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name of God in vain- was a sin be–
fore Moses.
The Fourth Commandment
Obaerved
Coming to the fourth commandp1ent
in Exodus 16:4, "Then the Eterna!
said unto Moses' ' - this was two
weeks before they carne to Mount
Sinai and ·before the law of Moses
was given or before they ever knew
there would be a law of Moses–
" Behold,
I
will rain bread from heav–
en for you; and the people shall go
out and gather a certain rate every
day, that
I
may prove them,
whether
they will wa/k in my law, or no. "
Here is God's law. He was going to
see whether the people would obey it
befare
the law of Moses was given
- weeks befare
they even carne to
Mount Sinai, where the law of Moses
was added.
Verse
5:
"And it shall come to
pass, that on the sixth day they shall
prepare that which they bring in; and
it sha ll be twice as much as they
gather daily."
Now notice verse 22: "And it carne
to pass, that on the sixth day they
gathered twice as much."
Verse 23: Moses said to the people,
"This is that which the Eterna! hath
said, Tomorrow is
the rest of the holy
sabbath
unto the Eterna
l."
Then on the following day, verses
25-27, Moses said: "Eat that today;
for
today is a sabbath
unto the Eter–
na!, today ye shall not find it in the
field. Six days ye sha ll gath.er it; but
on
the seventh day. which is the sab–
bath,
in it there shall be none. And it
carne to pass, that there went out
sorne of the people on the sabbath for
to gather, and they fou nd none"!
God was showing them by mira–
eles from heaven which day was the
seventh day. Time had not been
los
t.
Sorne of tbem thought .it didn't
make any difference. They would
wait to go out on the following day–
on the Sabbath-but there was none!
Did that make any difference? "And
the Eterna! said unto Moses,
How
long refuse ye to keep my command–
ments ánd my /aws?
See, for that the
Eterna! hath given you the sabbath,
therefore, he giveth you on the sixth
day the bread of two days; abide ye
The
PLAIN TRUTH December 1979
every man in his place, let no man go
out of his place on the seventh day.
So
the peop/e rested on the seventh
day"
(verses 28-30).
That was weeks before they carne
to Mount Sinai- before the law of
Moses!
It
was the law of God at lhat
time.
The Other Commandmenta
Now turn to Genesis 9:21.
·~And
he
[Noah] drank of the wine, and was
drunken;and he was uncovered within
his tent. And Ham, the father of Ca–
naan, saw the nakedness of bis father,
and told bis two brethren without. And
Shem and Japheth took a garment,
and la id it upon both their shoulders,
and went backwa rd, and covered the
nakedness of their father ; and their
faces were backward, and they saw not
their father's nakedness."
Continuing: "Noah awoke from
his wine, and knew what bis [Ham's]
younger son [Canaan] had done unto
him. And he sai.d, Cursed be Canaan;
a servant of servants shall he be unto
his brethren. And he said, Blessed be
the Eterna! God of Shem, and
Canaan shall be his servant" (Gene–
sis 9:21-26).
Dishonoring a parent was a sin,
and a curse was pronounced in those
days.
And now notice the seventh com–
mandment against adultery. Genesis
39:7-9: "And it carne to pass after
these things, that his [Joseph's] mas–
ter's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph."
This occurred when Joseph was in
Egypt, long, long before the law of
Moses. " And she said, Lie with me.
But he refused, and said unto his
master's wife, Behold, my master
knoweth not what is with me in the
house, and he hath committed all
that he hath to my hand; there is
none greater in this house than 1;
neither hath he kept back anything
from me but thee, because thou art
his wife: how then can l do tbis great
wickedness,
and sin against God?"
Adultery was sin- hundreds of
years before the phys ical law of
Mqses.
Now we come to the eighth com–
mandment, against stealing. In Gen–
esis 30, verse 33: "Every one that is
not speckled and spotted among the
goats, and brown among the sheep,
that shall be counted
sto/en with
me."
This is Jacob and bis experience
with Laban. Stealing was a sin.
We come to the ninth command–
ment about lying: Genesis 20, the
first nine verses: "And Abraham
journeyed from thence toward the
south country, and dwelled between
Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in
Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah
his wife, She is my sister: and Abim–
elech ki ng of Gerar sent, and took
Sarah." He was going to take her as
his wife. He would have committed
adultery with her, but God sent an
angel to him in a dream to warn him.
" Yea,
1
know that tbou didst this in
the integrity of thy heart." The king,
remember, heard Abraham say of
Sarah, "She's my sister." " And also
1"-God says-
"withheld thee from
sinning against me:
therefore suf–
fered
1
thee not to touch her."
Abraham was lying.
It
would also
have been a sin to commit adultery.
Of course, Sarah was Abraham's
half sister; but, nevertheless, the
in–
tent
was a ll wrong. It was a líe.
What about coveti ng? Notice
Genesis 6:1-3, 5-6: "And it carne to
pass, when men began to multiply on
the face of the earth, and daughters
were born unto them, that the sons of
God saw the daughters of men that
they were fair ; and they took them
wives of all which they chose....
God saw that the wickedness"–
sin-"of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually. And it repented the
Eterna! that he had made man on the
earth, and it grieved him a t his
heart." Coveting was a sin even in
those days!
There it is. Every one of the Ten
Commandments was in existence
from creation. l t was sin to break any
of them between the time of Adam
and Moses. What a re
you
going to do
about it?
o
ADDITIONAL READING
For a thorough study of how each of
God's Ten Commandments applies
to us today, write for our free, fully
illustrated booklet entitled
The Ten
Commandments.
(See worldwide
addresses on the inside front cov–
er. )
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