Exodus 20
As was mentioned in the previous chapter, at this point the Ten Commandments are given together with various laws relating to the relationship between man and God. In the following chapters, ch. 21-23, this is followed by laws governing man's relationship with fellow men. Evidently, it was done orally and in the present of all the people. It is not until later in ch. 24:12 that we read: "The LORD said to Moses, 'Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction.' "
Chapter twenty is divided into three sections: 1- The Ten Commandments (vs. 1-17).
- The reaction of the people to God's revelation (vs. 18-20).
- God's instructions to Moses regarding the way He should be worshipped (vs. 21-26).
1. The Ten Commandments vs. 1-17
This part of Scripture is among the most famous ones in the whole Bible. These commandments are repeated by Moses in Deuteronomy.[ 1 ] The book Deuteronomy owes its name to the repetition of the Ten Commandments. The name is derived from the Latin words deutero = two and nomium = law. For some reason, though, the text in Exodus is more generally used than the one in Deuteronomy. The Exodus version is the one that was cut in stone by the finger of God, while in Deuteronomy Moses recites the words and even allows for some variations in the original text.
Supposedly the first stone tablet contained the introduction and the first four commandments, dealing with the relationship with God and the second tablet contained the fifth through the tenth commandment, pertaining to inter-human relationships.
Generally speaking, the Ten Commandments contain very little that is new. We may suppose that, especially as far as the second tablet is concerned, all the commandments had been known since the days of Noah. The first tablet may have contained the laws that had never been given clearly in such a form.
In our missionary work in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, we discovered the interesting phenomenon that the Stone Age people of the Me tribe were familiar with the fifth through the ninth commandment. They may have originally known the tenth also, but disregarded it to the point of oblivion, because it went so radically against the grain of their culture, which seemed to thrive upon covetousness. The fact that this kind of knowledge had been preserved throughout the centuries in which the tribe lived in isolation from the rest of mankind, would point to a time in world history well before the giving of the law at Mount Sinai, probably from before the dispersion of the human race from the tower of Babel. This would make us think that the content of the Ten Commandments may have been part of the knowledge Noah had and which he imparted to his sons and their offspring.
The Lord introduces the law by revealing Himself to His people as the One who redeemed them from slavery. In vs. 2 we read: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." Both the KJV and the RSV use the expression "the house of bondage." It seems that this realization of redemption was not too clear to the people in general. We have seen already that a few times the people expressed the opinion that it would have been better for them to stay in Egypt. The memory of the terror of oppression had, evidently, faded very rapidly.
It is important that we never forget from where came. We will never know where we are, nor where we are going, unless we know our starting point. Paul puts redemption in its New Testament context when he says: "For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves."[ 2 ] The house of bondage was the dominion of darkness. God went into the house of the strong man and bound him in order to carry off what he held in his possession. Jesus says: "Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house."[ 3 ]
One of the mysteries of this period of bondage is the fact that God knew that all this would happen. He says to Abraham: "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. .... In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."[ 4 ] Both the bondage and the deliverance were part of God's eternal plan of salvation. This fact is hard to fathom. What the Israelites experienced went far beyond their own understanding; just as our own salvation is more than we can grasp.
The realization of freedom is part of our being created in the image of God. Separation from God inevitably leads to slavery and all slavery can be traced to Satan. It is only in a relationship with God and, eventually, in the sharing of His glory that we find true freedom. As Paul says: "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."[ 5 ]
We may presume that the four centuries of slavery in Egypt, although God predicted it to Abraham, was not God's doing. He allowed Joseph to be sold to Egypt and the family of Jacob to migrate there in order to keep them alive during the famine. About the oppression of the following generations, we can only say that God allowed it to happen, not that He caused it to happen. The Pharaohs were puppets in the power of the Evil One. God wanted His people to be free and to appreciate their freedom. But the Israelites who left Egypt had grown up in slavery and had accepted their servitude as normal. They had lost the vision of what God wanted them to be. In His opening statement God wanted to impress upon the people that their relationship with God was identical with being free. "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."
All this does not explain the mystery of slavery and freedom, of sin and salvation and of death and life. But, looking at the end result, we will probably never come any closer than Augustine's exclamation: "O, blessed fall of Adam!"
The first command: "You shall have no other gods before me," is of crucial importance for people coming out of Egypt to keep them on the straight road. The air in Egypt had been polluted by demonic powers. The whole oppression of the people of Israel and the murderous effort to curb population growth by killing babies was clearly inspired by demons. People who accept other powers and put them on the same level as the almighty God cater to Satan. The Apostle Paul puts it clearly when he says: "We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live."[ 6 ] Paul indicates at the same time that the idol itself, the statue that is made by human hands, has no value whatsoever. But behind the idol hides a whole constellation of fallen stars: Satan and demons who do have real power. God wants to protect His people from the power of him who is, in Jesus' words, a murderer.
The only way to escape the power of Satan is by acknowledging God as the only supreme power in Heaven and earth and to surrender to Him. That is the essence of the first command. Nobody in his right mind, nobody who sees the reality of the spiritual world could come to the conclusion that any other power could ever approach the supremacy of God. He is the One, in Paul's words, "from whom all things came and for whom we live." Any other power or authority is created and delegated. Satan was created by God and, if God had not given him power, he would have none. So putting him on the same level as the Almighty is nonsense.
Recognition of God's supremacy is also the key to worship. The purpose of the whole creation is worship. "Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD."[ 7 ] We will begin to worship when we start to understand something of God's character. On a human level we may love fellow human beings because we appreciate their characteristics; even though every human character is flawed. How much more should we then love God and stand in awe before Him when we begin to distinguish His characteristics which are perfect, eternal, and absolute. Everything that is good and beautiful and worthy can be found in God without limit. God is the Perfect One we long for. Seeing Him means to live. God gives us this first commandment because He doesn't want us to miss what we were made for.
