The Ten Commandments

The 10 Commandments

Gary Primo

July 1, 2014

Perhaps the most well known passages in the Scriptures are the 10 commandments. These 10 simple commandments sum up all the love of Yahuwah and how we are to apply them to ourselves and others around us. Moses went into a lot more detail afterward, but all are based on these ten.

In this study I would like to take a closer look at these Ten Commandments and explore what all they entail. Remember that all of these commandments are based upon the universal Law of Love.

It is my belief that these laws were built into the seed of creation and that all of creation is to follow them, both angels and human. After all, they establish the criteria to which we must adhere if we are to ever see incorruption and realize our salvation. Remember, there is no law against love.

Of course man has embellished on these universal laws to twist them to suit their own ambitions. Man has also eliminated some of them and/or added their own laws. Some have also came up with a total substitute for these laws called the “Seven Noahide Laws”, which will be the laws of the coming New World religion. Our duty is to make Yahuwah’s laws an integral part of our nature so that we naturally obey without any thought to ever disobey.

Almost at the beginning of the history of mankind, a man (Adam) made the free will choice for all of mankind, that man (via HaSatan’s influence) was already elohim and could decide their fate on their own. That turned out to be the biggest mistake ever made in human history.

While many societies loosely base their civil law on the 10 commandments, they fall short of exercising the love that is supposed to be at the root of these laws. We have become like any other animal on the face of the earth, caring only for today with no though about the future – our future.

So let us now examine these laws and put them into perspective from the view point of demonstrating love towards Yahuwah first and then all of creation.

Exodus 2:I - am Yahuwah thy Elohim, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

After over 400 years of slavery, one would expect the Israelites to have been the most humble and obedient people on the earth; but they were not. Yahuwah called them stubborn and “stiff-necked”. Why was this?

That is what they call “human nature”. Humans rejected the nature of Yahuwah back in the Garden of Eden leaving only their human nature to deal with. Human nature is little different from any other creature on this earth. They feel all the emotions that any other animal feels. Some can control these emotions and some cannot.

The Israelites (for the most part) could not get past their human nature. They saw the Ten Commandments only in physical terms and could only comprehend them in physical terms. They basically ignored the spiritual, meatier aspects of the commandments.

This accusation can also be applied to many Believers today. Many still can’t see past the physical to the spiritual fulfillment of the law. They keep the law only to make themselves appear as being righteous before others when the reality is that they are bathed in self-righteousness. Many ignore the spiritual altogether and focus on minute physical details. They are like someone treading water and not going anywhere.

3 - Thou shalt have no other elohim before me.

Anything that we place between or in front of Yahuwah, that dominates or takes precedence before Yahuwah, becomes our elohim. For an example; an alcoholic places all his focus on his next drink – alcohol becomes his elohim. For an avid golfer, golf becomes his elohim. However, Yahuwah insists on being first and foremost. This not only demonstrates our love back towards Yahuwah, but also shows our appreciation in regards to our existence and the glorious future that our Father has purposed for us.

In this busy world today, it is difficult to continuously keep our focus on Yahuwah. Yet Yahuwah accepts no excuses. If we truly desire to change our nature and become like Yahuwah, we must be continually practicing Yahuwah’s law of love at every opportunity. We must think of ourselves as Yahuwah’s ambassadors on Earth and act accordingly. This mainly involves thinking of others before ourselves and placing ourselves in their shoes. In every situation we must first think how Yahuwah would handle that specific obstacle.

For example; if you hear that someone is speaking slander against you. You should not fight slander with slander; but, rather, go to that person in an attitude of love and discuss their accusations. We should not approach them with a self-righteous attitude but one of humility and love, turning a potential enemy into a friend. With many people this is difficult because of their attitude and inability to control their emotions, but persistence may win them over.

When we truly place Yahuwah first in our lives and are earnestly trying to emulate His nature, we must learn to think, act and speak as He would. Sometimes we may be sad or depressed, or angry, and forget to think of Yahuwah first. We allow or emotions to rule our thoughts, actions and words instead. This is especially true in our home environment where we all wear our emotions on our sleeves and are quick to anger and act out of anger. In this case, our emotions take precedence over our relationship with Yahuwah. Our emotions become the elohim that we are placing before Yahuwah. This is also something we must overcome. Yahuwah will accept no excuses.

4 - Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

Dictionary .com

grav·en

[grey-vuh n] Show IPA

verb

a past participle of grave³.

adjective

deeply impressed; firmly fixed.

carved; sculptured: a graven idol.

