12 Men Scout out the Promised Land (Numbers13-14)

After Miriam was cured of leprosy, the Israelites journeyed to a city called Kadesh in the wilderness and set up camp. God spoke to Moses there. “The wonderful land that I promised you is just beyond the hills. I want you to send out 12 men to scout out the land.”
 So Moses chose one man from each of the tribes. He gave them a checklist of information that he wanted them to bring back. “Find out what kind of people live there and how many. What kind of land is it? Good for planting? A lot of trees? What do their towns look like? Do they have walls? Oh and, if you can, bring back a sample of their fruit.” Moses instructed them.

 So the 12 men headed north over the hill country and passed through Hebron, a city where the grandchildren of Anak lived.  Anak was a giant and his grandkids all took after him! Then the 12 men came to a valley. The valley was overflowing with fruit! The men took a cluster of grapes that was so big, they needed two of them to carry it on a pole between them! They named the valley “Eschol” which means -cluster-. They also gathered pomegranates and figs to bring back with them. All together they stayed in the promised land for 40 days then they returned back to the Israelites camp to report what they had seen.

 All the people came out to hear the scouting report. The 12 men stood before Moses, Aaron and all the people. They held up the huge cluster of grapes and the people were amazed!
 “The land really is a magnificent land!” One of the 12 men spoke up. “There are clusters of grapes and fruit like this everywhere! BUT,"...... Everyone got quiet and one of the other 12 men finished his thought. "BUT.... Some of the men that live there are giants! Their cities have huge walls with guards on them!”
Caleb was one of the twelve scouts and he could see that the Israelites were getting discouraged. “Let’s go at once and take the land.” He shouted. “We can certainly conquer it!” Joshua, one of the other scouts and Moses’ right hand man stood with Caleb. “Yes we can!”
 But the other 10 scouts agreed that the land was magnificent, but the people and the cities were too strong to conquer. They continually spread the discouraging report among the Israelites. "The land will
swallow up anyone who attempts to enter. We felt like grasshoppers next to those giants and I’m sure that’s what we looked like to them!”

 The Israelites all went back to their tents. Many of them cried all night. In the morning they confronted Moses. “We came all this way to get slaughtered by a bunch of giants?! We wish we would have stayed in Egypt and died there! We are tuning back.” The people decided to choose a leader and head back to Egypt.
 Joshua and Caleb tried to change the people’s minds. “The land is a wonderful land! The Lord will bring us safely into this magnificent place! Don’t rebel against God and don’t be afraid of the people. God is on our side and He promised the land to us!”
 But the whole community shouted insults at Caleb and Joshua. They picked up stones and were ready to kill the two men. Then God appeared to all the Israelites. “ How many chances can I give you? How many signs and miracles do you need? Time after time you doubt me and turn your back on me! I am so angry right now that I should just destroy you all and start over with Moses, Caleb and Joshua!”

 Moses pleaded with God. “Please Lord, spare these people. The Egyptians know the power you displayed when rescuing the Israelites from slavery. They know how you led the people with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. If you destroy all the people now, the Egyptians will think to themselves, ‘Well their God got them all the way to the hill country, but he couldn’t bring them into the promised land'.”
 God said, “I will spare all the people except the 10 scouts that stirred up the people against me. However, now only your children will be the ones to enter the promised land along with the 2 scouts, Joshua and Caleb. Tomorrow you must head back to the Red Sea.”
 Moses prayed for the people and God answered. Is there anyone that you need to pray for?

 Sometimes we focus on our situation instead of on our powerful God. It is easy to do if our situation or problem is right in front of us. The closer we are to something the bigger it looks. That’s why we need to constantly keep close to God. "When we draw near to Him, He draws near to us.” (James 4:8)

 Here is a little experiment.  Take a penny and a quarter. Which one is bigger? Right. The quarter :)
Hold the quarter in on hand and the penny in the other. Close one eye and slowly move the penny closer and the quarter farther away from your face. The penny looks larger than the quarter! Now, keeping the coins at the same distance, move the quarter behind the penny. Now you can’t even see the quarter even tho it is bigger than the penny! Cool!
 That’s how it is when we focus on our problems. They get bigger, God gets smaller. And pretty soon God disappears and we feel like we are left to take care of it on our own. God says that He will never leave us or turn His back on us in times of trouble. (Hebrews 13:5)

Why did God get so mad? He proved time and again that the Israelites could trust Him, and still they didn’t. God loved them and He wanted the best for them. God loves you and He wants the best for you too. He wants us to trust Him and not ourselves. He knows what is better for us than we do! Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in God with all your heart and not on your own ideas, and He will point you in the right direction. ( Mr. BibleHead paraphrase)
 So how do we focus on God, get close to God and trust Him more? By reading His book, the bible, and praying.

