Were You
Taught the Wrong Ten Commandments?
Were You Taught the Wrong Ten Commandments?
There is a problem: there are two sets of commands called the Ten Commandments. As the story goes, Moses went up Mt. Sinai and Yah wrote with his finger ten commandments on two slabs of stone (front and back). When Moses came down the mountain, he found the Israelis worshipping a golden calf idol. Moses hurled the stone slabs at the idol and the slabs broke. Moses tells us
"At that time the LORD said unto
me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into
the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the
words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou sh
put them
in the ark. And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone
like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine
hand. And he (Yah) wrote on the tables, according to the
first writing, the Ten Commandments." (Deut 10:1)
This was a duplicate copy of the Ten Commandments and this
is what was chiseled on the front and back of the stone slabs:
1. But you, on your part, must keep the commandments I am giving you today. "I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Take care, therefore, not to make a covenant with these inhabitants of the land that you are to enter; else they will become a snare among you. Tear down their altars; smash their sacred pillars, and cut down their sacred poles.
You shall not worship any other
god, for the LORD is 'the Jealous One'; a jealous God is he. Do not make a covenant with the
inhabitants of that land; else, when they render their wanton worship to their
gods and sacrifice to them, one of them may invite you and you may partake of
his sacrifice. Neither shall you take their daughters as wives for your
sons; otherwise, when their daughters render their wanton worship to their gods,
they will make your sons do the same.
2. "You shall
not make for yourselves molten gods.
3."You shall
keep the feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days at the prescribed time in the
month of Abib you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you; for in the
month of Abib you came out of Egypt.
4."To me belongs every first-born male that opens the womb among all your livestock, whether in the herd or in the flock.
The firstling
of an ass you shall redeem with one of the flock; if you do not redeem it, you
must break its neck. The first-born among your sons you shall redeem. No
one shall appear before me empty-handed. "
5. "For six
days you may work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; on that day you must
rest even during the seasons of plowing and harvesting.
6. You shall
keep the feast of Weeks with the first of the wheat harvest; likewise, the feast
at the fruit harvest at the close of the year.
7. Three times a year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the LORD
God of Israel.
Since I will drive out the nations before you to give you a
large territory, there will be no one to covet your land when you go up three
times a year to appear before the LORD, your God.
8. "You shall
not offer me the blood of sacrifice with leavened bread, nor shall the sacrifice
of the Passover feast be kept overnight for the next day.
9 "The
choicest first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of the LORD,
your God.
10.
"You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk."
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance
with them I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." So
Moses stayed there with the LORD for forty days
and forty nights, without eating any food or drinking any water, and he wrote on
the tablets the words of the covenant, theTen
Commandments." ( Exod. 34:1-28)
The problem is this:
No one considers what Yah wrote with his finger on the slabs of stone to
be the Ten Commandments, even though that is what the Scriptures call
them. Instead, both the Jews and the Christians insist that the Ten
Commandments are the commands found in Exodus 20:
1."I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
You shall not have other gods besides me.
2. You shall not carve idols for yourselves in
the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters
beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I,
the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their fathers'
wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth
generation; but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation, on the
children of those who love me and keep my commandments.
3, "You shall not take the name of the LORD,
your God, in vain. For the LORD will not leave unpunished him who takes his name
in vain.
4. Six days you may labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God. No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your beast, or by the alien who lives with you. In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the LORD has blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
5. "Honor your father and your mother, that you may have a long life in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you.
6. "You shall not kill.
7. "You shall not commit adultery.
8. "You shall not steal.
9."You shall
not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. "You shall not covet your neighbor's house.
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male or female slave, nor his
ox or ass, nor anything else that belongs to him." (Exodus 20)
Without a doubt Exodus 20 sounds more profound than not boiling a goat in its mother's milk, but the fact is Exodus 20 is not called the Ten Commandments, but Exodus 34 is.
My question is who authorized the switch of Exodus 20 for Exodus 34? And why
has no one objected for nearly 4,000 years? Every copy of the stone slabs I have ever
seen for the Ten Commandments has Exodus 20 inscribed on them, but not the true
Ten Commandments.
There is a huge
Christian denomination with millions of disciples that goes around waving Exodus
20 in people's faces and condemning them for not keeping their mistaken version
of the Ten Commandments.
What
Did Yahshuah Say?
But
Here's the really important question: what did Yahshuah say about the Ten
Commandments? He never used the phrase. He said a lot about commandments like
"If you love me keep my commandments ."
"If keep my commandments, you shall remain in my love," (Jn. 15:10) " He who has my commandments and obeys them--he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will clearly reveal myself to him." (Jn 14:21) (WNT)
I have tabulated all the commandments
that Yahshuah gave us. You can read my book The 215 Commandments
free at
www.robertroberg.com/writings
When asked about commandments Yahshuah said:
"The first is this: 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all
your mind, and with all your strength.'
The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Neither the first, or second come from either version of
the two sets of Ten Commandments. In his 215 commandments he did include five
from Exodus 20:
"Honor
your father and your mother.
"You shall not kill.
"You shall not commit adultery.
"You shall not steal.
"You
shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Notice he only mentions, five from the "supposed Ten, " so clearly he
was not establishing the Ten Commandments. He certainly
believed that keeping commandments
was essential for when a man asked him "How can I receive Eternal Life?"
Yahshuah replied:
"Keep the commandments."
"Whoever keeps my commandments is he who loves me and my father will love him and we will make our abode with him". (Jn. 14:23)
I conclude that the commandments we are to keep are only
those that came from the mouth of Yahshuah.
Our modern rabbis, and preachers,
have made much to do about the Ten Commandments, but have been lifting
up
the wrong version. American Christians are feverishly
building monuments to the wrong version all over the land,
but as for me
I am lifting up the 215 commandments of Yahshuah. He said "go and teach
all things that I have
commanded", and that is what I am doing.
But more than teaching, I am doing my best to live them, and urge you
to
do likewise.
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