THE COMMANDMENTS.—PART I.
By A. C. Spicer
It is believed that whoever reads the eighteenth chapter of Exodus carefully will be convinced that not only Moses and the Israelites, but also Jethro, the priest of Midian, was well instructed in the moral law and in the law of ordinances and sacrifices, before they were ever rehearsed from Mt. Sinai. In the brief history, there is left to us but a mere hint as to the character of Jethro; but verses 9–12 indicate that he was a believer in and a worshiper of God, and hoped in the promise of a Saviour, as he offered sacrifices to God—a burnt-offering—just in accord with the law of sacrifices as afterward given from Sinai; and then counseled Moses intelligently and wisely in respect to the administration of the “ordinances and law” of God to the people (verses 17–23), which counsel Moses accepted and God sanctioned. And here, in verse 21, a knowledge of the ninth commandment which we had not discovered in Genesis, as also of the tenth commandment, is clearly indicated. When we hear this Midian counsel the selection of “able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness,” can it be doubted that he knew the commandments of the moral law? Here, too, in verse 16, is evidence positively certain that there were statutes and laws of God by which Moses was guided in the government of the people before they reached Mt. Sinai, although there is no such record left us of the formal giving and codification of the laws, as there is afterward; for Moses speaks of them definitely, and declares that he makes the people “know the statutes of God and his laws.” Therefore, as we have so frequently seen heretofore, so here we see that the “statutes and laws” of God, moral and sacrificial, and also a knowledge thereof by the people, are older than the encampment of Israel at Horeb, and that a knowledge of the moral law and of the law of sacrifices for sin was general; also that the application of those laws was general and not exclusively to Israel, as were the later ordinances of circumcision, the passover, &c., and the laws thereof. Passing to chapter 19, we find Israel encamped in the wilderness of Sinai, before the “mount of God.” It seems that God has chosen this people his special wards, that he may discipline them to faith and obedience; that he may preserve a people on earth by and through which he can accomplish his purpose to present to a sinful world a plan of redemption and an offer of eternal life; that he has led them into this wild, waste wilderness, into most absolute seclusion from other nations, after a miraculous deliverance, that he may more fully instruct them in faith and in his law and statutes, and especially that he may discipline them to obedience, that he may prepare them fully for the great mission to which he has called them as the special conservators of his law and will, and of true religion in the promised land to which he is conducting them; and that now is his opportunity. So with impressive solemnity, from amid the wild grandeur of the mountain, God calls unto Moses, and Moses ascends into the presence of Deity, when God proposes a renewal of his covenant of promise with his people Israel, preliminary to the re-announcement to them of his moral law, and a formal enunciation of the special statutes by which they are to be governed when they shall dwell in the promised land, and the special ordinances and ceremonies, with the laws thereof, by which they should be disciplined in faith and religious worship. Verses 3–6. In respect to this covenant we may notice, 2. The covenant is not a law, but a mutual agreement, or contract, between the parties thereto, containing mutual and reciprocal pledges by the one party to the other for their mutual and reciprocal benefit, upon specific conditions. Condition. God puts it thus: “If ye will obey my voice indeed.” In Gen. 26:5, this obeying the voice of God is defined by God thus: “Kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” Pledges. God promises upon this condition: “Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; . . . ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation;” and this promise must be understood to include and mean all that was promised to Abraham, as seen in Gen. 17. The responsive promise of the people is: “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do;” and now the mutual agreement is completed and the covenant is established. 3. The object of the covenant, as indicated in the condition and the promises by God, appears to have been the honor and glory of God and the well-being of man, to be effected by securing obedience to God’s commandments, statutes, and laws. Holiness of character is an essential condition for the attainment of eternal life, and this is to be developed by obedience to moral law, so the immediate, direct object of God’s covenant with man was to secure obedience to his moral law. 4. This covenant was universal, including all mankind. “Thou shalt be a father of many nations,” Gen. 17:4; “and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” Chap. 22:18. 5. This was an “everlasting covenant” (17:7), a covenant of grace and salvation through a promised Saviour, by whose blood it was to be ratified or sealed. 6. This we understand to be the Abrahamic “covenant of promise,” which had been renewed to Isaac, then to Jacob, individually, and which was now renewed to all Israel collectively. Now God and the people, having entered into this very solemn mutual and reciprocal agreement to do each for the other, God proposes to rehearse his moral law—that law which they have so solemnly promised to obey—in the hearing of all the people. The purpose of this rehearsal thus to the whole people by himself personally, God declares to be “that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee forever.” Verse 9. He would overcome their unbelief and unfaithfulness, give them every facility for knowing the law and every needed aid to keep it, and would suitably impress them with his estimate of its infinite, intrinsic value, by the most imposing, solemn, and awful demonstrations of the evidence of his presence and of his authority and guardianship. So the Lord bade Moses “sanctify” the people for the next two days; “for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai.” Attention