Three Hebrews Refuse to Bow to the StatueBible World
20:3Exodus 20:3
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
It requires recognizing, worshiping and serving the Lord alone, with no other god placed alongside, above or before Him. It stands first among the commandments, defining supreme love and duty to God with all heart, soul, strength and mind, upon which all other obedience depends. It was spoken by God Himself with an audible voice to all the people, and written by His own finger on stone to be kept uncorrupted and unchanged. It remains binding, immutable and eternal to the end of time, a transcript of His character and the standard of righteousness and judgment. Whatever is cherished that weakens love for God and draws mind and affections away from Him — self exalted to first place, wealth, appetite, dress, pictures, human affection, or human authority — becomes another god and breaks it.
Spoken at Sinai
The prohibition stands as words spoken by God himself, by Christ as Teacher and Sovereign of the universe, with an audible voice in the hearing of all the people. This took place in the third month after going out of Egypt, after Israel encamped before the mount and covenanted to do all that had been spoken about obeying His voice and keeping His covenant as His peculiar treasure, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. The Father and the Son were present on Sinai's holy mount, and the same Jesus who was veiled in the cloudy pillar and who cleansed the temple gave the instruction in the mount to be studied in Exodus 19 to 24 and to be presented before the people now just as verily as in the days of Moses. It belongs to the plain and clear law of God's kingdom, an expression of the character of the Sovereign, covering the whole duty of man, the old commandment given from the beginning, requiring that God alone be worshiped and served with no other gods placed before, beside, or above Him.
It was proclaimed with awful solemnity, grandeur, power and glory, amid trumpet tones, thunder, lightning, smoke, flame, earthquake, cloud, tempest and thick darkness. God drew near in a thick cloud hiding His glory and chose the mount surrounded by created works, making known His majesty and authority as Ruler of the world. This was done to impress the people with the sacredness of the law and the importance of obeying it, to impress its majesty and authority and the offensiveness of sin, and to overwhelm with the terror of the utterances so that all mankind might clearly understand the requirements of God. It is part of the faith once delivered to the saints by Christ the Redeemer speaking from Sinai.
It belongs to the plain law written by God's own finger on tables of stone, tables of testimony placed in the ark, of divine not human composition, so it would not be forgotten, corrupted, or mingled with human tradition or confused with human customs. It was afterward recapitulated by Moses and guarded by detailed judgments and laws written by Moses from God's mouth with minute directions of what to perform, to draw erring man prone to transgress back to strict obedience of the moral law. It was recorded by Moses after about twenty-five hundred years of oral transmission from father to son as the beginning of the written word in a sixteen-hundred-year work from Moses to John. The tables of stone, hidden until that day, will be presented at the judgment as the standard of righteousness by which all are judged according to what is written in the books, obedience being the terms of salvation and leaving none with excuse for sin.
The God who speaks is the God who brought Israel out of Egyptian slavery and displayed His power in Egypt, at the Red Sea and in the wilderness, patiently reminding them what He did to the Egyptians and bearing them on eagles' wings. His displays of power show He alone is the true and living God, and deliverance with knowledge of Him establishes the obligation to give worship and allegiance to the Lord alone. Israel had been accustomed to having many gods, had lost knowledge of the law and mixed its precepts with heathen customs after witnessing so much idolatry in Egypt, which forms the background to the prohibition.
The law existed before Sinai, given in Eden when the morning stars sang together, given to Adam after the fall, preserved by Noah in the ark, and observed by Abraham. The Lord repeated at Sinai the commandments given in Eden, speaking them amid displays of power and glory to impress their sacredness, importance and permanence. It was proclaimed anew because Israel, prone to forget, disobey, murmur and commit idolatry and confused in ideas of God's law by idolatry seen in Egypt and proved in the wilderness, needed its principles set forth without excuse. It was entrusted to Israel as depositary not for Israel only but to be handed down to later generations and made known to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, to be passed on and carefully studied as the principles of His government.
Because Abraham's descendants did not keep the covenant pledged by circumcision to be separate and perfect and went into idolatry and down into Egypt, it became necessary for God to proclaim the law from Sinai and engrave it on stone to preserve it from mixture with heathen traditions. Its far-reaching principles were not fully appreciated after slavery, reaching beyond the people's full understanding, so additional precepts were given to explain and apply its obligations. The additional judgments, statutes and laws expanded the ten into specific simplified directions about duty to one another and to the stranger, guarding their sacredness and leading erring man into strict obedience without error; had the principles of duty to God and neighbor been practiced, no additional directions would have been needed.
The commandments, written by the finger of Jehovah on two tables of stone, are kept in the ark in the most holy place in heaven, which is a symbol of God's presence. The door to that most holy place was opened in 1844 when Jesus finished His mediation in the holy place and passed within the second veil, while the door of the holy place was shut. The law in the heavenly ark, given in Eden, proclaimed on Sinai, and written with the finger of God, is the basis of the third angel's message as present truth to go forth with great distinctness and power. Obedience to it distinguishes sealed commandment-keepers who sincerely worship God, glorify Him and receive eternal life through wholehearted obedience, from disobedient nominal worshipers who oppose Him and will face judgments symbolized by lightnings and voices and thunderings and earthquake and be treated according to their works.
The precept is one God Himself came down upon Mount Sinai to speak with a voice that made the mountain tremble to its base. Taught to Israel while they abode at Mount Sinai, its influence was not to be lost till the close of time. It is to be learned by youth amid the scenes of nature and the everlasting hills, and old and young are never to lose sight of its sacredness but to study it continually as needful for education and the formation of character.
Enduring Holy Law
Thou shalt have no other gods before me stands first as the first commandment, belonging to the first table and to the first four, and with the first three upon the first stone. It defines duty, love and service owed to God above all else, requiring that God alone be worshiped, served and obeyed with the whole person exalted as omnipotent Sovereign above every thing in heaven and earth, while the last six define duty to fellow people and are joined with the first four as one law. It is the first great command and the substance of all obedience, upon which all the rest hang, so that keeping it founds duty to others, for whoever loves God supremely will love neighbor as self, while whoever is false to God cannot be true to neighbor. Its personal claim rests on everyone, calling for exclusive worship and obedience and casting down falsehood to God including pride, vanity and self-love that make a god of self.
The claim applies to every person and remains binding to the end of time and in the last days of earth's history, still commanding recognition of God as the only God and giving no other being or power His place. It is immutable, eternal, unchangeable and unlowered, written with His own finger on tables of stone to be preserved through eternal ages as immutable as the principles of His government, never to be changed or abrogated. Christ's death proves it could not be abolished, for His death did not abolish the enduring law and standard that must be obeyed without neglect or alteration. Nor is it a temporary type or shadow that passes away, though its restriction of the human will may feel as a yoke, and Paul kept it in letter and spirit after conversion. Idolatry under it includes devotion to anything displacing God in thought and affection, using the Creator's gifts for self-glory, putting possessions or human praise first, preferring worldly vanity to godliness, or making unbelief an excuse for defects of character, and following Christ means putting God first in every purpose, denying self, rejecting pride and selfishness, and putting away sinful indulgence until the heart is free of idols.
It belongs to the unchangeable ten-commandment moral law, the foundation of God's government in heaven and earth whose authority and sanctity are to be upheld, distinct from Mosaic sacrificial offerings, rites and ceremonies. Those offerings prefigured the death of the Son of God and ceased to bind when type met antitype, but the ten remain binding under the gospel for Gentile as well as Jew, to be kept in spirit as well as in letter and not set aside as a condition of church fellowship. They are ten precepts teaching righteousness and safeguarding against wrong habits, and acknowledging the fourth requires living by the principles of all ten including the command against other gods, for treating God's law as abolished denies its claims and obscures the sinfulness of sin. Together with the ceremonial law they serve as a schoolmaster to bring people to Christ, while conscientious obedience would prevent much misery and wrongdoing. Their truth and authority every person must acknowledge and submit to, with God's will and way paramount.
The law thus given is a clear revelation of His will and principles of government for all peoples, a transcript of God's character and expression of the will of the Sovereign of the universe, perfectly revealing His will so none need fail to understand or mistake. It is the standard of righteousness reflected in Christ's life, the law of His kingdom plainly made known to be revealed to every nation and tongue and carefully studied, testing all. At the judgment the tables of stone, hidden by God until that day, will be presented before the world as the standard by which all are judged according to the things written in the books, obedience to the perfect law being prerequisite of salvation and safety and a healthy spiritual experience, leaving none with excuse for sin. By its righteous principles all will receive sentence of life or of death, for obedience means life and disobedience means death. The law is the tree of which the gospel is the fragrant blossoms and fruit, and obedience made known would have prevented the wickedness seen in the world.
The ten together contain the whole duty of humanity, the moral code of ten precepts engraved on stone by God not framed by human beings or Moses, whose first four define duty to God and whose other scriptural commands amplify their principles. They give wise, just and good rules for conduct in every transaction, dealing and line of work, a standard from which there can be no sinless departure, to be practiced so as to honor God and prevent injustice, harm and stumbling. They lie at the foundation of all right laws, family, national and church government, and of prophets' and apostles' faith, so that those framing national laws should understand what is written in them, Israel's prosperity depended on obedience, and rejecting them licenses idolatry and wickedness rather than happiness or safety.
Its commands are not arbitrary, severe or merely restrictive: each Thou shalt not contains or implies a promise of blessing when obeyed and warns of danger and unhappiness when disobeyed. Its prohibitions are safeguards for happiness rather than mere restrictions, received in Christ forming pure character and protecting the obedient, reflecting God's goodness to shield from harm of transgression. God's laws draw people closer to Him, save from evil and lead to good without forcing obedience, setting a high standard whose obedience brings peace and prosperity while disobedience brings harm. Disregard shows lack of reverence, respect and recognition of Him, and minds fixed on temporal earthly matters fail to see far-reaching principles, for understanding His expressed will requires obedience and conformity of heart, mind and soul lest worldly habits cloud vision and make eternal realities seem insignificant. Israel was chosen to show the world the beauty of character and moral strength from fearing God and living in harmony with His law.
