THE COMMANDMENTS. -- Exodus 20:1-11. GOLDEN TEXT. --_ Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart._ -- Matthew 22:37. TIME. --B. C. 1491, Pentecost, fifty days after the Passover. PLACE. --Mt. Sinai in Arabia. CONNECTING LINKS. --1. Water from the Rock (Exodus 17:1-7); 2... [ Continue Reading ]
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._ Thi... [ Continue Reading ]
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 to... [ Continue Reading ]
II. THE LORD. EALOUS 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 m... [ Continue Reading ]
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 pos... [ Continue Reading ]
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... [ Continue Reading ]
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 not only false swearing which is condemned in Leviticus 19:12, as. profanation of the... [ Continue Reading ]
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 cre... [ Continue Reading ]
SIX DAYS SHALT THOU LABOR. This commandment not only permits labor during the six days but enjoins it. Idleness is forbidden.... [ Continue Reading ]
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.... [ Continue Reading ]
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,". foretaste of the life in which there is to be no more _toilsome fatigue,_ that life which i... [ Continue Reading ]
THE COMMANDMENTS. -- Exodus 20:12-21. GOLDEN TEXT. --_ Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself._ -- Matthew 22:39. TIME. --Pentecost, in the year B. C. 1491. PLACE. --At the foot of Mt. Sinai, in Arabia. HELPFUL READINGS. -- Deuteronomy 5:1-21; Matthew 5:21-37; Matthew 15:1-9; M... [ Continue Reading ]
II. THE SHALT NOTS. 13. THOU SHALT NOT KILL. Life is placed at the head of these commandments, not as being the highest earthly possession, but because it is the basis of human existence, and in the life the personality is attacked, and in that the image of God. Genesis 9:6.--_ Keil._ The peculiar... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY. This commandment forbids every form of sensuality in act or thought. (1) The most fearful denunciations of Scripture are against sensuality. (2) Nature protests against it. (3) It breaks down the moral principalities. (4) It does violence to the virtues. (5) It... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT NOT STEAL. This not only prohibits what the law calls theft, but much more. Fraudulent bargains, which impose on the ignorant, the credulous, or the necessitous, contracting debts which one is unable to pay, extortion and exorbitant gain, controlling the market by stratagem, and thus obta... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS. It will be evident, at. glance, that not only false witness in court, but also statements in common discourse, false promises whether deliberate or careless, exaggerations and high colorings of facts, equivocation and deceit by word or sign, hypocritical professio... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT NOT COVET. The improper desire is the root of all evil. It can seldom be reached by human legislation; but it is open to the Searcher of hearts. The intent is that which, in the last resort, determines the moral character of the act. This last "word" is, therefore, the interpreting clause... [ Continue Reading ]
III. AN AWE STRUCK PEOPLE. 18. THUNDERINGS AND LIGHTNINGS. The portentous sound of the trumpet and the thunder which had ushered in the day, and which continued to be heard while the people were assembled at the base of the mountain, probably ceased while the words of the law were pronounced in an... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SAID UNTO MOSES. This, it appears from Deuteronomy 5:23, was done through the medium of the elders and heads of the congregation, who came from the people to Moses, while he remained in his place. For he says in the passage just cited, that "they came near unto him," when they spake these word... [ Continue Reading ]
FEAR NOT... HIS FEAR MANY BE BEFORE YOUR FACES. Moses encourages and comforts them against that fear of immediate death which they appear to have entertained, and at the same time assures them that from fear of another kind they were not by any means to be freed. Indeed, it was one special design o... [ Continue Reading ]
MOSES DREW NEAR. Of his own motion Moses would scarcely have durst to venture into the thick darkness from which ever and anon the appalling gleams of lightning burst forth; but being specially called and encouraged of God, he was virtually taken by the hand and lead up into the precincts of the di... [ Continue Reading ]