The Ten Commandments – Craig Munro

This book is the first in a planned series by Craig Munro under the general heading ‘10-1’, dealing with numerically identified subjects, e.g., The nine Beatitudes, the eight Kingdom Parables, etc. All will be familiar themes to most readers but set in an easy-to-read format which could be used to advantage in Bible Class teaching as well as for private study. Each chapter ends with a space for the reader to add their own notes and the subject matter is summarized at the end of the book. A topic of this nature inevitably requires a broad array of scripture references to establish the truth being explained. Mercifully, these are given as footnotes, rather than constantly breaking up the narrative as in many other publications.

The author explains the purpose of the Ten Commandments given to Israel, before expanding upon each commandment in turn. Each of the first five commandments are shown to emphasize responsibility towards God in view of a particular intrinsic characteristic of His deity, while the latter five call attention to the responsibility of man, both towards God and to his fellow man for the good ordering of society.

The author is careful throughout to emphasize that, although the commandments have no legal claim upon the believer as a result of the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, they do have a very practical voice for the Christian and important lessons for daily living. Attention is also given to the wider implications of certain commandments, e.g., stealing and bearing false witness, matters which could be overlooked with just a cursory reading of the basic commandment.

This series should prove to be a welcome addition to the bookshelves of young and not-so-young believers.