did moses break one of the ten commanments moments after receiving them?

Question

moses ordered the murder of 3 thousand people (exodus 32:28). Why did he do this when one of the commandments he had just received was "you shall not murder"

couldnt the people have been punished some other way - other than by murdering them? couldnt they have been whipped or tortured?

i can see ur explanation will be that it wasnt murder because god ordered it? My counter argument would be that i could murder someone and claim it wasnt murder as god told me to do it. What right would u have to try me for murder when i was just doing what god told me to do? If god ordered someone to kill in the past - why not now?

Answer 1

Simple answer - as true today as it ever has been... you can do anything you damn well please as long as you say God told you:

Spanish Inquisition
Suicide bombing
Crusades
Genocide
Murder

As long as you say, or believe, that you have the OK from The Boss in The Sky then you can throw your bibles and holy books down the drain and do what you please. That's why religion is such a dangerous thing.

Answer 2

Exodus 32:27 Then he said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.' "

God told him to. That's not the same. You cannot justify murdering someone because you say God told you to. Your claim does not stand up to a command of God. God was acting in justice. They broke His commands and there is punishment for that. That is completely different than you murdering someone and then claiming that God told you to. He would not do that unless it was for justice. Even then God says he will have revenge, we should not take it ourselves.

Exodus 34:7 Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.

Also for those thinking about the 2nd set of commandments, notice Who they are written by: Exodus 34:1 The LORD said to Moses, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

Answer 3

Your multi-faceted question:

Last first, "If God ordered someone to kill in the past--why not now?"

Answer: As your very question indicates, "We are not so Holy today that God would deem talking to us." Moses was a Holy man; God talked to him. By definition Moses was a Prophet. A 'Prophet' is one who speaks for God because he receives orders from God. The Age of the Prophets closed with the death of the last Apostle.

Question #1: "Did Moses break one of the 10 Commandments moments after receiving them?"

Answer: No he did not.

Question #2: "Moses ordered the 'murder' of 3,000..."

Answer: It is not murder when mandated by the Author of Life Who is God and He giveth and He taketh away.


Question #3: "Couldn't they have been punished some other way?"

Answer: God made that decision and He is the Ultimate Judge.

Question #4: "You could murder someone and argue it wasn't 'murder' because God ordered you..."

Answer: That's been tried before and only served as a defense from prosecution by the legal mumbo-jumbo of: 'Temporary insanity;' (a defense in actuality very seldom argued successfully). See the first part of my first answer: "We are not so holy..."

Question #5: "What right have we to try for murder?"

Answer: Murder is a felony. Society and centuries of Civilization gives us that right.

H

Answer 4

I could give you an answer, but growing in faith is so much about wrestling with questions like you pose and coming up with our own answers.

Here's something to add to your wrestling. What were the 3000 doing that got them "murdered"? Why did God give ten commandments? Are they strictly laws or are they rules of conduct in a covenant relationship (between humans and God)? If you murdered someone you break a civil law as well as God's law today. Jesus expands upon God's commandment saying that if we think it in our hearts we have broken the commandment even if we don't act it out. How does that shed light upon your question?

Keep asking those tough questions and look to God to work with you to come to a peace about them. Having answers isn't always the way of faith; asking good questions and listening to what God's Holy Spirit is saying is.

Answer 5

Aurora,
Religion is something a person imposes ON another, not something you impose on yourself. That's why god and his ministers may give any commandments they don't feel obligated to follow.
Somebody made a counting in the old testament that gave results around these figures: over 3 million people murdered by god against a dozen killed by satan. So it seems that satan has a greater respect for the "Do not kill" commandment.
Greetings from Chihuahua Mexico.
PS.- The last word in the source given below is controversia

Answer 6

I agree. Furthermore, Im curious who wrote the second set of commandments, as the Bible doesnt say. It only says that Moses spoke to God on the Mount, then carried the commandments down to the Israelites, who he found worshiping a cow, so he threw down the commandments, breaking them. Punished the people, then went back up the mount for forty days....was he busy recarving God's commandments???

This is just another example of the ridiculousness that is the Bible. Thou Shalt Not Kill - except for Moses, because I told him to, because, in my omniscience and all powerfulness and all lovingness and all fogiveness, I cannot tolerate someone worshiping NOT ME.

Non sensical BS.

Answer 7

I guess your answer lies in whether you believe God actually spoke with Moses.

If the answer is yes, then Moses did not sin because God told him to do it.

If the answer is no, then Moses did technically sin, but what does it matter, because Moses wasn't talking to God in the first place, which makes the ten commandments null and void?

Answer 8

The commandment is for your judgment when you come pass on to the next part of your spiritual existence. When you come forth to God for him to cast judgment upon you. If at that time, he did in fact tell you to commit murder you will be spared and sent to heaven. If he didn't telll you this and you lied) then you go the other way. the commandment is not to regulate your physical self but your spiritual consciousness.

Answer 9

not murder, when will you people learn?

...murderers often use the claim that they were doing what God instructed them to do as a defense. The prosecution should add a charge of perjury against them - 2 convictions for the price of one.

Answer 10

there was a disclaimer at the bottom. Which read thou shall not kill unless it was to control the masses in order to attain wealth for the rich or royalty which ever may apply. Yours giving it large with respect God