IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BIBLE LESSON December 29, 2008 Issue

OUR LIFE-CONTRACT WITH GOD IN TEN BASIC RULES

GENELLE AUSTIN-LETT

A NEW YEAR OPENS THE DOOR to fresh thoughts about how to live a better life. What greater goal could there be than to increase our understanding of God! This week's Bible Lesson on "God," with its unprecedented ten sections—one for each of the commandments He gave Moses—offers a new opportunity to reexamine our commitment to God.

This Lesson presents the Ten Commandments as God's loving contract with each of us—perhaps something like a parent's rules at home, established so a family can live together amicably. "Father-Mother is the name for Deity," wrote Mary Baker Eddy, "which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation" (Science and Health, p. 332, Section. V, citation. 11).

But why call it a contract? In Section I, the children of Israel have moved from slavery to freedom, and God is establishing a "covenant" or binding agreement with them (Deut. 4:13, cit. 1). The Israelites may have viewed this more as a hierarchal contract of a lord over his submissive subjects, rather than as an opportunity for a close relationship with God. But unlike an agreement made with a Hebrew king—in which the king kept one copy of the contract and gave another to the people—in this case God gave Moses both copies (see Sandy Silverthorne, The Awesome Book of Bible Facts, p. 21). The message conveyed: God wants to be an active part of our lives.