The Ten commandments
You may already have read how Moses brought the people out of Egypt where they had been slaves. They crossed the red sea and came to the Sinai desert The map below shows the early part of their journey.
Click If you want to read this part of the story
Mount Sinai
The Israelites camped at the bottom of the mountain and Moses felt that God was calling to him to go up. Moses did this. The people waited for Him at the bottom.
As Moses stood on mount Sinai, God gave him a message to pass on to the people.
This was made up of 10 commandments or rules - 10 things that the people were told to do or not to do.
God said there would be an agreement between Him and the people. The people had to keep these rules. If they did this God would give them Priests and Prophets who would help them to understand him better and lead them to do the right things.
God did this and eventually He sent them Jesus.
The agreement is called a Testament. All of the early part of the Bible is called the Old Testament.
When Jesus came He made a new agreement so the second part of the Bible is called the New Testament.
These are the commandments:
1. You are to have no other gods before Me.
At this time many people believed that there were many gods.
2.You must not carve out an image and then worship it as a god.
It may seem silly to us but in those days many people did this. The picture on the left shows an image which has been carved to worship as a god.The people of Israel were commanded not to do this but the people of other countries still did.
3. You must not make wrong use of the name of the Lord God.
This means that we should respect God's name and never use it as a swear word.
4. Remember to keep the Sabbath day Holy. On it you shall not do any work.
The Sabbath means the seventh day of the week so for the Jews it was Saturday. The people who had been slaves in Egypt now had a rest day. It was a Holy day or Holiday.
Since Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday Christians have Sunday and not Saturday as their Holy Day.
5. Honour your father and mother.
When you are a child this means doing what they ask and trying to help them.
When you are an adult you should still think about your parents and help them when they need it.
6. You shall not commit murder
7. You shall not commit adultery.
This means that you should have only one wife and not try to run away with someone else's wife.
8 You shall not steal
9. You shall not give false evidence against your neighbour.
This means that you should not say that someone has done wrong when they have not.
Many people feel that it also means that you should never tell lies.
10. You shall not covet your neighbour's house .................or anything that belongs to him.
This means that we should not be jealous of someone's house or anything else that is theirs.
Some of the pictures are from the Biblepicturegallery
