, in experience, and senior in age.

Hoary Heads

The Bible speaks of the hoary head, the white hairs. “Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I [am] the Lord.” “The hoary head [is] a crown of glory, [if] it be found in the way of righteousness.” Leviticus 19:32; Proverbs 16:31. There is something that comes with white hair—more than wrinkles. There is wisdom that comes just by virtue of length of life.

Children need to understand this, but in many instances we do not see this concept being practiced in the world. We do not see it being taught in the school. We do not see it being worked out in business, in government, or in the church. Instead, there seems to be an “anything goes” policy. No honor is given to anything or anyone.

Rebellious Music

Much of the music that young people are allowed to listen to today is music that incites rebellion against not only parental authority but also any authority. That is totally contrary to the experience that God desires to bring into the lives of people.

Music with words that incite rebellion is usually accompanied by a rhythm that thrills the flesh. Many of the young claim that they do not listen to the words; in fact, they cannot even hear the words, but they do like the music. Do not think for a moment that the devil is not at work. He is attacking the fifth commandment because he knows that if God can get His point across, if He can successfully bring a reformation in the homes and in the families through the power of His Holy Spirit, the devil’s power is broken. The devil knows this, so he is working overtime and double time against the two commandments that bridge the law between the divine and the human—the Sabbath and the home.

If importance of the commandments could be rated, these two commandments should have more importance than the others because with these two there, the others are going to be naturally and automatically understood and obeyed.

The Cornerstone

Home government is the cornerstone of all government. The peace and prosperity of all people depend upon the recognition of all constituted authority, and this comes through the proper discipline in the home. There are times that a child needs to be told no and under no circumstances should it turn into a yes.

You know of situations, as do I, where a child is told no, but the child whines or cajoles until the parent finally changes it to, “just this once,” or “okay, under these circumstances.” This is the very worst thing that can ever happen.

Parents, even if you have made a mistake in saying no, you had better bite the bullet and let it remain no. If you give in to your child, your position of authority drops down a notch or two in your child’s mind. The honor your position deserves has been compromised. Do not think for a moment that the devil will not take advantage of such a situation. When you say no, mean no!

Power of Example

Parents should remember that a good example is always more powerful for good than just saying yes or no. The honor parents receive from their children depends to a large extent on their own conduct and their own discipline.

Through His messenger, Ellen White, God has given counsel to parents on the raising of children in books such as, Child Guidance and Fundamentals of Christian Education. The Adventist Home was also given as counsel for the adult sector. God has shown how we are to order our lives so that the whole movement can move together. That is what God intended should take place—reform not only from the standpoint of the young people, but also from the standpoint of the older people.

Parents need to remember that they must provide a proper example. The more honorable parents are, the more honor they will receive from their children.

Train up a Child

The promise is given, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6. This text not only has a positive promise, but it has a negative promise as well. If you train up a child in the wrong way, when he is old, he is not going to depart from it either.

Statistics show us that the greatest time of reaping for souls is when people are young. The older an individual grows, the less likely it is that there is going to be any change because they become so set in their ways. This is why we are told that today is the day of salvation. (Luke 19:9.)

If you train up a child to go in the right way, when he is old, he is not going to depart from it. I have seen children who have been raised in God-fearing homes go over “Fool’s Hill.” Sometimes, years later, the Holy Spirit is able to draw these wanderers back to the path of salvation because their roots are in God’s Law. I have seen it happen over and over again.

On the other hand, I have watched undisciplined children who have been allowed to grow up as wild animals. They have not been disciplined or taught how they should relate to people or have respect and honor for their teachers and people in positions over them. When these children go out into the world, many of them will be lost to the kingdom because they were never taught how to respect or to honor anything or anybody but themselves. They have no roots in the law that the Holy Spirit can draw upon to bring them back into the fold.

It takes hard work to love and to train children. Nobody knows that any better than God does. In an effort to provide the right kind of foundation for our homes, He wrote His Law on tables of stone with His own finger and said, “These principles are going to last for eternity.”

Heaven on Earth

In this age, when nothing seems secure and love is empty, parents need to make the home as attractive, secure, and filled with God’s love as possible. The home can be a little heaven on earth when its atmosphere is filled with love and fellowship. This is why the apostle Paul concludes, in 1 Corinthians 13—that we are instructed to read every day—“The greatest of these is love.”

When love is the controlling principle in the home, it will be the most wonderful place in the world, and the children will delight to honor their parents, not only as they are being raised by them but as they enter into their elder years as well. The promise will be sure. It will be fulfilled as they move down through the years that if you honor your father and your mother, it will go well with you.

To be continued . . .

A retired minister of the gospel, Pastor Mike Baugher may be contacted by e-mail at: landmarks@stepstolife.org.

The Ten Commandments, Part XIII – The Value of Life

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The shortest commandment, consisting of only four words, may be read from Deuteronomy 5:17. It is most commonly read from Exodus 20:13. “Thou shalt not kill.”

In these texts, the Hebrew word ratsach, in many versions of the Bible, is translated as the word kill. However, ratsach does not just mean kill or killing. It is more accurately translated as murder, implying the willful intent to kill. Properly translated, these texts would read, “Thou shalt not murder.”

“You shall not commit murder.” It was never in God’s plan that one human being should take another human being’s life in a wanton manner. He placed this commandment as a prohibition, a hedge around the innocent, and a protection to keep passion from getting out of control.

In the sequence of the ten commandments, this sixth commandment is closely related to the fifth commandment, “Honor your father and mother.” It naturally follows the fifth, not just numerically, but sequentially and purposefully as well. The fifth commandment deals with the home, the place where life has its origin and is developed so that order and respect will exist in society. The fifth commandment builds a wall of protection around the family and provides the foundation upon which all human relationships are formed.

The sixth commandment shows us how we are to regard the sacredness of human life by protecting and safeguarding it. As the other commandments, it has a much broader application than just the taking of human life through cruel hands. It reveals the very nature of life, its origin, and why life is indeed a sacred and a moral issue.

What is Life?

As we study this very short commandment, let us look at what life is. From where does life come? Just what is it that makes the difference between lifeless matter and living matter? Many people have tried to prolong life, thinking that they can overrule some aspect of living matter.

There are some individuals who have directed that, upon their death, their bodies be quick frozen with nitrogen and kept in sealed capsules until science can discover some method of thawing them out and bringing them back to life again. In my mind, this is plain stupidity, just from the standpoint of what freezing does.

If you have ever left an undrained water hose in the yard during the winter, you know what happens. The water freezes and bursts the hose, cracking it. When the warmer temperatures of spring come and you turn on the water, water squirts everywhere. Well, in the human body, the blood vessels react to freezing temperature similar to the water hose, and when ice forms in them, they either burst or stretch beyond the point where they can function normally. In addition, ice in the blood vessels “captures” the water content, making it impossible for the blood cells to survive. Other types of cells are also damaged during freezing. Frostbite is a common malady caused by cold temperatures; frozen skin and blood cells are damaged from the dehydration due to freezing.

So, when a person tries to preserve the body by freezing it, thinking that they can warm it up and bring it back to life again, they are going to have trillions and trillions of fractured cells needing Band-Aids®! There is not a way that man can repair all of the damage. Only a divine hand could accomplish something like that.

What is it, then, that makes the difference between lifeless matter and living matter? What is the difference between carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen in an organic mass and hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon as an organic person? What is that subtle, potent spark of life, or vital force, which is housed in the center of an apparently structureless microscopic cell, lacking any chemical or biological action, which suddenly quickens it with energy, making it a living, growing, parental thing, organizing it into that wonderful thing called man?

These are the questions into which the keenest of minds are probing with the most intense interest today. But, interestingly, the most educated minds and the most sophisticated equipment cannot produce that life-giving force, either in plant or in animal. Life there is, though, and the Bible tells us how it originated.

Law of First Mention

The Law of First Mention must be recognized, as far as the study of Scripture is concerned, because if we fail to recognize this, then there is a great tendency and a great probability that we will get off on a tangent from which we may never recover.

When we study the Bible, we have to use tools of study in order to come up with proper doctrine, proper interpretation, and understanding of what it is that the Bible is trying to teach us. The Law of First Mention is one of those tools that has been given to us so that we can understand what the Bible has to say.

We find an example of the Law of First Mention in the Book of Genesis, where it describes to us how God brought life into being: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:1. This tells us the origin, how the earth came into being. Genesis 1 continues through the first four days of creation, and then, in verses 20–27, it says, “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl [that] may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

Then, Genesis 2:7 tells us how all of this came together and how this one called man took on life: “And the Lord God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

From all of the study researching man’s origin, there have come many theories concerning how man came into being, but in the middle of all the confusion there is one area of argument: man’s body is composed of the same chemical elements as the soil upon which he walks. This should tell us something—either God created man or he came up out of the earth in some way. The Bible tells us how he came up out of the earth. God formed him out of the dust, and then it says, He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” But man is dust. He was taken out of the dust, and the Bible says he will return to dust. (Genesis 3:19.)

Breath of Life

The form of clay that the Lord molded in the beginning was just that, until He breathed into its nostrils the breath of life, that spark of life. Then that clay became a living, moving image of God Himself. The breath, here, is a symbol for something greater.

Our Heritage

Science can create breath, and by that I mean oxygen and nitrogen. Those elements can be manufactured by science, but scientists can pump as much of those they want into clay and they will never come up with that spark that animates the body and brings it to life. Man is of divine origin, and he is under the sovereignty of the Creator. It is God who keeps him alive and gives him his being. His life is a part of the eternal purpose of God.