No setting of human will against God's will, no profound theories or speculations to do away with God's law, no claims setting science in opposition to revelation, and no exalting of human wisdom above a plain Thus saith the Lord can cancel the command, remove obligation to the higher power, or silence its voice still speaking with authority in this generation and the last days. The Holy Spirit brings its demand for exclusive worship and service ever stronger before men, who cannot evade awareness of actions and past lives nor fully comprehend obligation to the higher power. Nor can customs, maxims and traditions handed down through rabbis, scribes and Pharisees as all-essential above a plain divine command stand above it. It comes from the highest and grandest court as the highest education, to be read and believed just as it reads and obeyed rather than prying into secret things unrevealed, with truly sanctified souls in the family living its Word as taught of God rather than learning from unsanctified human teachers.
It is part of the ten spoken by God Himself at Sinai in awe-inspiring grandeur, majesty and glory after deliverance from bondage, giving positive instruction to maintain covenant relationship and make known His will. It is to be obeyed from love with strict regard, requiring exact obedience and heart obedience that elevates, ennobles and exalts the human family, forbidding idolatry among churchgoers as truly as in Noah's time and forbidding placing anything before God or putting substitutes in His place. Knowingly breaking any command for convenience is incompatible with trusting Him, and when advocates of its binding claims indulge lower passions, walk into temptation and give appearance of evil they give enemies occasion to reproach faith and discourage those beginning to see light upon its fourth precept as testing new truth. Its truth and authority every soul must acknowledge and submit to, with books vindicating and magnifying it directing attention to its authority.
It calls for respect and obedience, with keeping it linked to freedom in Christ and to avoiding the distress and misery caused by sin. It is part of the Decalogue whose just claims the wicked boldly defy, and though God's restraint and forbearance toward those insulting His commandments are great, He will ultimately punish persistent defiance.
God Alone Supreme
The command is for Israel to recognize, worship, serve and give allegiance to the Lord alone, with no other gods placed alongside, above, before or beside Him, and it forbids turning aside to other gods or idols or looking to them for help, reverence and adoration. The God who speaks it is the God who brought Israel out of Egyptian slavery and bondage, displaying His power in Egypt to show that He alone is the true and living God. It is not a temporary type or shadow that passes away, but a binding claim that directs people to the one living God even when it is felt as a yoke because it restricts the human will.
Jehovah alone, as the eternal, self-existent Creator, preserver, sustainer, Sovereign and Ruler of the universe and Maker of heaven and earth, displayed supreme power over nature and every oppressing power in delivering Israel, and is therefore entitled to supreme reverence, worship, glory, trust and obedience. As the first commandment in the first table it defines duty to God and affirms that the Sovereign of the universe is above every other thing in heaven and on earth and is to be exalted as omnipotent. It asserts His supreme right to govern the moral agents He created, who as Creator and Preserver of the worlds are to bow before Him in adoration, acknowledge Him as Ruler freely with heart, soul and mind, obey His law, and trust His power for help and protection. It was proclaimed with God's own voice in awful grandeur with power and glory that made known His majesty and authority as Ruler of the world, to impress sacredness and the importance of obedience. To set aside His law and frame and enforce a spurious Sunday sabbath, a child of the papacy set forth as the Lord's Sabbath, compels transgression of Jehovah's laws, profanes His holy memorial of creation in six days with rest on the seventh, usurps divine prerogatives and assumes authority as gods without divine approval.
It requires loving God supremely with all the heart, soul, strength and mind, giving Him the whole person, undivided loyalty and devoted response of mind, soul and strength. His claim is to be taken seriously, acknowledged freely with heart and soul, and obeyed implicitly, with every idol sacrificed and put to death and nothing sharing supreme delight in Him. Those who love and serve Him must reject every temptation to change leaders or depart from His principles, for God demands the whole person, not a divided heart, and His rule must reach every part of life including work and thought.
Love for God is an active principle shown by willing obedience to all His requirements, with God reigning supreme in heart and mind and receiving supreme love, reverence, honor and willing obedience. It is not merely acknowledging His power or performing outward worship and a prescribed form, and mere assent to the ten commandments and teaching them in theory is not obedience. Obedience shows love genuine and saving knowledge of Him, while failure to obey shows it false, and without heart obedience cherished from love with transforming surrender of everything that closes the door against Jesus, truth loses vitalizing power, sin strengthens, the life is a lie, and there is no strength or efficiency as God's agent. Failing that whole love breaks one of the first four commandments requiring love to the Lord, and Christ's demand exposes the break and brings conviction, yet claiming the commandment is too difficult to keep does not excuse sin or remove guilt. Its loyalty at heart must be carried out in daily life in true benevolence to man and loving neighbor as self, for faith without works does not meet its claim and professed allegiance that slights love to neighbor fails to represent its principles.
Loyalty to God is the first claim governing the whole law and the first great principle of supreme love to God, beginning the ten commandments and resting with love to neighbor as the two principles on which rest the whole law and the prophets. When God has His rightful place on the throne of the heart with the heart's best and holiest affections, the duties toward fellow men assigned in the last six commandments will be performed as directed, because love to God comprehends love for those formed in His image. Neither great principle can be kept while the other is broken, and because all precepts are connected in one symmetrical body, breaking this commandment breaks the whole law. It is impossible to love God with all the heart while having other gods before Him or finding delight in serving idols, for self-love, love of the world, or undue affection for any created thing is idolatry that separates affections from Him. This supreme love is the principle most disregarded and the present test between transgression or loyalty, obedience or disobedience with harvest according to seed sown, belonging to God's covenant in life, in death, in resurrection and through all eternity, as Adam and Eve were to glorify God by personal and perpetual obedience and give Him glory for every entrusted gift. The law was given not for Israel only but entrusted to Israel to preserve for the world and apply love to human life in duties to God and to others, and messengers are sent to tell God's people what they must be and do to obey and to do to the neighbor as they would be done by.
God's law in this command reveals defects of character and man's true condition and guilt before a pure and holy God, acting as a great mirror and rule of right that makes the offensive character of sin plain and overwhelms the soul with terror at the awful power of God's utterances. It thus drives sinners to seek a mediator to speak with them, for Christ was their appointed mediator and without His mediation they would have been consumed. The law reveals sin and righteousness but does not itself pardon sin, for forgiveness and justification come through Christ, while grace and truth help people reject idols and turn to Him. In that light it forbids every form and species of idolatry, including cherished pleasures, possessions, ornaments, habits, needless display of dress, and household devotion to images that draw mind and affections from God and heavenly interests to common things. Filling shelves, stands, tables, receptacles and albums with ornaments and photographs of self and friends, wasting time and money in displaying, dusting, arranging and cheap talk over them, crowds the living God out of thought and heart and defiles the soul. Obeying calls for examining life by God's law and correcting errors, giving God time and attention in Scripture, prayer, searching of heart and sharing truth, and using money instead to bless humanity, relieve suffering, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, advance God's cause and buy books enlightening minds on present truth.
It requires exclusive service allowing no other master, so profession of Christianity without corresponding faith and works avails nothing. No one can serve two masters, and those who yield themselves to obey the wicked one are his servants and cannot be servants of God until they renounce the devil and all his works. It is not harmless for servants of the heavenly King to join in the pleasures and amusements of Satan's servants, and keeping it with the rest of the ten separates God's people from the ungodly and purifies them unto God, giving a standpoint toward world and religion altogether different from pleasure-loving professors who shun the cross. As God's law of love proclaimed at Sinai it binds people to God's will and service, ruling out following one's own inclinations in place of God since that leads into Satan's ranks, with love for God and zeal for His glory expressed in willing service as the principle to follow.
Breaking it as one of the first four greatly dishonors the Lord and leaves defilement to be cleansed away, for transgressing the sacred law spoken at Sinai is sin of heinous seriousness before God calling for repentance. Since God sees every corner of the human heart, keeping it requires thorough searching of heart, self-examination, righting of wrongs, and restitution not only in word but in deed, putting away dishonest dealing and sharp, scheming, worldly-policy plans.
Idols of Heart and Life
Anything cherished that weakens love for God, interferes with owed service, absorbs the mind, or draws thoughts and affections away from God and heavenly interests becomes a god to that person. Nothing may take first place in love or service besides Jehovah alone as eternal, self-existent Creator, preserver and sustainer, and anything loved and trusted instead of loving the Lord and trusting wholly in him is idolatry. Even blessings and human sympathies become idols when they lead to overlooking wrongdoing, and cherished pleasures, possessions, ornaments, habits and household displays that divert the mind from God and heavenly things to common things are forbidden. Such devotion creates unnecessary cares and anxieties, wastes time and money in displaying, dusting, arranging and exchanging, and requires the power of God to arouse and break. Obedience brings blessing to the soul by severing every idol, linking the soul to God's throne by grace and truth, giving God time and attention through Scripture, prayer, searching the heart and sharing truth, and using money instead to bless humanity, relieve suffering, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, advance God's cause, buy books that enlighten minds on present truth, and help people in need. God's holy law as measure of character reveals every defect and worldly habit drawing thoughts and affections from God.
Putting self first sets God aside and brings loss of the sense of his presence and love. Pride, vanity, self-love, self-seeking, self-exaltation and making a god of self are falsehood to God, and mere acknowledgment of his universal power with a prescribed form of worship does not satisfy while the heart finds delight in serving idols. Self-love, love of the world, or undue affection for any created thing is idolatry that separates the affections from him. Self must be crucified, subdued and expelled by the gospel before one is ready to enter God's kingdom, with God first, last and best in everything as sole, supreme and everlasting good with sole supreme authority over life, service, work and thought, reigning supreme in mind and heart with the heart's best and holiest affections. Keeping the command sacredly fulfills God's purpose in creation and redemption, and love for God above all leads to love for neighbor, for he who loves God supremely will love his neighbor as himself while he who is false to God cannot be true to his neighbor.
Giving first place to worldly wealth, riches and possessions, letting business crowd out love, and delighting in money for power and honor makes the god of this world supreme as an object of worship and makes wholehearted love to God impossible, for life and happiness do not consist in abundance of possessions. Obeying means using money to relieve suffering, help the needy, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, place means in the Lord's treasury to advance his cause and build up his kingdom, rather than maintaining unnecessary displays. Shutting the eyes to fellow men's wants through love of riches also breaks love to neighbor. Making appetite and taste a god, letting the belly rule instead of principle, violates the command, blunts conscience, clouds memory, enfeebles intellect, and weakens service to God. Indulging lustful, depraved, health-destroying appetites at expense of health, loving appetite and taste more than the Lord instead of loving him with whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and cherishing tobacco so that every high and sacred consideration bows to it, is having another god before the Lord. Keeping demands temperance in all things and living in harmony with natural law, for only an intellect kept clear by temperance can discern binding claims and guide to right actions whatever the consequence, and knowingly or carelessly violating health laws through perverted habits, wasting vitality or clouding intellect, sins against the Creator. Claiming to belong wholly to God while refusing to give up a cherished appetite given loyalty belonging to Jesus, leaving him subordinate, is inconsistent.
