November 9: Deuteronomy 5 21-22

Key Verse: Deuteronomy 5 21
You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbour’s house or land, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.

Devotion:
One of the hardest things to police in society is the mind. There are rules and regulations written down to ensure people know what is wrong and what is right; but those rules could almost be said to apply after the fact… What starts a bad attitude? What starts a sinful act? What starts a lawbreaker breaking the law? The mind!

Almost all of the time people will think about what they are going to do – even when acting on impulse people first have the choice of what they are going to do next. Without the law in the first place, we would think of something and do it without knowing we have done something wrong; many live under the delusion they are doing right just because they do not know all of the facts. Some use this in our western societies to gain an advantage (political or otherwise) over people they wish to control in some way. Who is doing wrong in this case?

Just because someone does not know the local laws does not allow them to go ahead and do anything they please. It is our responsibility when living in communities to spread the truth and allow others to become aware of the laws. This final commandment was given to make sure we don’t use the excuse of “we were not told it was wrong!” God wants us all to be aware of what we do and to make informed choices to do what is righteous; remember the things we do affect many people around us and not just us.

Moses was given these commandments on tablets of stone to make sure people did not have any excuse to say they did not know of the laws. Christ ensure we have a conscious guide through the Holy Spirit who wants to help guide us through our thoughts and not to judge us after the fact. God wants us to live righteously which means living by laws such as the Ten Commandments and allowing people to see why we live by those laws.

Points to Ponder:
Do you listen to what others have to say?

Will you listen to the Holy Spirit?