Wisdom from The Father

WISDOM FROM THE FATHER notes

God would walk with Adam and Eve in a beautiful garden every day and he would tell them about the wonderful creation that he had created for them. In this way he filled their hearts with knowledge about who he was and about who they were, in a perfect relationship with himself and with one another. And he told them how much they were loved. He didn’t have to teach them any rules or regulations that would instruct them in moral or ethical choices concerning their relationships to one another because that was perfect, therefore he did not have to instruct them in the relational wisdom of the Ten Commandants. He had only given them one commandment and that was to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

Unfortunately, Adam and Eve disobeyed this critical commandment, and this permanently damaged their relationship with God and with one another. At that moment humanity gave entrance to the destructive forces of broken and disordered relationships. Darkness had simply tempted them to sin grievously against the greatest of all God’s values for his earthly family, that of loving and trusting relationships. They had failed to trust the one who was the source of everything concerning who they were and what was theirs. 
They and their descendants would from now on struggle with a damaged conscience concerning the difference between good and evil for many thousands of years. The heart of mankind was filled with a mistrust of God. Humanity had become separated in its mind from the knowledge of God and had begun to find other options to replace God with gods of its own choosing and its own making. People began ambitiously struggling to fashion their own identity and destiny and their soul found no rest in this separated state of mind. They also began to mistrust one another and to do one another violence and harm and to steal from each other and to lie to each other, and about one another.

In due time God spoke to another man called Moses on the top of a mountain and he gave him the solution to all of this relational damage and harm that people did to themselves. He gave Moses the Ten Commandments, which was God’s wisdom concerning how to heal and restore and strengthen relationships between God and mankind and between people with one another. These relationships would be lovingly defined and wisely regulated by a loving Father God. Moses would have the task of overseeing the instruction of the Commandments to God’s people Israel for forty years in their journey through the wilderness, after God had miraculously set them free from their four hundred year bondage of slavery in Egypt.
The Ten Commandments were purely and simply the wisest and most straightforward external means that God could use to regulate what was most precious to him in the lives of his people in their community, and that is loving, joyful and fulfilling relationships with himself and one another. Everything else in life is secondary to this and grows out from this.

God also spoke intimately to a man named David, the king of Israel whom the Bible calls ‘a man after God’s own heart’. He was devoted to the wisdom of God that resided in the Commandments. David wrote powerfully in the psalms about his longing for the wisdom of God’s Commandments to transform his heart and soul.
Psalm 19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true,
and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned, and in keeping them there is great reward.

God’s personal loving intervention into the lives of his people Israel was the prelude and the curtain raiser for the way humanity was being prepared to receive God himself in human form in the person of Jesus who would personally reside within humanity and join us to himself forever. Jesus embodied the ultimate truth of his Father’s Commandments and there came to mankind through Jesus a new way for this perfect wisdom concerning relationships to be grafted into the very being of the human heart and to make that heart willing to relate lovingly to God as a Father, and to other people as Jesus did. Jesus also spoke of the Commandments as being the expression of this perfect loving relationship between God and his people and between people with each other. 
One day a religious lawyer asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment and Jesus replied. ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
Jesus spoke life into his teaching of the commandments and turned his emphasis of them from ‘’you shall nots into ‘you shall be transformed’. The apostles then continued this New Testament emphasis of redeeming faith in their teaching on the Commandments.
It was prophesied in the Old Testament that there would be new life-giving way of living the Commandments from a willing heart of faith through the loving work of Jesus. This prophetic word of Jeremiah was also recorded for us in the New Testament as being for all of humanity, not only for Israel.

Hebrews 8:10 ’For this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And no one will instruct his brother or teach his neighbour regarding knowing the Lord for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’

The following presentation of the Commandments from Commandment One through to Commandment Ten is a reading of the words of love and wisdom and entreaty that I believe our Father God would speak to us today. 
The first four Commandments deal with our relationship to God and the next six Commandments deal with our relationships with one another.

I will first read the Commandment from Scripture (Exodus Chapter 20) and then I will share the transformational aspect of each Commandment as I see it reflected in the Gospels and the New Testament Scriptures.

1. I am The Lord your God. You will have no other gods before me.

I alone as your loving God can give you a life that is worth living if you trust me and look to no other god. Depend fully upon me for wisdom and guidance in your life choices and for fulfillment in loving relationships. Even your demands for total independence from me or stubborn rejection of me do not make me go away or stop me from intervening in your lives.

2. You shall not make yourselves any idol nor image or ever bow or worship it in any way; for I, the Lord your God, am jealous of you. 

Learn to accept that I give your life its true meaning, which is that you mean everything to me and I want to mean everything to you. I am jealous for you and that means I don’t want you to invent another self-conceived god instead of me. And don’t create some self-image – another identity that replaces the identity I have given you. I have created you in my image. 

3. 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.