Treating photographs and pictures of human faces as objects of devotion is forbidden as giving them the place belonging to God and turning thought away from heaven. Filling tables, shelves, stands, mantels, receptacles and albums with them, displaying albums of self, family and friends to attract attention and call forth cheap talk, spending time, thought and money on displaying, dusting, arranging and exchanging them, and accumulating unnecessary pictures brings thoughts down to common things and is to all intents and purposes a species of idolatry needing decided reform. Photographs kept for selfish pleasure interpose between God and the soul and should be put out of sight, and believers are to keep Christ's likeness before the mind and reflect his image in life and words. Making and multiplying pictures, especially pictures that falsely represent Christ or heavenly things, can mislead and become idolatry, and spending the Lord's money on them rather than on missionary work and books that enlighten minds conflicts with the command, while filling homes with pictures encourages disregard for God's instruction and teaches children to desire images. Needless display in dress, and using God's time and money for it instead of making God supreme, violates the demand for the whole heart and undivided affection, crowding the living God out of thought and heart and defiling the soul. Turning from known duty in eating, dressing and worldly fashions to avoid reproach and the cross shows stronger attachment to the world than to God, blunts conscience, and leads to shunning duty in other things from unwillingness to endure the cross and despise the shame.
Placing a spouse above God turns affection into selfishness and idolatry and diverts love from God, for God must receive the heart's undivided affection and first place in thoughts and actions. Giving deepest affections to anything above the Lord makes that object an idol, as when youth center thoughts and attachments on one another and leave Jesus out of conversation and experience. God must have first place and supreme affection in every plan toward marriage, with pure love of heavenly origin taking God into all its plans, staying in harmony with the Spirit of God in modesty, simplicity, sincerity, morality and religion, and not absorbing the couple in each other at loss of prayer and worship. Headstrong, rash, unreasonable passion that defies all restraint makes the object of choice an idol, and letting care of a child prevent soul-saving work makes the child an idol absorbing thought and affection God would have directed elsewhere. Taking glory to self, resting satisfied while unthankful, failing to return thank offerings and seek God as source of favors, and depending on finite human agencies for counsel instead of seeking the Lord brings reproach upon his name, removes blessings, sends adversity, and is looked upon with abhorrence. Using the Creator's gifts for self-glory, putting possessions or human praise first, preferring worldly vanity to godliness, making unbelief an excuse for defects of character, making human plans and inventions supreme as rival authority, and exalting human judgment to control others as false gods with godlike authority violates loyalty, misrepresents God's holy and merciful character, and must be refused, including making Battle Creek an authority in God's place. In business the principles of the Ten Commandments must govern conduct, for false human propositions cannot be treated as truth and righteousness in place of God's will, and appeals to advancing God's cause do not excuse injustice, oppression, dishonesty or robbery, which offers common fire instead of sacred fire and receives no prosperity.
Seeking a higher degree and highest position in Freemasonry from ambition for honor gives up truth for pride of honor, places a man in bondage to worldly honor, proves ruin of the soul, and puts other claims before God whom the commandments require to be put first. Belonging to trades unions and labor combinations that pledge service to union interests, deprive neighbors of freedom of action and rob the poorer classes of advantages justly belonging to them, means disregarding the entire decalogue including this command, so even church members in these unions cannot possibly keep it. Keeping requires consecration of whole being, body, soul and spirit, to God's service, isolating from the world and getting out of the cities, with God caring for those who love him and keep his commandments as the test of obedience for the whole world in the last days. Wisdom, intellect and power are not God but gifts sourced in God and must not be confused with him, for God's character expressed in the Ten Commandments requires obedience to every expression of it, bringing unity with him and forming character in his likeness. Even Lucifer's wisdom and power were gifts from God, not divinity.
Israel Broke Covenant
Israel broke the command within only weeks and days after hearing it and covenanting to obey, while the visible glory of God still hovered above Sinai in sight of the congregation. The people demanded gods to lead them back toward Egypt, and Aaron made a molten golden calf in Horeb, building an altar to it, proclaiming a feast, offering burnt offerings, and eating and drinking and rising up to play in shameful rioting and drunkenness. They proclaimed the calf as the gods which brought them out of Egypt, crediting the idol with the deliverance the Lord himself had accomplished. Their act directly violated the prohibition against turning from the Lord to other gods and giving worship or allegiance to any god besides him.
That calf worship was grave apostasy, deep ingratitude and daring insult toward him who had revealed himself as their tender Father and all-powerful King, changing their glory into the similitude of an ox. Aaron yielded to the people's demands in opposition to God's command, when he was responsible to use his influence to uphold God's law even at personal risk rather than yield. Calling the celebration a feast to the Lord did not make it acceptable, so soon after the law's proclamation which expressly forbade it. The people thus broke their recent covenant despite having heard his law and witnessed his glory, showing refusal to respect his law and rule.
Israel had been corrupted by Egyptian idolatry, worshiping sun, moon, stars, animals and man-made images until many forgot God and his law, and God had set them apart from idolatrous nations and given them his law. They broke the command in the very sight of Sinai when the host clamored for gods to lead them back to Egypt, and broke it again after entering Canaan when they gradually went into idolatry, forgot instruction, and followed their own inclinations and imagination of their own hearts. They became lax in obeying his commandments, bringing his displeasure and punishment, until the Lord could no longer protect them and permitted their enemies to overcome and scatter them. Their idolatry stands recorded as transgression of God's commandments, and its punishment warns of the consequences of disobedience.
Before the Flood people likewise broke the command by placing idols in beautifully arranged gardens and groves, erecting altars in the groves and consecrating them to their idols, and offering human sacrifices on them which God hates as abomination. In the Flood he showed himself as the living God and Maker of heaven and earth by striking their splendid buildings, gardens, groves and altars with lightning from heaven, tearing down what they had built for their idols, scattering the ruins, making the people tremble before his power, and making them know that their abominable sacrifices called for their destruction. Remembering God's works of deliverance, mercy and loving-kindness should deepen love and reverence for him and lead people to look to him and trust him through every trial rather than turn to other gods. The yearly Passover was meant to keep those works in mind and draw people away from worldly interests and temporal cares, for Israel was brought out of bondage to serve the Lord alone as the only true and living God, and returning to allegiance after turning to idolatry and disregarding his warnings required full repentance and turning from evil ways.
Exclusive worship is what the three men who refused to bow to the golden image upheld, for they would not dishonor God by worshiping anyone or anything else. The command belongs to the Ten Commandments that Joshua repeated to Israel, connecting obedience to God's law with blessing and disregard of the law with curses.
Christ Obedience Judgment
The law of which this command is part was spoken at Sinai by Christ himself, Israel's Ruler and Teacher, who knew its full meaning and scope. In the Sermon on the Mount and on the mount of the beatitudes he opened its principles and showed its far-reaching claims in their true light for practical life, not as a cold code of commands and human traditions but as holy, just, good, and the standard of righteousness to be lived out and exemplified. It belongs to God's enduring moral law and the foundation of Scripture and faith, not abolished by His coming, calling those who accept biblical truth to stand firmly on God's Word rather than on human assertions.
Christ perfectly fulfilled every precept of that law which condemns every unrighteous act, keeping the Father's commandments and abiding in His love as man's example. Having taken human nature into vital union with divinity, He passed over the same ground where Adam fell and bore the test the first parents failed, tempted in all points like humanity yet without sin on any point, so that Satan was not victorious and Adam's failure was redeemed by perfect obedience and resistance to temptation. Those who accept Him as Saviour and share the divine nature are enabled to follow His example and obey every divine precept, for its letter specifies how to walk to please God while its spirit points to Jesus as the atoning sacrifice through whose merits the sinner can fulfill its requirements. Repentant people who seek to obey through faith have His perfection imputed to cover transgression, and in His humiliation and dying agony He vindicated His right as Lawgiver to pardon transgression and sin. The law is God's unchangeable standard of character and absolute perfection with power to sanctify beyond human measurement, demanding supreme love to God and love to neighbor, reaching to intents of the heart and secret thoughts, desires and dispositions, so that without this love the highest profession is hypocrisy and the least deviation by neglect or willful transgression is sin exposing the sinner to wrath.
Obedience to this perfect law is the prerequisite of salvation, safety, and a place in God's city, giving access to the tree of life lost through disobedience and enabling His people to glorify His name with His glory in view in the light of His Word. The law is the transcript of God's character written by His finger on stone so it would not be forgotten or corrupted, a clear revelation of His will and principles of His government for all peoples and nations and tongues, to be made known, carefully studied, and obeyed, for obedience would have prevented the wickedness seen in the world. At the judgment the tables of stone hidden by God until that day will be presented before the world as the standard of righteousness by which all are judged according to the things written in the books, its righteous principles deciding the destiny of every soul with sentence of life or death and leaving none with excuse for sin. That proclamation will stand as a witness against the world, commanding keeping in truth and righteousness by obeying every command and respecting laws instituted in Eden.
Churches professing to believe in Christ are violating the law He proclaimed from Sinai, for the world is not keeping it. It must therefore be lifted up as a central theme and proclaimed as part of the third angel's message with intensified power and great distinctness, the earth lightened with glory, not in an indefinite, tame and voiceless manner, the trumpet giving a certain sound showing God's people their transgression with its Sabbath precept as the great test for this time. Its commands expressing God's righteousness and rule of judgment are to be presented clearly and forcefully, made clear to all people, with transgressions clearly shown, while many ministers turn from a plain Thus saith the Lord to fables and papal authority and God sends messengers. If its words were hung in prominent places as pictures are hung on walls they would arrest attention as eyes fall upon them and impress hearts and minds with more powerful influence for good than pictures, for it is God's pledged word of greatest importance that men and women read and understand.
