What a great day yesterday at Living Word! I have the benefit of knowing about a lot of good fruit. And we saw some more yesterday.

We had a great time praying south of the building site today, too. Join us next week at 7AM, just 5 blocks east of 90th and Louise. I'll take pictures and use them as my "image" above sometime. Great progress on the building, and good developments in the congregation.

I promised during the message to tell you about commandment numbering. I'll quote from our confirmation curriculum, then comment more below:

God gave the commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 24:12). While Moses was on the mountain, the people made a calf of gold to worship. When Moses saw this, he threw down the tablets and they broke (Exodus 32:15-19). God replaced these tablets in Exodus 34. It seems like there is a division between the commandments- some have more to do with how we approach others, and the rest deal with how we approach God- these are the ones we are studying this year.

      Oh- there are several ways to number the commandments, and good arguments for doing so. The numbering system we will use has three commandments in the first table and seven in the second table. 

So why the different numbering systems? There are no less than four numbering systems in use today, largely beause God didn't number them for us. Faithful Old Testament believers called the 10 Commandments the "Decalogue," or "10 Words." Numbering is a bit untidy because of the mixture of imperatives ("Do not...") and prohibitive futures ("You will not..."), though I think I just made up that last term.

I met a man today from a Greek Orthodox church, who has its own numbering system. What most folks don't realize is that a good percentage of believers worldwide have little or no connection to the Western church, that is, those believers who trace their faith to the Roman Catholic church and its Reformation counterparts. The Orthodox church has a numbering system of its own.

Four different systems are used by:

1) Roman Catholics

2) Jews

3) Most of American Protestantism, roots in "reformed" theolgoy"

4) The Orthodox church

The system Lutherans use is the first one.

So which is correct? Not sure we can say, or that it matters- the content is the same any way. But here's my best shot at it:

Topically, it sure seems that the commandments about coveting (numbered 9 and 10 the way I number them) should go together. Similarly, the commandments about idolatry (numbered 1 and 2 in the Reformed system) seem to be slightly different, prohibiting worshipping (or making) other gods. 

Grammatically, though, the Hebrew seems to make a more clear distinction in the paragraph about coveting, while keeping the commandments about worshipping false gods together.

That's about it, though.

The law is good if one uses it lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8).

Go serve your King!

PW