LESSON XI.--JUNE 12.

THE COMMANDMENTS.--EXODUS 20:1-11.

      GOLDEN TEXT.--Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.--MATT. 22:37.
      TIME.--B. C. 1491, Pentecost, fifty days after the Passover.
      PLACE.--Mt. Sinai in Arabia.
      CONNECTING LINKS.--1. Water from the Rock (Exod. 17:1-7); 2. The Amalekites (Exod. 17:8-16); 3. Encampment before Sinai; 4. The Glory of the Lord on the Mount (Exod. 19:16-25).
      HELPFUL READINGS.--Exod. 17:1-16; Exod. 19:1-25; Psalm 1:1-6; Psalm 19:7-14; Matt. 22:34-40.
      LESSON ANALYSIS.--1. The Lord thy God; 2. The Lord a Zealous God; 3. Hallowing God's Name and the Sabbath Day.

INTRODUCTION.

      No fewer than five mountains in different parts of the peninsula have been identified, or at least suggested, by various writers as the true Sinai, [168] although the claims of three out of the five were so slight as to have attracted but little notice; the other two, namely, Jebel Musa (the Mountain of Moses), situated at about the center of the peninsula, and Jebel Serbal, some twenty miles further west (jebel being the Arabic for mountain), had divided between them, though with a preponderance in favor of the former, the support of the great majority of travelers and authorities of eminence in our own and past times. A spacious plain, El Rahah, confronts a precipitous cliff 2,000 feet in height, which forms the northwestern extremity or front of that great mountain block called Jebel Musa, which Bedouin and monastic tradition alike point to as the mountain of the law. The appearance of this locality is extremely impressive and grand, so majestic, indeed, that its natural scenery at once rivets the attention, apart altogether from the sacred associations. No one who examines it with special reference to the Bible account of the proclamation of the law can fail to be struck with its entire accordance with the details of the narrative. The plain derives its name, Rahah, from its level character; it is flat as the palm (rahah) of the open hand. It has been stated that this plain is not large enough to have hold the vast hosts of the Israelites, but we have surveyed it, and our answer is that it is large enough, not only to have held them as spectators, but, if needs be, to encamp them all. However, we are not necessarily confined to El Rahah in considering the site for the encampment. They may have, and probably did, spread into the wide lateral valleys which extend right and left from the base of the cliff, and have encamped before or in the presence of the Ras Sufsafeh, though the plain would have been the obvious place of assembly to witness any spectacle on the summit of the mountain. There are fully 400 acres of the plain proper, exactly facing the mount, and sloping down to it with just such a gentle inclination as would best enable a large number of people to see at once. The area of 400 acres would accommodate with ease about two millions of spectators, at the ample allowance of a square yard each, and besides this there is a considerable further open space, extending northwestward from the water-shed or crest of the plain, but still in sight of the mount--the very spot, it may be, to which the trembling Israelites "removed and stood afar off," when they feared to come nigh unto the cloud and the thick darkness, when they said unto Moses, "Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die."--E. H. Palmer.

      The words were "written by the finger of God," but the tables were not less surely fragments hewn out of the rock of Horeb. Hard, stiff, abrupt as the cliffs from which they were taken, they remain as the firm, unyielding basis on which all true spiritual religion has been built up and sustained. Sinai is not Palestine--the law is not the Gospel; but the ten commandments, in letter and in spirit, remain to us as the relic of that time. They represent us, both in fact and in idea, the granite foundation, the immovable mountain on which the world is built up, without which all theories of religion are but as shifting and fleeting clouds; they give us the two homely, fundamental laws, which all subsequent revelation has but confirmed and sanctified--the law of our duty toward God and the law of our duty toward our neighbor.--A. P. Stanley. [169]

      I. THE LORD THY GOD.--1. God spake all these words. Whatever media, whether elementary or angelic, God was pleased to employ on this occasion, it is manifest that the speech was his own, not merely as to the words spoken, but as to the articulate sounds actually perceived by the ear. We are aware that vibrations of the air are the usual medium for affecting the sense of hearing, and we have no reason to doubt that these were employed on the present occasion. It appears from the Old and New Testament (Deut. 33:2, 3; Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19; Heb. 2:2), that angels were present and active at the promulgation of the law. How this was effected, what was the arranging or dispensing part of the angels in this great drama, as it is not revealed, we do not pretend to say. But as the performer is the source of the music, notwithstanding the concurrence of the bellows-blower, the organ pipes, and the air, so we can understand that God was the real speaker of the ten words, notwithstanding the intervention of the dispensing angels and the vocal atmosphere.

