from WL Worcester (H Blackmer, ed.), 
The Sower.  Helps to the Study of the Bible in Home and Sunday School
 
(Boston: Massachusetts New-Church Union, n.d.)

Table of Contents
 

 

Lesson 43

Topical and Doctrinal Notes

Leading Thought: The Giving of the Ten Commandments

You will remember that it was at Horeb that Jehovah, that is, the Lord, appeared to Moses, and told him who He was, namely, that He was the God of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and also what He was, namely, the I AM, that is, the Divine Being from whom comes all the life there is in the world. And at that time Jehovah gave Moses this sign, as proof of His being the God of his fathers, and the I AM: that the children of Israel would come out of Egypt and worship at that same Mount Horeb.

In today's lesson we read of the fulfillment of the promise, of the giving of the proof; and it is a story that you need to read and re-read until you know every detail of it perfectly.

Horeb was a group of mountains, among which was a peak higher than the rest, which was called Mount Sinai. On this Mount Sinai, Jehovah, or the Lord, came down in the sight of all the people, and gave to Moses the Ten Commandments, written on two tables of stone, with the finger of God.

You have learned that when people see the Lord, or when they see angels, they cannot see them with the eyes of their body, but only with the eyes of the spirit. To see things and people in the spiritual world with the eyes of the spirit is called seeing a vision. It is not imagining something; it is actually seeing real things and real people in the spiritual world. So, when the Lord appeared on Mount Sinai with angels, it was a vision which all saw, though everyone saw it differently, according as each was prepared to see. Probably not one of the children of Israel saw the Lord Himself, but instead of Him they saw the thick cloud, and the lightning, and the fire and smoke, and heard the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, and the thunder, and felt the earthquake; all this took place in the spiritual world and was felt by the senses of their spirits. The people heard the Lord's voice as thunder, but Moses heard it as a voice and understood the Lord's words, and afterward went down to where the people stood at the foot of the mountain, and told them what the Lord had said.

It was all very majestic and awful, and they knew that only God could come down on Mount Sinai like that: and they thought that therefore the Ten Commandments that were given in such a fearful and terrifying manner, were indeed the Commandments of God, and must be kept.

We learn elsewhere that the Commandments, although ten in number, were divided into two tables: one table was for God, and the other for humanity, for when the Lord came down on Mount Sinai, God and humanity met. The Commandments are the covenant, or agreement, between God and humanity. If human beings will do their part, God will do His. The one table teaches us how to love the Lord our God; the other table teaches us how to love the neighbor. The first table contains the first three commandments, and the second table, the last six. The fourth commandment, about honoring father and mother, unites the two, for it teaches us about both, "father," meaning, in the spiritual sense, the Lord; and "mother" meaning, in the spiritual sense, the Church.

Of course, the children of Israel, and especially Moses, had known before this that it was wrong to steal, not to honor one's parents, or to commit adultery, or to lie, or to covet. Then why should they be told this again, in such a solemn and awe-inspiring manner? So that they might know, and that we might know, and that everyone who reads the Word forever after, might know, that it is not only wrong and criminal to do these evil things, subjecting us to imprisonment or other punishment under the civil laws of the land, and making us liable to aversion on the part of others under the moral laws of society; but that far worse than this: doing these evils is sinning against God; it hurts our souls; it endangers our everlasting welfare; it keeps us from Heaven, and from our Father's Home.

So very important are the Commandments that it is one of the three things which, at the baptism of children, New Church parents are particularly told to teach them.

The Ten Commandments are quoted and explained a number of times in the writings of the New Church. The explanation of them in The True Christian Religion is called the "Catechism." A beautiful little book called the Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem, is devoted to an explanation of the "Decalogue," as the Ten Commandments are often called.

Do you know why they are called the Decalogue? From two Greek words, Deka, meaning ten; and Logos, meaning word. The Decalogue means "The Ten Words." Why were there ten commandments, or words? Because the number ten signifies something that we must learn to know and have in our hearts, without which we cannot be saved. Such things are called in the New Church "Remains" because, when we have once learned them, they stay or remain with us, even though we seem to forget them. The Lord keeps them warm and bright away inside in our hearts, where no one but He knows where they are, and where no evil spirit can see them and take them away. But when the time comes that we need them, then He lets them come out into our thought where we can see them and feel them, and makes use of them. Remember then, that the number "ten" means "remains," and that the Ten Commandments must be learned and loved by us because the Lord has appointed them as among the most important remains.

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