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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible
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Matthew Henry |
E X O D U S
CHAP. XX.
All things being prepared for the solemn promulgation of the divine
law, we have, in this chapter,
I. The ten commandments, as God himself spoke them upon mount Sinai
(ver. 1-17),
as remarkable a portion of scripture as any in the Old Testament.
II. The impressions made upon the people thereby,
III. Some particular instructions which God gave privately to Moses, to
be by him communicated to the people, relating to his worship,
&c.
| The Ten Commandments. | B. C. 1491. |
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1 And God spake all these words, saying,
2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any
likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is
in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for
I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate me;
6 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and
keep my commandments.
7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for
the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in
vain.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God:
in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy
daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle,
nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore
the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Here is,
I. The preface of the law-writer, Moses: God spoke all these
words,
v. 1.
The law of the ten commandments is,
1. A law of God’s making. They are enjoined by the infinite eternal
Majesty of heaven and earth. And where the word of the King of
kings is surely there is power.
2. It is a law of his own speaking. God has many ways of speaking to
the children of men
once, yea twice–by his Spirit, by conscience, by providences,
by his voice, all which we ought carefully to attend to; but he never
spoke, at any time, upon any occasion, as he spoke the ten
commandments, which therefore we ought to hear with the more earnest
heed. They were not only spoken audibly (so he owned the Redeemer
by a voice from heaven,
but with a great deal of dreadful pomp. This law God had given to man
before (it was written in his heart by nature); but sin had so defaced
that writing that it was necessary, in this manner, to revive the
knowledge of it.
II. The preface of the Law-maker: I am the Lord thy God,
v. 2.
Herein,
1. God asserts his own authority to enact this law in general: “I am
the Lord who command thee all that follows.”
2. He proposes himself as the sole object of that religious worship
which is enjoined in the first four of the commandments. They are here
bound to obedience by a threefold cord, which, one would think, could
not easily be broken.
(1.) Because God is the Lord–Jehovah, self-existent,
independent, eternal, and the fountain of all being and power;
therefore he has an incontestable right to command us. He that gives
being may give law; and therefore he is able to bear us out in our
obedience, to reward it, and to punish our disobedience.
(2.) He was their God, a God in covenant with them, their God by their
own consent; and, if they would not keep his commandments, who would?
He had laid himself under obligations to them by promise, and therefore
might justly lay his obligations on them by precept. Though that
covenant of peculiarity is now no more, yet there is another, by virtue
of which all that are baptized are taken into relation to him as their
God, and are therefore unjust, unfaithful, and very ungrateful, if they
obey him not.
(3.) He had brought them out of the land of Egypt; therefore
they were bound in gratitude to obey him, because he had done them so
great a kindness, had brought them out of a grievous slavery into a
glorious liberty. They themselves had been eye-witnesses of the great
things God had done in order to their deliverance, and could not but
have observed that every circumstance of it heightened their
obligation. They were now enjoying the blessed fruits of their
deliverance, and in expectation of a speedy settlement in Canaan; and
could they think any thing too much to do for him that had done so much
for them? Nay, by redeeming them, he acquired a further right to rule
them; they owed their service to him to whom they owed their freedom,
and whose they were by purchase. And thus Christ, having rescued us out
of the bondage of sin, is entitled to the best service we can do him,
Having loosed our bonds, he has bound us to obey him,
III. The law itself. The first four of the ten commandments, which
concern our duty to God (commonly called the first table), we
have in these verses. It was fit that those should be put first,
because man had a Maker to love before he had a neighbour to love; and
justice and charity are acceptable acts of obedience to God only when
they flow from the principles of piety. It cannot be expected that he
should be true to his brother who is false to his God. Now our duty to
God is, in one word, to worship him, that is, to give to him the glory
due to his name, the inward worship of our affections, the outward
worship of solemn address and attendance. This is spoken of as the sum
and substance of the everlasting gospel.
Worship God.
