Last Sunday it was my joy to teach the last Summer Sunday School class. They had been going through the 10 Commandments. We covered the 10th commandment and then played Jeopardy to review all of the Commandments.
The 7th Commandment is, “You shall not commit adultery.” Trying to teach this to children ages 3-14 would be hard, but the point that was conveyed was be committed to one another. Makes sense. But this morning this Commandment has taken on a new meaning for me.
I've always been taught that we should not commit adultery because this would be harmful to your marriage and this is not what God wants. Both of these statements are true. Adultery is terribly harmful to any marriage. And God does not want this. But I'm beginning to see it goes beyond that.
Throughout Scripture God uses pictures of things to convey ideas to His people. I'm reading in Ezekiel right now and the things God has Ezekiel doing to show what He will do to His people is terrifying. I can't understand why they didn't repent. But then I remember me. Oh yeah. They are a lot like me.
Anyway, I came across this phrase in Ezekiel 6:
Because I was crushed by their adulterous heart.
I was stopped cold. The LORD is speaking.
I was crushed by their adulterous heart.
The LORD was crushed. He had been crushed by their unfaithfulness to Him in worshipping other idols. The relationship God has with a person is personal; it's one-on-one. He has to be first place in their lives because there is no second place for God. It's all or nothing. He desires this for each human being.
With Israel He had made it abundantly clear and had made the way clear. He knew they couldn't keep all the commandments, but His desire was for them to see that they couldn't and look to Him to trust Him to help them, for them to serve Him and Him only.
When God gave that 7th Commandment, it wasn't only for our benefit for marriage or because He wanted us to do that, but because it was a picture of what a true relationship with Him should be: One-on-one, faithfulness to Him as He is faithful to us.