      2. The Lord thy God. The possessive word "thy" points the covenant between God and his people. When taken in the full depth of its meaning it involves that God has chosen them to be his people. He is the Redeemer. He has brought his people out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. This, in the manner of Scripture and of providence, is the earnest and guarantee of their deliverance from all other and greater kinds of bondage. Which have brought thee out. Why, on this occasion, was not the Lord rather proclaimed as "creator of heaven and earth?" The true answer evidently is, that the ten commandments were at this time addressed by Jehovah not merely to human creatures, but to the people whom he had redeemed, to those who had been in bondage, but were now free men (Exod. 6:6, 7; 18:9).--Canon Cook. We have not, indeed, been delivered from the literal bondage of Egypt, but the spirit of the declaration reaches to us, if Christians, as redeemed by Christ from a bondage infinitely worse, and incorporated by faith into the true Israel of God, the spiritual seed of Abraham, and made heirs of all the blessings of the covenant of grace. Consequently, as the Lord is our God, we are bound by the same inviolable bonds of love and service as rested upon the seed of Israel according to the flesh.--Bush.

      3. Thou shalt have. It is to be remarked, both here and elsewhere throughout the decalogue, that the address is made in the singular and not in the plural number. The design of this is undoubtedly to render the language in the highest degree emphatic. Every individual to whom this law comes is [170] to consider himself as being as directly and personally addressed as though it had been spoken to him alone. "Thou art the man." Xenophon said of Cyrus that when he gave anything in command, he never said, Let some one do this; but, Do thou this.--Trapp. No other gods before me. The original form of the expression is here worthy of attention. "There shalt not be to thee other gods upon thy face." Here it is demanded that the non-existence of other gods be recognized. This presupposes the affirmative of such non-existence.--Murphy. The first commandment in its negative form refers to the unity of God. It enjoins the owning of this unity. It is, therefore, against polytheism. This precept is of universal obligation.

      II. THE LORD A JEALOUS GOD.--4. Thou shalt not make any graven image. After declaring in the first commandment who was the true God, he commanded that he alone should be worshiped, and now be defines what is his lawful worship. Any sort of image for worship is here intended. The Hebrew word strictly means a carved image, of wood or stone. The Roman Church makes but one commandment of the two first, while in order to keep good the number ten they divide the tenth into two, making the first sentence of that commandment the ninth. The consequence has been that, in many professed disciples of the ten commandments in books of devotion, what we term the second, forbidding idolatry, is entirely omitted. The motive for thus abstracting the second commandment from the decalogue is very easily imagined on the part of a church which gives so much countenance to image worship. Guided solely by the dictates of our erring reason, we might suppose that the aid of bodily sense might be called in to assist our mental vision, and that the use of images, paintings, crucifixes, and other outward symbols, might at least be harmless, if not positively beneficial, in refreshing the memory and quickening our devotions. But God knows the downward and deteriorating tendencies of our nature even in its best estate, and he sees that the employment of outward symbols of worship would gradually tend to lower the stand of pious feeling, and finally to withdraw the mind from the ultimate spiritual object, and fix it upon the gross sensible medium. We have only to look at the history of the Greek and Latin churches for an abundant confirmation of this view of the subject.--Bush. Or any likeness of anything that is in heaven. "That which is in heaven," we are to understand the birds, not the angels, or at the most, according to Deut. 4:19, the stars as well; by "that which is in earth," the cattle, reptiles, and the larger or smaller animals; and by "that which is in the water," fishes and water animals. Under the earth. It is important to notice that "under" here means "lower in level," lest the Scriptures be accused of propounding the theory [171] that the interior of our sphere is filled with water. The reference is to the fishes that inhabit the sea.