1. The first commandment concerns the object of our worship, Jehovah,
and him only
(v. 3):
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. The Egyptians, and
other neighbouring nations, had many gods, the creatures of their own
fancy, strange gods, new gods; this law was prefixed because of
that transgression, and, Jehovah being the God of Israel, they must
entirely cleave to him, and not be for any other, either of their own
invention or borrowed from their neighbours. This was the sin they were
most in danger of now that the world was so overspread with polytheism,
which yet could not be rooted out effectually but by the gospel of
Christ. The sin against this commandment which we are most in
danger of is giving the glory and honour to any creature which are due
to God only. Pride makes a god of self, covetousness makes a god of
money, sensuality makes a god of the belly; whatever is esteemed or
loved, feared or served, delighted in or depended on, more than God,
that (whatever it is) we do in effect make a god of. This prohibition
includes a precept which is the foundation of the whole law, that we
take the Lord for our God, acknowledge that he is God, accept him for
ours, adore him with admiration and humble reverence, and set our
affections entirely upon him. In the last words, before me, it
is intimated,
(1.) That we cannot have any other God but he will certainly know it.
There is none besides him but what is before him. Idolaters covet
secresy; but shall not God search this out?
(2.) That it is very provoking to him; it is a sin that dares him to
his face, which he cannot, which he will not, overlook, nor connive at.
See
2. The second commandment concerns the ordinances of worship, or the
way in which God will be worshipped, which it is fit that he himself
should have the appointing of. Here is,
(1.) The prohibition: we are here forbidden to worship even the true
God by images,
[1.] The Jews (at least after the captivity) thought themselves
forbidden by this commandment to make any image or picture whatsoever.
Hence the very images which the Roman armies had in their ensigns are
called an abomination to them
especially when they were set up in the holy place. It is
certain that it forbids making any image of God (for to whom can we
liken him?
Isa. xl. 18, 15),
or the image of any creature for a religious use. It is called the
changing of the truth of God into a lie
(Rom. i. 25),
for an image is a teacher of lies; it insinuates to us that God has a
body, whereas he is an infinite spirit,
It also forbids us to make images of God in our fancies, as if he were
a man as we are. Our religious worship must be governed by the power of
faith, not by the power of imagination. They must not make such images
or pictures as the heathen worshipped, lest they also should be tempted
to worship them. Those who would be kept from sin must keep themselves
from the occasions of it.
[2.] They must not bow down to them occasionally, that is, show
any sign of respect or honour to them, much less serve them constantly,
by sacrifice or incense, or any other act of religious worship. When
they paid their devotion to the true God, they must not have any image
before them, for the directing, exciting, or assisting of their
devotion. Though the worship was designed to terminate in God, it would
not please him if it came to him through an image. The best and most
ancient lawgivers among the heathen forbade the setting up of images in
their temples. This practice was forbidden in Rome by Numa, a pagan
prince; yet commanded in Rome by the pope, a Christian bishop, but, in
this, anti-christian. The use of images in the church of Rome, at this
day, is so plainly contrary to the letter of this command, and so
impossible to be reconciled to it, that in all their catechisms and
books of devotion, which they put into the hands of the people, they
leave out this commandment, joining the reason of it to the first; and
so the third commandment they call the second, the fourth the third,
&c. only, to make up the number ten, they divide the tenth into two.
Thus have they committed two great evils, in which they persist, and
from which they hate to be reformed; they take away from God’s word,
and add to his worship.
(2.) The reasons to enforce this prohibition
(v. 5, 6),
which are,
[1.] God’s jealousy in the matters of his worship: “I am the
Lord Jehovah, and thy God, am a jealous God, especially in
things of this nature.” This intimates the care he has of his own
institutions, his hatred of idolatry and all false worship, his
displeasure against idolaters, and that he resents every thing in his
worship that looks like, or leads to, idolatry. Jealousy is
quicksighted. Idolatry being spiritual adultery, as it is very often
represented in scripture, the displeasure of God against it is fitly
called jealousy. If God is jealous herein, we should be so,
afraid of offering any worship to God otherwise than as he has
appointed in his word.
