INTRODUCTION
The Bill of Rights almost didn’t make it into the U. S. Constitution. James Madison initially opposed it. He thought that an explicit statement of certain rights might be TOO LIMITING. I am amazed at his foresight! But as valuable as our constitutional bill of rights is, Christians have a greater bill of rights. It is called the Ten Commandments. Each of the ten protects a particular right, both of God and of human beings. The first four commandments speak of God’s rights. The last six speak of human rights. Let’s take a few moments to explore both. I will go through them as they are presented in Deuteronomy 5.
ANALYSIS
“I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Deut. 5:6).
Note that the law is given within the direct context of deliverance from the tyrannical reign of Pharaoh. Of course, the Exodus was an object lesson of our salvation. The OT Passover was a foreshadowing of the Cross of Christ. God delivered His people then as an object lesson to teach us about our deliverance from the guilt, the penalty, and the power of sin that Christ accomplished and is finalizing now. But in response to being given our rights and liberties, there is an obligation we have, and that is to protect the rights and freedoms of others, and above all, of God Himself. In other words, the Ten Commandments are given to a people that have just been made free to teach them how free people are to live. The Bible teaches us that this is still true today.
Deut. 5:7 “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
The first right that God has that we must honor is that of exclusive worship and devotion. God created us. He also delivered us from bondage to Satan, and He intends to prepare us to enjoy ultimate freedom in heaven. There is no other who is worthy of our worship. To devote ourselves to anyone or anything else is to defraud God of His right as Creator and Redeemer.
Deut. 5:8 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;”
Deut. 5:9 “you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,”
Deut. 5:10 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
The second commandment forbids making images of God. It protects God’s exclusive right to self-revelation. All through the history of the world in sin, people have chosen to portray God in various forms. All this is defrauding God of His exclusive right to reveal Himself to us. He has chosen to speak to us about who He is, rather than to send us an image of what He looks like. In a world that worships beauty, God declares that character is more important than appearance, evidenced by the fact that He has revealed very little about his appearance. When we try to create a physical representation of God, or when we conure up a philosophical idol, we are stepping in front of God and impinging on His right to reveal or conceal things about Himself.
Deut. 5:11 “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”
Not only does God have the exclusive right to our service, but He also has the right to unfeigned service. He is not interested in mere virtue signaling. So if we take His name in vain, that is, thoughtlessly, carelessly, irreverently, our service to Him is demonstrated to be cheap, frivolous hypocrisy. God deserves better than that. He has rightful claims upon our highest and best service.. If our service to God is a mere pretense, then God is not honestly represented. Those who do this trample on God’s right in the same way that Lucifer did when he professed loyalty to God but then went out among the angels and attempted to overthrow His government.
Deut. 5:12 “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you.”
Deut. 5:13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
Deut. 5:14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.
Deut. 5:15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
The Sabbath of the fourth commandment, in a sense, is an embodiment of the principle that undergirds all the commandments. In it we learn that God has the exclusive right to govern us in every respect, and especially in the use of our most precious commodity - time. But the Sabbath also goes beyond even this. The Sabbath commandment shows us what it looks like to protect the rights and liberties of others as well as those of God. In this sense, the Sabbath is the bridge that connects the two tablets of stone. In it we are instructed that we must not defraud God of His right to our time, but we are also commanded not to defraud Him of the service of others by stepping into the place of God and regulating their time such that they cannot rest on His holy day. I’ll close this discussion of the Sabbath by making this general statement - it is true that God has delegated to civil government the right to maintain law and order (Romans 13), but it is also true that ANY intrusion by civil government into matters of conscience - decisions that lie between the individual and God constitutes a violation of the principle of the Sabbath. I am convinced that this vaccine mandate is just such a violation.