      5. Shalt not bow down. To have or to make another god is to hate the true God. Here let it be observed that in the estimate of God there is no difference between forsaking him for another and hating him. The negative state of indifference to him, or inclination to another, necessarily involves the positive state of hatred to the true God.--Murphy. A jealous God. The passions of a moral being have their right as well as their wrong use. Hence anger, jealousy, hatred and revenge, are ascribed to God, not as passions, but as the feelings of a holy being in regard to that which is evil (Deut. 32:21, 22, 35). As the Judge of the universe, God has the supreme right, not only to entertain these feelings, but also to carry out their holy behests in the administration of his everlasting dominion. The term "jealous" is used to bring the idea before the human mind that he will no more tolerate the worship of an alien, idol god, than a husband would tolerate his wife bestowing her affections upon another man. Iniquity of the fathers upon the children. All experience shows that the consequences of the sins of parents descend upon children. They inherit the diseases, that have been entailed by the sins of their fathers, or their poverty, or the disgrace of their crimes, or are influenced by their bad examples to lives of crime. Even Spurgeon is said to be afflicted with hereditary gout. The children of thieves are likely to be thieves, and of drunkards to be drunkards.

      6. Showing mercy unto thousands. To the thousandth generation. To them that hate God the consequences of iniquity extend to the third and fourth generation, but to them that love him his mercy extends to the thousandth generation, or forever. Those who love God are those who have no other God but the true God and who keep his commandments.

      III. HALLOWING GOD'S NAME AND THE SABBATH DAY.--7. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. This commandment prohibits all employment of the name of God for vain and unworthy objects, and includes [172] not only false swearing which is condemned in Lev. 19:12, as a profanation of the name of Jehovah, but trivial swearing in the ordinary intercourse of life, and every, use of the name of God in the service of untruth and lying, for imprecation, witchcraft or conjuring, or in light or idle conversation. Christ demands that the name of God be hallowed. This is done by treating it as holy, by speaking it with reverence, by using it in invocation, praise, prayer and thanksgiving. Will not hold him guiltless. The tens of thousands of profane swearers should heed this caution. God notes their idle, senseless, irreverent use of his name, and they are guilty before him. The time of punishment will come. "What does Satan pay you for swearing?" asked one gentleman of another. "He doesn't pay me anything," was the reply. "Well, you work cheap, to lay aside the character of a gentleman, to inflict so much pain on your friends and civil people, to suffer, and lastly to risk your own precious soul, and for nothing; you certainly do work cheap, very cheap, indeed."

      8. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Presupposes an acquaintance with the Sabbath, as the expression "remember" is sufficient to show, but not that the Sabbath had been kept before this. From the history of the creation that had been handed down, Israel must have known that after God had created the world in six days he rested the seventh day, and by his resting sanctified the day (Gen. 2:3). But hitherto there had been no commandment given to man to sanctify the day.--Keil. It has been alleged that the word remember may be reasonably explained in one of two ways without adopting the inference which has been mentioned. It may either be used in the sense of keep in mind what is here enjoined for the first time, or it may refer back to what is related in chapter 16, where the Sabbath day is first noticed, in giving the law for collecting the manna.--Canon Cook. To keep it holy. By devoting the day to sacred purposes and refraining from secular occupations. Verses 9 and 10 show how the day is to be kept holy.

      9. Six days shalt thou labor. This commandment not only permits labor during the six days but enjoins it. Idleness is forbidden.

      10. The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord. The day the Lord rested and made his Sabbath, and the day that the Lord claimed of the Jewish nation as the day when they should rest and hallow his name. [173]

      11. For in six days . . . and rested on the seventh day. This verse explains why the day is the Lord's Sabbath and why he insisted on the observance of the day. The weekly Sabbath was "a shadow of things to come," a foretaste of the life in which there is to be no more toilsome fatigue, that life which is the true keeping of Sabbath, into which our Savior entered as our forerunner when he ceased from his works on earth, as God had ceased from his works on the seventh day (Heb. 4:9, 10).--Canon Cook.

PRACTICAL AND SUGGESTIVE.