[2.] The punishment of idolaters. God looks upon them as haters of him,
though they perhaps pretend love to him; he will visit their
iniquity, that is, he will very severely punish it, not only as a
breach of his law, but as an affront to his majesty, a violation of the
covenant, and a blow at the root of all religion. He will visit it
upon the children, that is, this being a sin for which churches
shall be unchurched and a bill of divorce given them, the children
shall be cast out of covenant and communion together with the parents,
as with the parents the children were at first taken in. Or he will
bring such judgments upon a people as shall be the total ruin of
families. If idolaters live to be old, so as to see their children of
the third or fourth generation, it shall be the vexation of their eyes,
and the breaking of their hearts, to see them fall by the sword,
carried captive, and enslaved. Nor is it an unrighteous thing with God
(if the parents died in their iniquity, and the children tread in their
steps, and keep up false worships, because they received them by
tradition from their fathers), when the measure is full, and God comes
by his judgments to reckon with them, to bring into the account the
idolatries their fathers were guilty of. Though he bear long with an
idolatrous people, he will not bear always, but by the fourth
generation, at furthest, he will begin to visit. Children are dear to
their parents; therefore, to deter men from idolatry, and to show how
much God is displeased with it, not only a brand of infamy is by it
entailed upon families, but the judgments of God may for it be executed
upon the poor children when the parents are dead and gone.
[3.] The favour God would show to his faithful worshippers: Keeping
mercy for thousands of persons, thousands of generations of
those that love me, and keep my commandments. This intimates that
the second commandment, though, in the letter of it, it is only a
prohibition of false worships, yet includes a precept of worshipping
God in all those ordinances which he has instituted. As the first
commandment requires the inward worship of love, desire, joy, hope, and
admiration, so the second requires the outward worship of prayer and
praise, and solemn attendance on God’s word. Note, First, Those
that truly love God will make it their constant care and endeavour to
keep his commandments, particularly those that relate to his worship.
Those that love God, and keep those commandments, shall receive grace
to keep his other commandments. Gospel worship will have a good
influence upon all manner of gospel obedience. Secondly, God has
mercy in store for such. Even they need mercy, and cannot plead merit;
and mercy they shall find with God, merciful protection in their
obedience and a merciful recompence of it. Thirdly, This mercy
shall extend to thousands, much further than the wrath threatened to
those that hate him, for that reaches but to the third or fourth
generation. The streams of mercy run now as full, as free, and as
fresh, as ever.
3. The third commandment concerns the manner of our worship, that it be
done with all possible reverence and seriousness,
v. 7.
We have here,
(1.) A strict prohibition: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord
thy God in vain. It is supposed that, having taken Jehovah for
their God, they would make mention of his name (for thus all people
will walk every one in the name of his god); this command gives a
needful caution not to mention it in vain, and it is still as needful
as ever. We take God’s name in vain,
[1.] By hypocrisy, making a profession of God’s name, but not living up
to that profession. Those that name the name of Christ, but do not
depart from iniquity, as that name binds them to do, name it in vain;
their worship is vain
their oblations are vain
their religion is vain,
[2.] By covenant-breaking; if we make promises to God, binding our
souls with those bonds to that which is good, and yet perform not to
the Lord our vows, we take his name in vain
(Matt. v. 33),
it is folly, and God has no pleasure in fools
(Eccl. v. 4),
nor will he be mocked,
Gal. vi. 7.
[3.] By rash swearing, mentioning the name of God, or any of his
attributes, in the form of an oath, without any just occasion for it,
or due application of mind to it, but as a by-word, to no purpose at
all, or to no good purpose.
[4.] By false swearing, which, some think, is chiefly intended in the
letter of the commandment; so it was expounded by those of old time.
Thou shalt not forswear thyself,
Matt. v. 33.
One part of the religious regard the Jews were taught to pay to their
God was to swear by his name,
Deut. x. 20.
But they affronted him, instead of doing him honour, if they called him
to be witness to a lie.
[5.] By using the name of God lightly and carelessly, and without any
regard to its awful significancy. The profanation of the forms of
devotion is forbidden, as well as the profanation of the forms of
swearing; as also the profanation of any of those things whereby God
makes himself known, his word, or any of his institutions; when they
are either turned into charms and spells, or into jest and sport, the
name of God is taken in vain.
