God’s Gracious Gift to his children, formed into a Nation; of Ten "Words"

It was fun for me the other day (in OT studies at Canowindra, with Russ Hodge & the Canowindra students) trying to put the ten ideas involved in the ten commandments into one (hyphenated) word each. The Jew's apparently know them as the Ten Words. Then afterwards I tried to just see how each one connected with the BIG PICTURE & expressed it, even at the expense of surpassing the word limit. Here is what I came up with:

God’s Gift - "Ten Words"

One!  -is the I AM, Yahweh;  Honour  Yahweh  as  god, as No.1,  as  God the only One!

2. No technological images to worship! (They miss the most important thing about Yahweh - LIFE. The only allowable images of Yahweh, are those living images created by Yahweh & procreated by us, in fulfilling God's mandate to us)

3. Honour God’s name! (Names are important & linked to the person, at least through language, which must be important in linking us with our father & with other humans & with our own humanity too)

4. Copy God’s  use of time, & energy; (his priority of regularly celebrating not only his work, but his friends/family,)   Sabbath.

5. Honour your earthly parents (who are meant to mirror and concretize God’s authority/ relationship to  you).

6. Dishonour not the other sex, nor your word to one, or all (nor the covenant relationship of a man & woman leaving their own father & mother & being formed into a new family unit - by God).

7. Dishonour not the right to existence of  an image of God in God’s world (as though you yourself could choose whether another image of God should live on God’s earth or not. For who made you a ruler or judge over others?).

8. Dishonour not people’s capacity (as images of Yahweh) to rule over the stuff (things & places) of God’s world (since God has given us such authority).

9. Dishonour not your neighbour’s nearness & trust (since it is God who ordained the boundaries of our existence in time & space; and you know more about your neighbour who lives beside you trusting you. You are responsible for that knowledge, to use it to bless, not curse, your neighbour).

10. Dishonour not your own lack of things (in general & in particular, even though you have the capacity to change many things, there are some things you are simply stuck with - or without) at God’s ultimate discretion; since Yahweh (not others, or our own self,) is our god, our number One!