God gave to this newly created creature—man—a part of Himself, and He told Adam to be fruitful and multiply. As we read the genealogy of man in the Bible, we see that indeed man can trace his origin to God himself. Genealogy recorded in Luke states: “. . . Which was [the son] of Enos, which was [the son] of Seth, which was [the son] of Adam, which was [the son] of God.” Luke 3:38. Every person in the world can eventually trace his or her heritage back through the maze of the family tree to divine parentage. Our origin comes from God Himself.

Priceless Container

Because of its lineage and how it originated, the human body is a sacred thing. This is why the apostle Paul tells us, in 1 Corinthians 6:19, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” The human body is a living shrine wherein God’s Spirit dwells. As such, it is a priceless container of unknown sacred potentialities.

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” 1 John 3:1–3.

There are some things about Jesus we clearly understand, but there are other things that we are not able to grasp. These are so complex to the human mind and to the human understanding that God has not been able to share them with us. He is not able to portray to us, so that our minds can comprehend, what is in store for us. But we do know that when Jesus comes, and when we see Him, we are going to be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, and we are going to be like Him.

When God proclaimed in thunderous tones from Mt. Sinai the words, “You shall not kill,” or “You shall not commit murder,” it was for the purpose of preserving the image of God that had been created in the very beginning of time. God wants His image to fill the whole earth. He desires to have Himself replicated in this creation.

Individuality

God loves individuality. The thinking of man is so shallow in many ways. Have you ever thought about how individualized the human race really is? The basic building block for humanity is carbon. This is where carbon dating comes into play. When an old bone is discovered, it can be run through a process that reads the carbon to find out how much it has deteriorated. It is possible to get a fairly accurate reading to about 4,500 years—after that it begins to slide down the slippery slope of interpretation and speculation. Carbon is the building block of the human race.

We are told that no two snowflakes are alike. This is rather difficult to believe when you experience a blizzard and see all those snowflakes! God loves individuality. You can look at flowers and at leaves on a tree, and even though you can identify them as a specific kind of flower or tree leaf, no two of them are exactly alike.

Suppose for a moment that God decided on another world somewhere to use a different building block, a different element than carbon, because He loves individuality. Suppose that God used gold as the building block. Possible? Of course it is; it is an element. What if He used silver as the building block on another world? God loves individuality, and I believe this is why Ellen White, as she in vision saw some of the creatures from other worlds, could not really describe them, other than the fact that they were beautiful to behold. (See Early Writings, 39, 40.)

Crime Against God

Man’s body is the true glory in which Deity itself is to dwell and shine. So murder, in its final analysis, is sacrilege, because it destroys the shrine in which God wants to house His Spirit.

Not only is murder a crime against man, but it is a crime against God, in whose image man is made. The whole human family is made in God’s image. Do not think for a minute that the expression “made in the image of God” applies only to those who are good. It applies also to those who are bad. Wherever there is a human being, regardless of how wicked he or she may be, there is an image of God. Terribly defaced? Yes. Tremendously degraded? Yes. But not altogether destroyed. In spite of all its abrasion and corrosion, in this image that God preserves there is still hope that the gospel message can reach down and touch something in that mind so it will respond, be converted, and begin to reflect the glory of God.

We can still see God’s image, regardless of how defaced it may be, in those about us, so to commit murder against any person, good or bad, is to commit a sacrilege. It shortens an individual’s probation, and it shortens God’s day of grace, crushing out all possibilities of repentance, forgiveness, and salvation.

Murder Born of Despair

Another area to consider is the murder that is born of despair. That is, suicide. Suicide knows no age limits. It is a leading cause in the death of young people today, and it is on the rise. It is a problem in little towns as well as in large cities.

Connected very closely with instant suicide is suicide by degrees. It is possible to kill oneself through indulgences and dissipations that are known to be injurious to health. Anything that shortens our lives is a form of suicide by degree. Any pleasure or indulgence engaged in at the price of premature death is included in the sixth commandment. This is one of the reasons that the health message is so important for Seventh-day Adventists, those who are called to be, “The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.” Isaiah 58:12.

What is it that makes the health message so important? It is this sixth commandment. The reason we have a health message is because of the sacredness of the clay vessel God created for us to indwell.

But God intends for us to have the longest, most productive life that we can have—not only from a standpoint of the physical well-being that the health message can give to us, but also from the standpoint of the mental health and the spiritual health.

God has been pleased to give us an abundance of information on how to live the most healthful lives possible, and if we are not willing to follow this counsel, if we want to do our own thing and to indulge ourselves, thereby shortening our lives, we transgress this commandment. There will not be any excuses in the judgment day. We will be held accountable for what we knew was right and did not do. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth [it] not, to him it is sin.” James 4:17. We will never be held accountable for what we did not know.

The sixth commandment commands practices that produce health and long life and condemns those practices that impair health and shorten life.

Anger and Hatred

Another area we should bear in mind is given by Jesus in Matthew 5:21, 22: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” Jesus declares that anger and hatred, which contain the spirit and the seeds of murder, make one a potential murderer.

John, in his little book, said: “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” 1 John 3:15. The language used here cannot be misunderstood. It points out where murder has its very source. It is not the fatal blow that is the origin point of murder. Murder has its origin in hatred, in variance, strife, and anger.

I have heard parents say to their children, “I could just kill you.” How do the children then grow up? Do they have a regard for the sanctity and the sacredness of human life if their parents, whom they are supposed to honor, come forth with such a saying?

The Positive Side

We have looked at the negative side of the commandment, but, like all the commandments, there is also a positive side. We learn this through what Jesus said about how we are to relate to our fellowman.

How are we to relate to our fellow man? Are we to relate in a state of selfishness and variance all the time, or are we to relate in an attitude and in a thought of love? We are not only to refrain from injuring or killing or shortening his life, but we are to practice the Golden Rule that says that we are to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

Jesus said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5:44, 45.

That brings the commandment a little closer to home, does it not? Probably one of the areas that we as human beings struggle with more than any of the others is, how am I going to get along with those with whom I find myself the closest—those with whom I live, those in the family into which I have been born, those with whom I work, those who may have different political views than I do?

We have to not only understand the negative aspects of this commandment, but we must understand the positive side and put it into practice.

Subtle Murder

We must know that the sixth commandment is more than just refraining from hitting someone with a wooden instrument, as the Bible describes it, or an instrument of iron, committing an act of murder. We can perform murder many times much more subtly than that and get away with it, but we can be as guilty as if we had shed the blood with wood or iron.

The only way that we can really come to understand this is through the process of full and complete conversion. This is the only way that we can love our neighbor as ourselves. This is the only way that we can do good to those that despitefully use us.

This is really the challenge that Jesus Christ places before us in our Christian walk: how are we going to deal with these issues that come so close to home? Jesus said that He gave us a new commandment. That new commandment will take out the old, stony heart, and He will put in a heart of flesh. Upon that heart of flesh He will write His Law, which includes the sixth commandment.

Not only do we have the law in cursory form, but we also have it in an emotional form where we actually delight to do the will of God. We truly are living letters, known and read by all people.

To be continued . . .

A retired minister of the gospel, Pastor Mike Baugher may be contacted by e-mail at: landmarks@stepstolife.org.

The Ten Commandments, Part XIV – ’Til Death Do us Part’

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In this series, we have been studying the Ten Commandments as recorded in Deuteronomy 5, and we have discovered that there are some changes and some additions in comparison to Exodus 20. Deuteronomy 5 is a pastoral rendering of the law by Moses in one of his Sabbath sermons to the children of Israel, just before they crossed over the Jordan River.

In this article, we will be studying the seventh commandment as found in Deuteronomy 5:18. In this text, it contains one extra word from that which is recorded in Exodus 20:14. “Neither shalt thou commit adultery.” The additional word is neither, which connects this text to the commandment that is given in verse 17: “Thou shalt not kill.”

The first three commandments given in the second table are very specific in their order. They center around the home and on the lives of those who make up the home. The fifth commandment, you may recall, tells us how we are to relate to that place, to those people, where life begins and where relationships have their origin—the home. The sixth commandment unfolds the sacredness of human life.

Just as the sixth commandment points to the value of human life, the seventh commandment points to the place of sexuality in human life. Writing on this commandment, one biblical scholar stated that sexuality is enormously wondrous and enormously dangerous. The danger of sexuality is that it is capable of evoking desires that are destructive of persons and of communal relations.

When the ancient Israelites interpreted the commandment about adultery, they understood it in a very limited sense: it was a prohibition against sexual relations with the wife of another man. The violation of another man’s wife was viewed so seriously that it was a capital offense. Leviticus 20:10 reads, “And the man that committeth adultery with [another] man’s wife, [even he] that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”

A Sacred Gift

Human life centers in more than just one person; it centers in two people—the male and the female. Each is uniquely different, but when they are brought together, the Bible tells us, they become “one flesh.” Genesis 2:24. They form a beautifully composed unit of oneness. Human sexuality is a gift from God that is sacred and that is meant to be reserved for nurturing the lives of a man and a woman together into the bonds of an everlasting unity. The seventh commandment deals with the guarding of that relationship of oneness from any outside source of interference, so that the happiness and the perpetuity of the home and the family can be maintained on the earth.

God made provision for everything that would affect the human family so as to promote the greatest safety and harmony. The most intimate, the most binding, the most sacred of all human relationships is marriage, and it is upon this relationship that the very existence and the perpetuity of the human race depend. Marriage is a divine ordinance, older than any other human institution. Marriage is older than man’s fall and sin. Marriage is as old as Eden and the creation of man and woman.