The second commandment is related to the first one. It is a safeguard, a fence that is put up so we would be kept on the right track. The command consists of two parts: a warning against the making and worshipping of idols and a warning of the consequences of idol worship. The underlying principle of the making of idols is the human effort to control life. We have power over what we make. An idol is a thing we can control or, at least, a thing we think we control. Makers of idols deceive themselves, but that is beside the point here. Isaiah speaks with biting sarcasm about the man who makes idols: "He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. It is man's fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, 'Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.' From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, 'Save me; you are my god.' "[ 8 ]
The man who bows down before an inanimate object or before a creature that is lower than himself is a fool. Even worship of heavenly creatures is foolish, because the Bible teaches that, in the order of creation, man is placed on a higher level than the angels. Man is created in the image of God. We don't read this about any other creature in the universe. That is why worship of Satan and demons is degrading to man. When John fell at the feet of the angel who lead him through the book of Revelation, he answered: "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!"[ 9 ] Man should only worship that which is higher than himself, that is the almighty, eternal God. When we worship God, His image becomes visible in us. When we worship things or creatures that are lower than we are, we will eventually bear the image of what we worship. In the psalms we read about idol worship: "But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see; They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell; They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them."[ 10 ]
It has been suggested that this first commandment mainly prohibits man from making representations of God. It is true that Moses warns against this tendency in Deuteronomy, where he says: "You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, So that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below."[ 11 ] Evidently, the danger exists that man would turn his attention from the reality of the invisible God to the image he makes of God and substitute the one for the other. Great painters have depicted God the Father. Michelangelo and the brothers van Eyck have created masterpieces in which God is represented. I do not consider this sin, as long as it is understood that this is a fantasy, which has no relation to the ultimate reality of God. But, as soon as man begins to make the image, he will try to control it and thus he falls into a trap in which he easily becomes a prey of the evil one.
God knows that if a man worships idols he opens himself up for an invisible world of spiritual powers over which he has no control. Man may think that he can control what he makes himself, but he ends up being controlled by it. Behind every idol stands a demonic power which enters the heart of the idol worshipper. Demons will seem helpful and good to man when they enter initially, because they want to stabilize their power. Once they are entrenched in a human heart they are difficult to dislodge. They will never leave of their own free will. They will even remain in a family from one generation to another, unless the link with the preceding generation is cut off. That is why God says in vs. 5: "You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me." It is not that God hates children because of the sins of their fathers, but demons will move from father to child and thus keep the family in their grip. A father who opens himself up to demonic powers destroys his own posterity.
It may seem strange that God takes responsibility for the work of demons in a family. In reality, it is not what God does, but what He permits. We have seen the same phenomenon before where God takes the blame, if we can use this expression, for the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. This is difficult for us to accept or explain, but it implies that God is in absolute control, even of events that we would consider to be disastrous. Our problem is, of course, that we cannot really imagine what omnipotence means.
We also have to remember that a person who enters into any relationship with demonic powers never does this innocently. God holds us responsible when we open the door for a world that is beyond our understanding. After all, He has warned us not to do it; just as He warned Adam and Eve of the consequences of disobedience. Any move we make in the direction of the powers of darkness is a demonstration of hatred toward God. Hatred is the opposite of love. We either love God or we hate Him. There is no in-between ground. There is no such thing as agnosticism. People who call themselves agnostics fool themselves.
Vs. 6 comes to us as a delightful breakthrough of light in this darkness. "But showing love to a thousand of those who love me and keep my commandments." The RSV translates the "love" of God as "steadfast love" which is the translation of the word "hesed," the covenant love of God. This love is not just God's sentiment toward us, but it is the love that is based on a legal relationship, such as in a marriage. This covenant love is unrestricted. It does not flow from one generation to the next as the punishment in the previous verse, but it is renewed in every generation. The tendency of a spiritual heritage is to grow weaker from generation to generation. Second generation Christians often have a less buoyant faith than their parents. Each generation needs its own spiritual revival, lest it loses its heritage. To those who love the Lord, God extends His arms in a wide embrace. We do well to claim our children for the Lord, but this does not mean that they will automatically come into the relationship with God that assures them of His love and blessing. The will have to turn to Him and love Him personally.
The third commandment reads: "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name." The Jews took this command so seriously that they avoided the mention of the Name YHWH completely. In reading the Scriptures, they would substitute the Name for Adonai, or use the vowel marks of Adonai in the Tetragrammaton, that is the four consonants of the name Yahweh. This, of course, was not the intent of the commandment. Merely pronouncing the Name of Yahweh was no sin. The least of all sins (if there is such a thing) would be to use the Name unthinkingly. Misuse of the Name of the Lord would be to do things in the Name of God that were clearly against His will and character. For instance, the crucifixion of Jesus was a violation of the third commandment.
The KJV renders this verse: "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." The word "vain" implies a lack of meaning. A word without meaning is no word. The Greek word "logos" is usually translated with "word." It also has the connotation of "meaning." "In the beginning was the Word"[ 12 ] indicates that God is the ultimate meaning of all. The Apostle Paul sums this up in Romans: "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen."[ 13 ] To attach the Name of the Lord to something that is meaningless means sinning against this commandment. This includes, of course, lying and using the Name of the Lord to swear a false oath. Truth and meaning are united in God's character just as untruth and vanity belong to the devil.
