Exodus 20

Exodus 20:1

THE .–Exodus 20:1-11. GOLDEN TEXT.–Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.–Matthew 22:37. TIME.–B. C. 1491, Pentecost, fifty days after the Passover. PLACE.–Mt. Sinai in Arabia. LINKS.–1. Water from the Rock (Exodus 17:1-7); 2. The Amalekites (Exodus 17:8-16); 3. Encampment before Sinai; 4. The Glory of the Lord on the Mount (Exodus 19:16-25). HELPFUL .–Exodus 17:1-16; Exodus 19:1-25; Psalms 1:1-6; Psalms 19:7-14; Matthew 22:34-40. LESSON .–1. The Lord thy God; 2. The Lord a Zealous God; 3. Hallowing God’s Name and the Sabbath Day.. No fewer than five mountains in different parts of the peninsula have been identified, or at least suggested, by various writers as the true Sinai, although the claims of three out of the five were so slight as to have attracted but little notice; the other two, namely, Jebel Musa (the Mountain of Moses), situated at about the center of the peninsula, and Jebel Serbal, some twenty miles further west (jebel being the Arabic for mountain), had divided between them, though with a preponderance in favor of the former, the support of the great majority of travelers and authorities of eminence in our own and past times. A spacious plain, El Rahah, confronts a precipitous cliff 2,000 feet in height, which forms the northwestern extremity or front of that great mountain block called Jebel Musa, which Bedouin and monastic tradition alike point to as the mountain of the law.

The appearance of this locality is extremely impressive and grand, so majestic, indeed, that its natural scenery at once rivets the attention, apart altogether from the sacred associations. No one who examines it with special reference to the Bible account of the proclamation of the law can fail to be struck with its entire accordance with the details of the narrative.

The plain derives its name, Rahah, from its level character; it is flat as the palm (rahah) of the open hand. It has been stated that this plain is not large enough to have hold the vast hosts of the Israelites, but we have surveyed it, and our answer is that it is large enough, not only to have held them as spectators, but, if needs be, to encamp them all. However, we are not necessarily confined to El Rahah in considering the site for the encampment. They may have, and probably did, spread into the wide lateral valleys which extend right and left from the base of the cliff, and have encamped before or in the presence of the Ras Sufsafeh, though the plain would have been the obvious place of assembly to witness any spectacle on the summit of the mountain. There are fully 400 acres of the plain proper, exactly facing the mount, and sloping down to it with just such a gentle inclination as would best enable a large number of people to see at once. The area of 400 acres would accommodate with ease about two millions of spectators, at the ample allowance of a square yard each, and besides this there is a considerable further open space, extending northwestward from the water-shed or crest of the plain, but still in sight of the mount–the very spot, it may be, to which the trembling Israelites “removed and stood afar off,” when they feared to come nigh unto the cloud and the thick darkness, when they said unto Moses, “Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”–E.

H. Palmer.The words were “written by the finger of God,” but the tables were not less surely fragments hewn out of the rock of Horeb.

Hard, stiff, abrupt as the cliffs from which they were taken, they remain as the firm, unyielding basis on which all true spiritual religion has been built up and sustained. Sinai is not Palestine–the law is not the Gospel; but the ten commandments, in letter and in spirit, remain to us as the relic of that time. They represent us, both in fact and in idea, the granite foundation, the immovable mountain on which the world is built up, without which all theories of religion are but as shifting and fleeting clouds; they give us the two homely, fundamental laws, which all subsequent revelation has but confirmed and sanctified–the law of our duty toward God and the law of our duty toward our neighbor.–A. P. Stanley. I. THE LORD THY GOD.—

1. God spake all these words. Whatever media, whether elementary or angelic, God was pleased to employ on this occasion, it is manifest that the speech was his own, not merely as to the words spoken, but as to the articulate sounds actually perceived by the ear. We are aware that vibrations of the air are the usual medium for affecting the sense of hearing, and we have no reason to doubt that these were employed on the present occasion. It appears from the Old and New Testament (Deuteronomy 33:2-3; Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19; Hebrews 2:2), that angels were present and active at the promulgation of the law. How this was effected, what was the arranging or dispensing part of the angels in this great drama, as it is not revealed, we do not pretend to say. But as the performer is the source of the music, notwithstanding the concurrence of the bellows-blower, the organ pipes, and the air, so we can understand that God was the real speaker of the ten words, notwithstanding the intervention of the dispensing angels and the vocal atmosphere.