After God had finished the creation of all animal life on the sixth day, He saw that “it was very good.” Genesis 1:31. When God said that “it was very good,” this included everything about the human creation. It included the very fact that God has placed in His Law a commandment that deals with sexuality. Sexuality is very good, as far as God’s pronouncement is concerned. What has happened, however, is that sexuality, as a result of sin, has become something nasty and bad in the minds of many people, and it is taught and perpetuated that way.

Selfishness

In Genesis 1:28, God commands the first man and woman whom He created to “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth.” The process of obeying this command is a sexual process—man and woman, sperm and egg, coming together in union form a new creature, ordained by God, blessed by God through the sanctity of marriage. No problem was considered that would affect this process, until sin came on the scene. When sin entered the Garden of Eden, almost immediately a shame came upon Adam and Eve, the Bible says, because “they were naked.” Genesis 3:7. Selfishness set in, and the divine plan that God had ordained turned into human purpose and was driven by human emotions. Adultery is the supreme example of selfishness—I need this for me; my wife or my husband does not meet my needs.

Great changes began to take place in that which God had pronounced as “very good.” One of the human family became subjugated by the other. Man held the rule, and woman became subjugated by man. God’s plan was distorted. The earth became wicked and violent, and, as a result of that violence, God destroyed everything upon the earth except that which was contained in the ark.

God designed the commandment that forbids adultery for the human family to protect husband and wife and to safeguard the rearing of children who had respect for God and for the human race. The seventh commandment is in God’s Law for this purpose.

A Sensitive Subject

Sex is a very sensitive subject because we have been subjected to unbalanced and false information. Very early on, in the Christian church, tampering began to take place, as far as sexuality was concerned, in the human mind. The church began to tamper with other commandments, and we know the result of that as far as the Sabbath/Sunday issue is concerned. We, as Seventh-day Adventists, have focused on that aspect of the tampering of the commandments. But, in reality, even though the wording of the seventh commandment was not tampered with, the understanding and the application of sexuality in the human family was.

By the fifth century, a monk in the Catholic Church by the name of Augustine began to set the tone for Christian thinking that would continue for centuries. Orders of monks came into being as well as convents for nuns and a distorted view of what God had pronounced “very good.” They began to teach and believe that chastity was the most favored position that the human race could hold. Such beliefs were taught in the schools of the church. The leaders began to destroy any and all documents and arts that had any reference to sexual matters. This is why, to a large extent in the European areas where Catholic influence has been felt, we have very little understanding of sexuality in earlier centuries. We have to go into areas where the Catholic influence was not felt to really understand the teachings that were going on at that time.

Out of this period came the Victorian era. The Victorian era is responsible for negatively impacting more people psychologically than perhaps any other era that has come to pass in this earth’s history. Today, we are still feeling the results of the Victorian era concerning sexuality. Generally, the first references children hear regarding their sexual organs are terms such as icky pooh and nasty. That comes from the Victorian mentality, and such thoughts have messed up innumerable people.

So, sex is indeed a very sensitive subject, because we have never fully understood what the Bible has to say about sex. We have never been able to come completely out of the Victorian era, which contended that sex is wrong, that it should not be preached about or discussed.

In Your Heart

Jesus said, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Matthew 5:27, 28.

Jesus expands on these verses from the Sermon on the Mount telling what this commandment is prohibiting. It is not just the overt behavior of adultery that is being prohibited, but also the very disposition within us that underlies such behavior—the lust within us that gives rise to the kind of leers that veritably “undress” another person in order to feed the fires of our fantasized desires.

If you admire something long enough, you will soon want it. And if you want something long enough and bad enough, you will probably find a way to get it. We need to be careful, because sin starts in the mind. So the sin begins in looking and in thinking about that which is forbidden. The mind is the incubator of almost every deed that is done.

Ellen White counsels: “Our meditations should be such as will elevate the mind. ‘Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.’ [Philippians 4:8.] Here is a wide field in which the mind can safely range. If Satan seeks to turn it to low and sensual things, bring it back. When corrupt imaginings seek to gain possession of your mind, flee to the throne of grace, and pray for strength from heaven. By the grace of Christ it is possible for us to reject impure thoughts. Jesus will attract the mind, purify the thoughts, and cleanse the heart from every secret sin. ‘The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God; . . . casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.’ [11 Corinthians 10:4, 5.]” Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 136.

Adultery Lifestyles

Adultery is more than living a Clinton lifestyle. There is long distance adultery; the Internet opens up the possibilities for cyber adultery. This is a sin. Imagine spending hours tantalizing and playing with another human. And how do you even know if you are talking to a male or a female? If a married person allows his or her mind to fantasize about another person, they are playing with a fire that might just burn up their marriage. Your marriage gets torched when you are in the chat room dabbling with another person. Do not play with fire unless you want to spend some time in the burn unit. You know, I am sure, when the burn unit will occur. The New Testament is just as clear as the Old Testament when it says that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9, 10; Galatians 5:21.) Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers will be in the kingdom of heaven. The Bible is very plain on this.

Another kind of adultery is pornographic adultery. You get burned when you allow your mind to feast on pornographic images, which come onto your computer screen or into your mailbox. You need to avoid these temptations. Job had it figured out, when he said, “I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?” Job 31:1. That is a good covenant to make.

We need to eliminate anything that stirs us up with this type of temptation. Maybe we need to clean out the magazines in our houses. Maybe we need to get rid of some of the videos in our houses. Maybe we need to call the cable company and cancel certain channels, or, better yet, get rid of the television! We need to get our Bibles and read them.

Heed the counsel given in 1 Corinthians 7:2, 3: “Let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.”

And then there’s another type of adultery. We would call it premarital adultery, or fornication or cohabitation. Did you know that individuals who cohabit and then marry are 33 percent more likely to divorce than if they had not?

Purity is also expected if you are unmarried. Fornication includes those who live together before marriage. A girl who is shacked up with her boyfriend is very likely to suffer physical abuse. A child who lives in such a home with his or her mother’s boyfriend is 73 times more vulnerable to experience fatal abuse than a normal child. (See Maggie Gallagher, The Abolition of Marriage, Regnery Publishing, Washington, D.C., 1996, 31.)

Consequences

Adultery does have consequences that are not usually shown in the fictitious world of movies, television soaps, or make-believe stories and books. Those things teach us that adultery is all love and fun, and everything is fine. But, I will tell you that eternal life is certainly jeopardized. Health is endangered. Happiness is squandered. Your reputation is cheapened. Your marriage is often irreparably destroyed. Your children suffer the consequences for generations to come. Your family name will be dragged into the dirt. Can you really afford adultery?

Breaking the seventh commandment produces broken homes and poverty. Almost 75 percent of American children living in fatherless households will experience poverty before the age of 11, compared to only 20 percent of those raised by two parents. Such children tend to drop out of school and develop emotional or behavioral problems, commit suicide and fall victim to child abuse or neglect. Males from such households are more likely to become violent criminals. In fact, men who have grown up without dads currently represent 70 percent of the prison population serving long-term sentences. (See Michael G. Moriarty, The Perfect 10, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1999, 113.)

Consider as well the other commandments that are broken when adultery occurs. Adultery is stealing; it steals the love from another; it steals someone’s spouse away. Adultery destroys trust, and jeopardizes the family. Adultery is a living lie. It is done without the knowledge of the spouse. Adultery is coveting someone who does not belong to you.

A Symbol

In faithful, lifelong committed relationships—those in which the partners say, and really mean, “ ’til death do us part”—we have the opportunity to mirror something that is divine. We have the opportunity to mirror in our own relationships that same quality of faithfulness with which, throughout our lives, God relates to us.

By being faithful to your spouse, you are enhancing your ability to be faithful to God. The purpose of the seventh commandment is to build an atmosphere where two people can experience the highest joy and deepest intimacy as they both grow more and more into the fullness of the image of Jesus Christ. God’s commitment and fidelity to us is eternal. He created us, too, for fidelity. God wants to protect that bond, but Satan works overtime to destroy the Christian home, because it represents that connection.

This seventh commandment is about chastity, faithfulness, and the overcoming of lust. Yet the truth of the matter is that these qualities in our relationships are too difficult for us to accomplish all on our own. You see, the rest of society is just too heavily invested in tempting us away from these. So to come anywhere near succeeding at them, we need to understand the value and worth of chastity, faithfulness, and the overcoming of lust, and ask God to help us obtain and maintain His virtue in our lives each day.

“Let every one who desires to be a partaker of the divine nature, appreciate the fact that he must escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. There must be a constant, earnest struggling of the soul against the evil imaginings of the mind. There must be a steadfast resistance of temptation to sin in thought or act.” Review and Herald, June 12, 1888.

The apostle Paul writes, in 1 Thessalonians 4:3: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality.”

To be continued . . .

A retired minister of the gospel, Pastor Mike Baugher may be contacted by e-mail at: landmarks@stepstolife.org.

The Ten Commandments, Part XV – When Gain is Loss

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“Neither shalt thou steal.” Deuteronomy 5:19.

It is interesting how so few words are able to define so broad a responsibility!

Notice how the second table of the law is linked together: “Honour thy father and thy mother, . . . Thou shalt not kill. Neither shalt thou commit adultery. Neither shalt thou steal.” Verses 16–19. [Emphasis supplied.] If you break one point, you have broken the whole law.

