EXODUS 20
The first word of the law is, “I am Jehovah thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage”. It is God known as a Saviour; Redeemer, and Deliverer who speaks, and He speaks to a people brought out from the world and from bondage. None but a redeemed and delivered people could render what is due to Him.
We may learn three things from the law. First, the character of man in the flesh. He is prone to do every one of the things which are forbidden, or there would have been no need to forbid them. In this way “law has not its application to a righteous person, but to the lawless and insubordinate, to the impious and sinful, to the unholy and profane”, etc. (1 Timothy 1: 9). It gives the knowledge of sin, for the very prohibition awakens desire for what is prohibited, and thus brings to light the unsuspected evil of the heart, as we see in Romans 7.
Then we cannot consider it without being reminded of the blessed One who could say, “Thy law is within my heart”. In that way it brings before us the perfection of Christ. I need not say there was much more in His heart than the ten commandments, for He came to be the Saviour of the world, to give His life a ransom for many, and to lay it down for the sheep. He came to glorify God in the highest, and to reveal the Father. Every perfection was there.
In the third place we may see here something of the true character of man in the Spirit. It is said of saints, “But ye are not in flesh but in Spirit, if indeed God’s Spirit dwell in you” (Romans 8: 9). And we also read, “For what the law could not do, in that it [p. 116] was weak through the flesh, God, having sent His own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit” (Romans 8: 3, 4). One would desire to keep that in mind in reading these chapters.
Every reader of Exodus 20 must have noticed how little there is in it about works to be done by man. There are only two positive injunctions — the fourth commandment and the fifth. The fourth, in regard to the hallowing of the sabbath day, expressly says, “Thou shalt not do any work”; they had to remember what Jehovah had done, in which they had no part, but as He had rested so must they. The fifth commandment is the only one that can be regarded as suggesting works, but even that enjoins rather an attitude of mind — “Honour thy father and thy mother”. No doubt becoming works would accompany such an attitude, but they are not expressly mentioned. Then at the end of the chapter man is neither to lift up his tool upon the altar nor to go up to it by steps. If man in the flesh moves hand or foot in relation to God it is only polluting, and the exposure of his own nakedness.
Everything depends on God having His right place with us. It must be so, seeing that He is God, and that man is His creature. But man is naturally prone to idolatry; he is ready to entertain a thousand things that are rivals to God and that displace God in his mind and heart, and Satan’s power is behind all these things. Now God has come out to deliver man from every idol by revealing Himself as a Saviour God; He has asserted His rights in the way of mercy [p. 117] and grace and redemption. He has made Himself known, and the nature of His claim over us, in our Lord Jesus Christ. It was all set forth typically in His ways with Israel which have come before us in the first eighteen chapters of this book, but we know it now as actually accomplished by the coming here of the Son of God, and on the ground of His death and resurrection. The first thing is that we should give the Saviour God the place that is due to Him. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”.
God has rights over us as Creator, but He does not base His claim on that ground, but on the ground that He is the Saviour God. “I am Jehovah thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage”. The gospel is the revelation of how God has asserted His rights in grace. He has effected redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ, and has made Him Lord of all, that blessing might be available for all through Him. It is in giving the Saviour God the place that is due to Him that we come into blessing. So long as “other gods” have place with us, whether it be the self-gratifications which in a thousand forms exclude God from man’s heart, or the religious idols which man’s works, prayers, etc., often become, we are strangers to divine blessing. It is in turning to God from idols that we get delivered from the power of darkness. Repentance is the first movement in this direction; it is, as Paul testified, “repentance towards God” (Acts 20: 21). When a sinner repents it is the beginning of God getting the place that is due to Him in that man’s soul, and hence there is joy in heaven over it.
It becomes the joy of the one who receives the gospel to give God the place that is due to Him — the [p. 118] place that He has taken in supreme and all-blessing grace in our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that absorbs man, so that God known in redeeming grace and love does not get His due place with him, is of the nature of an “other god”. In the light of this we can see the force of that final word in John’s first epistle, “Children, keep yourselves from idols”. And we can understand Paul saying, “Wherefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry” (1 Corinthians 10: 14). What a contrast to all that is idolatrous is seen in the blessed Man of Psalm 16 : “Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another: their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer, and I will not take up their names into my lips”.
God has revealed Himself in grace and love that He might get the place that is due to Him in the heart of man, His poor fallen creature. One might say that God has given His heart to man that He might get man’s heart for Himself. He covers the returning prodigal with kisses, sheds His love abroad in the heart of the believer by the Holy Spirit given to him, and the Spirit who sheds God’s love abroad in the believer’s heart is also the Spirit of Christ — the Spirit of the blessed Man who ever gave God His place, and who never took up the name of another into His lips. Believers, as having the Spirit of Christ, delight to give the blessed God the place that is due to Him; they know that it is fatal to spiritual blessing to have any other god; to have such would be to lose their happiness and their liberty.