is here called to the scriptural meaning of the word sanctify, as indicated in this chapter. It seems to be this: Teach them what to do and how to do it; give them a rule or law of action suitable to guide their conduct at that time and occasion and instruct them in it, so that they may please God and be harmless and innocent. “Set bounds about” the people by a law of moral action or deportment and thus sanctify them, as he was to “set bounds about the mountain,” sanctifying it by charging the people in respect to it. To be sanctified, then, is to be made holy by conformity to moral law, as holiness is character in conformity to moral law. Evidently it was in this sense that the word was used by Christ, as given in John 17:17, 19, and by Paul, in 1 Cor. 1:2, 30. Then it is conformity to the precepts and principles of the moral law that is to sanctify the heart. The people having been thus instructed—thus sanctified—on the third day “the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai” amid demonstrations of the most impressive and awful grandeur—“thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud,” and fire, and smoke, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, the whole mountain quaking—and Moses brought forth the trembling people to meet God and hear his voice. “And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice,” and enunciated in the hearing of all the people, with a loud and audible voice, all the words of the moral law. Ex. 20:1–17; and when he had uttered these words of the ten commandments, “he added no more.” Deut. 5:22. The first of these precepts is a protest against idolatry in general, and commands the worship of Deity. The second deals with idolatry in detail. The third commands respect to God and reverence to his name. The fourth enjoins the observance of the Sabbath, which is the God-ordained conservator of all the virtues sought by commanding all the other precepts, and by the religion of the Bible. The fifth inculcates parental and filial duty in the family relation, which is the basis of all human relations. The sixth protects human life as God-given and inviolate. The seventh enjoins chastity and purity of life. The eighth protects individual property rights. The ninth secures individual reputation and personal character. The tenth is a general protest against all selfishness, for protection of individual interior character in personal consciousness. But these essential principles of these now so imposingly and impressively enunciated ten precepts have every one of them been discovered as understood by the people, and their authority recognized, all along the history of the race from the origin of man down through these more than twenty-five hundred years, which are now here repeated and confirmed in language adapted to the times and circumstances of the people, in the hearing of all Israel, that all this great people may know that God had created them and all things seen, and may listen to him, believe, trust, and obey him. These ten precepts, including, in general terms, rules for all moral rectitude of life in all times and under all circumstances,99conditions, and relations of life, constitute the grand, universal, and unchangeable constitution of God’s moral government among men. The whole theocracy of revelation is based on these. Hence, most emphatically and impressively are these words now enforced upon the attention and consciences of the people, that they may listen and be instructed, and may believe, obey, and live. No method of instruction could possibly exceed this in directness, definiteness, or impressive, convincing, and commanding power. Nevertheless, God in his infinite care for the instruction and welfare of the people, adopts still another and additional expedient. Now all Israel have solemnly covenanted with God to keep his law, as did Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, individually, and also, as I fully believe, Adam, Enoch, Noah, and others of the God-fearing patriarchs. And God means that they shall have every facility for knowing it and remembering it, that they may keep it and thus fulfill their covenant with him, as that holiness of character which can only be developed by heart-conformity to this law and which is essential to immortality, is the object and burden of all of God’s disciplinary providences. To this same end God means that a precise and definite knowledge of this law shall be handed down through all time and perpetuated forever. Hence, absolute security requires that a knowledge of these commandments shall no longer, as in the past, depend upon the hazards of verbal tradition. They must be prepared for preservation in the most permanent and enduring manner. They must be engraven, and that, too, on enduring stone, even by God himself, on tablets of his own furnishing. So the Lord said unto Moses, “Come up to me into the mount, and be there; and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.” Ex. 24:12. And further, God commanded Moses to have built a safe receptacle for the secure keeping of those tables of the law, and said, “And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee.” Ex. 25:16. And God did give to Moses two tables of stone, having the law “written thereon with the finger of God.” Ex. 31:18; Deut. 4:13; 9:10. Those tables of the law Moses received direct from God and bore them down from the mount in his hands. Ex. 32:15, 16. But amid his excitement at sight of the idolatry and prostitution of the people, he “cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.” Then God bade Moses: “Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first;” promising: “And I will write upon these tables the words that were upon the first tables, which thou brakest.” Chap. 34:1. Moses obeyed this direction (verse 4), and God did “write upon them the ten commandments” (verse 28); and when the ark had been prepared as directed, Moses “put the testimony into the ark” for preservation and safe-keeping, as God commanded. Ex. 40:20; Deut. 10:5. Behold! what distinguishing care God bestows upon these commandments and upon the tables containing them, engraven! Not so was any other document ever cared for. Verily, God does “magnify his law”! A. C. SPICER.