As the religions of men developed and grew, they came to worship the creation (sun, moon, etc.) in place of Yahuwah. They also worshiped their temple buildings, their religion itself and their religious leaders in place of Yahuwah. Him that you obey, him do you worship.

I have been in a number of churches and home groups where they have one person whom they esteem as spiritually righteous and follow all their teachings. In almost all of these cases, that person they esteem holds only a small portion of the truth and are grossly practicing error in other areas.

We have but one teacher – Yahushua. We do not need to seek out another to take his place. Yahushua does possess all truth. He is the first, of all creation, to graduate to the new creation. He is the first to fully become Elohim. No human or angel fits this bill.

So, why do so many seek a human to interpret the marvelous wonder that is Yahuwah? That is simply human nature. In many cases we seek someone to “soften” the words of Yahuwah and make us feel better about ourselves. In many cases people are lazy and want whichever charismatic leader to do all the “work” for them. They feel that as long as they faithfully follow the teaching of this man, they we be guaranteed a place in the Kingdom.

Well, what if this leader is wrong? What if he is leading you astray? We cannot afford to allow anyone to do this to us. We must seek out the word and clear instruction of Yahuwah straight from the source. We need no man, religion or church to have a close and personal relationship with Yahuwah. In fact, we are much better off without them.

In the 4^th century A.D. a curious thing happened. Emperor Constantine made a decision to amalgamate all the religions in his empire into one state sanctioned system of worship. He took bits and pieces of all the traditions and customs of each and mixed them together and formed a new religion known as Christianity.

Prior to this, true believers referred to themselves simply as “Believers” and thought of the faith as an extension of Judaism. It was mainly the unbelieving Jews that wished to force Believers to be recognized as a separate religion. And so they persuaded the Romans to recognize them as a separate religion, also.

All religions within the empire were forced to register their religion with the Roman authorities. Since the Romans already referred to Believers as “Christiani”, they simply registered them under that name. The name “Christiani” originated as a term of ridicule by the Roman authorities. It was coined after another term used of the Roman emperor Augustine, “Augustiani”, which was a reference to his empirical “cheerleaders” who proceeded and followed him wherever he went, praising and showering him with adoration – like a god (or the Pope). This name stuck even though the Believers hated the term and would have never used it in reference to themselves.

In Constantine’s day, this new faith was gaining considerable popularity throughout his kingdom. Since he seemed powerless to stop it, Constantine sought to control it instead. Therefore, he amalgamated all the religions in his realm into one state religion which he called Christian. The only thing he took from the hated Jewish religion was their Messiah. However, he did change his name and simply changed former pagan idols to supposedly represent Yahushua. The pagan temples were also “Christianized” and all their models have been copied up to this day.

The Roman Catholic religion, also known as the “Universal” church was the beginning of the official state religion of Rome. To this day, they believe that theirs is the only true religion on Earth. They also believe that their “Pope” is “god on earth”. They openly worship the man (the Pope) in place of Yahuwah. They are basically following the pattern set forth by the Babylonian Mystery Religion that originated with King Nimrod. The basic principal of all pagan systems of worship is to worship a man (the creation) in place of Yahuwah. That man becomes their idol.

We must be careful not to fall into this trap. I too was caught in this trap in the beginning. When I decided to leave off following after the man, I was ostracized by the rest of the church and condemned to eternal death. Looking back now, I feel it was the best and wisest choice I have ever made. Judge me not by the doctrines of men, but only by the truth of Yahuwah. We are to have no idols before Yahuwah.

5 - Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I Yahuwah thy Elohim am a jealous Elohim, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

By worshiping idols in place of Yahuwah, we are demonstrating hatred (not love) toward Yahuwah. It was men, not Yahuwah that taught us to do so. Their intent was clearly to draw worship and adoration away from Yahuwah and to themselves and most of the world has followed blindly after them. If any of us are still doing so, we are basically saying that we do not believe or trust Yahuwah to lead us. We are no better than the ancient Israelites when they asked to have a king over them in place of Yahuwah. We have one Elohim, one leader/king/teacher/high priest and one source of truth. We need no other.

Another interesting truth revealed in this verse is that the Iniquity (sin) of the fathers will be visited upon our children to the third and fourth generation. This not only demonstrates hatred toward Yahuwah but towards all future generations of our own family. If those children also follow in their father’s footsteps, they also affect their children to the third and fourth generations. And so, the vicious cycle continues, unabated.