(2.) A severe penalty: The Lord will not hold him guiltless;
magistrates, who punish other offences, may not think themselves
concerned to take notice of this, because it does not immediately offer
injury either to private property or the public peace; but God, who is
jealous for his honour, will not thus connive at it. The sinner may
perhaps hold himself guiltless, and think there is no harm in it, and
that God will never call him to an account for it. To obviate this
suggestion, the threatening is thus expressed, God will not hold him
guiltless, as he hopes he will; but more is implied, namely, that
God will himself be the avenger of those that take his name in vain,
and they will find it a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God.
4. The fourth commandment concerns the time of worship. God is to be
served and honoured daily, but one day in seven is to be particularly
dedicated to his honour and spent in his service. Here is,
(1.) The command itself
(v. 8):
Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy; and
(v. 10),
In it thou shalt do no manner of work. It is taken for granted
that the sabbath was instituted before; we read of God’s blessing and
sanctifying a seventh day from the beginning
(Gen. ii. 3),
so that this was not the enacting of a new law, but the reviving of an
old law.
[1.] They are told what is the day they must religiously observe–a
seventh, after six days’ labour; whether this was the seventh by
computation from the first seventh, or from the day of their coming out
of Egypt, or both, is not certain: now the precise day was notified to
them
(ch. xvi. 23),
and from this they were to observe the seventh.
[2.] How it must be observed. First, As a day of rest; they were
to do no manner of work on this day in their callings or worldly
business. Secondly, As a holy day, set apart to the honour of
the holy God, and to be spent in holy exercises. God, by blessing it,
had made it holy; they, by solemnly blessing him, must keep it holy,
and not alienate it to any other purpose than that for which the
difference between it and other days was instituted.
[3.] Who must observe it: Thou, and thy son, and thy daughter;
the wife is not mentioned, because she is supposed to be one with the
husband and present with him, and, if he sanctify the sabbath, it is
taken for granted that she will join with him; but the rest of the
family are specified. Children and servants must keep the sabbath,
according to their age and capacity: in this, as in other instances of
religion, it is expected that masters of families should take care, not
only to serve the Lord themselves, but that their houses also should
serve him, at least that it may not be through their neglect if they do
not,
Even the proselyted strangers must observe a difference between this
day and other days, which, if it laid some restraint upon them then,
yet proved a happy indication of God’s gracious purpose, in process of
time, to bring the Gentiles into the church, that they might share in
the benefit of sabbaths. Compare
God takes notice of what we do, particularly what we do on sabbath
days, though we should be where we are strangers.
[4.] A particular memorandum put upon this duty: Remember it. It
is intimated that the sabbath was instituted and observed before; but
in their bondage in Egypt they had lost their computation, or were
restrained by their task-masters, or, through a great degeneracy and
indifference in religion, they had let fall the observance of it, and
therefore it was requisite they should be reminded of it. Note,
Neglected duties remain duties still, notwithstanding our neglect. It
also intimates that we are both apt to forget it and concerned to
remember it. Some think it denotes the preparation we are to make for
the sabbath; we must think of it before it comes, that, when it does
come, we may keep it holy, and do the duty of it.
(2.) The reasons of this command.
[1.] We have time enough for ourselves in those six days, on the
seventh day let us serve God; and time enough to tire ourselves, on the
seventh it will be a kindness to us to be obliged to rest.
[2.] This is God’s day: it is the sabbath of the Lord thy God,
not only instituted by him, but consecrated to him. It is sacrilege to
alienate it; the sanctification of it is a debt.
[3.] It is designed for a memorial of the creation of the world, and
therefore to be observed to the glory of the Creator, as an engagement
upon ourselves to serve him and an encouragement to us to trust in him
who made heaven and earth. By the sanctification of the sabbath, the
Jews declared that they worshipped the God that made the world, and so
distinguished themselves from all other nations, who worshipped gods
which they themselves made.