Paul emphasizes the positive side of this prohibition when he says: "When I planned this, did I do it lightly? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say, 'Yes, yes' and 'No, no'? But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not 'Yes' and 'No.' For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not 'Yes' and 'No,' but in him it has always been 'Yes.' For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. And so through him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God."[ 14 ] Not using the Name of the Lord in vain means to be reliable as God is reliable.
Jesus strongly condemns the teachers of the law and the Pharisees of His time, because of their teaching on swearing an oath.[ 15 ] He calls them hypocrites because they tried to circumvent the third commandment by juggling the words of an oath, so that it sounded like an oath but it was not binding because the language was not legally correct. For example "Woe to you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' "[ 16 ]
But much more is involved in misusing the Name of the Lord than is contained in the above. The Name of the Lord stands for His Person, His character. The problem we face is that, in our day, names have lost their meaning. A name says nothing about the character of a person or about the circumstances of his birth and life. The Bible is full of stories of people who received names that were filled with meaning. From the first name given by Adam to the new name Jesus gives there is content and meaning in the name. We read in Genesis: "Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living."[ 17 ] And in Revelation Jesus says: "Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name."[ 18 ]
Our relationship to the Name of God is in the image of God we bear. Using the Name of the Lord in vain means making a caricature of God's image in us. That is the essence of sin. It is not in our speech but in our heart that the root of corruption lies. Therefore, the fact that Jesus will give us a new name in glory is such a wonderful expression of the fullness of redemption He provides for us.
The fourth commandment, which is the last one of the first tablet of the law reads: "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy" (vs. 8-11).
It is interesting that, in repeating the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy, Moses gives another reason for the Sabbath commandment.[ 19 ] We read there: "Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day." Evidently, the Sabbath commemorated both the completion of creation and the redemption of sin and its power. We have seen already that the word "Sabbath" was not used until Israel had entered the desert and was on its way to Canaan. It is in connection with the giving of the manna in ch. 16 that the Sabbath is first mentioned. The first Sabbath rest is recorded in ch. 16:30, "So the people rested on the seventh day."
Some "Higher Critics" maintain that this second reason for the Sabbath commandment, given in Deuteronomy, is an indication that Moses was not the author of Deuteronomy. We will pass up this opinion without comment, except to say that we could hardly expect spiritual insight from the side of "Higher Criticism." The fact remains, though, that the old creation and the new creation meet in the Sabbath. This common ground is highlighted in John 5, where Jesus "breaks" the Sabbath by healing the man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When, consequently, He is accused of breaking the Sabbath, He says: "My Father always breaks the Sabbath!" Literally, we read in John: "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."[ 20 ] Then Jesus proceeds to draw a parallel line from the first creation by the Father to the new creation by Himself. We read further on: "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it."[ 21 ] The raising of the dead and the giving of life by the Father take place on the physical level, that is, on the level of the first creation; the life the Son gives is spiritual, it is eternal life which belongs to the new creation.
We have seen before, in connection with ch. 16, that the Sabbath had various depths of meaning. Since we find it on the first tablet of the law, it refers to our relationship with God. Yet it is not purely ceremonial. People who, for some reason or other, have come under our authority are also involved in our keeping of the Sabbath. Not only should we ourselves refrain from working, but also our son or daughter, or our manservant or maidservant, even our animals, and the alien within our gates. So, a whole group of people and even animals, are affected by whether or not we keep the Sabbath. Or, in other words, it makes a difference in the lives of others whether we serve the Lord or not. Even to our animals it makes a difference if we are Christians. Martin Luther, reportedly, once said that our dog and our cat should know whether we are Christians.
The mention of animals is unique in this context. There is no parallel in ancient laws concerning the protection of animals such as is provided for in this law. The answer to Paul's rhetorical question: "Is it about oxen that God is concerned?"[ 22 ] should be answered with: "Yes, He is!" The KJV and RSV use the word "cattle" instead of "animal." And in the Deuteronomy version of the text, Moses elaborates on this phrase with: "your ox, your donkey or any of your animals." The intent is, obviously, that the animals that perform labor should be given time to relax and recuperate.
The Sabbath points both to the past and the future, as we have seen before. God rested on the Sabbath after He finished the work of creation. But the real Sabbath's rest, according to the epistle to the Hebrews, is still awaiting us. We read: "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; For anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his."[ 23 ] The Sabbath rest after creation was interrupted when man fell into sin. The Sabbath to come was introduced by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
For the Jew, the breaking of the Sabbath command could be fatal. In Numbers we read that a man was stoned to death for gathering wood on the Sabbath.[ 24 ] For us, New Testament Christians, the Old Testament Sabbath command is no longer applicable. It is the only one of the Ten Commandments that is not repeated in the New Testament. Christians have, erroneously, substituted the Sunday for the Sabbath. In the Christian Reformed Church in the Netherlands in which I grew up, one of the greatest sins was to buy an ice-cream cone on Sunday. This kind of Sabbath observance makes a parody of the original command and it completely obscures the meaning the Sabbath should have for us in the New Testament dispensation. There is no indication in the New Testament or in the history of the early church that the Sunday took the place of the Sabbath. The Sunday is the first day of the week, the day on which Christ rose from the dead. The Sabbath is the seventh day.
The importance of the Sunday is foreshadowed in the Old Testament in some places where the eighth day is mentioned. A boy had to be circumcised on the eighth day. And the day after the Sabbath at the feast of the first fruits of the harvest a sheaf of grain was symbolically presented to the Lord. This depicted the resurrection of Christ. We read in Leviticus: "He [the priest] is to wave the sheaf before the LORD so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath."[ 25 ] The day of Pentecost also started on the eighth day. An offering of two loaves of bread baked with yeast was to be brought to the altar and burned, indicating the birth of the church of Jesus Christ. So the resurrection of Jesus and the birth of the church both happened on a Sunday.