The Israelites Get Tired of Manna (Numbers12)

When the Ark of the Covenant was finally completed, they placed it inside a large tent. God would hover over the tent like a cloud in the daytime and like a flame a night. So day or night the Israelites would know that God was with them.
 Finally, after over a year of camping near Mount Sinai, the cloud of God began to move and the Israelites packed up everything and followed. All this time God was still sending manna from heaven every night and the people would gather it for food every morning. They traveled for three days until they reached a place called Paran. And no matter where they were. God provided food for them.
 Some of the people were beginning to get tired of eating manna every day.
“When we were in Egypt, we ate fish, cucumbers, melons and onions. Now all we get is manna manna manna!” The people complained.

Isn’t it funny that no matter how bad it used to be, we always think it was better before. The Israelites were slaves! But all they could think about was the variety of food they had.
“We want meat! We want meat! The people began to chant. Soon the whole camp was in an uproar.
Moses went to God. “I’ve had with these people. All they ever do is complain and moan!” He was getting very aggravated with them. God was getting angry too.  So he sent a fireball and burned all the trees around the camp. The people were frightened but they still complained to Moses. Moses told God that he needed help with the people.
 God told Moses to bring Him 70 men and that He would put the Holy Spirit upon them so that they could help Moses lead the people. When God put the Holy Spirit on them, it was to help them do something special. God could take the Spirit off them when they were finished or whenever He wanted. Today (if we accepted Jesus as the master of our life and savior of our souls) we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us so that we can do special things for God. God has sealed us with the Spirit, which means that once we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, He is there for good! Isn’t that great to know!

 God also told Moses that He would give the people meat, but He warned them that what they were asking for was not a good thing. So the next morning when the people awoke. There were birds called quail flying close to ground for miles and miles. Everyone started to catch the birds. Everyone gathered at least 50 baskets full of quail! The people ate and ate and ate until they could eat no more. Then the next day they ate some more! After a couple of days, the meat on the birds started to rot and it caused a sickness that killed many Israelites. They named that place the "graves of cravings”. The people realized that God knew best and that asking for meat was not very smart. God really does know best. Because He sees all and knows all.
After three days the Israelites traveled to a place called Hazeroth. While they were there Moses’ brother Aaron and his sister Miriam began to get jealous of their brother.
“How come God only talks to Moses and not to us!” Aaron said to Miriam.
Remember we said that God sees all and knows all? He also hears all! He heard Aaron and Miriam.

God called Moses, Aaron and Miriam to a meeting inside the tent and He scolded Aaron and Miriam. “I spoke to the prophets through dreams and visions, but I choose to speak to Moses face to face. When you talk about Moses behind his back, you are talking about me!” God was furious. Then the cloud lifted from the tent and God departed. Aaron looked at his sister. “Miriam!” He screamed. “Your face and your hands! They are as white as snow!” She had a deadly disease called leprosy. Moses cried out to God. “Please heal my sister!” God told Moses to tell Miriam to stay away from everyone for 7 days .

The Israelites waited 7 days. Miriam was cured and they left Hazeroth.

We can learn a few things form this story.
1. When we are moving toward God and His plan for our life, we should’t look back and wish things were like the “old days”. (Phil 3:13)
2. Sometimes we pray and ask God for the wrong things. God knows what is best for us. We should pray for God to give us what He knows is best for us. (James 4:3)
3. God knows all. God sees all. And God hears all. (Hebrews 4:13)
4. God doesn’t like complaining, moaning or grumbling. (Phil 2:14)

The Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 34)

Last time we were together, God was angry with the Israelites and said that He would not lead them personally into the promised land. That an angel would do it instead. The people were very sorry and asked Moses to speak with God.