The second commandment connects itself with the fact that “God is a Spirit”. Man is essentially material in his thoughts, and hence the prohibition to make “any graven image, or any form of what is in the heavens above, or what is in the earth beneath, or [p. 119] what is in the waters under the earth”. The natural thought of man is that something material would be a help to worship, but any image or form simply opens the door for Satan to possess himself of that which is due to God from man. Those who worship God must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. It is a true instinct that leads people to close their eyes when addressing God; they desire to be withdrawn from the seen and material.
The water in baptism and the bread and the cup in the Lord’s supper are material things, but they are not at all objects of worship. To make them such would be idolatrous, and would simply be to fall under Satan’s power. We know, alas! that this form of idolatry is widespread in christendom. But our great exercise should be to know the spiritual import of our baptism and to be true to it, and to have a spiritual appreciation of what was in the Lord’s mind when He instituted His supper.
How wonderful that God should say, “I, Jehovah thy God, am a jealous God”. That is the language of love. It is as much as to say, “I cannot bear not to have your affections wholly for myself”. How God must love His people to use such language! Can my love be anything to God? Yes, it is most precious to Him; He cannot be satisfied without it. Blessed be His Name, He knows how to secure it, not in one or two only but in a vast company. He must have a great company to love Him. How strikingly is this set forth in the words, “showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments”!
The divine government goes on. It is noticeable that when God’s government is spoken of, the tendency is to think of it chiefly as involving certain retributive [p. 120] consequences if evil is done. It most certainly does so, and this is a matter for grave consideration. But there is another side to it. It is always in favour of the thousands of them that love God and keep His commandments. Saints walking normally according to the Spirit in love and obedience have the comfort of knowing and proving that God’s holy government is always in their favour. And even if we have come under the governmental consequences of wrong-doing in the past, from the moment that we begin to sow to the Spirit, and to continue in well-doing, the government of God begins to operate in our favour, and “mercy” comes in, so that there is often even some alleviation of what we suffer governmentally, while the suffering which remains becomes the discipline of love for our spiritual profit to promote our being partakers of God’s holiness. How blessed to see that God has in view “thousands” of obedient lovers! Not a little company, but “thousands” who delight to give Him in their affections the place due to Him, and who refuse all association with what is idolatrous, and not in accord with His Name!
The third commandment concerns what is due to God’s Name. His Name indicates that He has revealed Himself, and the truth lies in that revelation, and it must not be brought into contact with what is inconsistent with it. “Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that for an untruth uttereth his name” (Exodus 20: 7, margin). To connect that Name with what is false is to deny it. Then it is a holy Name. The natural man is essentially profane; he really has a kind of pleasure in connecting God’s Name with his own wickedness. In perfect contrast to this, God’s Holy One taught His disciples to pray, “Hallowed be thy name”.
[p. 121] The One who is holy and true commends Philadelphia because they had not denied His Name. The devil is always seeking to connect that Name with what is untrue. It is a great exercise for the saints to preserve the Name of the Lord from being connected with what is contrary to the truth. In christendom the Lord’s Name is connected with much that is false, and faithfulness demands that this evil should be judged and absolutely separated from. We have to see to it that by our associations we do not connect that Name with what is unholy or untrue. Those who do so will not be held guiltless.
The fourth commandment refers to the hallowing of the Sabbath day. God would have His people to apprehend the thought of His rest, and that He would have them to participate in it. Man naturally does not care for the thought of God’s rest; he has no interest in it, nor does he desire to share it. The Sabbath is really a call to communion with God, such as could only be possible through redemption. The perfect character of what God has done to secure rest for Himself must be known and entered into. He wrought six days in creation, and rested on the seventh day. In Genesis 1 there was a scene of confusion and darkness, but God acted in it in such a way as to secure rest for Himself. And what He did then was figurative of the way in which He has acted, and will act, in relation to all the moral disorder that has come in through sin and Satan.
At the present time we know God in the rest of redemption. He has reached perfect rest in the Person and work of His beloved Son. He would have us to sit down in perfect rest of soul, and consider what He has done, and how perfectly it is finished, and [p. 122] in this way remember the sabbath day and hallow it. He would have it to be to His people what it is to Himself. He has reached a point of rest, and He would have His people with Him in rest. His own gracious and holy workings through redemption have secured rest for Him. He has closed up sacrificially in the death of Christ the history of that old order of things which sin had polluted, and in which He could not rest. He has been vindicated and glorified infinitely as to it all, and He is in rest.
