Beyond the Weekend

July 25 | Gimme Putt

July 25, 2016

Exodus 20.1-17

Pastor Aaron Buer taught us this past weekend about the “gimme putt” of the Ten Commandants, “You shall not murder.” Like the “gimme putt” in golf (a putt so close to the hole it doesn’t even need to be taken),  this commandment seems easy because most of us will never even consider murdering someone, let alone actually commit murder. It’s a “gimme.” But when we take a closer look, we see this may not be such an easy command after all.

The Israelites receiving the commandment lived in a violent world. God rescued them from a culture where they’d been dehumanized as slaves. Violence was so prevalent even their leader, Moses, committed murder (Exodus 2.11-13). The Israelites needed this command and, because violence still surrounds us and segments of our society are dehumanized, so do we.

“You shall not murder” forces us to rethink the way we value people. It impacts our anger, our words, and our relationships. If we understand God’s heart behind the commandment, we understand its relevance. Because it’s so relevant, take some time to commit this command to memory.

We’re in the seventh week of our study on the Ten Commandments, so use this opportunity to review the six commandments we’ve covered so far (1, 2, 3, 6, 8 and 9). See if you can say them all from memory.

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