Earth date: September 14, 2020
One of my favorite movie
moments was in History of the World, Part 1 where Mel Brooks playing Moses
comes down Mount Sinai carrying three stone tablets. “The Lord Jehovah,” he
says loudly for all to hear, “has given us these fifteen.” He accidentally
drops one of the tablets onto the rocks, smashing it to pieces. He looks at the
mess at his feet. “Oye. Ten,” he yells, “ten commandments for all to obey.”
I was in my thirties when
I first saw this movie and this slapstick scene caught me so off guard that I
burst out laughing and crying at the same time that I forget whatever scene came
after.
In the years since, I
have wondered what if the Lord HAD intended for there to be fifteen
Commandments instead of ten, but only ten survived to be mentioned in the Exodus
and Deuteronomy.
The first four
Commandments honor and respect the Lord God, and the other six honor and
respect the people and community around us, so maybe the last five were
intended for us to reach out beyond our selfishness, and were meant to honor
and respect the world around us. Maybe
He would have instructed us to be good stewards of the flora, fauna, and
resources He gifted us? Surely, we are not here to devour everything for
personal use and disregard the rest of God’s creation?
Mel Brooks said that the
Moses skit was something he added on the spur of the moment, but I personally
think it is the best episode in the whole movie. It makes me think that God set
the template with the first ten Commandments, and we can deduce if there were
another five, they would honor and respect the natural world around us. It serves
us and we should take care of it.
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