Reverencing the Sabbath God sanctified and blessed at creation leads to keeping this command with the others, for Sabbath observance means obedience to all His commandments and no one truly keeping the Sabbath can disregard the rest of the law. The commandments are not to be treated as though the fourth were more important than the other nine, nor trimmed down to suit ideas or convenience by bringing the law into subjection to self rather than bringing self into subjection to God's law. Keeping the Sabbath commandment would have preserved the world from idolatry, and love to God is shown by keeping all His commandments, the Sabbath as sign and covenant and golden clasp uniting man to God in obedience and reverence and uniting man to fellow man in the duties of the last six. Within the ten precepts which are the great moral standard and foundation of prophets' and apostles' faith, the Sabbath is the great test question with precious promises to those who keep it from polluting it, while belittling the holy requirement displeases God and lax, loose Sabbath keeping and making little items a test of fellowship violate His requirement. Israel's deliverance from Egypt allowed keeping Jehovah's precepts, repeatedly reinforced in the wilderness by the weekly withholding of manna and preservation of the double portion.
The ten commandments are linked with the testimony inseparably and cannot be separated from it, applying to the restoration of God's law especially the Sabbath. They belong to God's holy law contained in the ark in heaven as symbol of His presence, given in Eden at creation, proclaimed on Sinai and written with God's finger on two tables of stone, on which the third angel's message is based as present truth to go forth with great distinctness and power. Obedience distinguishes sincere worshipers who keep the commandments, wear the God-given seal, glorify God and receive eternal life through wholehearted obedience, from nominal worshipers who oppose Him and will face judgments symbolized by lightnings and voices and thunderings and earthquake and be treated according to works, belonging to the covenant in life, death, resurrection and eternity.
True and False Worship
Thou shalt have no other gods before me commands exclusive worship of God with no other gods before Him, forbidding the making of any graven image or any likeness of anything in heaven above, in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth, and forbidding bowing down to them or serving them. No image is to be made to represent God and no image is to be worshiped in His place, for Jehovah is jealous for His honor and avenges insult to it. God gives this as a warning because His own people are certainly in danger in regard to it, as a jealous God who visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him, and shows mercy unto thousands of them that love Him and keep His commandments.
The golden calf directly violated this command, for Israel broke their recent covenant despite having heard His law and witnessed His glory. Aaron yielded to the people, made an idol, and credited it with bringing Israel out of Egypt, though the Lord had delivered them.
Setting aside His law to frame a law for a spurious Sunday Sabbath and compel obedience to it insults God, profanes His holy day, and assumes authority as gods by exalting the first day to be observed by all. All who set aside one of His commandments and put in its place a day that bears no sanctity usurp an authority that infringes upon His divine prerogatives, and the Sunday Sabbath as a child of the papacy set forth as the Lord's Sabbath compels men to transgress the laws of Jehovah. Human enactments that conflict with the laws of God bear not the stamp of divine approval, and those who enforce them will be dealt with by Jehovah as usurpers. Keeping holy the seventh-day memorial of creation honors God as Creator of the heavens and the earth, Monarch of the universe who made the world in six days and rested and was refreshed and sanctified the seventh day, and in a time when Satan seeks to draw people from truth and righteousness it is the way to stand on the Lord's side. Treating Sunday with religious reverence and pointing people to the law casts down the idol erected in a false Sabbath, for God alone is to be worshiped and no rival is to be made an object of worship.
The papacy claims this first commandment already includes the ban on image worship, so the second commandment is unnecessary and can be dropped while still giving the law exactly as God meant it to be understood. That omission is not the intentional, deliberate change to times and law foretold by prophecy. The foretold change is in the fourth commandment authorizing first-day observance instead of the seventh day, by which the papal power openly sets itself above God, and obedience to that changed law gives supreme honor and allegiance to that power in place of God.
Breaking the command by union between Christianity and paganism brings the leaven of idolatry into the church by only changing the objects of worship to images of Jesus, Mary and the saints. That compromise brings unsound doctrine, superstitious rites and idolatrous ceremony into faith and worship, corrupts religion, and causes loss of purity and power. Lowering the standard by uniting with professed converts who keep their idolatry continues that broken commandment, even to images of Christ and Mary His mother. Keeping the commandment means refusing that compromise and union with idolaters, preserving purity by worshiping God alone and refusing to bow down to an image of anything in the heavens above or in the earth beneath.
Herod knew this law that God alone is to receive worship, yet accepted the people's worship and praise as his due instead of rebuking their idolatry when they declared his voice the voice of a god and not of a man. By allowing himself to be exalted as a god and accepting adulation and worship that belong to God alone, he made himself an object of worship, committed idolatry, and completed the measure of his iniquity. His acceptance brought God's just wrath and judgment upon him, for he was smitten by an avenging angel and eaten of worms while still alive.
Obedience in Daily Life
Putting God first in every purpose is what the command requires, with self denied and the heart cleared of idols until nothing displaces God in thought and affection, whether the Creator's gifts used for self-glory, possessions or human praise put first, worldly vanity preferred to godliness, or unbelief made an excuse for defects of character. Its claim binds every person to the end of time, with no escape from the law's demands or from divine awareness of human actions, and obedience prepares a people to glorify God's name and to have a place in His city. That obedience is personal daily duty, not mere profession of loyalty, and neglect of it is sin, while living it helps lead others to Christ instead of turning them away from truth by disregard. In the household on earth parents and children are to follow God's way and bring habits and practices into harmony with His plans, every other way being forbidden. Parents are to teach the commandments diligently in the house and by the way, training children to respect them by requiring exact obedience, and losing sight of these plain precepts given at Sinai or letting flagrant violations go unrebuked hinders God's work and keeps His rich blessing from resting on the people.
In business the principles of the Ten Commandments must govern conduct, for false human propositions cannot be set up as truth and righteousness in place of God's will without misrepresenting His character. Loyalty to God stands above every claim of institutional advancement and every human plan, forbidding putting power over others, oppression and unjust dealing in His place, and requiring His holy and merciful character to be brought into transactions by dealing justly with every member of His family, respecting individuality and rights, and refusing to rob, oppress, rule or ruin others. Loving God supremely in every line of work means having the eye single to His glory while working in sight of heaven, staying in touch with God for keen, clear perception of equity in judgment, and leaving no room for sharp ambition for financial interest or for business to crowd out love. Pleading the cause of God or working for God never excuses robbery, injustice, oppression, dishonesty or suffering brought on souls, for God accepts no such transaction, vindicates not a touch of injustice, never joins dishonest practice, and gives no prosperity to movements built on it, while such wrongs dishonor Him, offer common fire instead of sacred fire, and lay stumbling blocks over which precious souls fall to ruin. True loyalty is of the heart carried into daily life in benevolence to man and love to neighbor as self, so faith without works and professed allegiance that slights love to neighbor fails to represent its principles, whereas those who plant their feet firmly on its principles and live its spirit gain moral power to move the world.
Violating the laws governing the body is as much sin as breaking any of the Ten Commandments, because both violate God's law of common divine origin and character. Needlessly transgressing the laws God established in human nature, whether through depraved appetites and lustful passions, wasting vitality or clouding intellect, sins against the Creator, and ignorance is no excuse when light is available. A temperance-cleared intellect discerns the binding claims, while an inebriate with dulled senses cannot understand this everlasting exalted standard founded on God's character and tries to lower the law to fit a degraded condition. The direction given from Sinai to the church delivered from Egypt is to be held in highest regard and held firmly, including the laws of chastity, so that those who live by it do not become loose in manners or careless in chastity and may be safely trusted as physicians. Health reform gives light about this disobedience, yet differences of opinion about diet must not become a barrier between believers or cause disturbance, disunion or separation.
Those set apart to minister for God, conduct sacred services, speak His words and reveal His will in simple plain language are to lift up the commandments as a central theme and set their principles of truth and righteousness before all to enlighten understanding of God's motives in urging obedience. The fear and love of God lead to cheerful hearty obedience that promotes His glory and attains man's highest good and harmony with heaven, and the divine requirement is understood only as heart and mind are brought into harmony with God through experimental acquaintance proved by obedience to all He has given. Especially those in responsible positions who represent the cause and handle sacred work in Christ's stead must practice it in every line of work, with touch with God giving fine, keen, clear perception of equity, and with a tender, pure, true, compassionate heart like Christ's, pure heart and clean hands, and Christ's maxims. Failure to practice it leaves the imperfections of the human mold on the cause, dishonors God and His truth, betrays Christ, deceives the worker, and lays stumbling blocks to ruin, while churches professing Christ yet violating the standard Christ proclaimed from Sinai must have their transgression clearly and forcefully shown. Faithful ministers feed the flock with the living Word rather than words of men, gathering a peculiar sanctified holy people who keep what God commanded and refuse any interpretation making disobedience trifling, for so long as His people obey and walk in the light they are prospered, but walking contrary darkens spiritual perception until light becomes darkness, whereas those who through faith in Christ return to loyalty and respect His commandments are counted righteous for Christ's sake and assured as sons and daughters of the heavenly King.
Civil magistrates have no authority to punish outward breaches of the religious duties of the first table toward God. The law lies at the foundation of all right laws and right government, those who frame laws for the nation should understand what is written in it, and its authority restrains wrongdoing so that rejecting it encourages disobedience and harms social order. The United States is warned against making it void, for rejecting given light and blessing adds to national guilt. God's supremacy over all earthly rulers upholds the holy binding claims of His law, persistent refusal is disloyalty, His judgments can mercifully awaken transgressors to sin and peril, and His supremacy and the just claims of His law will finally be acknowledged and vindicated.
As part of the Ten Commandments the verse is the hedge God placed around His vineyard that distinguished His Israel from all other nations, a barricade in the fight not against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places, by which believers withstand in the evil day, stand and live. Its laws are wise, just and good, giving rules for everyone in every transaction with no separate standard for leaders and those under authority, and the first principle of holiness is to learn God's will and do it wholeheartedly. The first four commandments point out duty to the Maker and the last six duty to fellow man, and exalting the first four as of far greater importance than the last six led to failure in practical godliness and duties of life, a deficiency Jesus exposed by teaching good works, mercy and benevolence as the fruit by which the tree is known. Wearing its words as display did not fulfill it when life and works opposed it, for its words were meant to remind Israel to love God supremely and neighbor as self. Accepting misleading theories clothed in garments of light violates its intent, and keeping it requires choosing Christ even when truth brings division, as well as sharing responsibility for debts in harmony with its standard.
God is great and holy and jealous and will have only holy men to carry His truth, for the law spoken from Sinai is part of Himself, so only those who strictly observe it honor Him by teaching it to others. He will not entrust His flock and precious souls to men whose mind and judgment were perverted and weakened by cherished errors such as perfectionism and spiritualism, whose course brought reproach on the cause and disgraced themselves, even if they now feel free from error and competent to teach the last message.