This linkage occurs because the second part of the law is linked together as man’s responsibility to man. It is linked together with the first table of the law so it becomes one whole. This is why James says, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one [point], he is guilty of all.” James 2:10. If you break one link in the chain, you have broken the entire chain. It will be of no value to you if you break one link.

This eighth commandment is brief, yet it covers many areas of which we normally do not think. The violation of this commandment calls for a different penalty for its violation than do the rest of the commandments for their violation.

All of the previous commandments called for the death penalty under Mosaic Law. This commandment does not call for the death penalty, but for restoration. It calls for the restoration of light goods many times over.

In Old Testament times, there was not even a prison sentence if a person was caught violating this commandment, because Israel did not operate in that way. There were basically three penalties for the violation of the law: (1) death by stoning, (2) restoration, and (3) a fine. These three penalties certainly kept the prison population to a minimum!

But even though, in the Mosaic Law, there was a lesser penalty for this violation, do not for a moment think that a lesser penalty will be applied when the tribunal of heaven reviews one’s life in the judgment. If our sins have not been confessed, if our sins have not been forgiven, the death penalty will be meted out in the final end of all things.

When the Bible says, “Thou shalt not steal,” yet someone violates this command, it is still sin in the eyes of God. The Bible makes it very clear that “the wages of sin [is] death.” Romans 6:23.

Universal Application

As we consider the universal application of the Ten Commandments, the eighth commandment is recognized as a universal law all over the world, by all people, everywhere. They may not recognize or acknowledge the one true God of heaven, but they recognize the truth that says that another person’s property belongs to him or her and another person should not tamper with it. From the most civilized to the most heathenish, this law is recognized as contributing to the betterment of the society in which we live.

“Thou shalt not steal.” On the surface, this short statement commands respect for another’s property. This is part of God’s plan for character development, because, as we are observant and obedient to His law, as we recognize the prohibitions that are there, it does something for us as well as something for society. We develop character.

More Than Superficial

Romans 7:14 tells us “that the law is spiritual” and that it has depth below the surface. The law is more than just prohibitions written on tables of stone; it has a spiritual side as well.

To say that the law has a spiritual side means that it deals with the thoughts and the intents of the heart, not just the outward acts. This is the direction that the Law of Moses actually goes as well. This is the direction that God’s Law goes—from the outward to the inward, from the act to the thoughts.

So when the commandment says, “Thou shalt not steal,” the spiritual depth says, by its very nature, that there is more here than just a physical act. The question we have to ask ourselves is, Just how far does it go? An insight as to the nature of this commandment may be gathered from the writings of Ellen White.

Speaking of the eighth commandment, she says: “Both public and private sins are included in this prohibition. The eighth commandment condemns manstealing and slave dealing, and forbids wars of conquest. It condemns theft and robbery. It demands strict integrity in the minutest details of the affairs of life. It forbids overreaching in trade, and requires the payment of just debts or wages. It declares that every attempt to advantage oneself by the ignorance, weakness, or misfortune of another is registered as fraud in the books of heaven.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 309.

When this counsel was written, there were still many places in the world where the slave trade flourished. Whether you realize it or not, there are still many places in the world today where the slave trade is still perpetuated.

Right here in the United States the slave trade is still in operation! More than 50,000 children a year disappear; many of those children disappear into the slave trade. The people who steal them force them into bondage of prostituting themselves, both boys and girls. It is estimated that one million children are enslaved in prostitution in Asia. (Carol Smolenski, “Sex tourism and the sexual exploitation of children,” Christian Century, November 15, 1995.) When Mrs. White talks about the eighth commandment, her counsel applies to the slave trade; it is very applicable today.

Only those who are allowing their characters to be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit are in tune with the law. They begin to allow their characters to develop so these things will no longer take place.

We in the United States are facing a time when every principle of our Constitution will be disregarded. Men and women will lose their sense as to what is right and what is wrong, and the slave trade of which Mrs. White was speaking will come back in some degree of application again. As we read the Spirit of Prophecy, she makes it very plain that slave trade will come back with the Sunday law. (See, for example, Christian Service, 155–158.) How this will happen I do not know, but there will be people, when the Holy Spirit is withdrawn, who will think that it is a good thing to have a slave or two. This is why the Law of God is so important as we come into the last days. It is God’s revealed will and what He expects of His people in the last days.

What Precedes

If the world had followed the Law of God all along, we would not have the writings of history to remind us about slavery, manstealing, and wars of conquest. In regard to wars of conquest, of which Mrs. White says this commandment applies, I believe there are preludes that lead us into accepting wars of conquest. One of those avenues that leads us into wars of conquest is competitive sports.

When you have on your spiritual glasses, the spirit that surrounds competitive sports is the same spirit that generates wars of conquest. It is the spirit of the strong prevailing over the weak; this is the spirit of competition. This is the spirit of any type of conquest over another. Consider the names of certain groups that are contesting with other groups. There are names such as the Warriors, the Raiders, the Trojans, and on and on the list goes. These names hearken back to these wars of conquest. A certain mentality is developed through these kinds of things.

Stewardship

The Law of God is very comprehensive, because it is spiritual. A study of the Bible reveals that the ownership of material goods is not really ownership at all; it is really stewardship. We may own a piece of property; we may have a title deed to a piece of property, but, in reality, it is only secondary ownership. God is really the Owner. He is, as the Bible says, the “possessor of heaven and earth.” Genesis 14:22.

God declares that “all the earth is mine.” Exodus 19:5. And the Psalmist says, “The earth [is] the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” Psalm 24:1. All belongs to God, so, in reality, man is only a tenant, or a steward, with a definite obligation to the real Owner. Most of the world does not recognize that God owns everything, that they are just tenants or stewards.

Once you realize, for instance, that although you may have title to a car, that car really does not belong to you, it belongs to God, it lessens the sting when someone comes along and pilfers it and takes some of your goods.

Changes Not

Another aspect of this commandment that says, “Thou shalt not steal,” is given in Malachi 3:6: “For I [am] the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Are you glad that God’s purposes for you have never changed? Are you thankful that His purpose is that you will be in the kingdom of heaven, and that is the reason you are not consumed?

“Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept [them]. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?” Verse 7. How are we going to come back to God? We do not even think that we have been away from Him! The question comes back, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye [are] cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, [even] this whole nation.” Verses 8, 9.

One of the greatest violations that man can ever perpetrate, as far as this commandment is concerned, is when he begins to take things from God that do not belong to him.

I have often found it interesting when people say, “I pay my tithe.” No, you do not pay your tithe. What you really do is return to God that which belongs to Him. You have just been given stewardship over it. You do become a thief when you take God’s material and appropriate it for yourself. If it were possible to list by degrees the violation of this commandment, being a robber of God would be at the top of the list.

Personal Violation

There are responsibilities that we have to our fellow man because we recognize this commandment that God has given to us. Stealing is taking property from another, over which he has been given the stewardship of God. In doing this, there indeed is a violation between one person and another, but do you realize that there is even a greater violation involved in this commandment than just taking someone else’s property? It goes far beyond that into the realm of the spiritual.

If you take something that does not belong to you, you are taking something that God has placed into the stewardship of another person. In doing this, you effectually are saying that God does not know what He is doing, that you really know more about the stewardship of God than God knows, because He gave that property to the wrong person when He should have given it to you. In reality, you put yourself in the place of God when you steal something from someone else.

When such things happen, a whole series of events are set in motion. You do not really understand it unless you see it from God’s perspective. This is why the impact of what James says becomes so dynamic: “If you have broken one, you have broken them all.”

There are only three ways in which we can come into possession of anything: (1) by a gift, (2) by labor, working for it, and (3) by stealing it. The first two are legal and right—when you receive a gift, when you labor and purchase possessions—but the last one is wrong, and it is considered sin.

Gambling

Another aspect that applies to this commandment is a form that is so popular today that most people do not see anything wrong with it. Many Christians, including many Seventh-day Adventists, find themselves engaged in this activity. It encompasses betting, lotteries, or any other type of con games. Seventh-day Adventists and other Christians get involved with this because people are always wanting to get something for nothing, never realizing that such forms of acquisition come under the prohibition of this commandment and, as such, are forms of theft. Literally billions and billions of dollars are acquired in this way each year. A Christian has to be so careful that he or she does not get caught up in it.

As one writer put it: Gambling stands in about the same relation to stealing as dueling does to murder. Just because a man is willing to risk his life in an encounter does not make it right for him to take another man’s life. Nor does the fact that a man is willing to risk his own property in a game of chance make it right for him to take another man’s property without the equivalent in payment. There is nothing considerate or brotherly in a gambling transaction. Men gamble simply as a result of their feverish desire for quick and easy gain, at any cost, even their own souls.

Overreaching

In her statement, Ellen White addressed another aspect of theft that forbids what is called “overreaching in trade.” Everybody likes a bargain, and I am no exception. I like a bargain too. But we do overstep our bounds when we beat someone down on their price by haggling over some article of merchandise.

Proverbs 20:14 talks about this issue: “[It is] naught, [it is] naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.” In other words, it is worth nothing. “That piece of junk,” the buyer insists, “is not worth a red cent.”

In other words, someone learns about an item that is for sale, but when he talks to the owner about it, he runs it down. He tells how bad it is, outlines all the faults that it has, and then offers a low price.

Not everybody who puts an ad in the paper for something to sell has a lot of money in the bank. The item for sale may not be just something extra they want to get rid of. Usually, people, when they put an ad in the paper, are pressed to the wall. They need to raise some funds, and they need every dollar they can get out of the item for sale. When you come along and begin to haggle and try to beat them down on their price, if they are in a pinch, they may sell the item for the lowered price because they need the money. But do you know what takes place in a situation like this? You have just stolen someone else’s stewardship from them.