[4.] God has given us an example of rest, after six days’ work: he
rested the seventh day, took a complacency in himself, and
rejoiced in the work of his hand, to teach us, on that day, to
take a complacency in him, and to give him the glory of his works,
The sabbath began in the finishing of the work of creation, so will the
everlasting sabbath in the finishing of the work of providence and
redemption; and we observe the weekly sabbath in expectation of that,
as well as in remembrance of the former, in both conforming ourselves
to him we worship.
[5.] He has himself blessed the sabbath day and sanctified it.
He has put an honour upon it by setting it apart for himself; it is the
holy of the Lord and honourable: and he has put blessings into it,
which he has encouraged us to expect from him in the religious
observance of that day. It is the day which the Lord hath made,
let not us do what we can to unmake it. He has blessed, honoured, and
sanctified it, let not us profane it, dishonour it, and level that with
common time which God’s blessing has thus dignified and
distinguished.
12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long
upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not
covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his
maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy
neighbour’s.
We have here the laws of the second table, as they are commonly called,
the last six of the ten commandments, comprehending our duty to
ourselves and to one another, and constituting a comment upon the
second great commandment, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself. As religion towards God is an essential branch of
universal righteousness, so righteousness towards men is an essential
branch of true religion. Godliness and honesty must go together.
I. The fifth commandment concerns the duties we owe to our relations;
those of children to their parents are alone specified: Honour thy
father and thy mother, which includes,
1. A decent respect to their persons, an inward esteem of them
outwardly expressed upon all occasions in our conduct towards them.
Fear them
(Lev. xix. 3),
give them reverence,
Heb. xii. 9.
The contrary to this is mocking at them and despising them,
2. Obedience to their lawful commands; so it is expounded
(Eph. vi. 1-3):
“Children, obey your parents, come when they call you, go where
they send you, do what they bid you, refrain from what they forbid you;
and this, as children, cheerfully, and from a principle of love.”
Though you have said, “We will not,” yet afterwards repent and obey,
3. Submission to their rebukes, instructions, and corrections; not only
to the good and gentle, but also to the froward, out of conscience
towards God.
4. Disposing of themselves with the advice, direction, and consent, of
parents, not alienating their property, but with their approbation.
5. Endeavouring, in every thing, to be the comfort of their parents,
and to make their old age easy to them, maintaining them if they stand
in need of support, which our Saviour makes to be particularly intended
in this commandment,
The reason annexed to this commandment is a promise: That thy days
may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Having
mentioned, in the preface to the commandments, has bringing them out of
Egypt as a reason for their obedience, he here, in the beginning of the
second table, mentions his bringing them into Canaan, as another
reason; that good land they must have upon their thoughts and in their
eye, now that they were in the wilderness. They must also remember,
when they came to that land, that they were upon their good behaviour,
and that, if they did not conduct themselves well, their days should be
shortened in that land, both the days of particular persons who should
be cut off from it, and the days of their nation which should be
removed out of it. But here a long life in that good land is promised
particularly to obedient children. Those that do their duty to their
parents are most likely to have the comfort of that which their parents
gather for them and leave to them; those that support their parents
shall find that God, the common Father, will support them. This promise
is expounded
(Eph. vi. 3),
That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the
earth. Those who, in conscience towards God, keep this and the rest
of God’s commandments, may be sure that it shall be well with them, and
that they shall live as long on earth as Infinite Wisdom sees good for
them, and that what they may seem to be cut short of on earth shall be
abundantly made up in eternal life, the heavenly Canaan which God will
give them.
II. The sixth commandment concerns our own and our neighbour’s life
(v. 13):
“Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not do any thing hurtful or
injurious to the health, ease, and life, of thy own body, or any other
person’s unjustly.” This is one of the laws of nature, and was strongly
enforced by the precepts given to Noah and his sons,
It does not forbid killing in lawful war, or in our own necessary
defence, nor the magistrate’s putting offenders to death, for those
things tend to the preserving of life; but it forbids all malice and
hatred to the person of any (for he that hateth his brother is a
murderer), and all personal revenge arising therefrom; also all
rash anger upon sudden provocations, and hurt said or done, or aimed to
be done, in passion: of this our Saviour expounds this commandment,
And, as that which is worst of all, it forbids persecution, laying wait
for the blood of the innocent and excellent ones of the earth.