Last time God spoke to Moses, He told him to set up a tent just outside the Israelite camp and that He would meet Moses there. It was called the Tent of Meeting. I bet Moses was glad, because going up and down that mountain when he was 80 years old had to be rough!
 “Please continue to guide us?” Moses asked God inside the tent. “The people want you to lead us , not an angel! If I have found favor in your eyes God, please do this for your people.”
 “Ok. “ said God. “It is true that you have found favor with me, so I will lead the Israelites to the promised land.”
 Moses was very relieved because the people were really upset. Then he asked God one more thing. “Can I see your glorious face?” he asked.
 “No one can see my face and live because I am holy.” God answered. “But here is what I’ll do. Tomorrow morning I want you to bring two tablets of stone up to the top of Mount Sinai. They must be chiseled just the way that the two originals were shaped. When you reach the top of the mountain, go in between two large rocks that are there. I will put my hand over the opening and pass by. I will take away my hand and you will be able to see me from behind as I go by.”
 Moses worked on the two two tablets over night and in the morning he went up Mount Sinai. At the top of the mountain, Moses went between the two large rocks. God put his hand over the rocks and passed by. When He removed his hand, Moses saw God’s glory! He fell down to worship God right then and there! We must always remember the holiness of God. When we think about how wonderful, how glorious and how holy He is, we should always praise and worship Him!
 Moses was up on the mountain for 40 days, just like the first time that he received the ten commandments from God. This time the people waited for Moses. They learned their lesson (for now).
 When Moses came down from the mountain with the new ten commandments, everyone looked at him with astonishment! He didn’t know it, but his face was glowing! The people had a glimpse of God’s glory. When people see us. We should have a certain difference about us because we are Jesus followers. Our faces  may not be glowing, but we can be a reflection of God’s love so that other people will want to know Him.
 Moses called a meeting. He said that God had given him specific instructions on building an ark for God as they traveled through the wilderness.  The ark was a chest where the Israelite were going to keep the two tablets of stone with the ten commandments. It had two long poles so that it could be carried. Here is a picture of what it looked like.

 Moses took up a collection of gold, silver, wood, precious stones and fabric. The people were so glad that God would be leading them again that they kept giving and giving. Finally Moses had to tell them to stop. Moses put out a call for all the artists among them to come and work on the ark. God had chosen two men to be the head artists. Their names were Bezalel and Oholiab. I bet as they never dreamed that they would be able to use their talents on such a wonderful project for God.

 God has given all of us some kind of talent. then when we start to follow Jesus, God gives us spiritual gifts.  Bezalel and Oholiab were blessed by God with artistic talent. Possibly their spiritual gifts were leading so hat they could lead all the other artists. See how our talents and spiritual gifts work together. Our gifts are always for the glory of God and to further His kingdom.

 So let’s always remember that God is holy. (Psalm 22:3)
 That we should reflect His glory by loving others. (John 13:35)
 God equips us to do great things for Him and others. (Hebrews 13:21)

Moses Smashes the Ten Commandments (Exodus 32)

Last time we left Moses, he had been on the mountaintop with God for 40 days. The Israelites got impatient waiting for him and approached Moses’ brother Aaron with a request to make them a new god out of their gold earrings. God told Moses to go back down the mountain because God knew what the people were doing. God sees everything.

 "I am so angry with those people right now!” God said. “I delivered them from slavery and I led them through the desert. I fed them when they were hungry and gave them something to drink when they were thirsty! Now I feel like destroying them all and starting over. I could make a great nation out of you Moses.”

 Moses begged God. “No please don’t destroy them. I will talk to them. Besides, what will all the other nations think, especially the Egyptians, when they find out that you brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, then killed them all here at this mountain.”
 “I will spare them because you asked me to spare them.” God replied. “But there will be punishment."



Don’t you wish that you could talk with God? You can! That is what prayer is. Prayer IS talking to God. We don’t have to memorize and recite what someone else wrote down. God wants to hear our thoughts. And you can pray anywhere, not just kneeling by your bed or at the dinner table. God always hears you! God loves when we talk/pray with Him.



Moses took the Ten Commandments which God had written on two stone tablets with his finger, and headed back down the mountain. Half way down he joined up with Joshua who had waited that whole time for Moses to return. Wow! He was so patient. Not like the rest of the people.
 As Moses and Joshua descended the mountain together, they began to hear some noise. “It sounds like the rumbling of war.” Joshua said.
 “No.” Replied Moses. “It’s not the sound of battle being won or lost. It is the sound of a celebration.”

As they neared the foot of the mountain, Moses could see all the people dancing around. And in the middle of the celebration was the golden calf! Moses was so angry that he raised the two tablet of stone on which were written the commandments above hid head and smashed them at the base of the mountain. He knocked the golden calf into the fire and melted it down. Then he went over to his brother Aaron.
 "What is the matter with you?” Moses asked. “How could the people convince you to do something so wrong in the eyes of God?”