We dishonor God, as Christians, when we engage in such conduct. There is nothing wrong with asking a person what their price is or if they can take less for the item. But our every action must be above board. It is not necessary to steal openly in order to transgress the law. To buy something for a lower price and sharp trading is just as much stealing as selling something for more than it is worth or by misrepresenting it.

The ’60s

Some of you remember the 1960s. I can remember that time. If you are too young to remember, perhaps you have heard or read about those times. In the early 1960s, the Cold War between two super powers, the United States and Russia, was at its height. It was also a time of the race for outer space between these two nations. The question was, Which one would be first to put a satellite into space, a human being into orbit, or land on the moon?

During the heat of this space race, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) was faced with a lot of problems. One of the problems they encountered was the need for a ballpoint pen the astronauts could use, one that would write in zero gravity—that condition experienced when the capsules were flying around in that atmosphere.

In typical American fashion, ingenuity prevailed. After a considerable amount of research and development, an astronaut pen was developed at the cost of approximately one million dollars, and, believe me, it worked in outer space! It enjoyed a certain amount of success as a novelty item here on the earth. Interestingly, the Soviet Union was faced with the same problem. They solved the problem also. Their solution? They used a pencil.

This seems a bit like the situation that we face when we consider the eighth commandment! It seems so easy: “Thou shalt not steal,” yet we find that it is tremendously complex in a number of ways.

Complex or Simple

Many times we make things out to be very, very complex. We go through all kinds of effort in an attempt to try to solve the problem, and yet it is very simple. The commandments can be expanded and magnified. That is what Jesus intended to teach when He came.

When we really get serious about our life and its relationship to God, the questions change. Instead of asking, What is the minimum requirement, the least that I can do to be saved, we ask, How much can I do for God? How much am I willing to hear what God says? How far am I willing to go to follow Him?

So, when we really study this commandment and want to hear what God might be saying, we find that there is a lot more to this than just “Thou shalt not steal.” If you really want to get serious about what being a Christian is all about, you begin to see how easily the commandment begins to become complicated.

Time and Energy

Can stolen time and energy cause us to be thieves? Yes, they can. It does not have to be that we rob God or another person. We can rob in many ways other than just taking someone’s possessions. Consider some instances.

In the work place, when we have a job to do, if we are not diligent in our work, giving labor for what we are given, we are stealing, just as surely as though we were putting our hands in the cash box.

It is possible for married people to spend so much time in their own pursuits, in their professions, in their hobbies, in what they want to do, that they, in effect, steal time and attention that rightfully belongs to the spouse. Likewise, people can spend so much time on their jobs, in their hobbies, or even at church, that they, in effect, steal the time and the attention that rightfully belongs to their children.

It is this kind of theft for which many will be held accountable in the judgment. The reason is that the Questioner is going to inquire, “Where is the little flock I gave you?”

Business Fairness

Suppose a business owner has a successful business operation. The company is making money. The public likes its product. Then it comes time to decide, as it does ever so often, what to do about employee wage increases. How much should the employees be paid during the coming year? There can be a myriad of answers to this question, but two distinctly different ones are these: (1) pay them what they are worth; after all, they are the ones that help the business to succeed, or (2) pay them as little as possible so more profit stays with the business owners.

When employers pay as little as they can, when they give the minimum amount with which they can get away, they have, in effect, stolen from the employee. And in the process, they have stolen from the family’s well being. They have stolen the education possibilities from that employee’s children. They have stolen that family’s hopes, and, in the process, they have become the loser.

No Bad Trade

The Book of James deals with this issue. The most important question to ask on the job is not, What am I getting paid? The most important question to ask is, What am I becoming here?

At first thought, it can be looked at as a warning, and it is. Do not make a bad trade. Do not trade your soul, your honesty, and your integrity for some material stuff. This concept is also a promise, because when we make the right choice, we advance in the plan that God has for us.

Every time we could take something, and we do not, it does something for us spiritually. This law has much broader application than just the taking of things. It has to do with the heart. We should ask ourselves, How am I relating to all the various issues of life? Am I dealing fairly and squarely in every area of life? Not only in terms of recognizing someone else’s stewardship, but also questioning whether or not I am giving the proper time in the work place—not only as an employee, but as an employer. Am I recognizing my responsibilities in my family and in my home? Am I recognizing my responsibilities in the community?

I Owe, I Owe

What about owing a bill? Many people owe bills, and the promise is always there, “I am going to pay it. I have it in the back of my mind. I am going to pay the bill. I will pay the bill.” But it never happens.

What about just paying bills on time? Perhaps a bill comes due the first of the month, but I do not get it paid until the end of the month. Does this commandment apply to this situation? It most certainly does. Why? Because in not paying a bill on time, funds are withheld from the treasury of the person or business collecting the money. That money could either be invested or gaining interest, but you have taken from their resource.

Christians are under the obligation of the Law of God to pay their bills on time. God will hold us accountable for those things.

Away With It

Whenever we do wrong, whenever we think we have gotten away with something, whenever we think that no one has seen us, mark it down. Someone is keeping record—not only of the act itself but also of the thoughts and the intents of the heart.

As we continue this series on the Ten Commandments, we will come to one that deals with the thoughts and the intents of the heart. God’s Law is very comprehensive. God’s Law is very complete. I hope that your interest has been sparked to study the Law of God from a different perspective and in more depth than you have in the past.

Each one of us is either becoming more like Jesus or more like the devil, and that end result ultimately rests with how we relate to the Law of God.

To be continued . . .

A retired minister of the gospel, Pastor Mike Baugher may be contacted by e-mail at: landmarks@stepstolife.org.

The Pen of Inspiration – The Spirit of Law-Breakers

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Men who will not admit the claims of God’s law, which are so very plain, will generally take a lawless course; for they have so long taken sides with the great rebel in warring against the law of God, which is the foundation of his government in heaven and on earth, that they are trained in this labor. In their warfare, they will not open their eyes or consciences to light. They close their eyes lest they shall become enlightened. Their case is as hopeless as was that of the Jews, who would not see the light which Christ brought to them. The wonderful evidences of his Messiahship, by the miracles he performed in healing the sick and raising the dead, and doing the works which no other man had done or could do, instead of melting or subduing their hearts and overcoming their wicked prejudices, inspired them with Satanic hatred and fury, such as Satan possessed when he was thrust out of heaven. The greater light and evidence they had, the greater was their hatred. They were determined to extinguish the light by putting Christ to death.

The haters of God’s law, which is the foundation of his government in heaven and earth, are on the same ground as were the unbelieving Jews. Their defiant power will follow those who keep the commandments of God, and great light will be rejected by them. Their consciences have been violated so long, and their hearts have grown so hard by their choosing darkness rather than light, that they feel that it is a virtue in them to bear false witness or stoop to almost any course of equivocation or deception, as did the Jews in their rejection of Christ, to gain their object. They reason that the end justifies the means. They virtually crucify the law of the Father as the Jews crucified the Son.

Seize Every Opportunity

Our work should be to embrace every opportunity to present the truth in its purity and simplicity where there is any desire or interest to hear the reasons of our faith. Those who have dwelt mostly upon the prophecies and the theoretical points of our faith, should without delay become Bible students upon practical subjects. They should take a deeper draught at the fountain of divine truth. They should carefully study the life of Christ and his lessons of practical godliness, given for the benefit of all, and the rule of right living for all who should believe on his name. They should be imbued with the spirit of their great Example, and have a high sense of the sacred life of a follower of Christ.

Christ met the case of every class in his subjects and manner of teaching. He ate and lodged with the rich and poor, and made himself familiar with the interests and occupations of men, that he might gain access to their hearts. The learned and most intellectual were gratified and charmed with his discourses, which were yet so plain and simple as to be comprehended by the humblest minds. Christ availed himself of every opportunity to give instructions to the people upon the heavenly doctrines and precepts which should be incorporated into their lives, and which would distinguish them from all other religionists, because of their holy, elevated character. These lessons of divine instruction are not brought to bear upon men’s consciences as they should be. Ministers believing present truth are furnished with discourses by these sermons of Christ which will be appropriate on almost any occasion. Here is a field of study for the Bible student, which he cannot be interested in without having the spirit of the heavenly Teacher in his own heart. Here are subjects which Christ presented to all classes. Thousands of people of every stamp of character, of every grade of society, were attracted and charmed with the matter brought before them. . . .

The truth of God is plain and conclusive. It is harmonious, and in contrast with error shines with clearness and beauty. Its consistency commends it to the judgment of every heart that is not filled with prejudice. . . .

Power of One

The eternal welfare of sinners regulated the conduct of Jesus Christ. He went about doing good. Benevolence was the life of his soul. He not only did good to all who came to him soliciting his mercy, but he perseveringly sought them out. He was never elated with applause, nor dejected by censure or disappointment. When he met with the greatest opposition and the most cruel treatment, he was of good courage. Christ preached the most important discourse inspiration has given us, to only one listener. As he sat by the well to rest, for he was weary, a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and he saw an opportunity to reach her mind, and through her to reach the minds of the Samaritans, who were enveloped in great darkness and error. Although weary, he presented the truths of his spiritual kingdom, which charmed the heathen woman, and filled her with admiration for Christ. She went forth publishing the news, “Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did; is not this the Christ?” [John 4:29.] This woman’s testimony converted many to a belief in Christ. Through her report many came to hear for themselves, and believed because of his own word.

