10:1
God now starts to teach the nation. Notice that He addresses them as “house if Israel”. Israel had been split in two, a northern and southern kingdom, for many years (following the time of Solomon), but God’s ultimate purposes were for one nation of Israel. In the same way, though the church is split into many denominations, God’s ultimate purpose is for one church, and one including Israel.
10:2
“Do not learn the ways of the nations”. This was the fundamental point of Israel’s downfall. In the time of Samuel the people wanted a king because they wanted to be like other nations. God warned them that this would prove to be a massive mistake, but they ignored Him. The church has continued to repeat this mistake many times, and still does so today. We see this in areas of sexual morality where significant parts of the church seem to think it a good idea to go along with the world in its sexual immorality. We can also see it sometimes when we adopt worldly ways of doing evangelism or running churches (this isn’t always bad, and is not an excuse for doing things incompetently!). We should also not be terrified of what the world is terrified of. God, here, refers to signs in the sky. The nations would see these as portents of coming disaster.
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