THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AND GENTILES.
By E. L. Maxwell
THAT the whole Ten-Commandment law was binding on all men before Israel came out of Egypt, and that the Gentiles were held amenable to it, being punished for its violation, is often denied by those who would excuse their disobedience of the fourth precept on the ground of being Gentiles. But this excuse is shown to be without foundation by a consideration of many texts, some of which are noticed here. All will admit that Canaanites or Amorites, who inhabited Palestine before the Exodus, and the Egyptians, were Gentiles in the fullest sense. Then if it can be shown that they were held accountable for violation of the Ten Commandments before this law was spoken from Sinai, there remains no reason why all Gentiles were, and are, not amenable to the same law. In Lev. 18: 6 there begins a list of prohibitions against particular sins. This is prefaced by the statement: "Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say, . . . After the doings of the land of Egypt . . . shall ye not do; and after the doings of the land of Canaan . . . shall ye not do." Verses 1-3. The list closes with these words: "Ye shall therefore keep all My statutes, and all Mine ordinances; that the land . . . vomit you not out. And ye shall not walk in the customs of the nation which I cast out before you; for they did all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. . . . And ye shall be holy unto Me; for I, Jehovah, am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples, that ye should be Mine." Lev. 20: 22-26, A. R. V. The only reason given for casting out the nations mentioned is that given in verse 23, "for they did all these things, and therefore I abhorred them." And an examination of the "things" mentioned reveals the fact that God held them to account for violating every command of the Decalogue, as the following will show: Inasmuch, then, as the Gentiles of Canaan and Egypt were held amenable to, and were punished for violation of, this law before it was spoken from the mountain, we are forced to conclude that it was binding on all men at that time; and where not obscured by a "conscience seared" through persistent disobedience, it was known to all. Not being local or applicable to a special people then, it is no more so now, but it still stands to be used of the spirit in convincing the world of sin. John 16: 18, margin. Have you been treating lightly the claims of this "holy, and just, and good" law, supposing all the while that Gentiles are not required to keep it? Then, as you see the truth overthrow this pet theory of the great deceiver, come to Jesus, and unite with Him who came to magnify the law, "not to abolish it." He will gladly hear your cry for pardon, dry your tears of repentance, forgive your transgression of His Father’s law, and strengthen you to go on your way rejoicing. Not that you have been made righteous by the abolition of the law, but that you have been washed and made "white in the blood of the Lamb," and that you may "go, and sin no more."