It requires recognizing, worshiping and serving the Lord alone, with no other god placed alongside, above or before Him. It stands first among the commandments, defining supreme love and duty to God with all heart, soul, strength and mind, upon which all other obedience depends. It was spoken by God Himself with an audible voice to all the people, and written by His own finger on stone to be kept uncorrupted and unchanged. It remains binding, immutable and eternal to the end of time, a transcript of His character and the standard of righteousness and judgment. Whatever is cherished that weakens love for God and draws mind and affections away from Him — self exalted to first place, wealth, appetite, dress, pictures, human affection, or human authority — becomes another god and breaks it.
Spoken at Sinai
The prohibition stands as words spoken by God himself, by Christ as Teacher and Sovereign of the universe, with an audible voice in the hearing of all the people. This took place in the third month after going out of Egypt, after Israel encamped before the mount and covenanted to do all that had been spoken about obeying His voice and keeping His covenant as His peculiar treasure, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. The Father and the Son were present on Sinai's holy mount, and the same Jesus who was veiled in the cloudy pillar and who cleansed the temple gave the instruction in the mount to be studied in Exodus 19 to 24 and to be presented before the people now just as verily as in the days of Moses. It belongs to the plain and clear law of God's kingdom, an expression of the character of the Sovereign, covering the whole duty of man, the old commandment given from the beginning, requiring that God alone be worshiped and served with no other gods placed before, beside, or above Him.
It was proclaimed with awful solemnity, grandeur, power and glory, amid trumpet tones, thunder, lightning, smoke, flame, earthquake, cloud, tempest and thick darkness. God drew near in a thick cloud hiding His glory and chose the mount surrounded by created works, making known His majesty and authority as Ruler of the world. This was done to impress the people with the sacredness of the law and the importance of obeying it, to impress its majesty and authority and the offensiveness of sin, and to overwhelm with the terror of the utterances so that all mankind might clearly understand the requirements of God. It is part of the faith once delivered to the saints by Christ the Redeemer speaking from Sinai.
It belongs to the plain law written by God's own finger on tables of stone, tables of testimony placed in the ark, of divine not human composition, so it would not be forgotten, corrupted, or mingled with human tradition or confused with human customs. It was afterward recapitulated by Moses and guarded by detailed judgments and laws written by Moses from God's mouth with minute directions of what to perform, to draw erring man prone to transgress back to strict obedience of the moral law. It was recorded by Moses after about twenty-five hundred years of oral transmission from father to son as the beginning of the written word in a sixteen-hundred-year work from Moses to John. The tables of stone, hidden until that day, will be presented at the judgment as the standard of righteousness by which all are judged according to what is written in the books, obedience being the terms of salvation and leaving none with excuse for sin.
The God who speaks is the God who brought Israel out of Egyptian slavery and displayed His power in Egypt, at the Red Sea and in the wilderness, patiently reminding them what He did to the Egyptians and bearing them on eagles' wings. His displays of power show He alone is the true and living God, and deliverance with knowledge of Him establishes the obligation to give worship and allegiance to the Lord alone. Israel had been accustomed to having many gods, had lost knowledge of the law and mixed its precepts with heathen customs after witnessing so much idolatry in Egypt, which forms the background to the prohibition.
The law existed before Sinai, given in Eden when the morning stars sang together, given to Adam after the fall, preserved by Noah in the ark, and observed by Abraham. The Lord repeated at Sinai the commandments given in Eden, speaking them amid displays of power and glory to impress their sacredness, importance and permanence. It was proclaimed anew because Israel, prone to forget, disobey, murmur and commit idolatry and confused in ideas of God's law by idolatry seen in Egypt and proved in the wilderness, needed its principles set forth without excuse. It was entrusted to Israel as depositary not for Israel only but to be handed down to later generations and made known to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, to be passed on and carefully studied as the principles of His government.
Because Abraham's descendants did not keep the covenant pledged by circumcision to be separate and perfect and went into idolatry and down into Egypt, it became necessary for God to proclaim the law from Sinai and engrave it on stone to preserve it from mixture with heathen traditions. Its far-reaching principles were not fully appreciated after slavery, reaching beyond the people's full understanding, so additional precepts were given to explain and apply its obligations. The additional judgments, statutes and laws expanded the ten into specific simplified directions about duty to one another and to the stranger, guarding their sacredness and leading erring man into strict obedience without error; had the principles of duty to God and neighbor been practiced, no additional directions would have been needed.
The commandments, written by the finger of Jehovah on two tables of stone, are kept in the ark in the most holy place in heaven, which is a symbol of God's presence. The door to that most holy place was opened in 1844 when Jesus finished His mediation in the holy place and passed within the second veil, while the door of the holy place was shut. The law in the heavenly ark, given in Eden, proclaimed on Sinai, and written with the finger of God, is the basis of the third angel's message as present truth to go forth with great distinctness and power. Obedience to it distinguishes sealed commandment-keepers who sincerely worship God, glorify Him and receive eternal life through wholehearted obedience, from disobedient nominal worshipers who oppose Him and will face judgments symbolized by lightnings and voices and thunderings and earthquake and be treated according to their works.
The precept is one God Himself came down upon Mount Sinai to speak with a voice that made the mountain tremble to its base. Taught to Israel while they abode at Mount Sinai, its influence was not to be lost till the close of time. It is to be learned by youth amid the scenes of nature and the everlasting hills, and old and young are never to lose sight of its sacredness but to study it continually as needful for education and the formation of character.
Enduring Holy Law
Thou shalt have no other gods before me stands first as the first commandment, belonging to the first table and to the first four, and with the first three upon the first stone. It defines duty, love and service owed to God above all else, requiring that God alone be worshiped, served and obeyed with the whole person exalted as omnipotent Sovereign above every thing in heaven and earth, while the last six define duty to fellow people and are joined with the first four as one law. It is the first great command and the substance of all obedience, upon which all the rest hang, so that keeping it founds duty to others, for whoever loves God supremely will love neighbor as self, while whoever is false to God cannot be true to neighbor. Its personal claim rests on everyone, calling for exclusive worship and obedience and casting down falsehood to God including pride, vanity and self-love that make a god of self.
The claim applies to every person and remains binding to the end of time and in the last days of earth's history, still commanding recognition of God as the only God and giving no other being or power His place. It is immutable, eternal, unchangeable and unlowered, written with His own finger on tables of stone to be preserved through eternal ages as immutable as the principles of His government, never to be changed or abrogated. Christ's death proves it could not be abolished, for His death did not abolish the enduring law and standard that must be obeyed without neglect or alteration. Nor is it a temporary type or shadow that passes away, though its restriction of the human will may feel as a yoke, and Paul kept it in letter and spirit after conversion. Idolatry under it includes devotion to anything displacing God in thought and affection, using the Creator's gifts for self-glory, putting possessions or human praise first, preferring worldly vanity to godliness, or making unbelief an excuse for defects of character, and following Christ means putting God first in every purpose, denying self, rejecting pride and selfishness, and putting away sinful indulgence until the heart is free of idols.
It belongs to the unchangeable ten-commandment moral law, the foundation of God's government in heaven and earth whose authority and sanctity are to be upheld, distinct from Mosaic sacrificial offerings, rites and ceremonies. Those offerings prefigured the death of the Son of God and ceased to bind when type met antitype, but the ten remain binding under the gospel for Gentile as well as Jew, to be kept in spirit as well as in letter and not set aside as a condition of church fellowship. They are ten precepts teaching righteousness and safeguarding against wrong habits, and acknowledging the fourth requires living by the principles of all ten including the command against other gods, for treating God's law as abolished denies its claims and obscures the sinfulness of sin. Together with the ceremonial law they serve as a schoolmaster to bring people to Christ, while conscientious obedience would prevent much misery and wrongdoing. Their truth and authority every person must acknowledge and submit to, with God's will and way paramount.
The law thus given is a clear revelation of His will and principles of government for all peoples, a transcript of God's character and expression of the will of the Sovereign of the universe, perfectly revealing His will so none need fail to understand or mistake. It is the standard of righteousness reflected in Christ's life, the law of His kingdom plainly made known to be revealed to every nation and tongue and carefully studied, testing all. At the judgment the tables of stone, hidden by God until that day, will be presented before the world as the standard by which all are judged according to the things written in the books, obedience to the perfect law being prerequisite of salvation and safety and a healthy spiritual experience, leaving none with excuse for sin. By its righteous principles all will receive sentence of life or of death, for obedience means life and disobedience means death. The law is the tree of which the gospel is the fragrant blossoms and fruit, and obedience made known would have prevented the wickedness seen in the world.
The ten together contain the whole duty of humanity, the moral code of ten precepts engraved on stone by God not framed by human beings or Moses, whose first four define duty to God and whose other scriptural commands amplify their principles. They give wise, just and good rules for conduct in every transaction, dealing and line of work, a standard from which there can be no sinless departure, to be practiced so as to honor God and prevent injustice, harm and stumbling. They lie at the foundation of all right laws, family, national and church government, and of prophets' and apostles' faith, so that those framing national laws should understand what is written in them, Israel's prosperity depended on obedience, and rejecting them licenses idolatry and wickedness rather than happiness or safety.
Its commands are not arbitrary, severe or merely restrictive: each Thou shalt not contains or implies a promise of blessing when obeyed and warns of danger and unhappiness when disobeyed. Its prohibitions are safeguards for happiness rather than mere restrictions, received in Christ forming pure character and protecting the obedient, reflecting God's goodness to shield from harm of transgression. God's laws draw people closer to Him, save from evil and lead to good without forcing obedience, setting a high standard whose obedience brings peace and prosperity while disobedience brings harm. Disregard shows lack of reverence, respect and recognition of Him, and minds fixed on temporal earthly matters fail to see far-reaching principles, for understanding His expressed will requires obedience and conformity of heart, mind and soul lest worldly habits cloud vision and make eternal realities seem insignificant. Israel was chosen to show the world the beauty of character and moral strength from fearing God and living in harmony with His law.
No setting of human will against God's will, no profound theories or speculations to do away with God's law, no claims setting science in opposition to revelation, and no exalting of human wisdom above a plain Thus saith the Lord can cancel the command, remove obligation to the higher power, or silence its voice still speaking with authority in this generation and the last days. The Holy Spirit brings its demand for exclusive worship and service ever stronger before men, who cannot evade awareness of actions and past lives nor fully comprehend obligation to the higher power. Nor can customs, maxims and traditions handed down through rabbis, scribes and Pharisees as all-essential above a plain divine command stand above it. It comes from the highest and grandest court as the highest education, to be read and believed just as it reads and obeyed rather than prying into secret things unrevealed, with truly sanctified souls in the family living its Word as taught of God rather than learning from unsanctified human teachers.
