Jon Collins

Eat.

Eat of all the trees of the garden.

That's God's first command.

That's a good one.

That's a great one.

And then there's a second part to that command, which is prolong your life by not eating from the one tree that will kill you.

But it looks like all the others, so you've got to trust my word and follow my command.

So that sets the pattern.

We looked at the story of Noah, who's a righteous man who follows God's commands, and it results in the preservation of life for his family and all the animals.

And then we look to Abraham, who's partial obedience to God's commands.

Sometimes he does it, sometimes he doesn't.

And it creates a lot of messes when he half obeys.

But on his best days, he does trust God and do what God says.

And so God looks back on the whole life of Abraham and lets those best days count for all of his days.

And Abraham is described as somebody who kept God's command and statutes and laws and instructions.

So when we get to the story of Israel at Mount Sinai, God has enlisted a family from the descendants of Abraham to be the vehicle of God restoring the Eden blessing to all the families of the earth.

If they will listen to God's voice and keep His covenant,

which means doing what he says.

And so all of those stories and the meaning of God's commands get uploaded in to God's commands to Israel.

And the first 10 words of God to Israel at Mount Sinai are the 10 commands.