Ten Commandments of Moses

The Ten Commandments of Moses - Judge Robe

Barely three chapters into the Bible, Satan asked Adam and Eve a question that each of us asks ourselves everyday before we make a decision:

"Has God indeed said?"

[1] Our answer to that question determines whether we are a member of God's kingdom (serving Him by bringing about "His will on earth as it is in heaven")

[2] or man's kingdom (serving our selfish interests by "doing our thing").

Alabama's Judge Ashley McCathan's answer to this crucial question is a resounding "Yes," and he should be complimented on it. As in the case of former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, the God-haters are sounding as though our culture will come unglued if he doesn't stop acknowledging the triune God of the Bible.

Buddy Hanson, President of the Tuscaloosa-based Christian Policy Network and author of God's Ten Words: Practical Applications from the Ten Commandments, writes:

It is not Judge McCathan who is "troubling Israel," [ 3 ] but his judicial peers who make legal decisions based upon what they think the law should say, rather than upon what the written law code. The reason they do this is because our legal code is based upon biblical principles and since they hate God, they hate it. In their dishonesty, they will not come out and reveal their true intentions. Instead they will say "America was founded on the principle of the separation of church and state," or "If we based our laws upon the Bible, that wouldn't be fair to other religions."

However, these judges are only too aware that there is no such principle as the separation of church and state in the Constitution and they know that the reason for the first amendment was to allow people to worship any religion they wanted, but that the law code would be based exclusively upon the triune God of the Bible. No wonder the government schools are re-writing American history textbooks! [4]

By wearing the Ten Commandments on his judicial robe, Judge McCathan is reminding himself and those who come to his court that his decisions will conform to the same ethical standard as the founders of America: the triune God of the Bible. This is the reason that the God-haters are so up in arms: they don't want to be publicly reminded that what they are doing is ignoring and disrespect God (since most of them play at Christianity by belonging to and/or even being officers in a church). Whatever god they have made up in their vivid imagination must surely be a small god if the creature can con him (or her or it). So, what about wearing the Ten Commandments on one's clothing? Is this the beginning of a new fashion fad, or is it something that we find in Scripture? In the Book of Numbers we find a 4,000 year old precedent for this idea.

Ten Commandments from Moses

Moses writes concerning the Ten Commandments

37 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

38 Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue:

39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring:

40 That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.

41 I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God.

Numbers 15.37-41

The New Testament also provides a further biblical precedent. Apparently the clothes of Jesus had the Blue border in the clothes of his garments.

Luke 8: 44: ... touched the border of his garment, and

Matthew 9: 20 ... touched the hem of his garment.

When the sick woman touched the border of his garments, which represented the Ten Commandments of Moses, she became well. The details of the passage are given as follows:

43 And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,

44 Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.

45 And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?

46 And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.

47 And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately.

48 And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace

Luke 8: 43-48

This episode is also referenced in the Gospel of Matthew:

20 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:

21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.

22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

Matthew 9: 20-22

One of the most highly recognized scholars on the Ten Commandments was the 20th century theologian Dr. R.J. Rushdonny. He makes the following comments on this subject:

The literal fulfillment of the command concerning the frontlets and the posts (Deuteronomy 6.8-9) is clearly required, as the above passage in Numbers 15:37-41 makes clear. The blue thread required cannot be spiritualized away.

God requires that He be worshiped according to his word. Our Lord fulfilled this law, and a woman touched a fringe or hem of His garment to be healed. (Matthew 9:20) Jesus criticized the Pharisees for making large their fringes (Matthew 23.5) to boast of their ostensibly larger loyalty to the law. The commandment is repeated in Deuteronomy 22:12, so as to make clear its importance. [5] In commenting on Numbers 15:38 Calvin cautions us to not turn an obedient observance to God's Word into a vain attempt to bring attention to ourselves:

For whilst they have much self-satisfaction who worship God according to their own will, and whilst they account their zeal to be very good and very right, they do nothing else but pollute themselves by spiritual adultery. For what by the world is considered to be the holiest devotion, God with his own mouth pronounces to be fornication. [6]

The message from two of the most brilliant biblical commentators is that while there is nothing wrong with the wearing of robes by civil rulers and pastors, the important thing is in doing so to bring glory and honor to God.

Thank you Judge Ashley McCathan for not being ashamed to take a stand for your Lord, savior and King, Jesus Christ. May your testimony provide encouragement for fellow Christians throughout not only Alabama but America to also prove to be faithful "watchmen." [7] While embroidering the Ten commandments on their robes is a not a common way of acknowledging God today by judges, as we have seen, the concept of displaying them on clothing, was very common in the culture of old Israel, and also by Jesus himself.

This information is brought to you by Grace and Law, Christian Policy Network www.graceandlaw.com, by Buddy Hanson.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 3.1

2. Matthew 6.10

3. 1 Kings 18.17-18