The first day of the week — which is the special and distinctive day of Christianity — suggests an entirely new beginning. It introduces new and spiritual and eternal conditions. Think what that day was to the Lord Jesus! The day of His resurrection; the day of new and spiritual relationships and associations; the day in which He had brethren to whom He could declare the Name of His Father and God! Let us have that day hallowed in our hearts that it may be to us what it was to Him!
Then the last six commandments concern what is due to man; if what is due to God is maintained, what is due to man will not be absent. The first of these commandments addresses children, and requires that they should honour father and mother. This provides for things being right from the very beginning. It supposes, of course, that the father and mother are amongst the thousands of those that love God and keep His commandments. It is the one thing children have to do, and this commandment is renewed in the New Testament (Ephesians 6: 1 - 4). This obedience, like all in the christian household, is to be “in the Lord”. His grace and love are known there, and His sway is known and accepted. It is clear [p. 123] that if parents are not themselves really under the Lordship of Christ they cannot bring up their children in His discipline and admonition. The parents must know what His discipline and admonition are for themselves before they can bring their children up in the same. The children are not simply to “obey”, but to “honour” their parents, and this necessitates much exercise on the part of the parents that there should be that in them which the children can truly honour. The parents know how the Lord has dealt with themselves, how His discipline and admonition have come in to check their self-will and movements of their flesh. They have learned under the Lord’s hand, and they bring what they have learned to bear on their children, and the Lord supports it.
Children have oftentimes much more exercise than we think; there is often deep exercise in the heart even of a little child. If parents maintain in affection what is due to the Lord it has a wonderful effect on the children; I speak from personal experience.
We see here again, as we have before in this book, God’s household thoughts. His assembly is made up of households. God takes very great notice of how children regard their parents. The general tendency of children is to despise their parents, and especially when they have had advantages in the way of education, etc., which their parents have not had. It is rather striking that long life on earth should be connected as a promise with this commandment, and that this is repeated in the epistle to the Ephesians. A long life on earth for Christ is a great privilege. Who would not desire it? The Lord promised Peter a long life of service, and then that he should glorify God by his death. I do not think the promise contemplates [p. 124] a life of self-will or natural enjoyment, but a prolonged period during which we may minister to the will of God in our generation, as David did (Acts 13: 36). This is a great privilege. And every day now is worth more than a year in Methuselah’s time!
The following commandments are summed up in “Love works no ill to its neighbour: love therefore is the whole law” (Romans 13: 10). There are those on earth with whom one feels perfectly safe, and with whom all one’s interests are in safeguard. The protective character of the law has been pointed out. It protects one’s life, the sanctity of the marriage relationship, one’s property, good name — all are safe with those in whom the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled. In moving about, if one finds oneself amongst believers there is at once a feeling of relief and security; you know you are amongst those who will do you no harm.
These commandments show what man is naturally prone to do; these are the kind of things we should do as men in the flesh. And there must always be watchfulness and prayer, or we may fall into some of these things. For instance, how much care is needed not to “bear false witness” against one’s neighbour. If unwatchful it is easy to do so in small ways, perhaps even without any wilful or malicious intent.
The last commandment is the most searching. It forbids desire (Romans 7: 7, 8). It has been said that the sting is in the tail. But on the other hand it shows the wonderful power of grace. For it suggests that in knowing the love of God, and in owning His Hand in everything, one may be free even from desire for what He does not give. The spirit of the law, and indeed of all the Old Testament, is the Lord, and if we have [p. 125] the Spirit of the Lord and are controlled by it we shall not covet. If you can say as He could, “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage”, you do not covet what your neighbour has. There is nothing more harassing than a desire for what you cannot have; it is one of the greatest blights on all human happiness that men covet what they cannot have. Not knowing God, or His grace and love, they do not trust Him with their happiness, and are consumed with desire for what they see others possess, or with sullen discontent because they cannot have it. But if the saint is conscious that all things are his, there is not much left to covet! “All things are yours. Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things coming, all are yours: and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3: 21 - 23).
The “law of liberty” is when you are told to do what you want to do. According to the inward man the saint delights in the law of God, and as having the Spirit of Christ he is on the line of love and liberty, and not bondage. The will of God is carried out not as being under law but under grace.
The people here could not endure the character of things in presence of which they found themselves. “They were not able to bear what was enjoined” (Hebrews 12: 18 - 21). The holy majesty of God, and the character of His claims, is a terrible thing to the flesh; “for it is not subject to the law of God; for neither indeed can it be” (Romans 8: 7). Man in the flesh has no ability to respond to the claim; indeed, he wants to do all that is forbidden; and the very prohibitions only stir up the desires and propensities that are there. God saw fit, nevertheless, to bring His [p. 126] fear before the people, that they might not sin. Yet even this terrible majesty did not deter them from making a golden calf soon after, and that in the very presence of the “consuming fire on the top of the mountain” before their eyes (24: 17). It shows plainly what the flesh is.
