By Tom Williams
In a previous post, we discussed where is the Ark of the Covenant today. See here in the post, “Sunday Thoughts: Raiders of the Lost Ark – Taken by Extraterrestrials?” What we didn’t discuss in that post is why this Ark was so valuable.
In this previous post, we learned that the Ark was obsessively protected by God. Inside the Ark, if you recall, are the two tablets of stone where the Ten Commands were inscribed by the hand of God. Furthermore, this Ark features prominently at the return of Christ. In other words, something not to be forgotten or done away with.
One can understand that many may not believe in religious texts. But it may serve as one code of morality one could study to juxtapose to the one you follow. More knowledge may help form your own beliefs regardless of a non-belief in religion.
Have you ever asked people (especially those professing to be Christian), do you believe in the Ten Commandments? Almost all will say, “of course.” Then you ask them, can you recite them to me? Few can do this. How can one believe in something so critical to their own morality and God not be able to recite them? Hmmm …
In case you forgot, the Ten Commandments are found in Exodus 20:2-17. One way one can look at the Ten Commandments is to break them down into two parts. Commandments one through five deal with the establishment of morality and its governance by God. The last five deal with the actual codification of the moral law among humans.
God took an interesting approach when describing this human moral code. Some may think that these Commandments are quite specific rather than principle-based. However, when you expand their meaning, they, in fact, are quite principle-based. Perhaps this is why it only took five Commandments for God to state.
One can look at these Commandments from a top-down or bottom-up approach. What may be interesting is to read the Ten Commandments in reverse order – especially the last five. It doesn’t change the Ten Commandments but may give new meaning that you may have noticed before. Reading these Commandments in normal order, for some, may appear to be only a scrambled do’s and don’ts.
When reading the last five Commandments in reverse order, it describes the progression of how evil (or sin) comes to be. Sin starts at the source, the heart (your mind), and takes it to its ultimate conclusion (death). Consider the Ten Commandments story in reverse order.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s. How does sin start? It starts with an idea in one’s heart. Pride, envy, lust, wrath, slothfulness, gluttony, and greed, often called the seven deadly sins … are all ideas of the heart (your mind). From these ideas, we start to desire (covet) what others have to fulfill our own vanity.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Once one has the illicit envious desire for another’s resources, what is one of the first things a person might do? Lie about it and spin a story to justify why their envy is legit. It is the initial step toward the end result.
8. Thou shalt not steal. If one can not lie to get what one wants, what is next? Just take it! Even better to steal so your neighbor does not even realize they have been robbed. The lies can justify the theft. The bottom line is that taking your neighbor’s resources for any reason is theft.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Most believe this Commandment refers to sexual sins. Though true, it also can refer to the adultery of nation-states or even individuals by the rejection of morality toward the end result. The three prior Commandments, if broken, do not require direct physical violence. Before one can do this, one will need to divorce themselves from their own morality and commit adultery toward their prior declared morality.
6. Thou shalt not kill. Now that you have abandoned (forsaken and committed adultery of the moral code), you can then engage in violence and commit the ultimate capital sin of murder. Hence the ultimate end to sin is death.
Hence, the last five of the Ten Commandments, read in reverse order on a principled basis, describe from a start to finish the path evil takes to its end.
Continuing to read the Ten Commandments in reverse order, the next Commandment deals with the social structure of humans. Organization is very important to be able to administrate the human implementation of morality.
5. Honor thy father and thy mother. The key building block of God’s society is the traditional family. It declares the hierarchical structure of the traditional family – father, mother, and then children. The traditional family was so important to God that he dedicated a full Commandment to it. It is the chief hierarchical governance structure to deliver God’s morality to humans, regardless of any state government humans may dream up. Clearly, God was not interested in any form of human state government. Rather it indicates he was more concerned with the morality of individuals.
The remainder of the Commandments, the first four, can be read in their normal top-down order and as said before, deal with the establishment of morality and its governance by God.
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. This first Commandment is the establishment of God as the moral authority. It is not just a narcissistic view of himself but rather says that God has the knowledge of good and evil. If one believes in the God of the Bible, one accepts these empirical assertions of God and his knowledge. This was something not accepted by Adam in the Garden of Eden. Instead, Adam decided to choose his own human reasoning as the source of morality.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. This is extolling us to not look outward and replace God’s moral authority with someone or something else.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. This is extolling us to not look inward and replace God’s moral authority with one’s own distortions. Taking one’s name in vain is to say you believe in God and yet deny in practice his authority.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Often considered, the test commandment as a sign between God and his followers. “Remember,” being the operative word, because God knew people would forget.
With this manner of reading, one can begin to understand the value these stones of the Ark of the Covenant bring not only to God but to human society.
Even if one does not believe in any Biblical text or a God, these dynamics of human’s progressive descent into evil behavior can still be valid. This is one take on an explanation of a moral code – specifically the Ten Commandments. Perhaps you have another and can do better than God … 
Please comment below and give us your take.
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RWR original article syndication source.
Source: Sunday Thoughts: Reading the Ten Commandments in Reverse Order For A New Understanding
Category: Culture, RWR, lust, Morality, pride, Religion, sloth, Sunday Thoughts, Ten Commandments