The early church was so overwhelmed by the joy of Jesus' victory over death that the Sunday soon put the Sabbath in the shade. That is why Paul tells the church in Colosse that the Sabbath, together with all the other ritual observations, has lost its significance. We read: "Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day."[ 26 ]
Lets look again at the difference between the two endings of the fourth commandment. In ch. 20:11 we read: "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." And in Deuteronomy: "Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day."[ 27 ]
If we stick to the theory that the creation story in Gen. chapter 1 shows us how God created order in the chaos that was the result of the fall of Lucifer, the difference between the two endings is not significant. God undid in both cases the works of the devil. In creation He brought back light and life in the darkness and death the enemy had left behind. In the Exodus He brought about freedom and dignity to man who had been the slave of the devil. The similarity is striking. In the Sabbath man celebrates the miracle of his physical life and his spiritual life at the same time. Yes, we should observe the Sabbath, but not only on Saturday. We should enjoy daily the fact that we live and we should never forget that we were slaves and that we have been redeemed.
With the fifth commandment we turn a page, or rather we go from the first tablet to the second. We enter the realm of human relations. As we saw already, the Sabbath built a bridge between our relationship with God and our relationship with our fellow human beings. The two can never be separated. Our love for God will determine our love for our neighbor. And our love for our neighbor is an indication of the depth and reality of our love for God. The Apostle John says: "If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."[ 28 ] This is also the point of Jesus' parable in Matthew. To the people who had compassion on their fellow men He says: "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." And to those who lived only for themselves and had no compassion for the needs of others he said: "I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."[ 29 ]
The fifth commandment reads: "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you." The Deuteronomy version quotes the command literally, but with the addition: "So that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you." According to the Apostle Paul, this is the first commandment to which a promise is attached. He writes: " 'Honor your father and mother'-- which is the first commandment with a promise; that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."[ 30 ] We could consider the addition to the second commandment, "But showing love to a thousand of those who love me and keep my commandments," a promise also.
The principle that our human relationships are determined by our relationship with God is applied, in the first place, to the family. Parents should love their children and children their parents before they love their neighbor. The family is a microcosm of the spiritual reality. A father and mother are to their children what God is to man in general. God is our role model. He is our real Father, "the Father" as Jesus calls Him. Motherly love is a reflection of God's love. And just as the parents provide the security and environment of love in which a child can grow up into adulthood, so God is our security and our source of love, warmth, and affection.
But when Adam severed his relationship with God, human relationships were broken also. No parent is a perfect reflection of God in his relationship with his or her child. And no child responds to his parents as he should. Hence, this commandment, that a child should honor his parents, not because of his perfection, but in spite of the lack of it.
Since we are sinful human beings God wants us to learn to love and to forgive, first of all, within the framework of the family. It seems that Westerners have a harder time to understand the principle than Asians and Africans. The link with previous generations among, for instance, the Chinese is much stronger than in Europe. In many societies the elderly are provided for without question. Social Security is a typical Western phenomenon.
The fact that in the West so many children grow up in broken homes or as the offspring of single parents, makes the observance of this commandment especially difficult. Satan seems to be very successful in corrupting human society by breaking up the family.
Jesus points out the practical side of this commandment in Matthew. Evidently, the Jews understood the meaning of the word "honor" in the context in which Jesus used it. We have the tendency to give the word a meaning which has no link to practical support of parents. But Jesus says: "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' He is not to 'honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition."[ 31 ] God's intention was that in honoring our parents we would provide an honorable living for them. It should be the pride of a parent to live in such a way that it is easy for them to be honored. But even if parents do not live up to the standard that God has set, the children are under obligation to honor them.
It seems that the Apostle Paul deviates from this rule when he writes to the Corinthians: "After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children."[ 32 ] If we distinguish the stages of life for a parent and a child we will understand that there are periods in which it is the parents' responsibility to provide for their children, that is when they are too young to provide for themselves; but it is the children's responsibility to provide for their parents when they become too old to take care of themselves.
The promise attached to this commandment is "that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you." Or, as it is said in Deuteronomy "that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you."[ 33 ] Obviously, the first intent is that Israel, as a people, would permanently occupy the land of Canaan. But "living in the land" has a deeper meaning than just occupying the place. Psalm 37 makes this abundantly clear. After Israel has lived in Canaan for about five centuries the psalmist (probably David) writes: "For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land" (vs. 9). "But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace." (vs. 11) "The days of the blameless are known to the LORD, and their inheritance will endure forever" (vs. 18). "Those the LORD blesses will inherit the land, but those he curses will be cut off" (vs. 22). "Turn from evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever" (vs. 27). "The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever" (vs. 29). "Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it" (vs. 34).
The idea is the same as when the writer to the Hebrews speaks about the promise of entering His rest, which still stands.[ 34 ] He says: "Now we who have believed enter that rest." It is when we obey the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves and apply this, first of all, to our immediate family, that God will make us share in the glory of His love above.
In honoring our father and our mother, we recognize God's hand in the creation of our own person. Our parents are the link that tie us to God's original creation of man. We can hardly expect an evolutionist to honor his parents. In honoring our parents, we respect the image of God in which we have been created. The honor we give to our parents is part of our self respect.