However small may be the number of interested listeners, if their hearts are reached and their understanding convinced, they can carry the report, as did the Samaritan woman, which will raise the interest of hundreds to investigate for themselves. While laboring in places to create an interest, there will be many discouragements; but if at first there seems to be but little interest, it is no evidence that you have mistaken your duty and place of labor. If the interest steadily increases, and the people move understandingly, not from impulse but from principle, the interest is much more healthy and durable than where a great excitement is created suddenly, and the feelings are all stirred up by listening to a debate and sharp contest on both sides of the question, for and against the truth. Fierce opposition is thus aroused, and rapid decisions are made and positions taken. There is a feverish state of things. Calm consideration and judgment are wanting. Let this excitement subside, or let it be managed indiscreetly, and reaction takes place and the interest can never be raised again. Feeling and sympathy were stirred, but the conscience was not convicted, the heart was not broken and humbled before God.

No Debate

In the presentation of unpopular truth, which involves a heavy cross, laborers should be careful that every word is as God would have it. Their words should never be cutting. They should present the truth in humility, with the deepest love for souls and an earnest desire for their salvation, and let the truth cut. They should not seek to provoke debate, not defy ministers of other denominations. They should not stand in a position like that of Goliath when he defied the armies of Israel. Israel did not defy Goliath, but he made his proud boasts against God and his people. The defying and boasting and railing must come from the opposers of truth, who act the Goliath; but none of this spirit should be seen in those whom God has sent forth to proclaim the last message of warning to a doomed world. . . .

Called to Meet a Defier

If you, like David, are brought into a position where God’s cause really calls you to meet a defier of Israel, go forth in the strength of God, relying wholly upon him, and he will carry you through, and cause his truth to triumph gloriously. Christ has given us an example. “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the Devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” [Jude 9.]

Review and Herald, March 23, 1886.

The Ten Commandments, Part XVI – Truth or Consequences

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God has given the gift of language so that communication can take place between members of the same species. Many animals communicate out of instinct, but man communicates through the gift of speech that God has given to him. The language of communication is given so that cooperation can take place between human beings. Through the use of words, men can cooperate in the process of building up society and getting God’s plan and principles to the entire world.

Language is a bridge between man and man. It is the circulating medium of human exchange—the exchange of thoughts, sentiments, and plans. God has ordained it so. One of the greatest joys that can take place between human beings is communication. Communication plays a very essential part in man being able to get along within the world in which he lives.

The gift of language, like all other gifts that God has given to man, can be exercised for good or for evil. We all know that. So, true to His great purpose for the human family and all that is good, God has placed a guard around language. That guard is found in the ninth commandment.

As we have studied the commandments that deal with man’s relationship to man, we have noted that several of them, as recorded in Deuteronomy 5, begin with “neither” rather than “thou.” Deuteronomy 5:20 states, “Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour.”

The entire Bible really is nothing more and nothing less than an amplification of the Ten Commandments and their application to the human life. In the Scriptures, we find many encounters that are recorded concerning the human experience as it pertains to language. I have not counted them all, but it seems there are more encounters of experience concerning the ninth commandment than any one of the other commandments.

Why would that be? Because the ninth commandment is a delineation between truth and error. Truth and error are outlined in this commandment. It becomes the focal point of the entire great controversy, the great controversy between truth and error. It really has its roots and its focal point in this commandment!

A Universal Sin

Perhaps the reason for this fact is that bearing false witness is such a universal sin. It is how the devil launched his career of rebellion against God. The Bible says that lying originated with the devil; he is the father of all lies. (See John 8:44.) The Greek word, diabolis, translates into the English word, devil. If we were to give it a more literal translation, we would perhaps use the words accuser or slanderer.

The Bible says so much about lies because they have such a deadly nature. To tell a lie is even more criminal, morally speaking, than to counterfeit money or to forge a check. It is more deadly than those things because, if you write a bogus check, you can usually reclaim that check into your possession, but if you tell a lie, the words cannot be recalled. The lie may circulate and circulate, repeated again and again. An excellent illustration of lies is feathers that are blown in the wind—they are impossible to catch.

Lies are a poison. Once administered, the poison is absorbed into the very fabric of social mentality, never again to be reclaimed. We are told that there are poisons that are so deadly that if they are administered directly into the blood stream, they can cause death within three seconds. I believe that the death of a reputation can take place as rapidly as the administering of a poison into the blood stream.

Broad Scope

The ninth commandment has an equally wide range as all of the other commandments. In past articles of this series, we have seen how the commandments presented so far have a spiritual application, a very broad perspective covering the issues of mankind. The ninth commandment is no exception to that.

Its scope forbids all slander, of whatever kind—not just perjury, of telling a falsehood in court. This is where many people have focused the application of the ninth commandment, and, perhaps, in its primary application, that is where this protection originated. God did not want man to swear falsely, to tell lies against someone, so that they could in turn benefit from some item of property or some circumstance of life. So He instructed to not take an oath, to not swear falsely against our neighbor.

This whole matter of telling the truth, in the economy of Israel, was quite a serious matter. This is one of the reasons the Bible says, “One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.” Deuteronomy 19:15. This takes us right to the trial of Jesus, does it not?

This commandment was designed from the very beginning to vindicate Jesus from death on Calvary’s cross. If God’s Ten Commandments, as they were given on Mount Sinai to the children of Israel, had prevailed all the way down through time, Jesus would never have had to die on Calvary’s cross. It was only because of false testimony that Jesus was convicted and went to the cross. His accusers could not find two witnesses to tell the same story. That is, they could not until they bribed them to do so. It was the violation of this commandment that led to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. If God’s people had allowed this law, which is holy, just, and good, to prevail in their spiritual and practical experiences, Jesus would never have had to die in that way. If Jesus had not died on the cross, He still would have had to die, because the Lamb was to be sacrificed.

Those who gave such false testimony are going to be raised to face the consequence of their sin. They not only lied in a legal proceeding, but they lied to God as well, and the Bible is very clear about how God feels about being lied to Himself. The story of Ananias and Sapphira tells us how God feels about those things. (See Acts 5:1–10.)

Character Assassination

When a false report is circulated concerning someone, it basically constitutes character assassination. Sometimes physical assassination with a gun would be much easier for a person to handle than to be assassinated by words. It is amazing how quickly false reports can circulate about someone.

Pastor John Grosboll shared with me a story about himself. Some people were trying to circulate false reports about him, so they took a photograph of a big, stone mansion, super-imposed pictures of him and his wife, Evelyn, onto it, and circulated the photo around, saying that this was their home, intimating that they were living quite extravagantly. There will be an answering for that false report in the Day of Judgment. It is those kinds of things that this ninth commandment is designed to guard against.

Character or Reputation

Human speech is such an important and precious gift that God has given to us. It is so important that He has given two commandments to help us deal with it.

The third commandment says, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” Exodus 20:7. And then the ninth commandment deals with bearing false witness.

The third commandment safeguards the name of God, and the ninth commandment safeguards the reputation and the character of men. It has been said that character is what you are, and reputation is what others think about you.

False witness, in reality, can harm only a person’s reputation, but a person can damage his or her own character. Character can only be revealed and damaged when a person takes that into his or her own hands. Reputation is what others are saying about you, but your own character can only be damaged by your own self.

Brother’s Keeper

Every man can determine what his own character is going to be, but reputation is our neighbor’s opinion of us and is, therefore, wholly in his or her keeping. God has given this commandment to deal with safeguarding those who are our neighbors. In more ways than one, we are really our brother’s keeper.

This, we find, was the question that was asked in the beginning of time—“Am I my brother’s keeper?” Genesis 4:9. Cain asked the Lord this when God asked where his brother was.

We are our brother’s keeper, and when we bear false witness, we betray a very sacred trust for which we will be called into account at the judgment.

Lawful Testimony

“I [Ellen White] was shown that when it is actually necessary, and they are called upon to testify in a lawful manner, it is no violation of God’s word for His children to solemnly take God to witness that what they say is the truth, and nothing but the truth.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 202.

In my years of ministry, I have, it seems, continuously run across people that have a problem with taking an oath to tell the truth. They have refused to go to court for they feel that taking an oath is a violation of the commandments. Yet we read here that Ellen White says that it is not a violation to take God as your witness as far as to tell the truth is concerned. It is the duty, really, of a witness to tell the truth, and if a person does not tell the truth, they bear a false witness or a false testimony.

Amplification

The divine instruction of the ninth commandment is further amplified in Zechariah 8:16, 17: “These [are] the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates: And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these [are things] that I hate, saith the Lord.”

In John 18:37, an example is given about the Lord Jesus in this regard, fulfilling this passage in Zechariah. Jesus, speaking to Pilate, says, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” Jesus never minimized nor did he exaggerate the truth in His witnessing. He never bore false testimony nor did he stoop to telling what we might call half-truths, which are sometimes more dangerous than telling a lie.

The track of error lies very close to the track of truth. A half-truth is when you are walking down the middle of the tracks. If you have ever walked along a railroad, you know that the easiest place to walk is between the tracks, but it is also the most dangerous place to walk. A half-truth can be just as dangerous or maybe even more so than an out and out falsehood, because quite often a falsehood can be identified, but if it is coupled with some truth, identifying the error becomes more difficult.