It is of the deepest interest to see how quickly Jehovah turns to an entirely different character of things. He still claims the supreme and unrivalled place with His creatures (verse 23); He could not do otherwise, let the dispensation be law, grace, or anything else. He is God, and the creature’s first step to blessing must ever be to give Him His place as God. This is, indeed, essential to repentance.
But He speaks at once of an altar, and of burnt-offerings and peace-offerings (or thank-offerings). The law in itself, as coming to man in the flesh, meant distance and curse. But neither distance nor curse were in the heart of God, so He turns at once to speak of nearness and blessing. He says, “I will come unto thee, and bless thee”. The secret of that is the altar and the burnt-offering. I think we shall see that the altar involves the full recognition of what man is, but it furnishes him with an entirely new ground of blessing and of approach to God.
The “altar of earth” and the “altar of stone” were both typical of Christ, for it is by Him alone that we can come to God. “Earth” here is the very word from which Adam got his name, but Adam and all his posterity came under sin and death so that there could be no approach to God by men except on the ground that God has been glorified about all that came in by the sinful man, and Christ was here as Man to accomplish this. It involved His being made a sacrifice for sin, and He was great enough to come into the place of sin and death, and to glorify God in it, and we can only come as worshippers to God on that ground. Hence this altar is obligatory — “[p. 127] an altar of earth shalt thou make unto me”. It speaks of Christ as establishing in Himself, and by His death, a way by which we must come to God if we come at all.
Then on the “altar of earth” burnt-offerings and thank-offerings are to be sacrificed. We might have expected that immediately after giving the law God would have spoken of sin and trespass-offerings, but He does not. He speaks, in type, of all that Christ is in His devoted affections which went infinitely beyond keeping the law. He glorified God in the very place where man had dishonoured Him, and glorified Him about that very dishonour. His sacrifice of Himself was fragrant with sweet-smelling savour to God.
Can we approach God in the value and savour of that — in the acceptance of Christ and of His offering of Himself? Yes, blessed be God, we can, and never does He propose that we should approach Him on any other ground. If the burnt-offering speaks of what Christ is to the heart of God as furnishing the ground of acceptance for His people, the thank-offering speaks of what He becomes to their hearts as a spring of eternal thanksgiving. Thankfulness and holiness go together. “Be thankful ... giving thanks” is a kind of climax in Colossians.
It is in the light of all this, and in relation to it, that Jehovah would make His Name to be remembered. What God is as known through Christ, and in the light of the burnt-offering, is the everlasting remembrance and delight of His people. Christ has taken away the legal system, and the man who would not and could not keep the law has been ended sacrificially in His death. But the burnt-offering speaks of perfection in every moral quality, and in the affections of a Man wholly devoted to God — such perfection as could only be found in a divine Person — the Son of God — come in [p. 128] flesh. And that perfection has been offered up in death so that God’s will might be established, and His saints set apart and perfected for ever for His pleasure. We remember God’s Name in relation to all that, and glorify Him in our praises.
“And if thou make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone; for if thou lift up thy sharp tool upon it, thou hast profaned it” (verse 25). The “altar of stone” speaks of what is permanent, and this brings in the thought of resurrection, for it is only in connection with Christ as risen that things have permanent character. It is to be noticed that this altar is introduced with an “if”, suggesting that the people of God have the privilege of making such an altar, but that they may not always be prepared to do so. They are not always ready to approach as identified with Christ as risen, for this is a spiritual matter, only to be taken up as we apprehend what it is to be risen with Him. The “sharp tool” of human ability has no place there; it can only profane what is most holy. The stone must be left unhewn; the working of God has raised Christ from among the dead, and His saints are raised with Him by the faith of that working. No human hand can touch that order of things; philosophy or the teaching of men can have nothing to say to it. The epistle to the Colossians is intended to shut out the “sharp tool” that can only profane.
“Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon” (verse 26). Christendom is full of human means which are supposed to facilitate the worship of God, but they only expose man’s nakedness. If God is approached He must be approached in spirit and in truth; His people must worship by the Spirit of God (Philippians 3: 3). He expects His saints to clearly distinguish between what is by His Spirit, and the best possible human order. The latter may be very suitable in man’s judgment, but God is the only One who has the right to prescribe what is suitable on the part of those who approach Him.
And then, wherever His Name is remembered, “I will come unto thee, and bless thee”. One could not imagine a greater contrast to the conditions present in the previous chapter. We are once more on those blessed terms of grace which constitute the true bond between God and His people. The altar speaks of a self-sacrificing love that goes beyond all that law required, and a ground of acceptance infinitely greater than any obedience of ours could be, however perfect. All is accomplished according to the perfection of Christ. So far as man in the flesh goes, he moves neither hand nor foot in the matter. It is remarkable how this chapter of law excludes man’s works altogether!