It is part of the ten spoken by God Himself at Sinai in awe-inspiring grandeur, majesty and glory after deliverance from bondage, giving positive instruction to maintain covenant relationship and make known His will. It is to be obeyed from love with strict regard, requiring exact obedience and heart obedience that elevates, ennobles and exalts the human family, forbidding idolatry among churchgoers as truly as in Noah's time and forbidding placing anything before God or putting substitutes in His place. Knowingly breaking any command for convenience is incompatible with trusting Him, and when advocates of its binding claims indulge lower passions, walk into temptation and give appearance of evil they give enemies occasion to reproach faith and discourage those beginning to see light upon its fourth precept as testing new truth. Its truth and authority every soul must acknowledge and submit to, with books vindicating and magnifying it directing attention to its authority.
It calls for respect and obedience, with keeping it linked to freedom in Christ and to avoiding the distress and misery caused by sin. It is part of the Decalogue whose just claims the wicked boldly defy, and though God's restraint and forbearance toward those insulting His commandments are great, He will ultimately punish persistent defiance.
God Alone Supreme
The command is for Israel to recognize, worship, serve and give allegiance to the Lord alone, with no other gods placed alongside, above, before or beside Him, and it forbids turning aside to other gods or idols or looking to them for help, reverence and adoration. The God who speaks it is the God who brought Israel out of Egyptian slavery and bondage, displaying His power in Egypt to show that He alone is the true and living God. It is not a temporary type or shadow that passes away, but a binding claim that directs people to the one living God even when it is felt as a yoke because it restricts the human will.
Jehovah alone, as the eternal, self-existent Creator, preserver, sustainer, Sovereign and Ruler of the universe and Maker of heaven and earth, displayed supreme power over nature and every oppressing power in delivering Israel, and is therefore entitled to supreme reverence, worship, glory, trust and obedience. As the first commandment in the first table it defines duty to God and affirms that the Sovereign of the universe is above every other thing in heaven and on earth and is to be exalted as omnipotent. It asserts His supreme right to govern the moral agents He created, who as Creator and Preserver of the worlds are to bow before Him in adoration, acknowledge Him as Ruler freely with heart, soul and mind, obey His law, and trust His power for help and protection. It was proclaimed with God's own voice in awful grandeur with power and glory that made known His majesty and authority as Ruler of the world, to impress sacredness and the importance of obedience. To set aside His law and frame and enforce a spurious Sunday sabbath, a child of the papacy set forth as the Lord's Sabbath, compels transgression of Jehovah's laws, profanes His holy memorial of creation in six days with rest on the seventh, usurps divine prerogatives and assumes authority as gods without divine approval.
It requires loving God supremely with all the heart, soul, strength and mind, giving Him the whole person, undivided loyalty and devoted response of mind, soul and strength. His claim is to be taken seriously, acknowledged freely with heart and soul, and obeyed implicitly, with every idol sacrificed and put to death and nothing sharing supreme delight in Him. Those who love and serve Him must reject every temptation to change leaders or depart from His principles, for God demands the whole person, not a divided heart, and His rule must reach every part of life including work and thought.
Love for God is an active principle shown by willing obedience to all His requirements, with God reigning supreme in heart and mind and receiving supreme love, reverence, honor and willing obedience. It is not merely acknowledging His power or performing outward worship and a prescribed form, and mere assent to the ten commandments and teaching them in theory is not obedience. Obedience shows love genuine and saving knowledge of Him, while failure to obey shows it false, and without heart obedience cherished from love with transforming surrender of everything that closes the door against Jesus, truth loses vitalizing power, sin strengthens, the life is a lie, and there is no strength or efficiency as God's agent. Failing that whole love breaks one of the first four commandments requiring love to the Lord, and Christ's demand exposes the break and brings conviction, yet claiming the commandment is too difficult to keep does not excuse sin or remove guilt. Its loyalty at heart must be carried out in daily life in true benevolence to man and loving neighbor as self, for faith without works does not meet its claim and professed allegiance that slights love to neighbor fails to represent its principles.
Loyalty to God is the first claim governing the whole law and the first great principle of supreme love to God, beginning the ten commandments and resting with love to neighbor as the two principles on which rest the whole law and the prophets. When God has His rightful place on the throne of the heart with the heart's best and holiest affections, the duties toward fellow men assigned in the last six commandments will be performed as directed, because love to God comprehends love for those formed in His image. Neither great principle can be kept while the other is broken, and because all precepts are connected in one symmetrical body, breaking this commandment breaks the whole law. It is impossible to love God with all the heart while having other gods before Him or finding delight in serving idols, for self-love, love of the world, or undue affection for any created thing is idolatry that separates affections from Him. This supreme love is the principle most disregarded and the present test between transgression or loyalty, obedience or disobedience with harvest according to seed sown, belonging to God's covenant in life, in death, in resurrection and through all eternity, as Adam and Eve were to glorify God by personal and perpetual obedience and give Him glory for every entrusted gift. The law was given not for Israel only but entrusted to Israel to preserve for the world and apply love to human life in duties to God and to others, and messengers are sent to tell God's people what they must be and do to obey and to do to the neighbor as they would be done by.
God's law in this command reveals defects of character and man's true condition and guilt before a pure and holy God, acting as a great mirror and rule of right that makes the offensive character of sin plain and overwhelms the soul with terror at the awful power of God's utterances. It thus drives sinners to seek a mediator to speak with them, for Christ was their appointed mediator and without His mediation they would have been consumed. The law reveals sin and righteousness but does not itself pardon sin, for forgiveness and justification come through Christ, while grace and truth help people reject idols and turn to Him. In that light it forbids every form and species of idolatry, including cherished pleasures, possessions, ornaments, habits, needless display of dress, and household devotion to images that draw mind and affections from God and heavenly interests to common things. Filling shelves, stands, tables, receptacles and albums with ornaments and photographs of self and friends, wasting time and money in displaying, dusting, arranging and cheap talk over them, crowds the living God out of thought and heart and defiles the soul. Obeying calls for examining life by God's law and correcting errors, giving God time and attention in Scripture, prayer, searching of heart and sharing truth, and using money instead to bless humanity, relieve suffering, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, advance God's cause and buy books enlightening minds on present truth.
It requires exclusive service allowing no other master, so profession of Christianity without corresponding faith and works avails nothing. No one can serve two masters, and those who yield themselves to obey the wicked one are his servants and cannot be servants of God until they renounce the devil and all his works. It is not harmless for servants of the heavenly King to join in the pleasures and amusements of Satan's servants, and keeping it with the rest of the ten separates God's people from the ungodly and purifies them unto God, giving a standpoint toward world and religion altogether different from pleasure-loving professors who shun the cross. As God's law of love proclaimed at Sinai it binds people to God's will and service, ruling out following one's own inclinations in place of God since that leads into Satan's ranks, with love for God and zeal for His glory expressed in willing service as the principle to follow.
Breaking it as one of the first four greatly dishonors the Lord and leaves defilement to be cleansed away, for transgressing the sacred law spoken at Sinai is sin of heinous seriousness before God calling for repentance. Since God sees every corner of the human heart, keeping it requires thorough searching of heart, self-examination, righting of wrongs, and restitution not only in word but in deed, putting away dishonest dealing and sharp, scheming, worldly-policy plans.
Idols of Heart and Life
Anything cherished that weakens love for God, interferes with owed service, absorbs the mind, or draws thoughts and affections away from God and heavenly interests becomes a god to that person. Nothing may take first place in love or service besides Jehovah alone as eternal, self-existent Creator, preserver and sustainer, and anything loved and trusted instead of loving the Lord and trusting wholly in him is idolatry. Even blessings and human sympathies become idols when they lead to overlooking wrongdoing, and cherished pleasures, possessions, ornaments, habits and household displays that divert the mind from God and heavenly things to common things are forbidden. Such devotion creates unnecessary cares and anxieties, wastes time and money in displaying, dusting, arranging and exchanging, and requires the power of God to arouse and break. Obedience brings blessing to the soul by severing every idol, linking the soul to God's throne by grace and truth, giving God time and attention through Scripture, prayer, searching the heart and sharing truth, and using money instead to bless humanity, relieve suffering, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, advance God's cause, buy books that enlighten minds on present truth, and help people in need. God's holy law as measure of character reveals every defect and worldly habit drawing thoughts and affections from God.
Putting self first sets God aside and brings loss of the sense of his presence and love. Pride, vanity, self-love, self-seeking, self-exaltation and making a god of self are falsehood to God, and mere acknowledgment of his universal power with a prescribed form of worship does not satisfy while the heart finds delight in serving idols. Self-love, love of the world, or undue affection for any created thing is idolatry that separates the affections from him. Self must be crucified, subdued and expelled by the gospel before one is ready to enter God's kingdom, with God first, last and best in everything as sole, supreme and everlasting good with sole supreme authority over life, service, work and thought, reigning supreme in mind and heart with the heart's best and holiest affections. Keeping the command sacredly fulfills God's purpose in creation and redemption, and love for God above all leads to love for neighbor, for he who loves God supremely will love his neighbor as himself while he who is false to God cannot be true to his neighbor.
Giving first place to worldly wealth, riches and possessions, letting business crowd out love, and delighting in money for power and honor makes the god of this world supreme as an object of worship and makes wholehearted love to God impossible, for life and happiness do not consist in abundance of possessions. Obeying means using money to relieve suffering, help the needy, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, place means in the Lord's treasury to advance his cause and build up his kingdom, rather than maintaining unnecessary displays. Shutting the eyes to fellow men's wants through love of riches also breaks love to neighbor. Making appetite and taste a god, letting the belly rule instead of principle, violates the command, blunts conscience, clouds memory, enfeebles intellect, and weakens service to God. Indulging lustful, depraved, health-destroying appetites at expense of health, loving appetite and taste more than the Lord instead of loving him with whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and cherishing tobacco so that every high and sacred consideration bows to it, is having another god before the Lord. Keeping demands temperance in all things and living in harmony with natural law, for only an intellect kept clear by temperance can discern binding claims and guide to right actions whatever the consequence, and knowingly or carelessly violating health laws through perverted habits, wasting vitality or clouding intellect, sins against the Creator. Claiming to belong wholly to God while refusing to give up a cherished appetite given loyalty belonging to Jesus, leaving him subordinate, is inconsistent.