Only put God’s name to something you know he am doing in you and through you. You will know you have truly done this when you receive his peace in your heart through surrendering it prayerfully in faith for his will to be done in the matter. It is futile to presumptuously use God’s name to promote your own projects. If you do this you must own it all and take all the consequences of your presumption. In the same way it is unethical to presume the use of other peoples’ names and reputations for your own advantage. God’s name has great authority and power and it reflects his very nature, so he desire that you learn to bear his name and allow people to see his nature come through in the things that you do in his name.  

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

God worked on his creation for six days and rested on the seventh day. he took this rest so that he could enjoy that creation with his new family on the earth. So learn to take time out from your constant work to draw aside and give time to be with him and enjoy his company and the company of your family and friends whom you love. In that time of rest in his presence, you will receive faith that he is working with you and for you for his will to be done in your life. You will go out from that time of rest with peace in your heart giving thanks to him for his grace upon you and his provision for you.

These next six commandments deal with our relationships between one another.

5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land

It is good and right for children to honour and obey their parents, despite the parents’ imperfections, and the Bible also says that parents should not provoke their children to frustration and anger (Ephesians 6:2). Parents can impart wisdom and understanding of life principles through good instruction and especially by good example and God will bless through a secure authority that serves but not one that is insecure and self-serving because self-serving authority is ultimately rebellion against God’s loving authority that serves his people. Under secure and caring authority children can then hopefully learn to respect and trust the authority that God has placed over them in other areas of life and become responsible and accountable in their decision making. They will in time become equipped to give others help and wisdom and guidance and will do well in life and people will trust in them and walk in the way of peace instead of in suspicion and anger. This can help them exercise caring and competent authority towards other people in their area of influence.

6. You shall not kill

No one likes to be around angry and suspicious people because anger and violence leads to killing relationships and that is what leads to killing other people. 
People can learn to accept others for who they are and build friendships with kindness and trust. They can gain control over emotional reactions and become a reconciler and be ready to forgive people when they don’t live up to expectations. 

7. You shall not commit adultery 

The strict definition of adultery is unlawful sexual activity in marriage. However,
Jesus expanded this definition to include the inner attitude of the heart of wrong desire and not only the outward activity when he said ‘But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28). This lustful intent is simply self-gratification and is a form of unfaithfulness. We can be unfaithful at any level of committed relationships, whether it be towards God or in friendships or even in work relationships where we can be disloyal to our employer and not put in a faithful performance. That is also cheating.
God’s love for us is a commitment of loving sacrifice and his love for us remains faithful even when we are unfaithful to him (2Timothy 2:3).
He wants to reveal his loving faithfulness to us so that we can be drawn to him and drawn away from harmful self-gratifying habits and become free to become fulfilled in faithful relationships
This is the pathway of return for many prodigal sons and daughters to the embrace of a loving Father where they learn the value of a loving relationship and are given worth.

8. You shall not steal

Stealing happens when a person loses sight of the worth of other people and what belongs to them, and in time they finally lose sight of their own worth as a person. 
God desires to touch the life of that person, to show them that they are of greater worth and value to him than all the other forms of creation and if he feeds the birds of the air and beautifies the flowers of the field how much more does he want to provide for them (Matthew 6:26). 
God wants to teach us all to value other people as he values them and to value what other people have worked honestly for. 
Paul writes ‘Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labour, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need Ephesians 4:28).
This is how God transforms people from being takers to becoming appreciated as givers.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour

Satan is called 'a liar and the father of it' and the power that he wields starts with his own self-deception and ends with his deceiving of others. He told the first lie that was ever told on earth which led to the destruction of mankind’s relationship with God. He told them that God had deceived them by saying that they would die if they ate of the tree. Satan lied to them, telling them that they would not die and that they had been overlooked by God and deprived of his wisdom and spiritual and material provision.
And all of that demonstrates the power of what is called false witness. 
That lie causes the devaluing of another person’s name and reputation and honour, which means demolishing their essential being and nature.
The person who lies never has to change, because they never have to see themselves as they really are. God wants to show people who they really and lovingly persuade them that they do need to change
'You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free'.
They become set free from destroying their world with the power of lies, and they become people who build their world with the power of truth and love.

10. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbour 

When a person covets another person’s identity or status or what they possess they live out the lie of taking the things of someone else’s’ life into the desolation and discontent of their own soul. 
They have forsaken God as being the source of their identity and blessing and fulfillment and replaced God with the identity or possessions or privileges of another person. They have created another god, a false idol, into whose image they want to be formed.
It is only when they can let God mercifully show them the futility of living the wrong life with the wrong goals that will only frustrate and torment their souls, that they can graciously surrender to God’s passionate and determined good will for their lives.
This opens up for them a courageous new horizon that they become drawn towards with the Heavenly energy of God’s loving grace and faith. ‘Behold I make all things new’.
God can show that person the futility of living the wrong life pursuing imaginary goals and he gives them the grace to surrender that past pursuit and sets before them a courageous new horizon which gives them a future and a hope.