 Aaron tried to explain. “You were taking way too long up there Moses. The people were getting impatient. I got nervous when I saw a million people marching toward me. They had already decided that they wanted me to make them a god. I didn’t want to, but to calm them down, I asked them to give me all their gold. I threw the gold into the fire and POOF! out came a golden calf!”

 Did Aaron really think that Moses was that stupid? Aaron let his fear of the people get into the way of his obedience to God. Sometimes we worry more about what other people will think than what God thinks. Sometimes we put more trust in pleasing people, than we do in God’s protection.

 “You have let the people get completely out of control.” Moses scolded his brother. “Tomorrow I will call a meeting of all the people who are truly sorry for what has happened here.”
 The next day, Moses gathered all the people. “I will go back up the mountain and maybe I can obtain forgiveness from God for you.” The people were ashamed about how they had behaved.

 So Moses went back up the mountain, again. When He approached God, Moses said that he would take the punishment for all the people if God would just forgive them. Does this sound familiar? Jesus took our punishment. He could do that because He was sinless. Moses however was not. God said.
“I will forgive the people but you will not take the punishment. I will send a plague into the camp. Some will get sick and some will die. Then you will lead the remaining people into the promised land that I had promised. I will not go with you though. I will send an angel to lead you.
 So a plague went throughout camp. Some people died. Then it came time to leave again for the promised land. Moses told the people how God would not be doing the leading from now on because He was so angry with them, but that an angel would be doing the leading. The people were very afraid that they would not have God as their guide. As a sign of repentance (Being sorry) none of them wore any more jewelry for the rest of their journey.

So this week we can learn lessons from four different people.
1. From Moses we know that talking with God is praying. We can pray and where, any time. God hears us. (Phil 4:6)
2. From Joshua we learned to be patient waiting on God. We will see in future stories how God used Joshua in amazing ways. (James 5:7)
3. From Aaron we learned that when it comes to pleasing men or pleasing God, God always comes first. (Gal 1:10)
4. From the impatient people we see that disobeying God has consequences. (1Corinth 6:9)

Golden Calf (Exodus 32)

Ok, so I know we took a little detour from Moses on Mt. Sinai. Let’s not forget where we left off with him. God had just given Moses the Ten Commandments written on two stone tablets. Moses was on the mountain for 40 days with God! Joshua, Moses’ right hand man, was camped about halfway up the mountain. He was waiting for Moses. Aaron, Moses’ brother, and about 70 other men were waiting for Moses at the base of the mountain. The other one million Hebrews were back at their camp a little ways from the mountain. I just want to follow up a little more on what we talked about last time, accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

 If you prayed that prayer last time and meant it from your heart, you are what the Bible calls “saved”. You have a home waiting for you in heaven! But until we get there, we are living on this earth as followers of Jesus. When you were saved, God sealed you with His Holy Spirit. (2 Cor 1:22) That is God’s guarantee! Wow! No one or nothing can snatch you from His hands! (John 10:29) He has placed His Spirit inside you. The Holy Spirit is now living in you. He is a part of you.
 We are born with a body and a mind. The bible says that our bodies are sinful and desire to please ourselves instead of God. Our mind, (thoughts, emotions and will) decides what to do. Now we have another part of us. Our spirit, which is holy. Here’s is our situation as we live our lives: Our spirit wants to do only good. Our bodies want to do wrong. So our mind is the tiebreaker! That is why we should “renew” our minds. (Romans 12:2) If we play violent video games more than we read the bible, our minds will lean more toward the sinful stuff that our body wants. If we pray and talk to God more than we watch some of the bad stuff on television or our computer, the our minds will lean more toward pleasing God which is what our spirit wants.
 Television, computers,video games, hanging with the wrong crowd, or reading the wrong stuff can pull us in the wrong direction, but God has given us the Bible, the privilege of talking to Him, good TV shows and movies and loving people to hang out with to help us in the right direction. His direction.

 Ok back to Moses. He was on top of Mt. Sinai for 40 days. I’m sure everyone was wondering what happened to him. He was never gone for more than a couple of days before. Joshua waited patiently half way up the mountain. But the Hebrews were getting restless. They marched to the base of the mountain where Aaron and the 70 leaders were camped out.