We are living in a world in which not too much is any longer a sacred trust. We in the United States have come through a lot of political experiences—such as the Nixon administration (1969–1974) and Watergate (1972–1975) and the Clinton administration (1993–2001)—in which lies were told. We have come to realize that those who are of greatest example are telling falsehoods, providing a powerful message that it is not important to tell the truth anymore.

God and Lying

There are other texts that indicate how God feels about lying. Read Proverbs 12:22: “Lying lips [are] abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly [are] his delight.”

“A false witness shall not be unpunished, and [he that] speaketh lies shall not escape.” Proverbs 19:5.

“These six [things] doth the Lord hate: yea, seven [are] an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness [that] speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.” Proverbs 6:16–19.

Black or White

It has been said that a lie does not have any legs but that it is carried along with other lies. There is no difference as to the quality of the lie. It still makes its way along.

Is there any difference between a white lie and a black lie? No, there is no difference between a white lie and a black lie. Some people think that it is all right to tell a white lie, but to God, it is all sin.

When I entered into the military service, the soldiers were checked very thoroughly for colorblindness. It was important that a soldier not be colorblind, because, on a battlefield, if somebody shot a flare into the air, he or she needed to know exactly what color the flare was. There were different colored flares for different kinds of situations. Good eyesight, and the ability to recognize different colors, was imperative.

It is said that serious automobile accidents result from people who are colorblind and cannot distinguish between green lights and red lights. The same thing can happen as far as spiritual eyesight is concerned as well. We can be blinded to such an extent that we cannot discern spiritual things very well. Then we have a tendency to skew the truth somewhat, because we are blind.

White lies and black lies are caused by spiritual blindness. Although there may be a tendency to excuse white lies because we think they are harmless, they are still an abomination in the eyes of God. There are people who will lie for their own convenience and for their own profit.

We must have the right estimation of sin, and when our hearts and minds are in accord with Jesus Christ, we will view all things as He does. We will be able to recognize sin and hate it the same way that Jesus does. We will be able to see it in its proper perspective, for, as far as Jesus is concerned, there is no such thing as a white lie or a little sin.

Hate the Sin

The Bible says that Jesus loved righteousness, and He who is the Truth hated iniquity. You know, the Bible says that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. To Him that is the Truth, lying is especially hateful; it is in that list of things that He hates.

The Bible tells us, in the Book of Revelation, that all liars, and whoever loves and practices lying, is going to be excluded from the kingdom of heaven. (Revelation 21:8.)

Character Revealed

Words sometimes misrepresent character, and character can be revealed in ways other than words, but it still remains true that words are the chief revealer of character. If you want to know the character of a person, listen to him talk for a while. Character will usually be revealed in that way.

In Matthew 12:34, Jesus is talking to the Scribes and the Pharisees, and He says, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” From this text, we can see that words represent character; thus, words translate into a language that can be read by everyone.

Now, if we trace the word, character, back to its origin, we find that it means, “that which is marked, engraved, or lettered.” So, when we think about a person’s character, it is marked, engraved, and lettered. A man’s character is basically an inscription that is read concerning his habits and his lifestyle. His words characterize him; they give his characteristics. We are going to be judged by every word that we speak. Our speech is going to be a revelation of our character, and if our character is not in harmony with God’s Law, we are going to be closed out of the kingdom of heaven.

What About Your Speech?

Now, consider a few questions in the light of having to face the judgment. What is the character of your words, the tenor of your speech? Are you truthful in all things? Do your words always, and exactly, represent your opinions, your purposes, and your feelings? Do you avoid all lies—white or black? Do you avoid all false suggestions and double meanings?

Quite often we can be asked a question, and we can give an answer, thinking that we have not told a lie. But we have perhaps avoided answering the question, thinking that that is not telling a lie. However, if we are asked a question and we avoid giving a truthful answer, by giving another answer, that is telling a lie, and for that we come under the condemnation of God.

Control the Tongue

The tongue is a mighty, mighty power. It can be used for good, or it can be used for evil. Since it has these two barrels and two triggers, it needs to be kept under control. The Book of James has some tremendous things to say about this subject. “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” James 1:19.

And then consider James 3:1–10: “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same [is] a perfect man, [and] able also to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though [they be] so great, and [are] driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whither-soever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue [is] a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; [it is] an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.”

The Bible says that the tongue is not able to be tamed, but it is talking about a natural man. It is talking about someone who is not under the control of God. God can tame anything that we submit to Him, whether it be our attitudes, our actions, or our tongues. He can deal with it. Our tongues are powerful things, and most of us struggle with it continuously. But if we get up each morning and submit ourselves to God, with His help we will be able to resist the devil, and our tongues will be controlled.

God’s People

We know that God is going to have a people, and those people are going to be purified. Zephaniah 3:13 says: “The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make [them] afraid.”

Who are the remnant of Israel?

Is this the same as the remnant church? Yes, it is. The remnant are going to be virgins. The Bible ties this all together. The remnant are going to be God’s chosen who are going to go through the final end of all things. How do I know that? Because the Book of Revelation tells us that.

Revelation 14 begins by telling the story of the 144,000. They are standing there with the Father’s name written in their foreheads, and verse 5 says: “And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.”

Here are the qualifications for God’s people. God’s people are not only going to worship Him as their God, but they are going to be Sabbath keepers. They are going to be obedient to every aspect of God’s law, and that includes the ninth commandment, which, when properly addressed, allows the character to develop with no deceitfulness, no falsehoods, and no false witness. God’s people will have a lifestyle that is going to meet His high standard.

Of course, there is only one way that that can happen, and that is for us to submit ourselves to Him and allow Him to burn out the character defects in our lives, through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is why the Holy Spirit has been illustrated with fire. The fire is to turn to ashes those sinful traits in our lives, so we can rightly represent the character of Christ.

Of Great Importance

The ninth commandment is a very important commandment. It is a special commandment that applies in so many ways across the experience and spectrum of mankind. Regarding it, Ellen White has written:

“The ninth commandment requires of us an inviolable regard for exact truth in every declaration by which the character of our fellow men may be affected. The tongue, which is kept so little under the control of the human agent, is to be bridled by strong conscientious principles, by the law of love toward God and man.

“False-speaking in any matter, every attempt or purpose to deceive our neighbor, is here included. An intention to deceive is what constitutes falsehood. By a glance of the eye, a motion of the hand, an expression of the countenance, a falsehood may be told as effectually as by words. All intentional overstatement, every hint or insinuation calculated to convey an erroneous or exaggerated impression, even the statement of facts in such a manner as to mislead, is falsehood. This precept forbids every effort to injure our neighbor’s reputation by misrepresentation or evil surmising, by slander or tale-bearing. Even the intentional suppression of truth, by which injury may result to others, is a violation of the ninth commandment.

“He [Jesus] teaches that the exact truth should be the law of speech. ‘Let your speech be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay.’ [Matthew 5:37.] . . . These words condemn all those meaningless phrases and expletives that border on profanity. They condemn the deceptive compliments, the evasion of truth, the flattering phrases, the exaggerations, the misrepresentations in trade, that are current in society and in the business world. They teach that no one who tries to appear what he is not, or whose words do not convey the real sentiment of his heart, can be called truthful. . . .

“Everything that Christians do should be as transparent as the sunlight. Truth is of God; deception, in every one of its myriad forms, is of Satan. . . . We can not speak the truth unless our minds are continually guided by Him who is truth.” Sons and Daughters of God, 64.

To be continued . . .

A retired minister of the gospel, Pastor Mike Baugher may be contacted by e-mail at: landmarks@stepstolife.org.

Bible Study Guides – From Sunset to Sunset

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December 17, 2006 – December 23, 2006

Key Text

“He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.” Luke 16:10.

Study Help: Patriarchs and Prophets, 295, 296; Testimonies, vol. 1, 531–533.

Introduction

“God is no less particular now in regard to his Sabbath than when he made this requirement of the children of Israel.” The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, 259.

“On Friday let the preparation for the Sabbath be completed. See that all the clothing is in readiness and that all the cooking is done. . . . The Sabbath is not to be given to the repairing of garments, to the cooking of food, to pleasure seeking, or to any other worldly employment. Before the setting of the sun let all secular work be laid aside and all secular papers be put out of sight. Parents, explain your work and its purpose to your children, and let them share in your preparation to keep the Sabbath according to the commandment.

“There is another work that should receive attention on the preparation day. On this day all differences between brethren, whether in the family or in the church, should be put away. Let all bitterness and wrath and malice be expelled from the soul. In a humble spirit, ‘confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another.’ [James 5:16.]

“Before the setting of the sun let the members of the family assemble to read God’s Word, to sing and pray.

“We should jealously guard the edges of the Sabbath. Remember that every moment is consecrated, holy time.” The Faith I Live By, 34.

1 What is the biblical reckoning of the beginning and end of a day? Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31.

2 The Bible gives a number of examples of how the faithful have observed the Sabbath from the Creation (Genesis 2:1–3), in the time of Israel (Leviticus 23:32), during the post-captivity Reformation (Nehemiah 13:19), and all the way to the time of Christ (John 19:31).

note: “At last Jesus was at rest. The long day of shame and torture was ended. As the last rays of the setting sun ushered in the Sabbath, the Son of God lay in quietude in Joseph’s tomb. His work completed, His hands folded in peace, He rested through the sacred hours of the Sabbath day.” The Desire of Ages, 769.

“The Sabbath was now drawing on, and it would be a violation of its sanctity for the bodies to hang upon the cross. So, using this as a pretext, the leading Jews requested Pilate that the death of the victims might be hastened, and their bodies be removed before the setting of the sun.” Ibid., 771.