III. The seventh commandment concerns our own and our neighbour’s
chastity: Thou shalt not commit adultery,
v. 14.
This is put before the sixth by our Saviour
(Mark. x. 19):
Do not commit adultery, do not kill; for our chastity should be
as dear to us as our lives, and we should be as much afraid of that
which defiles the body as of that which destroys it. This commandment
forbids all acts of uncleanness, with all those fleshly lusts which
produce those acts and war against the soul, and all those practices
which cherish and excite those fleshly lusts, as looking, in order to
lust, which, Christ tells us, is forbidden in this commandment,
IV. The eighth commandment concerns our own and our neighbour’s wealth,
estate, and goods: Thou shalt not steal,
v. 15.
Though God had lately allowed and appointed them to spoil the Egyptians
in a way of just reprisal, yet he did not intend that it should be
drawn into a precedent and that they should be allowed thus to spoil
one another. This command forbids us to rob ourselves of what we have
by sinful spending, or of the use and comfort of it by sinful sparing,
and to rob others by removing the ancient landmarks, invading our
neighbour’s rights, taking his goods from his person, or house, or
field, forcibly or clandestinely, over-reaching in bargains, nor
restoring what is borrowed or found, withholding just debts, rents, or
wages, and (which is worst of all) to rob the public in the coin or
revenue, or that which is dedicated to the service of religion.
V. The ninth commandment concerns our own and our neighbour’s good
name: Thou shalt not bear false witness,
v. 16.
This forbids,
1. Speaking falsely in any matter, lying, equivocating, and any way
devising and designing to deceive our neighbour.
2. Speaking unjustly against our neighbour, to the prejudice of his
reputation; and (which involves the guilty of both),
3. Bearing false witness against him, laying to his charge things that
he knows not, either judicially, upon oath (by which the third
commandment, and the sixth of eighth, as well as this, are broken), or
extrajudicially, in common converse, slandering, backbiting,
tale-bearing, aggravating what is done amiss and making it worse than
it is, and any way endeavouring to raise our own reputation upon the
ruin of our neighbour’s.
VI. The tenth commandment strikes at the root: Thou shalt not
covet,
v. 17.
The foregoing commands implicitly forbid all desire of doing that which
will be an injury to our neighbour; this forbids all inordinate desire
of having that which will be a gratification to ourselves. “O that such
a man’s house were mine! Such a man’s wife mine! Such a man’s estate
mine!” This is certainly the language of discontent at our own lot, and
envy at our neighbour’s; and these are the sins principally forbidden
here. St. Paul, when the grace of God caused the scales to fall from
his eyes, perceived that this law, Thou shalt not covet, forbade
all those irregular appetites and desires which are the first-born of
the corrupt nature, the first risings of the sin that dwelleth in us,
and the beginnings of all the sin that is committed by us: this is that
lust which, he says, he had not known the evil of, if this commandment,
when it came to his conscience in the power of it, had not shown it to
him,
God give us all to see our face in the glass of this law, and to lay
our hearts under the government of it!
| Terror with Which the Law Was Given. | B. C. 1491. |
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18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings,
and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when
the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will
hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to
prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye
sin not.
21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the
thick darkness where God was.
I. The extraordinary terror with which the law was given. Never was any
thing delivered with such awful pomp; every word was accented, and
every sentence paused, with thunder and lightning, much louder and
brighter, no doubt, than ordinary. And why was the law given in this
dreadful manner, and with all this tremendous ceremony?
1. It was designed (once for all) to give a sensible discovery of the
glorious majesty of God, for the assistance of our faith concerning it,
that, knowing the terror of the Lord, we may be persuaded to
live in his fear.
2. It was a specimen of the terrors of the general judgment, in which
sinners will be called to an account for the breach of this law: the
archangel’s trumpet will then sound an alarm, to give notice of the
Judge’s coming, and a fire shall devour before him.