For the cycle to end the children must seek the righteousness of Yahuwah for 3-4 generations. Then the child of the 4^th or 5^th generation will be born without sin. Has this ever occurred amongst man? There is no record of it. However, those who take it upon themselves to separate themselves from the sins of their fathers and seek a life worthy of their calling, will be forgiven and promoted to the new creation.

The only man born without sin was Yahushua; and that was only because his Father was Yahuwah.

6 - And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Yahuwah is a just and merciful Elohim. His love knows no bounds. His mercy knows no bounds. We demonstrate our love towards our Father by keeping his commandments. In our spiritual walk with Yahuwah we are bound to slip and fall at times. Yet, when we pick ourselves back up, Yahuwah is quick to forgive and forget. Yahuwah wants more than anything for us to succeed in our quest for eternal life. Yahushua actually surrendered his former estate to dwell among us so that he might better understand our short comings. Does that make him more merciful than his Father? Certainly not! He was merely learning, as we are, to be in every way like his Father. If he (a mere fellow creature) succeeded in this quest, so can we.

Showing mercy is an act of love. No one is more merciful than Yahuwah. His mercy knows no bounds. We are to be emulating this aspect of Yahuwah’s nature in our own, to the point that there is no or very little difference between his nature and ours.

7 - You shall not take the name of Yahuwah your Elohim in vain; for Yahuwah will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain.

This verse makes me wonder if indeed it were a good thing that Yahuwah’s name has been basically hidden from the world. If the world does not know the name, it is hard for them to take it or use it in vain. Yet some do know the name and do use it in vain for their own gain.

For example, I have my name listed on several different directories and some of the email I receive are from different individuals around the globe claiming to have a “Sacred Name” following. These almost always turn out to be bogus claims by deceitful individuals seeking financial gain in one form or another. Some use the name to garner power and prestige from others. Some use the name yet perform deplorable acts. Some white supremacists groups know and use the name, yet build their entire philosophy on hatred. Some use the name and commit sexual atrocities with members of their congregation. These are all sick and demented beings. Yet, they feel that simply knowing and using the name of Yahuwah will gain them salvation. They are deceived and will only gain eternal death.

Taking the name of the Creator in vain is an act of hatred and disrespect towards Yahuwah. It dilutes the righteousness of that name. It also demonstrates hatred for the creation in that it miss-informs others of the true nature of Yahuwah.

8 - Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Every time I tell someone that I keep the 7^th dy Sabbath, people tell me I am following the Jewish faith. First of all, the Sabbath commandment was given at the beginning of creation – before there ever was a Jew. The Sabbath commandment applies to all men, as do all the rest of the ten laws (commandments).

Amongst the Sabbatarian groups, the keeping of the Sabbath is known as the “test” commandment. In reality, all are test commandments. Many among these groups have made this one commandment the central part of their faith and have in fact made the day their idol. When Yahushua walked the earth in human form, he was accused by the Rabbis of breaking the Sabbath. His reply was that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. He was addressing the situation of making the Sabbath an idol of worship.

Establishing idols like these are detrimental to our spiritual health. If we are not focused on all of the commandments and busy changing our carnal nature in to the nature of Yahuwah (pure love) we are missing the mark.

9 - Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

10 - But the seventh day is the sabbath of Yahuwah thy Elohim: 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:

11- For in six days Yahuwah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore Yahuwah blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

The Sabbath has been blessed and hollowed since the dawn of time. It applies to all humans, not just a “chosen” few. If we do not keep the Sabbath, we disrespect and dishonor Yahuwah.

Society makes it very difficult for those wishing to keep the Sabbath. We are limited in our job selection. Our children are limited in which social activities they can participate in, etc., etc. These are all forms of persecution designed to lead us astray by the society around us. Some have even suffered martyrdom for keeping the Sabbath. Yet the right choice is to obey Yahuwah, not men.

If we love Yahuwah, we must show that love by obeying his commandments. Such obedience must come from our love for Yahuwah, rather than our love for ourselves – i.e. self-righteousness. The physical keeping of the law is only the first step. We must follow up with the spiritual keeping of the law – making it part of our nature as it is Yahuwah’s. This is what makes us one with Yahuwah.

12 - Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which Yahuwah thy Elohim giveth thee.

We see precious little of children honouring parents these days. My how times have changed! My grandfather left my grandmother and 7 children to take up with her sister. My father, the eldest of the seven children, was forced to quit school at 16 years of age and go to work to support the family. Making a meager salary of $9 a week, he managed to save enough money over that first year to purchase a building lot. Over the following year, he built a home for his mother and six siblings.