Exodus 20:2

2. The Lord thy God. The possessive word “thy” points the covenant between God and his people. When taken in the full depth of its meaning it involves that God has chosen them to be his people. He is the Redeemer. He has brought his people out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. This, in the manner of Scripture and of providence, is the earnest and guarantee of their deliverance from all other and greater kinds of bondage. Which have brought thee out. Why, on this occasion, was not the Lord rather proclaimed as “creator of heaven and earth?” The true answer evidently is, that the ten commandments were at this time addressed by Jehovah not merely to human creatures, but to the people whom he had redeemed, to those who had been in bondage, but were now free men (Exodus 6:6-7; Exodus 18:9).–Canon Cook. We have not, indeed, been delivered from the literal bondage of Egypt, but the spirit of the declaration reaches to us, if Christians, as redeemed by Christ from a bondage infinitely worse, and incorporated by faith into the true Israel of God, the spiritual seed of Abraham, and made heirs of all the blessings of the covenant of grace. Consequently, as the Lord is our God, we are bound by the same inviolable bonds of love and service as rested upon the seed of Israel according to the flesh.–Bush.

Exodus 20:3

3. Thou shalt have. It is to be remarked, both here and elsewhere throughout the decalogue, that the address is made in the singular and not in the plural number. The design of this is undoubtedly to render the language in the highest degree emphatic. Every individual to whom this law comes is to consider himself as being as directly and personally addressed as though it had been spoken to him alone. “Thou art the man.” Xenophon said of Cyrus that when he gave anything in command, he never said, Let some one do this; but, Do thou this.–Trapp. No other gods before me. The original form of the expression is here worthy of attention. “There shalt not be to thee other gods upon thy face.” Here it is demanded that the non-existence of other gods be recognized. This presupposes the affirmative of such non-existence.–Murphy. The first commandment in its negative form refers to the unity of God. It enjoins the owning of this unity. It is, therefore, against polytheism. This precept is of universal obligation.

Exodus 20:4

II. THE LORD A JEALOUS GOD.— 4. Thou shalt not make any graven image. After declaring in the first commandment who was the true God, he commanded that he alone should be worshiped, and now be defines what is his lawful worship. Any sort of image for worship is here intended. The Hebrew word strictly means a carved image, of wood or stone. The Roman Church makes but one commandment of the two first, while in order to keep good the number ten they divide the tenth into two, making the first sentence of that commandment the ninth. The consequence has been that, in many professed disciples of the ten commandments in books of devotion, what we term the second, forbidding idolatry, is entirely omitted. The motive for thus abstracting the second commandment from the decalogue is very easily imagined on the part of a church which gives so much countenance to image worship.

Guided solely by the dictates of our erring reason, we might suppose that the aid of bodily sense might be called in to assist our mental vision, and that the use of images, paintings, crucifixes, and other outward symbols, might at least be harmless, if not positively beneficial, in refreshing the memory and quickening our devotions. But God knows the downward and deteriorating tendencies of our nature even in its best estate, and he sees that the employment of outward symbols of worship would gradually tend to lower the stand of pious feeling, and finally to withdraw the mind from the ultimate spiritual object, and fix it upon the gross sensible medium. We have only to look at the history of the Greek and Latin churches for an abundant confirmation of this view of the subject.–Bush. Or any likeness of anything that is in heaven. “That which is in heaven,” we are to understand the birds, not the angels, or at the most, according to Deuteronomy 4:19, the stars as well; by “that which is in earth,” the cattle, reptiles, and the larger or smaller animals; and by “that which is in the water,” fishes and water animals. Under the earth. It is important to notice that “under” here means “lower in level,” lest the Scriptures be accused of propounding the theory that the interior of our sphere is filled with water. The reference is to the fishes that inhabit the sea.