The sixth commandment, "You shall not murder," enlarges the sphere of our love from our parents to our fellow human beings. Murder is the extreme form of a lack of honor and respect. The Apostle John makes clear that the love for our brother is the immediate fruit of our love for God. He says: "Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother," and "Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him."[ [ 35 ]
There are various ways in which we can destroy human life. Murder does not only mean that we extinguish a life by shooting or stabbing. All hatred is murder. Actually, all indifference toward other humans amounts to murder. There is no neutral ground between love and hatred. If we are not moved with compassion in seeing the suffering and need of others, we carry in us all the basic elements of murder. We read about Jesus, "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."[ 36 ]
"Murder" is a better translation than "kill." Both the KJV and RSV say: "You shall not kill (RSV). Murder is specifically limited to killing of humans. Killing of animals is not forbidden, but killing of men means the destruction of the image of God. That is why God says to Noah: "Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man."[ 37 ]
So, the commandment does not forbid capital punishment. As a matter of fact it sanctions it. A murderer should be executed, according to the Word of God, because he has destroyed the image of God.
The essence of the command is love. In Leviticus we read: "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD."[ 38 ] We are commanded to love instead of hate, because God is love.
The seventh commandment reads: "You shall not commit adultery (vs. 14). The Webster Dictionary defines adultery as, "Sexual relations between two persons either of whom is married to another person." The difference between adultery and fornication is that in the latter case neither of the parties is married. The punishment for adultery was death, according to Leviticus: "If a man commits adultery with another man's wife; with the wife of his neighbor; both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death."[ 39 ] In a case of fornication, a distinction was made between girls who were virgins but were engaged to someone or girls who were single. In the case of an engaged girl, the girl would be considered guilty if she had not cried for help in an inhabited area. If the girl obviously consented to the act, she was as guilty as the man, and both were to be executed.
Consider the following Scripture verses: ch. 22:16, "If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged to be married and sleeps with her, he must pay the bride-price, and she shall be his wife." In Deuteronomy: "But if out in the country a man happens to meet a girl pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. Do nothing to the girl; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders his neighbor. For the man found the girl out in the country, and though the betrothed girl screamed, there was no one to rescue her."[ 40 ]
In Jesus' days it seems that capital punishment had been abolished for adultery. Jesus doesn't mention capital punishment at all. He says in Matthew: "I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."[ 41 ] In John's Gospel, where the teachers of the law and the Pharisees bring to Jesus a woman who was caught in adultery, they says: "In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"[ 42 ] The obvious intent there was not to punish the woman, but to catch Jesus.
There is more in this commandment than the extra-marital act of sex between married people. The root of adultery is in man's heart. Jesus says: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander."[ 43 ] And elsewhere Jesus says: "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."[ 44 ] Adultery is committed in the heart, before it is carried out in the flesh. Therefore, we can safely say that the seventh commandment governs, in the first place, our thought-life. Job said: "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl."[ 45 ] Such a covenant can be made only with the help of the Holy Spirit; surely everybody who calls on the Name of the Lord should make it.
For some reason, the people from the Me tribe in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, (and some of the other tribes as well) seem to think that adultery is the only real sin a man can commit. Or, at least it is considered the most serious of all offenses. We should not diminish the gravity of sin, but I believe that in God's eyes this sin is the last one on the list. Because of the role our hormones play in sexual desire, we are more easily overwhelmed by this kind of desire than by any other. Sexual desire is probably the hardest one to bring under submission of our spirit. And it seems that the devil makes more of this problem than of any other one we may have.
It will be most helpful if we understand why God made us to be sexual beings. After all, sex is God's invention and it is good within the framework in which He placed it. In sexual intercourse man and wife express the mystical union between Christ and the church. That is why the Apostle Paul says: "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery; but I am talking about Christ and the church."[ 46 ] In corrupting the most beautiful image of our fellowship with God, the devil succeeds in making us live a caricature. His intent is not primarily to fire up our lusts and desires, but to block our understanding of what our relationship with God can be. The author of the Hebrew epistle describes the attitude a Christian should have. He says: "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral."[ 47 ]
The Bible calls idolatry adultery. Jeremiah represents Israel's idolatry as if the nation was having an extra-marital affair with idols instead of with God.[ 48 ]
And the prophet Ezekiel says: "For they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with their idols; they even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to me, as food for them.[ 49 ]
The main theme of the book of Hosea is based on this image. Israel's rejection of God and their practice of idol worship is compared to an adulterous affair. We read: "When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him: "Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD."[ 50 ] So this seventh commandment runs parallel to the first and second one.
Any sexual relationship makes the partners "one flesh." That is why Paul says in I Corinthians: "Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, 'The two will become one flesh.' "[ 51 ] And he states: "The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body."[ 52 ] These verses indicate that our sexuality has spiritual dimensions, and that we should handle our sexuality accordingly. Since sex is an image of a spiritual reality, people who remain single and abstain from sexual intercourse, do not miss out on the reality of life. They only bypass the picture. Some people are able to do this. This is probably what Jesus meant when He said: "For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."[ 53 ]
The eighth commandment, "You shall not steal" (vs. 15) presupposes the right to private property. Incidentally, in the Me culture, mentioned above, adultery is considered a form of stealing, the woman having been bought with a bride-price. Robbing people of the right to own is contrary to the image of God in us. The fact that some people are enormously rich and others poor does not deny this fact. Communism is not the solution to the problem of sin on earth. Even the community-life the first century Christians lived in Jerusalem did not negate the right to private property. Peter did not condemn Ananias and Sapphira because they had not given up everything they owned, but because they lied by giving the impression that they had sacrificed all, while they were keeping back a portion. Peter said to Ananias: "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."[ 54 ]
Basically, this commandment urges us to respect the image of God in our neighbor. We do not take something that belongs to someone else, because he is a person, created in the image of God. If we respect the person, we respect his property.
Stealing can adopt different forms. There is the taking away of things belonging to someone in a secretive way, which is what the burglar and the pick-pocket does. There is embezzlement, which nowadays can be done electronically. There is coercion and blackmail. There is psychological coercion, when a person uses his status in life to make people render services to him that cannot be refused. We can steal directly and indirectly.
