Deuteronomy 5: Restating the Commandments

Synopsis:

Moses tells everyone again how he stood before God because everyone else was afraid and received the 10 commandments. Here are God’s rules, all 10 (I mean 11) of them. These were important enough to write in stone.
1) Have no other gods before me
2) Don’t make any graven images
3) Don’t bow down to other gods
4) Don’t take my name in vain
5) Keep the Sabbath
6) Honor your father and mother
7) Don’t kill
8) Don’t commit adultery
9) Don’t steal
10) Don’t lie
11) Don’t desire your neighbor's things

In other words: 

We are once again told the 10 commandments that are really 11 commandments.

Favorite bit: 

Deuteronomy 5:5 -  (I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to show you the word of the Lord: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount,) I love that here Moses is reminding them that they were afraid and he was brave.

Next favorite bit:

Deuteronomy 5: 24 – Behold, the Lord our God hath showed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth.  I like this because a) it’s so clearly a magic trick involving smoke and fire to obscure the guy behind the fire talking on behalf of God. And because it is also clear that people weren't impressed with the statement – God talks to me – they had to have it proven to them.  There were skeptics in their midst.

Least favorite bit:

Deuteronomy 5:25  which roughly translates as: Ok – we believe you, we don’t need to be in God’s presence anymore lest we be consumed with fire. We agree – you can do this task for us.

Moral Lesson:

Beware of charlatans who claim to speak with God.  (Deuteronomy 5)

And yes, I am aware that perhaps, since this has the 10 (11) commandments that perhaps what we are supposed to learn is not to lie. But all I got out of this was that this guy was a charlatan.