Need to give a little background. I grew up attending Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, Christian Elementary, etc. Meaning I’ve been well-versed in the Bible [pun intended.] We were often taught lists. The books of the New Testament. The Books of the Old Testament. The 12 Disciples.
And of course…the Ten Commandments. I don’t remember learning the Ten Commandments—in my memory I have always known them. If you ask me what they are, I will rattle them off. I just…know what they are. Hardly think about the reasoning behind their origin.
My two youngest, on the other hand, were not raised in that environment. They know the Ten Commandments exist, and that there are ten…but not what they are. Yesterday they were watching The Prince of Egypt --story of Moses. It starts off, of course, with the Hebrews in slavery and shows scenes of them being beaten, harassed, whipped, and mistreated. As my children love to talk through a movie, their condition was mentioned with comments like, “That was bad, right Dad?” and “Moses is sad because of how his people are being treated.”
Later they had this interesting conversation:
Daughter: When does God give Moses those…things?
Son: What things?
Daughter: Those ten things.
Son: You mean the Ten Commandments?
Daughter: Yes…what are they?
Son: Oh, they’re laws about what we shouldn’t do…like stealing…and killing…
Daughter: And slavery?
Son: Oh yes…and slavery.
How simple. How obvious. They had just watched how bad slavery was for the Hebrews, so if God was going to give a set of rules, surely he would include one against slavery.
The God of the Golden Rule would take the Israelites out of slavery and say, “You didn’t like being slaves, so do unto others what you would have them do to you. Don’t have slaves.”
Right?
Even children get it.
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God probably ran out of space on the tablet and said to himself, "Surely 'no slavery' is so obvious that I don't have to write it down for them."
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