3. It was an indication of the terror of those convictions which the
law brings into conscience, to prepare the soul for the comforts of the
gospel. Thus was the law given by Moses in such a way as might startle,
affright, and humble men, that the grace and truth which came by
Jesus Christ might be the more welcome. The apostle largely
describes this instance of the terror of that dispensation, as a foil
to set off our privileges, as Christians, in the light, liberty, and
joy, of the New-Testament dispensation,
&c.
II. The impression which this made, for the present, upon the people;
they must have had stupid hearts indeed, if this had not affected them.
1. They removed, and stood afar off,
v. 18.
Before God began to speak, they were thrusting forward to gaze
(ch. xix. 21);
but now they were effectually cured of their presumption, and taught to
keep their distance.
2. They entreated that the word should not be so spoken to them any
more
(Heb. xii. 19),
but begged that God would speak to them by Moses,
Hereby they obliged themselves to acquiesce in the mediation of Moses,
they themselves nominating him as a fit person to deal between them and
God, and promising to hearken to him as to God’s messenger; hereby also
they teach us to acquiesce in that method which Infinite Wisdom takes,
of speaking to us by men like ourselves, whose terror shall not make
us afraid, nor their hand be heavy upon us. Once God tried the
expedient of speaking to the children of men immediately, but it was
found that they could not bear it; it rather drove men from God than
brought them to him, and, as it proved in the issue, though it
terrified them, it did not deter them from idolatry, for soon after
this they worshipped the golden calf. Let us therefore rest satisfied
with the instructions given us by the scriptures and the ministry; for,
if we believe not them, neither should we be persuaded though God
should speak to us in thunder and lightning, as he did from Mount
Sinai: here that matter was determined.
III. The encouragement Moses gave them, by explaining the design of God
in his terror
(v. 20):
Fear not, that is, “Think not that the thunder and fire are
designed to consume you,” which was the thing they feared
(v. 19,
lest we die); thunder and lightning constituted one of the
plagues of Egypt, but Moses would not have them think they were sent to
them on the same errand on which they were sent to the Egyptians: no,
they were intended,
1. To prove them, to try how they would like dealing with God
immediately, without a mediator, and so to convince them how admirably
well God had chosen for them, in putting Moses into that office. Ever
since Adam fled, upon hearing God’s voice in the garden, sinful man
could not bear either to speak to God or hear from him immediately.
2. To keep them to their duty, and prevent their sinning against God.
He encourages them, saying, Fear not, and yet tells them that
God thus spoke to them, that his fear might be before their
face. We must not fear with amazement–with that fear which has
torment, which only works upon the fancy for the present, sets us a
trembling, genders to bondage, betrays us to Satan, and alienates us
from God; but we must always have in our minds a reverence of God’s
majesty, a dread of his displeasure, and an obedient regard to his
sovereign authority over us: this fear will quicken us to our duty and
make us circumspect in our walking. Thus stand in awe, and sin
not,
Ps. iv. 4.
IV. The progress of their communion with God by the mediation of Moses,
While the people continued to stand afar off, conscious of guilt and
afraid of God’s wrath, Moses drew near unto the thick darkness;
he was made to draw near, so the word is: Moses, of himself,
durst not have ventured into the thick darkness, if God had not called
him, and encouraged him, and, as some of the rabbies suppose, sent an
angel to take him by the hand, and lead him up. Thus it is said of the
great Mediator, I will cause him to draw near
(Jer. xxx. 21),
and by him it is that we also are introduced,
| The Law Concerning Altars. | B. C. 1491. |
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22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the
children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from
heaven.
23 Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye
make unto you gods of gold.
24 An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt
sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings,
thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I
will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.
25 And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not
build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it,
thou hast polluted it.
26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy
nakedness be not discovered thereon.
Moses having gone into the thick darkness, where God was, God
there spoke in his hearing only, privately and without terror, all that
follows hence to the end of
which is mostly an exposition of
the ten commandments; and he was to transmit it by word of mouth first,
and afterwards in writing, to the people. The laws in these verses
related to God’s worship.
I. They are here forbidden to make images for worship
(v. 22, 23):
You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven (such was
his wonderful condescension, much more than for some mighty prince to
talk familiarly with a company of poor beggars); now you shall not
make gods of silver.