We can also steal from God as well as from man. This kind of stealing is not limited only to the withholding of tithe money, but it is also the failing to recognize that all we have belongs to God. As we read in the psalms: "The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it."[ 55 ] Everything we posses is borrowed. God loans us possessions while we are on earth in order to "use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings."[ 56 ] The Apostle Paul puts it this way: "He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need."[ 57 ] God will judge us, not on the basis of what we have given away, but on what we have kept for ourselves. Jesus illustrates this clearly in the incident of the widow. "Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, 'I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything; all she had to live on.' "
There seems to be contradiction between the fact that we are to respect our neighbor's property and that we are to consider our own property as not really belonging to us. The key to the understanding of this problem is, of course, the fact that Jesus saved our life and that we owe Him everything. We are all thieves unless we are covered by the blood of Christ. Also, although we should treat our neighbor as we want to be treated ourselves this does not necessarily mean that we should treat ourselves the same way. We can treat our neighbor as a king and ourselves as a slave. This does not go against biblical precepts. It is a safe way to live and to stay away from temptation. Mark Jesus' words: "So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.' "[ 58 ]
The ninth commandment reads: "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor" (vs. 16). The terminology places this commandment in a courtroom where people make statements under oath. The Israelite courts were, of course, different from our modern judicial procedures, but there is no difference in principle. The intent of the law is that we are not to make statements about other people that are untrue and that would consequently jeopardize them in society. As a safeguard against false incrimination, the law prescribed that more than one witness were needed to convict a man of a crime. In Deuteronomy we read: "One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offence he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." The Apostle Paul corroborates this commandment when he writes to Timothy: "Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses."[ 59 ]
But more is implied in the ninth commandment than lying in court only. If we belong to God, we are partakers of His truth, because God is the God of truth. David calls Him thus when he says: "Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth."[ 60 ] All lies can be traced back to Satan. If we lie we belong to him. As Jesus said to the Scribes and Pharisees of His time: "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."[ 61 ] The Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, is the Spirit of truth.
Our problem is that our sinful nature makes us natural liars. It is easier for us to lie than to speak the truth, unless God has intervened in our lives. "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"[ 62 ] If it is a fact that our heart is deceitful, it means that we deceive ourselves. We cannot trust ourselves. Even after we have become new creatures in Jesus Christ, we have to learn to speak the truth.
The tenth commandment reads: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor" (vs. 17). The ninth and tenth commandments deal with the heart of man. It is true that Jesus traces at least four of the ten commandments back to its roots in the human heart. In Matthew He says: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander."[ 63 ] But, although God aims at the human heart in giving the Ten Commandments, most of the ten speak more of an act than an intent. Lying is more a sin of the heart than any of the previous commands on the second table of the law. It is not merely a sin of the tongue. The others condemn acts. Covetousness is different. There is no human law that punishes covetousness. The laws of state allow us to covet as much as we want as long as our thoughts are not converted into acts of stealing. In the tenth commandment, God lays a claim to our thoughts and intentions, not only to our behavior. That is why the law is wrapped up in this one statement: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."[ 64 ]
The tenth commandment defines into detail what the author of Proverbs says: "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."[ 65 ] God gives the tenth commandment because He wants us to have life and spiritual health. Covetousness is the root of evil. Sin came into the world because Satan succeeded in making man covet. "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it."[ 66 ]
The devil manipulates our desires very cleverly. Desire itself is not wrong. We would never grow spiritually if we had no desires. But the enemy manages to let us dwell in a world of unreality, where we dream and toy with things we do not need; things that would destroy us. He draws our attention away from the present and from satisfaction with the present in order to let our mind roam in never-never land. "If I were rich ..." The Bible brings us back to earth. God wants us to be grateful for what we have now. He wants us to be realistic. "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.' "[ 67 ] Paul says: "People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness."[ 68 ]
As we said above, covetousness is not recognized as sin by most people. Even the Apostle Paul admits: "I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet."[ 69 ]
The opposite of covetousness is love. Paul, again, says in Romans: "The commandments, 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not covet,' and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' "[ 70 ]
And James shows us what to do with our wishes and desires. He says: "You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God."[ 71 ] Prayer robs desire of its sting. And Paul's advice is: "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."[ 72 ] It is the attitude of gratitude that will keep us from trespassing. Hardships in life are the result of demonic activity, but they are God's tools to prepare us for glory. By praising God and thanking Him for everything that happens to us, we keep ourselves from falling into the devils trap. Praise in the midst of little annoyances, as well as when great suffering comes over us will bring us out of prison. It was praise that set Paul and Silas free when they were chained in the prison of Philippi. It was the same praise that broke the chains of darkness in the heart of their jailer. Praise and gratitude in adversity makes God's light shine in the darkness. Covetousness makes life sour and dims our light.
2- The reaction of the people to God's revelation Vs. 18-21
In vs. 18 we read the reaction of the people when they heard the voice of the Lord giving them the Ten Commandments. "When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance."
There is a negative and a positive side in the reaction of the people to the hearing of the voice of God. Their trembling with fear indicates that their relationship with God was marred by sin. There is always a holy fear when a creature meets his Creator. But what the people experienced was more than holy fear. They felt condemned in the sight of God. Isaiah had this reaction when he saw God in the temple. In Isaiah we read: " 'Woe to me!' I cried. 'I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.' "[ 73 ] Although this fear of God is caused by our sinful condition, it is also salutary. Unless we realize what we are before a holy God, we will never come to the point of confession and asking for forgiveness. We cannot be a Christian if we don't start out by knowing we are lost.
