By the time Moses came...
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By the time Moses came down from the top of Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, they had already been broken. They had been broken by the people of Israel, whose impatience and wavering faith led them to make a new god, a golden calf, in direct defiance of God's will. The commandments were also broken by Moses, because when he saw what was going on in the camp of the Israelites he threw down the stone tablets, on which God had written, and shattered them. We are always a lot more successful at breaking the commandments than at keeping them. We echo the First Commandment in our creeds when we say, "I believe in one God." But, even as we say the words, our thoughts are often divided and confused, because different people mean different things when they say the word, God. There are really very few atheists, since everybody has something to worship and idolize. Our peril lies in the opposite direction, because we have too many gods. Martin Luther put it well when he said, "What does it mean to have a god? Whatever your heart clings to and relies upon, that is your god."