1. This repetition of the second commandment comes in here, either
(1.) As pointing to that which God had chiefly in view in giving them
this law in this manner, that is, their peculiar addictedness to
idolatry, and the peculiar sinfulness of that crime. Ten commandments
God had given them, but Moses is ordered to inculcate upon them
especially the first two. They must not forget any of them, but they
must be sure to remember those. Or,
(2.) As pointing to that which might properly be inferred from God’s
speaking to them as he had done. He had given them sufficient
demonstration of his presence among them; they needed not to make
images of him, as if he were absent. Besides, they had only seen that
he talked with them; they had seen no manner of similitude, so that
they could not make any image of God; and his manifesting himself to
them only by a voice plainly showed them that they must not make any
such image, but keep up their communion with God by his word, and not
otherwise.
2. Two arguments are here hinted against image-worship:–
(1.) That thereby they would affront God, intimated in that, You
shall not make with me gods. Though they pretended to worship them
but as representations of God, yet really they made them rivals with
God, which he would not endure.
(2.) That thereby they would abuse themselves, intimated in that,
“You shall not make unto you gods; while you think by them to
assist your devotion, you will really corrupt it, and put a cheat upon
yourselves.” At first, it should seem, they made their images for
worship of gold and silver, pretending, by the richness of those
metals, to honour God, and, by the brightness of them, to affect
themselves with his glory; but, even in these, they changed the
truth of God into a lie, and so, by degrees, were justly given up
to such strong delusions as to worship images of wood or stone.
II. They are here directed in making altars for worship: it is meant of
occasional altars, such as they reared now in the wilderness, before
the tabernacle was erected, and afterwards upon special emergencies,
for present use, such as Gideon built
(Judg. vi. 24),
Manoah
Samuel
and many others. We may suppose, now that the people of Israel were,
with this glorious discovery which God had made of himself to them,
that many of them would incline, in this pang of devotion, to offer
sacrifice to God; and, it being necessary to a sacrifice that there be
an alter, they are here appointed,
1. To make their altars very plain, either of earth or of
unhewn stone,
v. 24, 25.
That they might not be tempted to think of a graven image, they must
not so much as hew into shape the stones that they made their altars
of, but pile them up as they were, in the rough. This rule being
prescribed before the establishment of the ceremonial law, which
appointed altars much more costly, intimates that, after the period of
that law, plainness should be accepted as the best ornament of the
external services of religion, and that gospel-worship should not be
performed with external pomp and gaiety. The beauty of holiness needs
no paint, nor do those do any service to the spouse of Christ that
dress her in the attire of a harlot, as the church of Rome does: an
altar of earth does best.
2. To make their altars very low
(v. 26),
so that they might not go up by steps to them. That the higher the
altar was, and the nearer heaven, the more acceptable the sacrifice
was, was a foolish fancy of the heathen, who therefore chose high
places; in opposition to this, and to show that it is the elevation of
the heart, not of the sacrifice, that God looks at, they were here
ordered to make their altars low. We may suppose that the altars they
reared in the wilderness, and other occasional altars, were designed
only for the sacrifice of one beast at a time; but the altar in
Solomon’s temple, which was to be made much longer and broader, that it
might contain many sacrifices at once, was made ten cubits high, that
the height might bear a decent proportion to the length and breadth;
and to that it was requisite they should go up by steps, which yet, no
doubt, were so contrived as to prevent the inconvenience here spoken
of, the discovering of their nakedness thereon.
III. They are here assured of God’s gracious acceptance of their
devotions, wherever they were paid according to his will
(v. 24):
In all places where I record my name, or where my name is
recorded (that is, where I am worshipped in sincerity), I will come
unto thee, and I will bless thee. Afterwards, God chose one
particular place wherein to record his name: but that being taken away
now under the gospel, when men are encouraged to pray every where, this
promise revives in its full extent, that, wherever God’s people meet in
his name to worship him, he will be in the midst of them, he
will honour them with his presence, and reward them with the gifts of
his grace; there he will come unto them, and will bless them, and more
than this we need not desire for the beautifying of our solemn
assemblies.
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