The Ten Commandments are as stated in Exodus 20:1-17

• “Ye shall have no other gods before me.”
• “You shall not make for yourself a carved image.”
• “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”
• “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
• “Honor your father and your mother.”
• “You shall not murder.”
• “You shall not commit adultery.”
• “You shall not steal.”
• “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
• “You shall not covet.”

These are simply the ten commandments God has put in place that we must follow to stick to the moral law. To follow all six-hundred-thirteen of the Jewish laws stated in the Torah would be impossible. Even to follow the ten commandments to the letter is beyond our human capabilities. This makes every human alive guilty of breaking God Almighty’s law. A holy, righteous, perfect God would not dwell with iniquity, so we are rendered unworthy of going to heaven at the end of our short lives here on earth. That is the point of the law: to prove to us our inability to live by God’s standards in our current state.

1 Timothy 1:5-7

“Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.”

• The pharisees follow(ed) the law religiously and preach the rules Moses had listed. They speak the law without mercy and if their students and followers don’t follow it to the letter, they would show little mercy unlike what God has demonstrated. Back then and even now in many areas the strict religious aspect of the law is still enforced.
• The six-hundred-thirteen laws in the Old Testament were taken with much importance and if someone among the Jews accidentally or purposefully broke the law, and were caught for it, they were all quick to judge. Without considering their own sin, they would enact consequences themselves, increasingly often without asking the Lord.
• Modern Orthodox Judaism does not believe in Jesus as the Messiah, refusing to acknowledge the signs, wonders, and prophecies He has fulfilled in the last two-thousand years. They have not been released, in their eyes, from the hold of religion. They haven’t stepped away from the dedication to the law of Moses into a relationship with God.

I do not say any of this in judgement of the Jewish people, in fact I hold a lot of respect for them as an adopted child of Israel. Instead, I am looking at their viewpoints and discerning a blindness that I too once carried about Jesus. I would not see Him as God, as the resurrected Son of our Father, as Messiah. Instead I saw a wise teacher and prophet from Israel. The law was written to show us that we cannot fulfill it ourselves. With sin living in us and dictating our thoughts and actions, even with the existence of the law, the temptation is too great for our flesh to resist. Without the death of our flesh and the rebirth of our spirits through the revival of His Spirit, our souls remain dead. Once I understood this about the law, the sacrifice Jesus made for us started to make a lot more sense.

Proverbs 28:9

“One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.”

• God does not appreciate those who vie for His love, provision, and affection without wanting to hear and understand His law and stipulations. Imagine if someone were to do that to us, we would want to turn them away too. If our own children didn’t truly care to know us, but wanted to take their inheritance and our provision, we would not look too highly on those actions.
• We are unable to follow the law perfectly but He wants us to consider Him and His expectations as we make our decisions.
• Don’t purposefully refuse to hear and understand God’s law. As creator, He has the right to dictate what is right and wrong. By refusing Him, you are denying Him. Deny Him and He’ll likely deny you in turn.

His logic makes sense: He knows all things happening at every moment of every day, so therefore He knows the consequences of not following His law. He is aware of our imperfections, and knows we can’t be perfect, but He is kind and loves us, so He is willing to show us some grace and mercy. It was His purpose for sending Jesus, and letting a part of Himself die on that cross. He was willing to suffer so we would not have to. His law is created out of love as 1 Timothy 1:5-7 states: love in the purest sense. He wants us to be safe and joyful, but our sin nature does not allow for that. The devil tries his hardest to keep us from experiencing the true peace, love, and purity that God has to offer us.

Romans 2:13

“for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified;”

• You should want to follow God’s law and word simply because He knows what is right for you.
• As Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” If you care about Him, you’ll follow His directions. You should want to believe and do what He says because He is God and knows what is right. If you love and have truly placed your life in His hands, you would trust His direction.

One of the things my parents would ask me was, “Do you trust me?” If a parent has a healthy relationship with their child, there is no reason why the child would not trust them. One of the ways the child show their trust is by allowing them to make choices and rules for them, comforted by the fact that it is in their best interest to follow those guidelines. It’s the same with our Heavenly Father: to show our trust in Him we should show that same level of trust and simply obey.

Proverbs 29:18

“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but happy is he who keeps the law.”