“Gently and reverently they removed with their own hands the body of Jesus from the cross. Their tears of sympathy fell fast as they looked upon His bruised and lacerated form. Joseph owned a new tomb, hewn in a rock. This he was reserving for himself; but it was near Calvary, and he now prepared it for Jesus. The body, together with the spices brought by Nicodemus, was carefully wrapped in a linen sheet, and the Redeemer was borne to the tomb. There the three disciples straightened the mangled limbs, and folded the bruised hands upon the pulseless breast. The Galilean women came to see that all had been done that could be done for the lifeless form of their beloved Teacher. Then they saw the heavy stone rolled against the entrance of the tomb, and the Saviour was left at rest. The women were last at the cross, and last at the tomb of Christ. While the evening shades were gathering, Mary Magdalene and the other Marys lingered about the resting place of their Lord, shedding tears of sorrow over the fate of Him whom they loved. ‘And they returned, . . . and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.’ Luke 23:56.” Ibid., 774.

3 How important is it that we do not encroach on any of the Lord’s time on the Sabbath day? Luke 19:17; 16:10.

note: “God is no less particular now in regard to his Sabbath than when he made this requirement of the children of Israel. His eye is upon all his people, and over all the works of their hands. He will not pass by unnoticed those who crowd upon his Sabbath, and employ time for their own use which belongs to him. Some professed Sabbath-keepers will intrude upon the Sabbath in doing those things which should have been done previous to the Sabbath. Such may think they gain a little time; but instead of being advantaged by robbing God of holy time, which he has reserved to himself, they will lose.” The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, 259.

“There has been too much slackness in regard to the observance of the Sabbath. There has not been promptness to fulfill the secular duties within the six working days which God has given to man and carefulness not to infringe upon one hour of the holy, sacred time which He has reserved to Himself. . . . Transgress in a small matter, and look upon it as no particular sin on our part, and the conscience becomes hardened, the sensibilities blunted, until we can go still further and perform quite an amount of labor and still flatter ourselves that we are Sabbathkeepers, when, according to Christ’s standard, we are breaking every one of God’s holy precepts. There is a fault with Sabbathkeepers in this respect; but God is very particular, and all who think that they are saving a little time, or advantaging themselves by infringing a little on the Lord’s time, will meet with loss sooner or later. He cannot bless them as it would be His pleasure to do, for His name is dishonored by them, His precepts lightly esteemed.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 531, 532.

4 How can we be sure that we will not infringe on the sacred time of the Sabbath?

note: “Before the Sabbath begins, the mind as well as the body should be withdrawn from worldly business. God has set His Sabbath at the end of the six working days, that men may stop and consider what they have gained during the week in preparation for the pure kingdom which admits no transgressor. We should each Sabbath reckon with our souls to see whether the week that has ended has brought spiritual gain or loss.” Testimonies, vol. 6, 356.

5 What time has God given us to be prepared to keep His Sabbath according to the commandment? Mark 15:42; Luke 23:52–56.

note: “While preparation for the Sabbath is to be made all through the week, Friday is to be the special preparation day.” Testimonies, vol. 6, 354.

“The day before the Sabbath should be made a day of preparation, that everything may be in readiness for its sacred hours. In no case should our own business be allowed to encroach upon holy time. God has directed that the sick and suffering be cared for; the labor required to make them comfortable is a work of mercy, and no violation of the Sabbath; but all unnecessary work should be avoided. Many carelessly put off till the beginning of the Sabbath little things that might have been done on the day of preparation. This should not be. Work that is neglected until the beginning of the Sabbath should remain undone until it is past. This course might help the memory of these thoughtless ones, and make them careful to do their own work on the six working days.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 296.

6 What should we consider when planning for our temporal needs on the Sabbath? Exodus 16:23.

note: “The Lord is no less particular now in regard to his Sabbath, than when he gave the foregoing special directions to the children of Israel. He required them to bake that which they would bake, and seethe (that is, boil) that which they would seethe, on the sixth day, preparatory to the rest of the Sabbath. Those who neglect to prepare for the Sabbath on the sixth day, and who cook food upon the Sabbath, violate the fourth commandment, and are transgressors of God’s law. All who are really anxious to observe the Sabbath according to the commandment, will not cook any food upon the Sabbath. They will, in the fear of that God who gave his law from Sinai, deny themselves, and eat food prepared upon the sixth day, even if it is not so palatable. God forbade the children of Israel’s baking and boiling upon the Sabbath. That prohibition should be regarded by every Sabbath-keeper, as a solemn injunction from Jehovah to them. The Lord would guard his people from indulging in gluttony upon the Sabbath, which he has set apart for sacred meditation and worship.” The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, 225, 226.

7 Since we desire to come into the presence of the Lord on the Sabbath, how should we present ourselves before Him? Exodus 19:9–11.

note: “On Friday let the preparation for the Sabbath be completed. See that all the clothing is in readiness, and that all the cooking is done. Let the boots be blacked, and the baths be taken. It is possible to do this. If you make it a rule, you can do it. The Sabbath is not to be given to the repairing of garments, to the cooking of food, to pleasure seeking, or to any other worldly employment. Before the setting of the sun, let all secular work be laid aside, and all secular papers be put out of sight. Parents, explain your work and its purpose to your children, and let them share in your preparation to keep the Sabbath according to the commandment.” Child Guidance, 528.

8 How should our dress be when we come into the presence of the Lord on His holy Sabbath day? Leviticus 19:30; Hebrews 12:28, 29; Genesis 35:2.

note: “Many need instruction as to how they should appear in the assembly for worship on the Sabbath. They are not to enter the presence of God in the common clothing worn during the week. All should have a special Sabbath suit, to be worn when attending service in God’s house. While we should not conform to worldly fashions, we are not to be indifferent in regard to our outward appearance. We are to be neat and trim, though without adornment. The children of God should be pure within and without.” Child Guidance, 531.

“Especial care will be taken to dress in a manner that will show a sacred regard for the holy Sabbath, and the worship of God. The line of demarkation between such a class and the world will be too plain to be mistaken. The influence of believers would be ten-fold greater if men and women who embrace the truth, who have been formerly careless and slack in their habits, would be so elevated, and sanctified through the truth, as to observe habits of neatness, order, and good taste in their dress. Our God is a God of order, and he is not in any degree pleased with distraction, with filthiness, or with sin.” Selected Messages, Book 2, 476.

9 On the Sabbath, how should our homes be prepared to welcome the heavenly angels into them? 1 Corinthians 14:33, 40; Ezekiel 44:23.

note: “The ten commandments spoken by Jehovah from Sinai can not live in the hearts of persons of disorderly, filthy habits. If ancient Israel could not so much as listen to the proclamation of that holy law, unless they had obeyed the injunction of Jehovah, and cleansed their clothing, how can that sacred law be written upon the hearts of persons who are not cleanly in person, in clothing, or in their houses?—It is impossible. Their profession may be as high as heaven, yet it is not worth a straw. Their influence disgusts unbelievers. Better if they had ever remained outside the ranks of God’s loyal people. The house of God is dishonored by such professors.” Review and Herald, January 23, 1900.

“He who was so particular that the children of Israel should cherish habits of cleanliness, will not sanction any impurity in the homes of his people today. God looks with disfavor on uncleanness of any kind. How can we invite him into our homes unless all is neat and clean and pure?

“Believers should be taught that even though they may be poor, they need not be uncleanly or untidy in their persons or in their homes. Help must be given in this line to those who seem to have no sense of the meaning and importance of cleanliness. They are to be taught that those who are to represent the high and holy God must keep their souls pure and clean, and that this purity must extend to their dress, and to everything in the home, so that the ministering angels will have evidence that the truth has wrought a change in the life, purifying the soul and refining the tastes. Those who, after receiving the truth, make no change in word or deportment, in dress or surroundings, are living to themselves, not to Christ. They have not been created anew in Christ Jesus, unto purification and holiness.” Ibid., June 10, 1902.

10 What did Jesus teach about the small details? Luke 24:1–3; John 20:7.

Personal Review

Guarding the Edges—“We should jealously guard the edges of the Sabbath. Remember that every moment is consecrated, holy time. Whenever it is possible, employers should give their workers the hours from Friday noon until the beginning of the Sabbath. Give them time for preparation, that they may welcome the Lord’s day with quietness of mind. By such a course you will suffer no loss even in temporal things.” Testimonies, vol. 6, 356.

The Preparation Day—“Let every family of Seventh-day Adventists honor God by a strict regard for his law. The children should be taught to respect the Sabbath. On the day of preparation, clothing should be put in proper repair, shoes polished, baths taken. Then around the family altar all should wait to welcome God’s holy day, as they would watch for the coming of a dear friend.” The Signs of the Times, May 25, 1882.

“At the very beginning of the fourth commandment the Lord said, ‘Remember.’ He knew that amid the multitude of cares and perplexities man would be tempted to excuse himself from meeting the full requirement of the law, or would forget its sacred importance. Therefore He said: ‘Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.’ [Exodus 20:8.]

“All through the week we are to have the Sabbath in mind and be making preparation to keep it according to the commandment. . . .

“When the Sabbath is thus remembered, the temporal will not be allowed to encroach upon the spiritual. No duty pertaining to the six working days will be left for the Sabbath. During the week our energies will not be so exhausted in temporal labor that on the day when the Lord rested and was refreshed we shall be too weary to engage in His service.” The Faith I Live By, 34.

Reprinted with permission, Reformation Herald Publishing Association, Roanoke Virginia, 2003.