How many kids today would do such a thing? Most are in the habit of worshiping themselves and care only about what they want. We see TV talk shows where single mothers are having a terrible time with disobedient and disrespectful children. In ancient times they would have been taken outside of the city gates and stoned to death for such an offense. Today we have psychiatrists pretending to make them all better. Life today is exactly as Yahushua predicted it would be.

Men have indeed become lovers of themselves (in more ways than one) and seek only the immediate gratification of tasting the forbidden fruit. The ultimate punishment seems so far off as to be non-existent. These indeed think that “the Master delays his coming and feel they can get can get all the sinning in that they can before he comes, and he will merely forgive them. That attitude will get no one into the Kingdom.

We are to be fiercely pursuing putting all sin (lawlessness) out of our lives and overcoming this world and its god. If one truly believe the law has been done away with (as Christianity declares) that person will not be about the instructions (in the seven letters to the seven churches) to overcome sin and the god of this world. They continue to demonstrate hatred toward Yahuwah, not love.

13 - Thou shalt not kill.

There are two ways of killing a person – physically and spiritually. Of course, killing a person physically abruptly ends their spiritual journey as well. Yet, I firmly believe that killing another person’s spiritual progress is a more destructive crime than physical murder.

Someday we will all be resurrected from the grave to spiritual judgment. We will be judged on our spiritual keeping of the law, not the physical. Those who have tried their best to follow Yahuwah will be raised to eternal glory. Those who have not will be raised to eternal condemnation.

What if we have committed some offense that caused a brother or sister to leave the faith altogether? Will we not be judged on such a matter? What if our actions deny our words and people do not believe us or our message because of those actions? Is that not spiritual murder?

There is much to consider in the four words of this commandment.

14 - Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Again, there is physical and spiritual adultery. Since we have already covered spiritual adultery, it is to be assumed that it is physical adultery that is being addressed here. A marriage is a testing ground for learning and implementing all of the laws of Yahuwah. No one knows us better than our immediate family. No one else sees our hypocrisy more clearly.

When a man and woman marry, they are to become one flesh – the same type of relationship that Yahushua enjoys with his Father. This is training for becoming one with the Father and Yahushua. Cheating on a spouse is akin to cheating on Yahuwah. It demonstrates an inclination of disregard towards the law and the lawmaker. Adultery not only destroys the marriage but also destroys the family unit. It is an action totally based on self-want and not an act of love towards ones family or Yahuwah. It is very selfish and disrespectful.

We must not only stop ourselves from performing such an act, we must wipe all desire for such a sin out of our minds and ultimately our nature, for once and for all. Even the thought of sin constitutes a willingness to pursue sin.

15 - Thou shalt not steal.

How many of us have had something stolen from us? It does not feel good to have something we worked for and purchase with hard earned money taken from us. Is stealing from others an act of love? Certainly not; but rather is an act of selfishness.

This act is tied tightly to the next commandment because all thieves are liars as well. They have no choice but to lie to cover up their crime of stealing. They usually only come clean when faced with volumes of evidence.

Stealing is deplorable! It makes me sick. It makes me angry. Showing love towards that person is usually the last thing on my mind. Yet, it is a forgivable sin if one repents and changes their ways. If the thief repents, returns the stolen object and asks for our forgiveness, we must be quick to forgive – just as Yahuwah is.

16 - Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

The term, “neighbour”, here does not only apply literally as the person living next door to you, but any other human being. Some people lie about others to save their own hides. Others do so out of jealousy or revenge. Whatever the reason, it remains a despicable act. Can anyone picture Yahuwah doing such a thing? Of course not! It is not in his nature to do so. That is because every thought, word and deed of Yahuwah is based on the law of love. It would never even occur to him to do anything like that. So must it be with us as well.

Words can sometimes be more destructive than the sword. A good example of this is the case of government whistle-blowers. The actions of these people are based on love towards their fellow humankind and a deep sense of right and wrong. Yet the government persecutors will turn that all around and try to turn it into a traitorous act. Exposing corruption is a patriotic act, not a traitorous one. Yet, the spin doctors get the general public on its side and life of that person and all their family members are forever changed. A righteous man seldom receives honour in his own community.

Yet, their love for the Creator and His creation outweigh the scorn and persecution they are subjected to. These may not know the set-apart name, or the true Sabbath, but their actions declare their righteousness. Whatever their beliefs, they are of a righteous nature and are to admired rather than scorned.

The worldly attitude is if the watchman delivers an unpopular message, kill the messenger. Killing the messenger does not kill the message. Using Yahushua as an example – he delivered his message and in spite of the fact that they killed him for it, he went on to glory while those who condemned and killed him went on to their graves and eternal death.

