Chapter XIV: Three Commandments

ABOUT EARTHLY THINGS

_V. "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long
upon the land which the Lord thy God hath given thee."_

OUR best and most beautiful example of this loving, dutiful obedience is given us in the early days of our Lord's life on earth.

We read of it in the second chapter of Luke.

Jesus was twelve years old, and He knew that His Heavenly Father had given Him a great work to do here in this world. One day in Jerusalem He had stayed in the Temple talking to the learned Doctors of the Law, and Joseph and His mother missed Him from among the company who were journeying homewards to Nazareth; and when they found Him in the Temple, His mother said, "Thy father and I have sought Thee, sorrowing!"

And His gentle answer is a pattern to all of us: "Wist ye not—" (Did you not know)—"that I must be about My Father's business?" He was reminding her then of God, Who had sent Him, His only begotten Son, into the world to save sinners.

But with all that in His heart, the Bible goes on to tell us, "Jesus went down with them to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." That means that He was perfectly obedient in His earthly home.

Then we have the sweet example of Ruth the Moabitess.

Her husband was dead. But Ruth was devoted to her mother-in-law, and when Naomi wished to return to the land of Israel, though all Ruth's friends lived in Moab, she entreated to be allowed to take that long journey with Naomi, and to stay with her always.

And as you can read for yourselves in the Book of Ruth, she was wonderfully blessed through her goodness to her mother-in-law. God watched her sweet and dutiful behaviour, and He gave her the great honour of being one of the ancestors of King David, and then, through him, of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was born at David's city, Bethlehem, thirteen hundred years afterwards.

Thus the Commandment that contained a promise of blessing was fulfilled.

_VI. "Thou shalt do no murder."_

What is murder? It is hatred in the heart, cherished and unpardoned, unconfessed to God, which ends in a cruel deed.

If we find in our own hearts an unforgiving spirit—a grudge against any one—a wish, perhaps, to do them harm or pay them back—let us beware!

Our Lord says: "When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any one!"

Now I am going to tell you about a murder, which was a very sad one.

David, as you know, loved God very much; but he had grown very rich and powerful, and he had begun to value earthly things more than God's Commandments.

He wanted to get rid of one of his soldiers, who was at the war fighting for him. Why did he want to get rid of him? Because David had taken from him something which that soldier valued beyond all other things! I will tell you what that thing was afterwards.

So David told his great captain, Joab, to set this soldier, called Uriah, in the forefront of the battle, and then to retire from him, so that he should get killed. So Joab, who was an unscrupulous, untrustworthy man, did as the king commanded him. Then he sent back word to David at Jerusalem about the great battle, and mentioned that Uriah was killed.

"But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord."

The precious possession which David had taken for himself, while Uriah was at the war, was Uriah's dearly loved wife: and David had broken two of God's direct commands—one was, "Thou shalt do no murder," the other was:

_VII. "Thou shalt not commit adultery."_

—Which is taking another man's wife away from him.

Then there came another messenger to David. Not from the battlefield, where Uriah lay dead, but a message from God Himself, sent by the Prophet Nathan to the king.

And the Prophet told David this story: "There were two men in one city: one was rich, and the other poor."

"The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: the poor man had only one little ewe lamb, that he had brought up at home, and that played with his children and drank out of his own cup."

"And a traveller came to see that rich man; and the rich man grudged to take any out of his own flocks to feed the traveller, but took the poor man's ewe lamb!"

When David heard this story he was very angry with the rich man, and told Nathan he ought to be punished.

And then Nathan said to the king: "Thou art the man!"

"Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? Thou hast killed Uriah with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife."

"Therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house."

Then David was dreadfully sorry. He saw his great sin in the sight of the Lord, and he earnestly asked to be forgiven.

If you read the fifty-first Psalm you will see how sorry he was.

And the Lord did forgive him; but David had to bear the effects of his sin the whole of his life afterwards.