      THE LORD THY GOD.--A friend, calling on the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, during his last illness, said to him, "Sir, you have given us many good advices; pray, what are you now doing with your own soul?" "I am doing with it," said be, "what I did forty years ago. I am resting on that word, 'I am the Lord thy God'; and on this I mean to die." To another he said, "The covenant is my charter, and if it had not been for that blessed word, 'I am the Lord thy God,' my hope and strength had perished from the Lord." The night on which he died his eldest daughter was reading in the room where he was, to whom he said, "What book is that you are reading, my dear?" "It is one of your sermons, sir." "What one is it?" "It is the sermon on that text, 'I am the Lord thy God.'" "Oh, woman!" said he, "that is the best sermon I ever preached." And it was, most probably, the best to his soul.--Gray.

      NO OTHER GOD.--Whatever it be that sets up a rival interest in our souls, absorbing that love and service which belongs to the true God, that is another god before him. Consequently, the proud man, who idolizes himself; the ambitious man, who pays homage to popular applause; the covetous man who deifies his wealth; the sensualist who lives to gratify his low appetites; the doting lover, husband, father, mother, who suffer their hearts to be supremely absorbed in the love of the creature, all come under the charge of transgressing the first commandment.--Bush.

      IDOL GODS.--A little boy, who lived in the house of a heathen, one day took a stick and broke all the images except the largest, into the hands of which he put the stick. When the man discovered it, he was furious, and exclaimed, "Who has done this?" "Perhaps," said the boy, "the big idol has been beating his little brothers." "Nonsense," said the man, "don't talk such stuff as that. Do you think I am a fool? You know as well as I do that the thing cannot even raise its hand. It was you, you little rascal. It was you, and to pay you for your labor of wickedness, I'll beat you to [174] death with the same stick." And seizing the stick he approached him. "But," said the boy, gently, "how can you trust to a God so weak that a child's hand can destroy him? Do you suppose that if he can't take care of himself or his companions he can of you and the world, let alone making you?" The heathen stopped to think, for it was a new idea. Then he broke his great idol and went and kneeled down to pray to the true God, and called him "my Father."

      THE LAW AND GOSPEL.--Two things have perplexed Christians. 1. It is universally admitted that a part of the Jewish law is not in force, while other portions, including the commands, are supposed to be. Inspiration has not drawn the line to indicate what part is abolished and what part in force. 2. The fifth commandment requires the observance of the seventh day as a Sabbath, while Christendom, in professed obedience to this commandment observes the first day. How shall this be explained? The true solution is as follows: The law, both moral and ceremonial, belongs to the old covenant; it was the national constitution given to the Jewish race; it was for a nation, not for mankind. Moses was, under God, the lawgiver. It continued in force until the "handwriting of ordinances was nailed to the cross." "The ministration of death written and engraven on stones was done away," until the "old covenant was taken away to give place to the new." It was an old constitution that entirely subserved its purpose and then gave place to a new constitution established by Christ. When a state adopts a new constitution the old ceases to be of force. Yet the principles of the old one may be mostly found in the new. They are then of force because they are reaffirmed. So the old Jewish constitution was entirely done away, but much of it has been reaffirmed in the new one. The ten commands, changed and modified, are found there. In the change the Lord's day has taken the place of the old Jewish Sabbath.

POINTS FOR TEACHERS.

      1. Note the circumstances; Fifty days after the passover; Israel before Sinai; a nation with Jehovah as God and King, but without a law. 2. Bring out the terrors which invested the declaration of the Ten Commandments. 3. Show that five of these commands relate to duties to God. 4. Point out what is implied in the Lord thy God; Jehovah, the Covenant God, not any idol. 5. Show what it implies "to have no other gods before me," and how that command is violated now. 6. Bring out the meaning of making no graven image and Show how it is violated in the name of religion. 7. Show how God is a jealous God and what this means. 8. Show how the name of the Lord is taken in vain and the sin of it. Inconsistent with worship or adoration. 9. Bring out the basis of the Sabbath command; why it was to be kept by the Jews, the modification under the Gospel, and the authority for that modification. 10. Show that obedience to the spirit of these commands must follow from a loving reverence for God. [175]

Source: Barton Warren Johnson. The Christian International Lesson Commentary for 1887. Des Moines, IA: