Top Ten (10)

There’s a top ten for everything.  Many think of sports: top ten dunks, top ten baseball hits, top ten hockey shots.  Others probably think of late night comedy like the notorious Late Night top ten.  Car nuts think Motor Trend or Consumer Reports:  top ten sports cars, top ten pick-up trucks, top ten sedans.  They all convey the idea that those ten items or things set themselves apart from the rest of the competition. 

I love Top Tens because it is competitive.  It honors great workmanship and skill.  Those associated with the accolade – hopefully positive (i.e. not from the Late Night Top Ten) – are recognized for being in a league of their own.  They can be separated from the pack.  No one else is even close to their skill. 

But Top Tens do even more than that.  Do you remember how the list is read, in which order that is?  They begin with #10 and there's a reason for it.  They save the absolute best for last.  In other words, the winner of  #10 qualified as one of the best; however, compared to #1, it really wasn't the best.  Again, the best is saved for last.

What else do you think about when you hear “Top Ten”?  Let me ask it this way: What if I asked you, “Fill in the blank: ‘Ten [blank].”  I hear Ten Commandments.  Do you ever imagine it like a Top Ten list?  I know I don’t.  For most people, it’s just a set of dusty, old rules.  That’s usually how people feel about any form of perceived religiosity.  These are rules of living and if we don’t follow them, we’re not good enough.  So we must follow them regularly, devoutly to be a part of the fold.  Unfortunately, I have thought that many times.

But, you see, I believe we’ve got it all wrong.  Over the past few writings this week, the theme of God’s Love has consistently been on the forefront.  Do you remember what Jesus’ response was to which of the commandments is the greatest?  More importantly, do you remember how that greatest commandment affected the others?  Yes, the greatest commandment of the Law was love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.  The rest of the Law and the Prophets hangs, suspends, is held together by this.

It is time to shatter our image of God’s Law because He has no desire to make us subjects or slaves to follow out of fear.  On the contrary, He wants us to find pleasure in His Law, to desire His law, just as we desire to hear the top ten shots, plays, jokes, or cars.

The next time you read the Ten Commandments, read it starting from #10, then #9, and so on.  Then, before you read the final, the ultimate, the #1, perform your best drum roll and read it with great praise.  My hope is it will be a brand new beginning to how you see His Law and His Love for us.

 ¹ At that time the LORD said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark. ² I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the ark.”

 ³ So I made the ark out of acacia wood and chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. ⁴ The LORD wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments he had proclaimed to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me. ⁵ Then I came back down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD commanded me, and they are there now.

Deuteronomy 10:1-5

10 days!