“Moses has been gone way too long.” The people said to Aaron. “Something has happened to him.
He brought us out of Egypt, but now where is he? Make us a god that we can see and worship.”
“OK,"Aaron said.”Take off your gold earrings and bring them to me.”

So the people did as Aaron asked. Aaron took all the gold earrings, melted them down and molded them into a golden calf.

 The Hebrews got all excited and shouted. “Oh Israel! These are the gods that brought you out from slavery in Egypt!” We can think to ourselves how stupid the Israelites (Hebrews) were, but we do the same thing. If we are trusting God for something, and He takes too long, we lie, cheat or steal to make it happen. Part of trusting God is waiting on Him. God is never too late. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

 When Aaron saw how happy the people were with their new god, he built and altar in front of the Golden calf. “Tomorrow is Golden Calf God day! Let’s party! (Mr. BibleHead translation)
So the next day the Israelites party like their was no tomorrow. They were getting rowdy, dancing like sinners and getting drunk.
Then God said to Moses. “You better go back down the mountain. The people that you led out of Egypt are out of control. They have made a new god out of gold.
 Don’t we do that sometimes too. We think more about money or things than about God.  When we trust in our money or things to meet our needs, we are making a god out of gold. So we learned a couple things today.
(1) We have the Holy Spirit living inside us. (If we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior)
(2) Waiting on God is trusting in Him.  (Don’t sin to get what we want.)   (Isaiah 40:31)
(3) We can’t make money and things our god. (Keep God first, He’ll take care of us) (Mt 6:24)

Ten Commandments....bad news and good news

 OK, last time we discussed how God gave us the Ten Commandments and how they were for our own good and for our safety. There is another reason, which takes us to the bad news and the good news.
 First the bad news. When we break a single commandment, no matter how big or how small, it separates us from God. Breaking a commandment it is “sin.” God is a holy God and heaven is a holy place. Sin is like a stain.(Isaiah 1:18) Heaven is so clean, that any stain can’t be allowed or it wouldn’t be a clean and holy place. No matter how much good we do, the stain is still there.

 Let’s say that the Ten Commandments are like ten dollars that your mom gave you and your brother to go to the movies. The movie ticket costs ten dollars. On the way to the theater, you see the ice cream truck and buy some ice cream for a dollar. When you get to the ticket window at the theater, the ticket seller says that you can’t buy a ticket with only nine dollars. The movie is ready to start! You offer her your bracelet or the little doll that you have in your pocket. No matter how valuable those things are to you, you still can’t get in. We have to be perfect to get into heaven.

 More bad news.... no one has ever lived the perfect life and not broken a commandment, except Jesus. Have you ever lied, taken anything that wasn’t yours or disobeyed your parents? I have. That means that we are NOT perfect. The bible says that “everyone has sinned and fallen short of heaven.”(Romans 3:23)
 That’s enough bad news. How about some good news? There are four books of the Bible about the life of Jesus. They are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They are called the Gospels. Did you know that gospel means “good news!” Jesus is our good news!  Let’s go back to our movie ticket story. Jesus lived the perfect life. He bought all the movie tickets for everyone in the whole world! Jesus wants to give us a ticket into heaven, but we have to come to Him. What does it mean to come to Him. We have to believe that He is the son of God. That He lived a sinless life. That He died on the cross to pay a price that I could not pay because I have sinned. And that He rose from the dead on the third day.

The Ten Commandments show us how we have failed and how much we need Jesus!

 Without Jesus we are in big trouble when we die. If we think that we can be good enough to get into heaven, we are fooling ourselves. Let’s say that the Ten Commandments are like a chain and each link is one of the commandments. You are hanging onto the chain above a lake of fire. You are not too worried because the chain is strong and it is hoisting you to safety.

But if even one of those links breaks, the whole chain is broken. If you tell a little lie or disobey your parents, the link breaks and you begin to fall. Who can save us from that lake of fire? Only Jesus.

The bible says to “cry out to Jesus!”  He will SAVE us.(Psalm 37:17)  If we choose with our heart to make Jesus our Lord and Savior. He will save us.  What does Lord and Savior mean?  Lord means that we follow Jesus. He is sitting on the throne of our hearts. While we are on this earth, we get to know Him and what He wants us to do. Savior is about when we die. Jesus stands before God and says, “Father, his or her price has been paid.” We are then allowed to spend forever in heaven.
 Do you want to go to heaven when you die? Wouldn’t it be great to know that you will be spending eternity with Jesus? You can be sure. Do you believe that Jesus died for you? Do you believe that He rose from the dead? Do you believe that He is God’s son? Are you ready to follow Jesus? Do you realize that you have sinned and that you need Jesus? The bible says to "confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and you will be saved.”(Romans 10:9) Confess means to say out loud, so if you really, really, really believe this with all your heart, say this prayer.
 God, I admit that I am a sinner. I believe that Jesus came to earth, lived a perfect life and died for my sins. I confess now that Jesus in now the Lord of my life and my Savior. Thank you God for Jesus and thank you for saving me. Amen.