• Without the revelation of the law, there is no restraint from sin. We would be free to run rampant in anarchy, to murder, steal, and cause pain. There would be no stopping a lack of consideration for others, thus causing havoc. God created the law out of love for us so that we don’t harm ourselves and others with darkness. Where would we be without the laws that keep darkness in check?
• Our flesh, which is of this world, naturally yearns to do evil or ungodly things. If you have His law and word written on your mind, rather than just in your soul, you no longer yearn to dop only as your flesh pleases.
• Following God’s law is pleasing for yourself as well as the Father. Following the law means showing discipline, which can fill you with a sense of accomplishment and can teach you a healthy, truly happy lifestyle.

Psalms 1:1-2

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.”

• God will bless you when you show Him the love and faith He deserves. Any father would want his children to show him affection, heed his warnings and abide by his rules. It’s only natural for our Heavenly Father to feel the same.
• Meditating on God’s word is healing and rejuvenating for your soul and can draw you closer to His loving presence.
• Don’t spend all your time surrounded by people living sinful lifestyles or judging other with scorn. That can influence you into being the same as them and can pull you away from the Father. This does not mean you cannot have family and friends that don’t believe; it only means that you should have a firm foundation in Him alone, and with a strong community of people that know Him and His expectations. This can help keep you on the narrow path. You need to be grounded in His word so that you know what He wants from you in every situation.

The Lord loves to see us diving into His word, trying to understand Him more. We should make it a habit to prayerfully read His word each day, learning more about His character, His reasoning for His laws, and to love Him more. There are many benefits to reading His word daily such as: mood improvement, feeling less lonely, lessens your bitterness, knowing God better, knowing yourself better, and many more.

Hebrews 7:12-14

“For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change in the law. For He of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that out Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.”

• This speaks of Jesus’ fulfillment of the law. By His sacrifice, He fulfilled the law’s demands for our blood so we would not have to shed our own life. He followed the law perfectly: something we could not do, then died a gruesome, humiliating death, serving our deserved punishment.
• The many laws of Moses demand death or torment if broken.
• Jesus has every right to determine the law and fulfill the demands of the law as He pleases. As the Word of God and Creator of the universe, He has been granted that right.
• Messianic prophecies often explain that the Savior was meant to come from the tribe of Judah, from the line of King David. He was not said to be a priest, meaning that the priesthood of old has been changed, as verse fourteen states.

1 Corinthian 15:56-57

“The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through out Lord Jesus Christ.”

• The law gives sin its meaning and strength because without law there is no order. Until the lust for sin is vanquished from out flesh, anarchy will exist and reign where the law is not applied. This is stated clearly in Romans 4:15, “because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.”
• Christ gave us victory over sin through His sacrifice. All we must do is take this gift He has offered to humanity.

Imagine if every person today accepted His gift…even without living in a perfect, sinless world, if we took up our crosses and lived in the Spirit, with a similar Christ-like mindset, I bet Earth would be in relative peace. We could work toward this goal to help the Lord revive humanity and bring His perfect peace to the world—His shalom. He offers peace to all who accept it, He offers hope and comfort to all who surrender to His will that reigns over all, including beings of darkness. Even the devil Himself has to bow down to light at the end of the day. Every shadow yields to the light’s power.

Galatians 2:19

“For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.”

• We can attempt to follow the law but we can’t do it perfectly. That was Jesus’ job since we cannot.
• The law should never become our idol like it did to the pharisees of Jesus’ day.
• We live for God since we died alongside Jesus in the fulfillment of the law. Our old self should be dead and we are born again through God’s Spirit as the new man: a child of Israel, of El-Shaddai. We are a new creation in Christ and we live for Him.

Galatians 6:2 states, “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” We shall bear each other’s yokes as Jesus bore ours, so together, through His sacrifice, the law is fulfilled. It is through faith in Him that we are saved by grace.

In conclusion, the law of God is put in place and is mandatory for the balance of light and darkness. There are consequences for not obeying these statutes, but since the balance has already been thrown out of whack for the time being, we can abide in His healing presence and continue to repent for our transgressions. He wants to love and heal us for our sins. He does not want for us to suffer, but because sin still exists, suffering is inevitable. He has taught us how to use the suffering as a learning experience and to strengthen us like a callus. The law gives us guidance and though we can’t follow it perfectly, we can repent and take comfort in the fact that we are forgiven. God created the order of the world and that order is powered by love.

Thanks for reading this study! As I keep figuring out my formatting, I hope to make this blog appear more professional. I appreciate your patience and your engagement! If you have any critiques, or testimonies, please put them in the comments below, or you can DM my Instagram! God bless you and I hope you have a great day!