Treating photographs and pictures of human faces as objects of devotion is forbidden as giving them the place belonging to God and turning thought away from heaven. Filling tables, shelves, stands, mantels, receptacles and albums with them, displaying albums of self, family and friends to attract attention and call forth cheap talk, spending time, thought and money on displaying, dusting, arranging and exchanging them, and accumulating unnecessary pictures brings thoughts down to common things and is to all intents and purposes a species of idolatry needing decided reform. Photographs kept for selfish pleasure interpose between God and the soul and should be put out of sight, and believers are to keep Christ's likeness before the mind and reflect his image in life and words. Making and multiplying pictures, especially pictures that falsely represent Christ or heavenly things, can mislead and become idolatry, and spending the Lord's money on them rather than on missionary work and books that enlighten minds conflicts with the command, while filling homes with pictures encourages disregard for God's instruction and teaches children to desire images. Needless display in dress, and using God's time and money for it instead of making God supreme, violates the demand for the whole heart and undivided affection, crowding the living God out of thought and heart and defiling the soul. Turning from known duty in eating, dressing and worldly fashions to avoid reproach and the cross shows stronger attachment to the world than to God, blunts conscience, and leads to shunning duty in other things from unwillingness to endure the cross and despise the shame.
Placing a spouse above God turns affection into selfishness and idolatry and diverts love from God, for God must receive the heart's undivided affection and first place in thoughts and actions. Giving deepest affections to anything above the Lord makes that object an idol, as when youth center thoughts and attachments on one another and leave Jesus out of conversation and experience. God must have first place and supreme affection in every plan toward marriage, with pure love of heavenly origin taking God into all its plans, staying in harmony with the Spirit of God in modesty, simplicity, sincerity, morality and religion, and not absorbing the couple in each other at loss of prayer and worship. Headstrong, rash, unreasonable passion that defies all restraint makes the object of choice an idol, and letting care of a child prevent soul-saving work makes the child an idol absorbing thought and affection God would have directed elsewhere. Taking glory to self, resting satisfied while unthankful, failing to return thank offerings and seek God as source of favors, and depending on finite human agencies for counsel instead of seeking the Lord brings reproach upon his name, removes blessings, sends adversity, and is looked upon with abhorrence. Using the Creator's gifts for self-glory, putting possessions or human praise first, preferring worldly vanity to godliness, making unbelief an excuse for defects of character, making human plans and inventions supreme as rival authority, and exalting human judgment to control others as false gods with godlike authority violates loyalty, misrepresents God's holy and merciful character, and must be refused, including making Battle Creek an authority in God's place. In business the principles of the Ten Commandments must govern conduct, for false human propositions cannot be treated as truth and righteousness in place of God's will, and appeals to advancing God's cause do not excuse injustice, oppression, dishonesty or robbery, which offers common fire instead of sacred fire and receives no prosperity.
Seeking a higher degree and highest position in Freemasonry from ambition for honor gives up truth for pride of honor, places a man in bondage to worldly honor, proves ruin of the soul, and puts other claims before God whom the commandments require to be put first. Belonging to trades unions and labor combinations that pledge service to union interests, deprive neighbors of freedom of action and rob the poorer classes of advantages justly belonging to them, means disregarding the entire decalogue including this command, so even church members in these unions cannot possibly keep it. Keeping requires consecration of whole being, body, soul and spirit, to God's service, isolating from the world and getting out of the cities, with God caring for those who love him and keep his commandments as the test of obedience for the whole world in the last days. Wisdom, intellect and power are not God but gifts sourced in God and must not be confused with him, for God's character expressed in the Ten Commandments requires obedience to every expression of it, bringing unity with him and forming character in his likeness. Even Lucifer's wisdom and power were gifts from God, not divinity.
Israel Broke Covenant
Israel broke the command within only weeks and days after hearing it and covenanting to obey, while the visible glory of God still hovered above Sinai in sight of the congregation. The people demanded gods to lead them back toward Egypt, and Aaron made a molten golden calf in Horeb, building an altar to it, proclaiming a feast, offering burnt offerings, and eating and drinking and rising up to play in shameful rioting and drunkenness. They proclaimed the calf as the gods which brought them out of Egypt, crediting the idol with the deliverance the Lord himself had accomplished. Their act directly violated the prohibition against turning from the Lord to other gods and giving worship or allegiance to any god besides him.
That calf worship was grave apostasy, deep ingratitude and daring insult toward him who had revealed himself as their tender Father and all-powerful King, changing their glory into the similitude of an ox. Aaron yielded to the people's demands in opposition to God's command, when he was responsible to use his influence to uphold God's law even at personal risk rather than yield. Calling the celebration a feast to the Lord did not make it acceptable, so soon after the law's proclamation which expressly forbade it. The people thus broke their recent covenant despite having heard his law and witnessed his glory, showing refusal to respect his law and rule.
Israel had been corrupted by Egyptian idolatry, worshiping sun, moon, stars, animals and man-made images until many forgot God and his law, and God had set them apart from idolatrous nations and given them his law. They broke the command in the very sight of Sinai when the host clamored for gods to lead them back to Egypt, and broke it again after entering Canaan when they gradually went into idolatry, forgot instruction, and followed their own inclinations and imagination of their own hearts. They became lax in obeying his commandments, bringing his displeasure and punishment, until the Lord could no longer protect them and permitted their enemies to overcome and scatter them. Their idolatry stands recorded as transgression of God's commandments, and its punishment warns of the consequences of disobedience.
Before the Flood people likewise broke the command by placing idols in beautifully arranged gardens and groves, erecting altars in the groves and consecrating them to their idols, and offering human sacrifices on them which God hates as abomination. In the Flood he showed himself as the living God and Maker of heaven and earth by striking their splendid buildings, gardens, groves and altars with lightning from heaven, tearing down what they had built for their idols, scattering the ruins, making the people tremble before his power, and making them know that their abominable sacrifices called for their destruction. Remembering God's works of deliverance, mercy and loving-kindness should deepen love and reverence for him and lead people to look to him and trust him through every trial rather than turn to other gods. The yearly Passover was meant to keep those works in mind and draw people away from worldly interests and temporal cares, for Israel was brought out of bondage to serve the Lord alone as the only true and living God, and returning to allegiance after turning to idolatry and disregarding his warnings required full repentance and turning from evil ways.
Exclusive worship is what the three men who refused to bow to the golden image upheld, for they would not dishonor God by worshiping anyone or anything else. The command belongs to the Ten Commandments that Joshua repeated to Israel, connecting obedience to God's law with blessing and disregard of the law with curses.
Christ Obedience Judgment
The law of which this command is part was spoken at Sinai by Christ himself, Israel's Ruler and Teacher, who knew its full meaning and scope. In the Sermon on the Mount and on the mount of the beatitudes he opened its principles and showed its far-reaching claims in their true light for practical life, not as a cold code of commands and human traditions but as holy, just, good, and the standard of righteousness to be lived out and exemplified. It belongs to God's enduring moral law and the foundation of Scripture and faith, not abolished by His coming, calling those who accept biblical truth to stand firmly on God's Word rather than on human assertions.
Christ perfectly fulfilled every precept of that law which condemns every unrighteous act, keeping the Father's commandments and abiding in His love as man's example. Having taken human nature into vital union with divinity, He passed over the same ground where Adam fell and bore the test the first parents failed, tempted in all points like humanity yet without sin on any point, so that Satan was not victorious and Adam's failure was redeemed by perfect obedience and resistance to temptation. Those who accept Him as Saviour and share the divine nature are enabled to follow His example and obey every divine precept, for its letter specifies how to walk to please God while its spirit points to Jesus as the atoning sacrifice through whose merits the sinner can fulfill its requirements. Repentant people who seek to obey through faith have His perfection imputed to cover transgression, and in His humiliation and dying agony He vindicated His right as Lawgiver to pardon transgression and sin. The law is God's unchangeable standard of character and absolute perfection with power to sanctify beyond human measurement, demanding supreme love to God and love to neighbor, reaching to intents of the heart and secret thoughts, desires and dispositions, so that without this love the highest profession is hypocrisy and the least deviation by neglect or willful transgression is sin exposing the sinner to wrath.
Obedience to this perfect law is the prerequisite of salvation, safety, and a place in God's city, giving access to the tree of life lost through disobedience and enabling His people to glorify His name with His glory in view in the light of His Word. The law is the transcript of God's character written by His finger on stone so it would not be forgotten or corrupted, a clear revelation of His will and principles of His government for all peoples and nations and tongues, to be made known, carefully studied, and obeyed, for obedience would have prevented the wickedness seen in the world. At the judgment the tables of stone hidden by God until that day will be presented before the world as the standard of righteousness by which all are judged according to the things written in the books, its righteous principles deciding the destiny of every soul with sentence of life or death and leaving none with excuse for sin. That proclamation will stand as a witness against the world, commanding keeping in truth and righteousness by obeying every command and respecting laws instituted in Eden.
Churches professing to believe in Christ are violating the law He proclaimed from Sinai, for the world is not keeping it. It must therefore be lifted up as a central theme and proclaimed as part of the third angel's message with intensified power and great distinctness, the earth lightened with glory, not in an indefinite, tame and voiceless manner, the trumpet giving a certain sound showing God's people their transgression with its Sabbath precept as the great test for this time. Its commands expressing God's righteousness and rule of judgment are to be presented clearly and forcefully, made clear to all people, with transgressions clearly shown, while many ministers turn from a plain Thus saith the Lord to fables and papal authority and God sends messengers. If its words were hung in prominent places as pictures are hung on walls they would arrest attention as eyes fall upon them and impress hearts and minds with more powerful influence for good than pictures, for it is God's pledged word of greatest importance that men and women read and understand.