 If you prayed that prayer and meant it with all your heart, guess what? You are going to heaven! The Bible says that every time someone is saved, the angels throw a big party in heaven!

The Ten Commandments

                    So God spoke the Ten Commandments to the Hebrews. Then He gave Moses two tablets of stone with the commandments engraved on them. I guess this was important stuff! The Ten Commandments can be broken into two parts. The first four commandments are about God an the last six are about people. Jesus even said that The commandments can be summed up in two commandments. Love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

  So why did God give us commandments anyway? Does He just want to spoil our fun? Doen't He want us to enjoy life? YES! He does! .... and that's exactly why he gave them (and us) the Ten Commandments. Imagine a game without any rules.... That wouldn't be too much fun with everyone doing whatever they wanted. Would it? How about if your mom or dad didn't have any rules for you? Let's say you were two years old and you wanted to cross a busy street. Your mom and dad didn't believe in giving you any rules and let you try to cross the street as they sat on the front porch and watched you try to get across the street without getting hit by a car. That would not be very loving of them. If we follow God's rules, we will have a fuller, safer and more enjoyable life!

God also gave us the Ten Commandments to help us see that we are sinners. If we don’t know the rules, how do we know that we are breaking them. The Bible says that Jesus was the only one who kept all the commandments His whole life.

 Let’s look at the first four commandments . They are about God.

The First Commandment says: to Love God more than anything else. When you love someone, you let them have the first piece of pie. You let them get a drink from the water fountain first, even though you are thirsty. So if we love God more than anything else, we put what He wants first. What does He want? He wrote it down in the Bible and on two tablets of stone. He wants us to show our love for Him, by obeying Him.

The Second Commandment says: to worship only God. This is different from the first one. We worship with our mind and our time. What do we think about more than God. Do we think about playing video games or texting more than we think about God? What do we spend more time doing? Praying or playing? Reading the Bible or reading a text?

The Third Commandment says: to honor God’s name. God is holy and so is His name. We should not blurt out His name when we get mad or hurt ourselves. How would you feel if every time something went wrong, someone yelled your name? When we say God’s name, He leans a little closer to hear what we are saying. We should use His name when we are praying, or telling someone about how much He loves us.

The Fourth Commandment says: to honor God by resting from work on the seventh day. Work is a distraction. God wants us to free up our time in order to Honor Him. When we go to church on that seventh day, God knows that we have put aside that time to spend with Him. He gave us the example of resting on the seventh day when He created the universe and rested after six days.

Now let’s look at the last six commandments. They are about loving each other.

The Fifth Commandment says: to honor your mom and dad. The best way to honor them is to obey them. God put them in charge of you. God is in charge of them. The only time God doesn’t want you to do what they say, is if they tell you to do something that is not right.

The Sixth commandment says: not to kill anyone, which also means not to hurt anyone. Jesus says that even thinking about hurting someone is just as bad as really doing it.

The Seventh Commandment says: to keep your promises when you get married. When you get married, God is right in the middle of those promises. When you break one of those promises, it’s like telling God that you are more important than Him. God never breaks His promises.

The Eighth Commandment says: not to steal. God sees everything. God loves us. God wants good things for us. When we take something that is not ours. It makes Him sad. Then God doesn’t give us the better thing that He had for us.

The Ninth Commandment says: not to lie. God hears everything. God loves us. God wants the best for us. When we lie, we are not trusting God. We think we need to lie to get out of some kind of trouble, but then the lies get us into more trouble. Jesus said that the truth sets us free.

The Tenth Commandment says: not to be jealous or greedy. This is hard because it deals more with our heart than the rest of the commandments. It is hard to be happy for someone when they have what we wanted, but that is what God wants us to do. Be happy for the kid who got the new bike.  When we do that. It changes us on the inside and we are happier with what we have.

 Next time we will talk about the bad news and the good news of the Ten Commandments.