The tragedy of this moment can hardly be exaggerated. Man is created to know God and have fellowship with Him. Israel, God's own people, had come to their destination. They had arrived at the place God had invited them to for the feast of YHWH. And their reaction was fear and trembling. There was not a trace of the joy for which God had destined them. It becomes obvious how much damage sin has done to the human heart. The gap between God and man seems unbridgeable.
Of course, God was not so naïve as to think that there really was going to be a celebration. He knew from eternity what the reaction of the people would be. Before Satan was created and evil had appeared, God knew what damage evil would do. The purpose of the gathering at the foot of Mount Sinai was to draw the people out of their haze and fantasy into the reality of His presence. Knowledge of God comes only through forgiveness of sin and forgiveness is impossible without knowing of sin. We cannot know God without knowing ourselves and our lost condition. Paul delcares: "Through the law we become conscious of sin."[ 74 ]
The positive side of the people's reaction is that they realize their need for a mediator. Moses plays this role here which will ultimately be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The whole ceremonial part of the law accentuates the need that the gap between the holy God and sinful man be bridged. In the construction of the tabernacle, the establishment of the priesthood and the ritual of the sacrifices the stress is laid on the enormous precipice that separates us from God. On this first day of the feast at the foot of Mount Sinai, the people become aware of this. They realize that they will never be able to live the life God wants them to live unless somebody steps in between. God demands holiness and perfection which we will never be able to produce. It is even foolish to try. If we stop trying, however, and we confess our condition to God, we see the greatest miracle taking place in our own heart. Paul expresses this in the epistle to the Romans: "Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness."[ 75 ] And again: "For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit."[ 76 ] This is the secret of the spiritual life.
Moses' reply to the people is: "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning" (vs. 20). This answer is only partly correct. It is true that God came to test the people and that the fear of God can be a helpful factor in keeping us from sinning. But Moses underestimated the power of sin in the human heart. We will read later, in chapter 32, that the people fell into the sin of idolatry, thus sinning against the very first command the Lord had given them. They were all spiritually very young, and the basis of their faith was not the Person of God but Moses. When Moses left them, they felt robbed of their security, and the fear of God vanished from their lives as a vapor. The Word of God had not taken a hold of them. The only thing that will effectively keep us from sinning is the Word of God in our hearts. The psalmist says: "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you."[ 77 ]
The coming of the mediator had been God's greatest secret since the beginning of creation. Immediately after the fall of man, God introduced the promise that the woman would have offspring and that "he will crush your [Satan's] head."[ 78 ] And in Deuteronomy God promises Moses: "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him."[ 79 ] But nowhere in the Old Testament does it become clear that this mediator will be God Himself who became man. Isaiah comes the closest to touch upon the secret when he says: "He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him."[ 80 ] John says it at clearest when he says: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."[ 81 ]
In the same way that God did not give a wife to Adam until the desire awoke in his heart, so God prepared the coming of His Son into the world by centuries of longing in the heart of His children. So, when Jesus was born, Simeon was ready to receive Him in his arms. We read: "Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: 'Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, Which you have prepared in the sight of all people, A light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.' "[ 82 ]
So we read in vs. 21: "The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was." It seems strange to us that He who is light, as the Apostle John says: "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all,"[ 83 ] would wrap Himself in darkness when He appeared to Israel on Mount Sinai. The darkness here is, obviously, not an expression of God's character. The appearance is probably an object lesson which demonstrated to the Israelites that they were separated from God by darkness, that is their darkness, not His. When God appears to us as darkness, we have to understand that this is not the ultimate reality. Before the fall, Adam and Eve would never have seen God as darkness. When He appears to us in darkness it is with the purpose of stimulating our faith. We learn to trust God when we cannot see Him. Jesus said this to Thomas when He appeared to him after His resurrection: "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."[ 84 ]
Moses approached the darkness because he knew that God was there. We may approach all darkness with the same confidence. When God appears to us in a form that is incongruent with His being He tests our faith.
In approaching the darkness Moses entered into another phase of his spiritual experience. God had revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush. There Moses heard the voice of the Lord and saw the fire, but he did not see God Himself. After that moment God communicated with him frequently, especially during the period of the plagues in Egypt and the Exodus. In ch. 33:18-34:7 we read that at Moses' request God showed part of His glory to Moses, in what is beyond doubt, the most moving portion of this book. From that time on, Moses communed with God as nobody had ever done before. We should see Moses' entering of the cloud in this context.
3. God's Instructions to Moses Regarding the Way He Should Be Worshipped Vs. 22-26
When reading the reaction of the people to God's revelation of Himself we have to realize how far removed they were from loving God. God created man for the purpose of having a relationship of love with Him. The great commandment, which is the essence of our existence, is: "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."[ 85 ] The people not only did not recognize God's love for them and responded accordingly, they fled in fear from the One Who loved them. How deeply hurt must God have felt! This sounds like an expression that is too human for this purpose, but Scripture concurs with the thought that God longed for Israel's love, even to the point of being jealous when they withheld this love from Him. In the giving of the second commandment God says: "I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God" (vs. 5). God says to Jeremiah: "I have loved you with an everlasting love."[ 86 ] And in Isaiah God says: "All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations."[ 87 ] In the expression of His feelings, God is not less than we are.
That is why, when Moses enters into the presence of God, God repeats the second commandment. The idea that Israel, the only people in the world to whom God has revealed His love, would turn away from Him and pledge allegiance to Satan, is unbearable to Him. One of the first things God says to Moses is: "Tell the Israelites this: 'You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold" (vs. 22,23).
