But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat.  In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard.  Exodus 23:11
 
    The law of God gave the poor a right to a certain portion of the produce of the soil.  When hungry, a man was at liberty to go to his neighbor's field or orchard or vineyard, and eat of the grain or fruit to satisfy his hunger.  It was in accordance with this permission that the disciples of Jesus plucked and ate of the standing grain as they passed through a field upon the Sabbath day...
 
    Every Sabbath year special provision was made for the poor.  The sabbatical year, as it was called, began at the end of the harvest.  At the seedtime, which followed the ingathering, the people were not to sow; they should not dress the vineyard in the spring; and they must expect neither harvest not vintage.  Of that which the land produced spontaneously they might eat while fresh, but they were not to lay up any portion of it in their storehouses.  The yield of this year was to be free for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and even for the creatures of the field (Exodus 23:10, 11; Leviticus 25:5). (Patriarchs and Prophets, 531)
 
Reflection:  Just think, even the creatures of the field were at liberty to eat freely!  When we have this kind of love, we'll be forming the characters God has intended us to have from the beginning.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.  Exodus 20:17
 
    The Tenth commandment strikes at the very root of all sins, prohibiting the selfish desire, from which springs the sinful act.  He who in obedience to God's law refrains from indulging even a sinful desire for that which belongs to another will not be guilty of an act of wrong toward his fellow creatures.
 
    Such were the sacred precepts of the Decalogue, spoken amid thunder and flame, and with a wonderful display of the power and majesty of the great Lawgiver.  God accompanied the proclamation of His law with exhibitions of His power and glory, that His people might never forget the scene, and that they might be impressed with profound veneration for the Author of the law, the Creator of heaven and earth.  He would also show to all men the sacredness, the importance, and the permanence of His law.
 
    The people of Israel were overwhelmed with terror.  The awful power of God's utterances seemed more than their trembling hearts could bear.  For as God's great rule of right was presented before them, they realized as never before the offensive character of sin, and their own guilt in the sight of a holy God. (Patriarchs and Prophets, 309)
 
Reflection:  To covet is to desire.  It is not an outward act, but may lead to one.  This makes covetousness a state of mind, a condition of the heart.

Thou shalt not steal.  Exodus 20:15
 
    Both public and private sins are included in this prohibition.  The eight commandment condemns manstealing and slave dealing, and forbids wars of conquest.  It condemns theft and robbery.  It demands strict integrity in the minutest details of the affairs of life.  It forbids overreaching in trade, and requires the payment of just debts or wages.  It declares that every attempt to advantage oneself by the ignorance, weakness or misfortune of another is registered as fraud in the books of heaven. (Patriarchs and Prophets, 309)
 
    Those who thus shorten their lives and unfit themselves for service by disregarding nature's laws, are guilty of robbery toward God.  And they are robbing their fellow men also.  The opportunity of blessing others, the very work for which God sent them into the world, has by their own course of action been cut short....The Lord holds us guilty when by our injurious habits we thus deprive the world of good. (Christ's Object Lessons, 346)
 
Reflection:  Often we think of stealing only in a monetary sense; However, to steal because we could have helped someone in need, but didn't, is for most, a new thought.  Today, let us make better choices in our temperance.   

 Thou shalt not commit adultery.  Exodus 20:14
 
    This commandment forbids not only acts of impurity, but sensual thoughts and desires, or any practice that tends to excite them.  Purity is demanded not only in the outward life but in the secret intents and emotions of the heart.  Christ, who taught the far-reaching obligation of the law of God, declared the evil thought or look to be as truly sin as the unlawful deed. (Patriarchs and Prophets, 308)
 
    When the thought of evil is loved and cherished, however, secretly, said Jesus, it shows that sin still reigns in the heart.  The soul is still in the gall of bitterness and in the bond in iniquity.  He who finds pleasure in dwelling upon scenes of impurity, who indulges the evil thought, the lustful look, may behold in the open sin, with its burden of shame and heart-breaking grief, the true nature of the evil which he has hidden in the chambers of the soul.  The season of temptation, under which, it may be, one falls into grievous sin, does not create the evil that is revealed, but only develops or makes manifest that which was hidden and latent in the heart.  As a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he;" for out of the heart "are the issues of life" (Proverbs 23:7; 4:23). (Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 60)
 
Reflection:  The devil will put thoughts into our minds but we don't have to dwell on them.  We need to be like Jesus and say, "Get behind me Satan."  When these sinful thoughts come into the mind, think of something else.  Singing a Christian song, even if sung in the mind and not out loud, will change your thoughts and feelings.