Deut. 5:16 “Honor your father and your mother
At the head of the list of human rights and freedoms are those that pertain to parents. The rights of this sacred circle of the family must be protected for the longevity of the family members, and for the prosperity of the nation. No society that eviscerates parental rights can prosper for long. To a more extensive degree than ever before, we parents are being told that our children are not our own, and that we must surrender them to the will of the state, to be indoctrinated, and now even vaccinated! This is an ominous sign of the times. Families that are looking for Jesus to come soon will push back on all of this, respectfully but firmly in the name of the Lord.
Deut. 5:17 “You shall not murder.
The sixth commandment guarantees the right to life because God is pro-life! No one has the right to take away the life of another except in consequence of capital crime and only pending fair judicial process. Nor does anyone have the right to arbitrarily deprive another of the right to work and earn a living, or to buy and sell, since this is the means by which we sustain our lives in this world. Anyone who does this is committing murder by slow process.
Deut. 5:18 “You shall not commit adultery.
As the fifth commandment protects parental rights, the seventh protects the spousal rights. A husband and wife have exclusive conjugal rights, and no other is free to enter into that level of intimacy with either of them. A man who approaches his neighbor’s wife defrauds his neighbor of his right, and he defrauds his own present or future wife of her rights to enjoy his unalloyed affections. It is the trampling of these rights that has led to the explosion of divorce, pornography, and other forms of exploitation.
Deut. 5:19 “You shall not steal.
The eighth commandment protects the rights of all to possess private property. Those who would encourage us toward the socialistic Great Reset, by attacking the concept of private property are moving in direct conflict with the law of God. It’s true that God is the owner of all property, and must be recognized as such, but this reality does not restrict the possession of our own things. No man nor any government has any right to seize and redistribute property that has been lawfully acquired. God’s law even permits our property to be defended against theft, allowing the use of lethal force in some circumstances. The current attack on private property rights, as well as the confiscatory taxes being proposed by some lawmakers are in conflict with God’s Bill of Rights and we ought to vote against them.
Deut. 5:20 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
The ninth commandment prohibits the misrepresentation of circumstances or other people by our words. God has given us the right both to know the truth, and to have the truth told about us. If we tell lies, we deprive others of their right to fair and just representation. I would point out here that the ninth commandment is closely related to the third commandment. This issue of the misrepresentation of others is closely related to the misrepresentation of God by taking His name in vain. It was one of the foundational principles of Lucifer’s rebellion in heaven, and of his takeover of planet earth. God hates lying because lying is the means by which people are enslaved, and maintained in bondage.
Deut. 5:21 “You shall not covet”
The final commandment regulates human ambition. It protects my neighbor’s right to peace of mind. How can anyone truly have peace of mind if he thinks that everyone is out defraud him of his rights? Covetousness is really the first step toward tyranny because it fuels the motivation of tyrants big and small. Tyrants desire power, wealth, and influence and they will do anything to get it. This is how the great controversy started in heaven. Lucifer desired the throne of God and wanted to be like the Most High. This same spirit is the essential spirit of every would be totalitarian regime. Gain power by the carrot or the stick, and then enrich yourself at the people’s expense. It happened in Romania, Cuba, Russia, China, Venezuela. . . Is it beginning in America?
APPEAL
Many Christians have been given a false view of the Ten Commandments. They associate these with righteousness by works. How like the devil to misrepresent God’s Bill of Rights in this way. It is true that no one ever was, nor ever will be saved by keeping the commandments. But it is also true that those who appreciate the liberty that Christ has gained for us by His sacrifice will want to uphold the rights of all others. To reject God’s Ten Commandments is to come out in favor of satanic tyranny. May God help us to be sons and daughters of liberty, is my prayer.
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Skip Dodson embraced the Advent message as a 25 year old aerospace engineering graduate student. Over the past three decades he has served as a Bible worker, a district pastor, an administrator, and as a college dean and religion chair. He is currently serving as a self-supporting missionary based in Colorado. Skip has been united in ministry for 25+ years with his wife Renee. The couple have two young adult children, both of whom are partners with them in mission.