The Life You've Always Wanted: Part 6
March 12, 2023Geof Morin (CEO of Biblica) presented "Goodness" as the next Fruit of the Spirit in our current series, "The Life You've Always Wanted." A video of the message is here. Our Conversation Starter for this week is here.
I'm going to let this article suffice as my addition to the discussion of goodness. It's a little long, but there are nuggets of thought.
Lynn and I are off to Missouri for a couple weeks. See you in April!
Bonus
You may recall the bonus item regarding a workshop series on Exodus being led by Jordan Peterson and produced by DailyWire.com.
For my earlier bonus post on this, click here.
Part 2 of these workshop episodes (episodes 9-16) has begun to be released. Episode 9 came out this week and covers Exodus 19-20, the set up to and the delivering of the Ten Commandments. The discussion, however, barely got through the first half of the Ten Commandments. And as described before, the discussions often go in different directions and tangents.
So here is a sampling of the nuggets I gleaned from Episode 9:
The Ten Commandmments are part of a covenant, and there are conditions. "If you keep My covenant..." (Exodus 19:5)
The people cried "we will do" before they even heard the Commandments. (Exodus 19:8)
Coming in close contact with the divine is dangerous. God tells Moses to tell the people to stay back. You may remember it was dangerous to touch the Ark of the Covenant as well. It's serious business to get close to God. Best to do in gradations, steps. The fire is hot, but you can be at different distances.
The Ten Commandments are clearly the most important laws. To some degree, all the laws that follow in the Torah are explanations of or details within these main ten laws.
There are man-man laws in the Ten Commandments. But laws between people only work well when there's a higher authority.
Moral laws apply to all, even so-called victims.
In Exodus 19, instructions were given to the people as to how to prepare to receive the Ten Commandments. There's a bigger picture here. We need to "clear/cleanse our mind," prepare ourselves to effeectively meet God. As one participant put it, "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him think."
A key to a better outcome is understanding our own responsibility in/for it.
Prophets typically call people back to God when they've gone astray.
The Ten Commandments have several structures. One is vertical: God at the top, then no idols/images, then the horizontal layer of man-man laws. The horizontal does not hold up without the vertical. Note that honoring parents is in the middle of the vertical between God and man. It, too, holds the horizontal together. How you see your father is often related to how you see God.
Only God and parents are to be honored according to the Torah. Do not let kids rule a household. We owe our parents much, including our very lives. Honoring parents is good for YOU.
False gods and idols are one thing. Graven images of God are another.
Don't bring false gods up to the level of God, and don't bring God down by carrying His name in vain (i.e. doing evil in God's name).
These Ten Commandments are the ideal way to get along in society. Imagine the near-utopia of a world where just these laws were obeyed. You could defund the police if everyone just followed these 10 laws (or even just the last five).
The session closed with a lengthy discussion about observing the Sabbath. To summarize: just do it.