How to Understand the Ten Commandments

Jesus Christ (Pre-Incarnation) gave Moses the Ten Commandments. They were for entire nation of the Hebrews.  The Ten Commandments were never just personal aspirations of morality — they remain the foundation of the covenant between God and an entire nation.

A nation is blessed or cursed based upon obedience or disobedience to the Commandments. Ancient Israel was to be the example to the rest of the word, so the rest of the world could learn from them. (Isaiah 2:1-4) If they obeyed the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20), then God would bless the nation (Deuteronomy 28:1-14).  If they disobeyed they would be cursed, as laid out in Deuteronomy 28:15-68.  The entire history of ancient Israel was based upon this covenant.

This covenant, the Ten Commandments,  is not about personal redemption, the salvation of the soul, or being born again. It is about God’s relationship with an entire nation.  This covenant remains valid today for the people of God (the followers of Jesus Christ).  This covenant is the legal and moral foundation of Christians nations.

Only a Christian people can follow the Ten Commandments because the First Commandment points directly at Jesus Christ — there is no other way to serve God than to serve Jesus Christ. (John 14:9-11)

All the prophets prophesied in terms of the Ten Commandments and the Blessing and Curse of Deuteronomy 28.  Daniel put it this way:

“Indeed all Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside not obeying your voice so the curse has been poured out on us along with the oath which is written in the Law of Moses the servant of God.” — Daniel 9:11

All the doom and gloom promised by the Prophets was predicated on the consequences, laid out in Deuteronomy 28, of disobedience to the Ten Commandments. That ancient nation rebelled against the Ten Commandments, and they suffered under the curse, eventually being destroyed and scattered among the nations.

The First Commandment — “I am the Lord that God, though shalt have no other gods before Me” — is primary. Who is that God? It is Jesus Christ. (John 14:9-11) It was always Jesus Christ. It was not some other God.  Jesus Christ was the God of the Patriarchs. It was Jesus Christ that delivered Israel from Egypt. It was Jesus Christ that spoke to Moses face to face as a man talks to his friend (Exodus 33:11) and we know that no man has seen the Father (John 6:46).

The religion of the Patriarchs was the worship of Jesus Christ. Judaism has nothing to do with Jesus Christ or the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob or Moses. It is Moses himself who will accuse those who rejected Jesus Christ (John 5:45).

Christians will re-establish the Ten Commandments at the foundation of social, political and legal life in our lands.  We will swear oaths of loyalty to Jesus Christ and His Word — the Holy Bible.   We will become Christian Nations.  We will hasten the resurrection of Christendom (Ezekiel 37). This is the Great Commission.  This is our minimum duty.