This is the attitude we all must have – deliver the message in spite of the costs, because the end reward will be well worth it.

17 - Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

Stealing, bearing false witness and murder often have coveting at their roots. People are generally never satisfied with what they have and covet everything their neighbour has. This leads to masterminding a method to take the object of one’s affection from that person – whether it be a watch or a spouse. It happens all the time – even amongst the various religions and churches.

For most of us, this annoying emotion is in our heads before we even realize it. So how do we stop it? Good question. Let me know when you figure it out, will you? I am fighting this carnal nature thing myself, right alongside of you all. I’d love to hear what works for you.

So, what was the reaction of the Israelites upon the hearing of the Ten Commandments?

18 - And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.

19 - And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not Elohim speak with us, lest we die.

20 - And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for Elohim is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.

21 - And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.

The people stood afar off. They wanted to be separated from Elohim. They feared him because of their sin. They thought He came to judge and kill them. They did not think of Yahuwah as the Elohim of love but, rather, the Elohim of judgment and punishment. They did not know and understand the Elohim whom they worshiped - much like most of the population of the earth today and all throughout history. When one realizes the sheer magnitude of HaSatan’s deception, it is truly mind boggling. Everyone has their own vision of the big picture and most refuse to see otherwise. Yet, the same can be said of us. How do we show them that our beliefs, in anyway, are superior to theirs?

This is our carnal nature at work. It is telling us that Yahuwah is coming to kill us for our sins and we try to flee from Him. That is much easier (we think) than facing our sins and obliterating them from our nature. That task becomes much easier when we trust in Yahuwah, that He is walking right beside us and inside us through the set-apart spirit to help us with our quest.

These ancient Israelites did not even want Yahuwah to speak directly to them. They asked that He talk only to Moses and have Moses tell them what He said. This placed a breech between the individual and his Creator. They were in effect saying, “We don’t believe it coming from your lips but we will if it comes from the lips of a man.” This is also what we say when we read the clear and direct instruction of Yahuwah in the Scriptures and then search for a man who softens the message for them. In Christianity this is easy. They have done away with the law; therefore, all the messages were bull crap.

We must not be of this attitude. Go directly to the source. Do not go to another man. Or, believe the source first and look for agreement with that source rather than a taking away from it.

Conclusion

The biggest thing missing in our relationship to Yahuwah is “trust”. All our lives we have learned to distrust others until they prove they can be trusted. We know that Yahuwah can be trusted because of the example of Yahushua. He was the first and only being of the creation to complete the process (proving it is accomplishable) and receive the promises of Yahushua (proving He can be trusted). And yet many have the “Elohim willing” attitude which by its own declaration betrays a lack of trust. Of course Yahuwah is willing that we all succeed; yet, He is not going to do all the work for us. We have to be doing our part in growing into the nature of Yahuwah and the stature of Yahushua. When truly one with Yahuwah, our will should be His will.

Freedom has never come free. Normally we have to fight and sometimes die for it. Yahuwah is offering us freedom from the sentence of death we were born into. He is offering us freedom to enter into the new creation and be elohim also. He has already proven that He can be trusted and that his promises are sure. All we have to do is believe and trust with no wavering whatsoever.

The Ten Commandments are merely a general outline of the one, all-encompassing law of love. Love and trust always go hand in hand. We all know that from our marital relationships.

In this walk, we are all in a relationship similar to a marriage to Yahuwah. We “sign” a contract with Yahuwah at baptism that we will love, honour and cherish Him till death do us part. We have someone we can trust in implicitly. We can freely open the flood gates of trust and love towards Yahuwah knowing full well that He will never betray that love and trust.

It is this lack of trust that inhibits our spiritual growth and prevents us from becoming fully one with our Creator. We are afraid to open the door to the free and open access to the father that Yahushua made possible for us. Deep down inside we still harbor lingering fears and doubts that we are going to find deception and heartbreak in the end. On one hand we need to remain fearful and doubtful when dealing with fellow humans; but must be careful not to transfer those fears and doubts onto our relationship with Yahuwah. It is like transferring all our mistrust for an ex-spouse onto any new spouse. With Yahuwah we must trust fully and weed all lingering doubts and fear out of our subconscious.

Yahuwah knows our thoughts. There is no place for us to retreat from him. So, instead of being like the ancient Israelites, let us all be like Moses (Moshe) and walk boldly into the black darkness (that is the unknown) fully trusting that Yahuwah has our best interests at heart and will see us safely to the culmination of His plan.

Yahuwah bless

G.P.