Natsarim

[natsarim]

The First Commandment: I Am the Lord Your God
God Wants Us to BeFree
Dennis Prager
Whatis the first of the Ten Commandments?
Itmight seem like an odd question, but itʼs not. Jews and Christians givedifferent
answers.The reason is that what we know as “The Ten Commandments” is, in the
originalHebrew, “The Ten Statements.” And since the Hebrew is the original, we begin
withthe first statement, which all religions agree, is: “I am (YAH) the Lord yourGod who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Thisstatement is so
importantthat none of the other commandments make sense without it.
First,it asserts that Yah is giving these commandments. Not Moses and not any other
humanbeing. Second, Yah is the One who delivered you from slavery. Again, no
humanbeing did this, not even Moses. Therefore you have an obligation to me, Yah.
And what is thatobligation? That you live by the following nine commandments.
Thisis the beginning of what is known as ethical monotheism, the greatest worldchanginginnovation of the Hebrew Bible. It means two things. Ethical monotheism
meansthat the one God -- thatʼs monotheism -- is the source of ethics, of morality.
Morality,an objective code of right and wrong, does not emanate from human opinion; it
emanatesfrom God, and therefore transcends human opinion. The other meaning of
ethicalmonotheism is that what God most wants from us is that we treat other human
beingsmorally. None of the Ten Commandments concern what humans must do “for”
God;pre-Ten Commandments religions all believed that people must do a lot “for”their
gods-- for example, feed them and even sacrifice people to them.
Butnow, thanks to the Ten Commandments, mankind learned that what God wants is
thatwe be good to our fellow human beings. Even the commandments concerning not
havingfalse gods and not carrying Godʼs name in vain are ultimately about morality.
Thething we can do “for” God is to treat all his other children decently. Everyparent can
relateto this. Parents -- or at least healthy parents -- have indescribable joy whenthey
seetheir children act lovingly toward one another and indescribable pain when theysee
theirchildren hurt one another. So, too, God, who is likened to our Father in Heaven,
cares most about howwe treat other human beings, all of whom are His children.
Thethird critical teaching of the First Statement -- “I am (YAH) the Lord your Godwho took you of Egypt, out of the House of bondage” -- is the importance, andthe meaning, of freedom.
Notethat God is not saying in this introduction to the Ten Commandments that He
createdthe world. It surely would have made a lot of sense for God to introduce theTen
Commandmentswith the statement, “I am the Lord your God who created the world.”
Thatis, after all, pretty impressive, and would make sense: “I created the world:You
betterlisten to Me.” But no, the one thing God declares is that He took the Childrenof
Israelout of slavery and into freedom. Thatʼs how much God hates slavery and how
importantGod considers freedom. The Founders of America based their entire view of
Americaon this belief -- that God wants us to be free. That is why the most iconic
symbolof the American Revolution, the Liberty Bell, has only one sentence inscribedon
it-- a verse from the Hebrew Bible: “ProclaimLIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all
the Inhabitants thereof.”
Butthere is one other equally important lesson about freedom imparted by theopening
statementof the Ten Commandments: what freedom means. The Giver of the Ten
Commandmentsis, in effect, saying: “I took you out of slavery and into freedom, and
theseTen Commandments are the way to make a free society. You cannot be a free
peopleif you do whatever you want.” Freedom comes from moral self-control. There is
noother way to achieve it.
Andfourth and finally, by telling us that He liberated the Hebrew slaves, God madeclear
thatHe cares deeply about human beings. It is impressive to create the world. Butwhat
mostmatters is not only that there is a Creator, but that the Creator cares aboutHis
creation.
Allof that is in the one statement with which the Ten Commandments begins.

Any Comments;

 

[Miri]

Yes could you make the text bigger, put in some paragraphs and
tidy it up a bit so the words don't run into each other.

 

[Locutus]

Only thoughts I have is Paul stated that Natsarim were dead to the law and not joined (married) to Moses.