Reverencing the Sabbath God sanctified and blessed at creation leads to keeping this command with the others, for Sabbath observance means obedience to all His commandments and no one truly keeping the Sabbath can disregard the rest of the law. The commandments are not to be treated as though the fourth were more important than the other nine, nor trimmed down to suit ideas or convenience by bringing the law into subjection to self rather than bringing self into subjection to God's law. Keeping the Sabbath commandment would have preserved the world from idolatry, and love to God is shown by keeping all His commandments, the Sabbath as sign and covenant and golden clasp uniting man to God in obedience and reverence and uniting man to fellow man in the duties of the last six. Within the ten precepts which are the great moral standard and foundation of prophets' and apostles' faith, the Sabbath is the great test question with precious promises to those who keep it from polluting it, while belittling the holy requirement displeases God and lax, loose Sabbath keeping and making little items a test of fellowship violate His requirement. Israel's deliverance from Egypt allowed keeping Jehovah's precepts, repeatedly reinforced in the wilderness by the weekly withholding of manna and preservation of the double portion.
The ten commandments are linked with the testimony inseparably and cannot be separated from it, applying to the restoration of God's law especially the Sabbath. They belong to God's holy law contained in the ark in heaven as symbol of His presence, given in Eden at creation, proclaimed on Sinai and written with God's finger on two tables of stone, on which the third angel's message is based as present truth to go forth with great distinctness and power. Obedience distinguishes sincere worshipers who keep the commandments, wear the God-given seal, glorify God and receive eternal life through wholehearted obedience, from nominal worshipers who oppose Him and will face judgments symbolized by lightnings and voices and thunderings and earthquake and be treated according to works, belonging to the covenant in life, death, resurrection and eternity.
True and False Worship
Thou shalt have no other gods before me commands exclusive worship of God with no other gods before Him, forbidding the making of any graven image or any likeness of anything in heaven above, in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth, and forbidding bowing down to them or serving them. No image is to be made to represent God and no image is to be worshiped in His place, for Jehovah is jealous for His honor and avenges insult to it. God gives this as a warning because His own people are certainly in danger in regard to it, as a jealous God who visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him, and shows mercy unto thousands of them that love Him and keep His commandments.
The golden calf directly violated this command, for Israel broke their recent covenant despite having heard His law and witnessed His glory. Aaron yielded to the people, made an idol, and credited it with bringing Israel out of Egypt, though the Lord had delivered them.
Setting aside His law to frame a law for a spurious Sunday Sabbath and compel obedience to it insults God, profanes His holy day, and assumes authority as gods by exalting the first day to be observed by all. All who set aside one of His commandments and put in its place a day that bears no sanctity usurp an authority that infringes upon His divine prerogatives, and the Sunday Sabbath as a child of the papacy set forth as the Lord's Sabbath compels men to transgress the laws of Jehovah. Human enactments that conflict with the laws of God bear not the stamp of divine approval, and those who enforce them will be dealt with by Jehovah as usurpers. Keeping holy the seventh-day memorial of creation honors God as Creator of the heavens and the earth, Monarch of the universe who made the world in six days and rested and was refreshed and sanctified the seventh day, and in a time when Satan seeks to draw people from truth and righteousness it is the way to stand on the Lord's side. Treating Sunday with religious reverence and pointing people to the law casts down the idol erected in a false Sabbath, for God alone is to be worshiped and no rival is to be made an object of worship.
The papacy claims this first commandment already includes the ban on image worship, so the second commandment is unnecessary and can be dropped while still giving the law exactly as God meant it to be understood. That omission is not the intentional, deliberate change to times and law foretold by prophecy. The foretold change is in the fourth commandment authorizing first-day observance instead of the seventh day, by which the papal power openly sets itself above God, and obedience to that changed law gives supreme honor and allegiance to that power in place of God.
Breaking the command by union between Christianity and paganism brings the leaven of idolatry into the church by only changing the objects of worship to images of Jesus, Mary and the saints. That compromise brings unsound doctrine, superstitious rites and idolatrous ceremony into faith and worship, corrupts religion, and causes loss of purity and power. Lowering the standard by uniting with professed converts who keep their idolatry continues that broken commandment, even to images of Christ and Mary His mother. Keeping the commandment means refusing that compromise and union with idolaters, preserving purity by worshiping God alone and refusing to bow down to an image of anything in the heavens above or in the earth beneath.
Herod knew this law that God alone is to receive worship, yet accepted the people's worship and praise as his due instead of rebuking their idolatry when they declared his voice the voice of a god and not of a man. By allowing himself to be exalted as a god and accepting adulation and worship that belong to God alone, he made himself an object of worship, committed idolatry, and completed the measure of his iniquity. His acceptance brought God's just wrath and judgment upon him, for he was smitten by an avenging angel and eaten of worms while still alive.
Obedience in Daily Life
Putting God first in every purpose is what the command requires, with self denied and the heart cleared of idols until nothing displaces God in thought and affection, whether the Creator's gifts used for self-glory, possessions or human praise put first, worldly vanity preferred to godliness, or unbelief made an excuse for defects of character. Its claim binds every person to the end of time, with no escape from the law's demands or from divine awareness of human actions, and obedience prepares a people to glorify God's name and to have a place in His city. That obedience is personal daily duty, not mere profession of loyalty, and neglect of it is sin, while living it helps lead others to Christ instead of turning them away from truth by disregard. In the household on earth parents and children are to follow God's way and bring habits and practices into harmony with His plans, every other way being forbidden. Parents are to teach the commandments diligently in the house and by the way, training children to respect them by requiring exact obedience, and losing sight of these plain precepts given at Sinai or letting flagrant violations go unrebuked hinders God's work and keeps His rich blessing from resting on the people.
In business the principles of the Ten Commandments must govern conduct, for false human propositions cannot be set up as truth and righteousness in place of God's will without misrepresenting His character. Loyalty to God stands above every claim of institutional advancement and every human plan, forbidding putting power over others, oppression and unjust dealing in His place, and requiring His holy and merciful character to be brought into transactions by dealing justly with every member of His family, respecting individuality and rights, and refusing to rob, oppress, rule or ruin others. Loving God supremely in every line of work means having the eye single to His glory while working in sight of heaven, staying in touch with God for keen, clear perception of equity in judgment, and leaving no room for sharp ambition for financial interest or for business to crowd out love. Pleading the cause of God or working for God never excuses robbery, injustice, oppression, dishonesty or suffering brought on souls, for God accepts no such transaction, vindicates not a touch of injustice, never joins dishonest practice, and gives no prosperity to movements built on it, while such wrongs dishonor Him, offer common fire instead of sacred fire, and lay stumbling blocks over which precious souls fall to ruin. True loyalty is of the heart carried into daily life in benevolence to man and love to neighbor as self, so faith without works and professed allegiance that slights love to neighbor fails to represent its principles, whereas those who plant their feet firmly on its principles and live its spirit gain moral power to move the world.
Violating the laws governing the body is as much sin as breaking any of the Ten Commandments, because both violate God's law of common divine origin and character. Needlessly transgressing the laws God established in human nature, whether through depraved appetites and lustful passions, wasting vitality or clouding intellect, sins against the Creator, and ignorance is no excuse when light is available. A temperance-cleared intellect discerns the binding claims, while an inebriate with dulled senses cannot understand this everlasting exalted standard founded on God's character and tries to lower the law to fit a degraded condition. The direction given from Sinai to the church delivered from Egypt is to be held in highest regard and held firmly, including the laws of chastity, so that those who live by it do not become loose in manners or careless in chastity and may be safely trusted as physicians. Health reform gives light about this disobedience, yet differences of opinion about diet must not become a barrier between believers or cause disturbance, disunion or separation.
Those set apart to minister for God, conduct sacred services, speak His words and reveal His will in simple plain language are to lift up the commandments as a central theme and set their principles of truth and righteousness before all to enlighten understanding of God's motives in urging obedience. The fear and love of God lead to cheerful hearty obedience that promotes His glory and attains man's highest good and harmony with heaven, and the divine requirement is understood only as heart and mind are brought into harmony with God through experimental acquaintance proved by obedience to all He has given. Especially those in responsible positions who represent the cause and handle sacred work in Christ's stead must practice it in every line of work, with touch with God giving fine, keen, clear perception of equity, and with a tender, pure, true, compassionate heart like Christ's, pure heart and clean hands, and Christ's maxims. Failure to practice it leaves the imperfections of the human mold on the cause, dishonors God and His truth, betrays Christ, deceives the worker, and lays stumbling blocks to ruin, while churches professing Christ yet violating the standard Christ proclaimed from Sinai must have their transgression clearly and forcefully shown. Faithful ministers feed the flock with the living Word rather than words of men, gathering a peculiar sanctified holy people who keep what God commanded and refuse any interpretation making disobedience trifling, for so long as His people obey and walk in the light they are prospered, but walking contrary darkens spiritual perception until light becomes darkness, whereas those who through faith in Christ return to loyalty and respect His commandments are counted righteous for Christ's sake and assured as sons and daughters of the heavenly King.
Civil magistrates have no authority to punish outward breaches of the religious duties of the first table toward God. The law lies at the foundation of all right laws and right government, those who frame laws for the nation should understand what is written in it, and its authority restrains wrongdoing so that rejecting it encourages disobedience and harms social order. The United States is warned against making it void, for rejecting given light and blessing adds to national guilt. God's supremacy over all earthly rulers upholds the holy binding claims of His law, persistent refusal is disloyalty, His judgments can mercifully awaken transgressors to sin and peril, and His supremacy and the just claims of His law will finally be acknowledged and vindicated.
As part of the Ten Commandments the verse is the hedge God placed around His vineyard that distinguished His Israel from all other nations, a barricade in the fight not against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places, by which believers withstand in the evil day, stand and live. Its laws are wise, just and good, giving rules for everyone in every transaction with no separate standard for leaders and those under authority, and the first principle of holiness is to learn God's will and do it wholeheartedly. The first four commandments point out duty to the Maker and the last six duty to fellow man, and exalting the first four as of far greater importance than the last six led to failure in practical godliness and duties of life, a deficiency Jesus exposed by teaching good works, mercy and benevolence as the fruit by which the tree is known. Wearing its words as display did not fulfill it when life and works opposed it, for its words were meant to remind Israel to love God supremely and neighbor as self. Accepting misleading theories clothed in garments of light violates its intent, and keeping it requires choosing Christ even when truth brings division, as well as sharing responsibility for debts in harmony with its standard.
God is great and holy and jealous and will have only holy men to carry His truth, for the law spoken from Sinai is part of Himself, so only those who strictly observe it honor Him by teaching it to others. He will not entrust His flock and precious souls to men whose mind and judgment were perverted and weakened by cherished errors such as perfectionism and spiritualism, whose course brought reproach on the cause and disgraced themselves, even if they now feel free from error and competent to teach the last message.