IN our study of the first commandment of the Decalogue, we saw that God proclaimed Himself to the house of Israel as the Lord and as their God who had delivered them from slavery. Not only was attention directed to the power displayed in effecting that deliverance, but Jehovah, the mighty One, presented Himself to them as theirs, virtually saying to them, With Myself as yours, all the enormous power you have seen attending Me is at your service. The only condition stated in that first utterance necessary to secure the companionship of this new-found Friend was to hold Him supreme in their affections. No other god was to displace Him in their worship or in their dependence for help.
"Thou shalt have no other gods before Me," is a brief sentence; how much does it mean? How may one know when he is trenching on ground here forbidden? In short, since the God of our deliverance has not bodily appeared to sight, and we are not acquainted with His form, by what standard shall the difference between Him and other gods be measured? These would have been pertinent questions to those people at Sinai's base, who had been reared among the gods of Egypt, some of which were very crude and even indelicate in form. True, they had now come to believe that the Egyptian gods were of an inferior caste, from the fact that the God who was now speaking to them had been able to deliver them from the power of Egypt and its gods, upon which the king of that country relied. More than that, from Jehovah's unseen presence on the mountain, an immense flood of unspeakable glory had appeared, and His audible voice had shaken the ground beneath their feet, until they were ready to flee for safety. But while being so different from the gods of Egypt in these ways, how does His form differ from theirs? May He not have a similar form to those bright lights of heaven from whence He came, since His presence here is amid fire and smoke, and the thunders of heaven accompany Him? May we not build some form like these to look upon in worship, when our God has returned to heaven and left us without this physical display of His grandeur that we now see? If not, how shall we always keep Him uppermost in thought, and so prevent other gods from having the place in our minds that belongs to Him?
How natural such questions from men and women of nature, those who had never known aught of faith, but had always depended upon physical sight to determine what course to pursue. How many of the same class may be found without great effort even in this boasted age of civilization and Christian teaching!3So many now continue to walk wholly by sight, that various figures and images of supposed heavenly saints must be employed to draw their thoughts into spiritual channels. Yet we pity the poor Israelites, just separated from their heathen associations, who seemed so dense in perception as to be unable to separate God from things of physical sight. If they needed such minute direction in positive commandment to keep them in the way, who will say that the same instruction is not now needed to guide our feet in the way of the Lord?
No Other Gods before Him.
The first commandment was clearly enough stated for the comprehension of the most benighted, so far as preferring some being before Jehovah. But he who had first deceived man regarding God's attributes knows well enough that if men can be induced to bow before some image or likeness of a heavenly Power, it is only a question of time until they will forget the real, the true, yet invisible God, through habitual genuflection before some supposed image of Him. But further than this, the very suggestion of placing some created substance between a worshiper and the Creator to be worshiped is, at least, to plant an inferior thing before the mind, through which to give an impression of the Creator. To bow down thus before the product of one's own hands, which, being only the work of a faulty maker, must of necessity be very imperfect, and to expect by viewing it to receive exalted views of the infinite One, is, to look upon the matter in the most favorable light, to be-little God, even in one's own eyes, as the infinitely great and glorious Being, taking away the glory to which His power as Creator entitles Him.
This does not fall far short of putting another god in the place of Jehovah. Satan could see beforehand the result of making images to bow before in worship, and so God, being aware of Satan's master mind in diplomacy, forewarned the seed of Abraham at Sinai not to enter this stage of a journey which would land them in absolute idolatry, and so place them beyond the pale of salvation unto eternal life. In that memorable prayer offered by the Saviour in behalf of His followers, He reminded Jehovah of the power awarded to Himself as Son of God, to bestow eternal life on as many people as God should give Him. As tho He would reveal His knowledge of what this power included, and to what it was limited, He reverently said: "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." John 17:3.
No Image to Worship.
It may be well at this point to place the second commandment before us, in order to mark how carefully it enters into detail to guard the sanctity of the commandment by which it is preceded. This is the way it reads:
"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments."
It will be noticed that in this commandment, after forbidding the making of any supposed likeness of earthly or heavenly things for the purpose of bowing before it, an attribute of God's character is added which was not before mentioned, as tho the Lord would have men know the consequence of disregarding His injunction. He says that He is a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of parents upon their children. This word "jealous" does not have the sense of enraged suspicion of rivalry, but rather stands for what is now expressed by the word "zealous." In other words, the Lord is zealous in the right, which engages Him justly to hold the wicked accountable for their wickedness, as well as to show mercy unto all who love Him and keep His commandments.
The Law Binds All.
The Judge of all the earth must do right. If those who receive the law into their "inward parts," and have it "written in their hearts," so that "out of the abundance of the heart" the mouth speaks only things in harmony with God, are accounted worthy to live forever with Him, should not those who refuse thus to grow into His image find their place at last among those who are haters of God? Is not the fate of one class as just as that of the other, especially since each individual chooses for himself which class he prefers?
In the zeal of God to be just in dealing with the two classes of men, must He not have the same exact rule by which to deal out justice to those of every age? Or to put the question in Scripture form: "Is He the God of the Jews only? is He not also of the Gentiles?" The apostle answers this question very definitely: "Yes, of the Gentiles also." Rom. 3:29. Satisfied that his answer is correct, the apostle draws this conclusion, "seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law."
Circumcision was established in Abraham, as a seal of the righteousness of faith which he had before circumcision. This seal of righteousness by faith, both with and without circumcision, was conferred upon Abraham in order to constitute him the father of all believers, whether circumcised or uncircumcised. Rom. 4:11. The Israelites were Abraham's descendants, who became circumcised and received the oracles of God at Sinai to hand down to us who are not lineally descended from Abraham, and who are uncircumcised, but who choose to join ourselves to the household of God. Acts 7:37, 38. From the curse of the law spoken of in the second commandment, we, as Gentiles and idolaters, have been delivered by the death of Christ, in order that the blessing of Abraham, also spoken of in the law of ten commandments (Ex. 20:12), might come on us through faith in the Son of God. Gal. 3:14.
And why should it not be so? Mercy was promised to those beggared Israelites, who had become not only supreme idolaters, but who had also lost all knowledge of the very import of circumcision through their ignorance of the God of their father Abraham. The first lesson to them in righteousness by faith, God attempted to give through a revelation of Himself, that the people might learn to distinguish between Him and every false god. So He began: "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt. . . . Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." And further, Thou shalt not make anything to represent Me. Faith in Me as creator must prove your loyalty under all circumstances. 2 Peter 4:19. With the apostle we are quite ready to ask at this juncture: "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law."