Rom 7:4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

 

[blue_ladybug]

Here's some advice: stop naming all your threads "natsarim". And stop copy pasting articles, unless you're going to give credit to their author/ website in your post. That's called plagiarism.. No one here reads copy pastes anyway.. lol

 

[Karraster]

The First Commandment: I Am the Lord Your God
God Wants Us to BeFree
Dennis Prager
Whatis the first of the Ten Commandments?
Itmight seem like an odd question, but itʼs not. Jews and Christians givedifferent
answers.The reason is that what we know as “The Ten Commandments” is, in the
originalHebrew, “The Ten Statements.” And since the Hebrew is the original, we begin
withthe first statement, which all religions agree, is: “I am (YAH) the Lord yourGod who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Thisstatement is so
importantthat none of the other commandments make sense without it.
First,it asserts that Yah is giving these commandments. Not Moses and not any other
humanbeing. Second, Yah is the One who delivered you from slavery. Again, no
humanbeing did this, not even Moses. Therefore you have an obligation to me, Yah.
And what is thatobligation? That you live by the following nine commandments.
Thisis the beginning of what is known as ethical monotheism, the greatest worldchanginginnovation of the Hebrew Bible. It means two things. Ethical monotheism
meansthat the one God -- thatʼs monotheism -- is the source of ethics, of morality.
Morality,an objective code of right and wrong, does not emanate from human opinion; it
emanatesfrom God, and therefore transcends human opinion. The other meaning of
ethicalmonotheism is that what God most wants from us is that we treat other human
beingsmorally. None of the Ten Commandments concern what humans must do “for”
God;pre-Ten Commandments religions all believed that people must do a lot “for”their
gods-- for example, feed them and even sacrifice people to them.
Butnow, thanks to the Ten Commandments, mankind learned that what God wants is
thatwe be good to our fellow human beings. Even the commandments concerning not
havingfalse gods and not carrying Godʼs name in vain are ultimately about morality.
Thething we can do “for” God is to treat all his other children decently. Everyparent can
relateto this. Parents -- or at least healthy parents -- have indescribable joy whenthey
seetheir children act lovingly toward one another and indescribable pain when theysee
theirchildren hurt one another. So, too, God, who is likened to our Father in Heaven,
cares most about howwe treat other human beings, all of whom are His children.
Thethird critical teaching of the First Statement -- “I am (YAH) the Lord your Godwho took you of Egypt, out of the House of bondage” -- is the importance, andthe meaning, of freedom.
Notethat God is not saying in this introduction to the Ten Commandments that He
createdthe world. It surely would have made a lot of sense for God to introduce theTen
Commandmentswith the statement, “I am the Lord your God who created the world.”
Thatis, after all, pretty impressive, and would make sense: “I created the world:You
betterlisten to Me.” But no, the one thing God declares is that He took the Childrenof
Israelout of slavery and into freedom. Thatʼs how much God hates slavery and how
importantGod considers freedom. The Founders of America based their entire view of
Americaon this belief -- that God wants us to be free. That is why the most iconic
symbolof the American Revolution, the Liberty Bell, has only one sentence inscribedon
it-- a verse from the Hebrew Bible: “ProclaimLIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all
the Inhabitants thereof.”
Butthere is one other equally important lesson about freedom imparted by theopening
statementof the Ten Commandments: what freedom means. The Giver of the Ten
Commandmentsis, in effect, saying: “I took you out of slavery and into freedom, and
theseTen Commandments are the way to make a free society. You cannot be a free
peopleif you do whatever you want.” Freedom comes from moral self-control. There is
noother way to achieve it.
Andfourth and finally, by telling us that He liberated the Hebrew slaves, God madeclear
thatHe cares deeply about human beings. It is impressive to create the world. Butwhat
mostmatters is not only that there is a Creator, but that the Creator cares aboutHis
creation.
Allof that is in the one statement with which the Ten Commandments begins.

Any Comments;

A quote ~James Madison
“ We’ve staked our future on our ability to follow the Ten Commandments with all of our heart.”

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity…to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” [1778 to the General Assembly of the State of Virginia]

...so the further we get away from the commandments we can easily see the effects.

Being a parent/grandparent, is indeed a blessing of the highest order. And yes it's true, you can say what you want to/about me, but watch out how you treat my children! I can only imagine how Father thinks of those who mistreat one of His children.

Welcome to CC, good post~ thanks.