We are reminded again of the fact that the revelation of God on Mount Sinai was unique. There is no moment in history where God showed Himself so openly to so many people. There is no parallel to this moment in the worldwide history of religion. Although, as we remarked before, some of the Ten commandments were probably common knowledge before God gave them to Israel, nothing as unique as the giving of the Ten Commandments ever occurred before or after. We should never detach the Ten Commandments from the background against which they were given. They are words of majesty and glory. Nothing can stand beside them. They are the greatest statement of faith ever made on earth, and they were made by the eternal God Himself, the Creator of Heaven and earth, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the last verses of this chapter, vs. 24-26, God gives instructions concerning the way the people should fellowship with God. These are preliminary instructions which are supplanted by later ones when the tabernacle is constructed. The brass altar would take the place of the earthen or stone altar of these verses and the kinds of sacrifices to be used is specified in more detail. The emphasis in these verses is on every day fellowship, not on the more elaborate ceremonies of the Aaronite priesthood.
There is also no mention of any sin offerings. The only offerings mentioned are the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, which have no connection with atonement. This fact also points in the direction of the love relationship God wants His people to establish with Him.
The prohibition to dress or hew stones is probably related to the idol worship in which stones were used to carve images that were worshipped. Nothing but the most elementary constructions are to be made.
The last verse strikes us as strange: "And do not go up to my altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it" (vs. 26). This is the only reference to sin we find in these verses. Adam and Eve translated their spiritual shame into a shame about their physical nakedness. God provided them with a cover of animal skin. The dead animal was an image of the atonement by the blood of Christ. God allows us to cover ourselves. He doesn't put us to shame or allow us to feel ashamed, although we have behind us a whole load of sin we should be ashamed about. He loves us and love averts shame. Hence this stipulation not to come before Him with our nakedness. In the priestly service, a special provision was made for the priests to wear underpants. In ch. 28:42,43 we read: "Make linen undergarments as a covering for the body, reaching from the waist to the thigh. Aaron and his sons must wear them whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting or approach the altar to minister in the Holy Place, so that they will not incur guilt and die."
[ 1 ]
See Deut. 5:6-21
[ 2 ]
Col. 1:13
[ 3 ]
Matt. 12:29
[ 4 ]
Gen. 15:13,14,16
[ 5 ]
II Cor. 3:17
[ 6 ]
I Cor. 8:4-6
[ 7 ]
Ps. 150:6
[ 8 ]
Isa. 44:14-17
[ 9 ]
Rev. 19:10
[ 10 ]
Ps. 115:4-8
[ 11 ]
Deut. 4:15,16
[ 12 ]
John 1:1
[ 13 ]
Rom. 11:36
[ 14 ]
II Cor. 1:17-20
[ 15 ]
Matt. 23:16-22
[ 16 ]
Matt. 23:16
[ 17 ]
Gen. 3:20
[ 18 ]
Rev. 3:12
[ 19 ]
Deut. 5:6-21
[ 20 ]
John 5:17
[ 21 ]
John 5:21
[ 22 ]
I Cor. 9:9
[ 23 ]
Heb. 4:9,10
[ 24 ]
Num. 15:32-36
[ 25 ]
Lev. 23:11
[ 26 ]
Col. 2:16
[ 27 ]
Deut. 5:15
[ 28 ]
I John 4:20,21
[ 29 ]
See Matt. 25:31-46
[ 30 ]
Eph. 6:2,3
[ 31 ]
Matt.15:3-6
[ 32 ]
II Cor. 12:14
[ 33 ]
Deut. 5:16
[ 34 ]
Heb. 4:1
[ 35 ]
I John 3:10, 15
[ 36 ]
Matt. 9:36
[ 37 ]
Gen.9:5,6
[ 38 ]
Lev. 19:18
[ 39 ]
Lev. 20:10
[ 40 ]
Deut. 22:25-27
[ 41 ]
Matt. 19:9
[ 42 ]
John 8:3-11
[ 43 ]
Matt. 15:19
[ 44 ]
Matt. 5:28
[ 45 ]
Job 31:1
[ 46 ]
Eph. 5:31,32
[ 47 ]
Heb. 13:4
[ 48 ]
Jer. 3:6-9
[ 49 ]
Ezek. 23:37
[ 50 ]
Hos. 1:2
[ 51 ]
I Cor. 6:16
[ 52 ]
I Cor. 6:14
[ 53 ]
Matt. 19:12
[ 54 ]
Acts 5:3,4
[ 55 ]
Ps. 24:1
[ 56 ]
Lk. 16:9
[ 57 ]
Eph. 4:28
[ 58 ]
Luke 17:10
[ 59 ]
I Tim. 5:19
[ 60 ]
Ps. 31:5
[ 61 ]
John 8:44
[ 62 ]
Jer. 17:9
[ 63 ]
Matt. 15:19
[ 64 ]
Matt. 22:37-40
[ 65 ]
Prov. 4:23
[ 66 ]
Gen. 3:6
[ 67 ]
Heb. 13:5
[ 68 ]
I Tim. 6:9-11
[ 69 ]
Rom. 7:7
[ 70 ]
Rom. 13:9
[ 71 ]
James 4:2
[ 72 ]
I Thes. 5:18
[ 73 ]
Isa. 6:5
[ 74 ]
Rom. 3:20
[ 75 ]
Rom. 4:4,5
[ 76 ]
Rom. 8:3,4
[ 77 ]
Ps. 119:11
[ 78 ]
Gen. 3:15
[ 79 ]
Deut. 18:18
[ 80 ]
Isa. 59:16
[ 81 ]
John 1:14
[ 82 ]
Luke 2:25-32
[ 83 ]
I John 1:5
[ 84 ]
John 20:29
[ 85 ]
Deut. 6:5
[ 86 ]
Jer. 31:3
[ 87 ]
Isa. 65:2
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