Exodus 20:5

5. Shalt not bow down. To have or to make another god is to hate the true God. Here let it be observed that in the estimate of God there is no difference between forsaking him for another and hating him. The negative state of indifference to him, or inclination to another, necessarily involves the positive state of hatred to the true God.–Murphy. A jealous God. The passions of a moral being have their right as well as their wrong use. Hence anger, jealousy, hatred and revenge, are ascribed to God, not as passions, but as the feelings of a holy being in regard to that which is evil (Deuteronomy 32:21-22; Deuteronomy 32:35). As the Judge of the universe, God has the supreme right, not only to entertain these feelings, but also to carry out their holy behests in the administration of his everlasting dominion. The term “jealous” is used to bring the idea before the human mind that he will no more tolerate the worship of an alien, idol god, than a husband would tolerate his wife bestowing her affections upon another man. Iniquity of the fathers upon the children. All experience shows that the consequences of the sins of parents descend upon children. They inherit the diseases, that have been entailed by the sins of their fathers, or their poverty, or the disgrace of their crimes, or are influenced by their bad examples to lives of crime. Even Spurgeon is said to be afflicted with hereditary gout. The children of thieves are likely to be thieves, and of drunkards to be drunkards.

Exodus 20:6

6. Showing mercy unto thousands. To the thousandth generation. To them that hate God the consequences of iniquity extend to the third and fourth generation, but to them that love him his mercy extends to the thousandth generation, or forever. Those who love God are those who have no other God but the true God and who keep his commandments.

Exodus 20:7

III. GOD’S NAME AND THE SABBATH DAY.— 7. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. This commandment prohibits all employment of the name of God for vain and unworthy objects, and includes not only false swearing which is condemned in Leviticus 19:12, as a profanation of the name of Jehovah, but trivial swearing in the ordinary intercourse of life, and every, use of the name of God in the service of untruth and lying, for imprecation, witchcraft or conjuring, or in light or idle conversation. Christ demands that the name of God be hallowed. This is done by treating it as holy, by speaking it with reverence, by using it in invocation, praise, prayer and thanksgiving. Will not hold him guiltless. The tens of thousands of profane swearers should heed this caution. God notes their idle, senseless, irreverent use of his name, and they are guilty before him. The time of punishment will come. “What does Satan pay you for swearing?” asked one gentleman of another. “He doesn’t pay me anything,” was the reply. “Well, you work cheap, to lay aside the character of a gentleman, to inflict so much pain on your friends and civil people, to suffer, and lastly to risk your own precious soul, and for nothing; you certainly do work cheap, very cheap, indeed.”

Exodus 20:8

8. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Presupposes an acquaintance with the Sabbath, as the expression “remember” is sufficient to show, but not that the Sabbath had been kept before this. From the history of the creation that had been handed down, Israel must have known that after God had created the world in six days he rested the seventh day, and by his resting sanctified the day (Genesis 2:3). But hitherto there had been no commandment given to man to sanctify the day.–Keil. It has been alleged that the word remember may be reasonably explained in one of two ways without adopting the inference which has been mentioned. It may either be used in the sense of keep in mind what is here enjoined for the first time, or it may refer back to what is related in chapter 16, where the Sabbath day is first noticed, in giving the law for collecting the manna.–Canon Cook. To keep it holy. By devoting the day to sacred purposes and refraining from secular occupations. Verses 9 and 10 show how the day is to be kept holy.

Exodus 20:9

9. Six days shalt thou labor. This commandment not only permits labor during the six days but enjoins it. Idleness is forbidden.

Exodus 20:10

10. The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord. The day the Lord rested and made his Sabbath, and the day that the Lord claimed of the Jewish nation as the day when they should rest and hallow his name.

Exodus 20:11

11. For in six days . . . and rested on the seventh day. This verse explains why the day is the Lord’s Sabbath and why he insisted on the observance of the day. The weekly Sabbath was “a shadow of things to come,” a foretaste of the life in which there is to be no more toilsome fatigue, that life which is the true keeping of Sabbath, into which our Savior entered as our forerunner when he ceased from his works on earth, as God had ceased from his works on the seventh day (Hebrews 4:9-10).–Canon Cook. AND . THE LORD THY GOD.–A friend, calling on the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, during his last illness, said to him, “Sir, you have given us many good advices; pray, what are you now doing with your own soul?” “I am doing with it,” said be, “what I did forty years ago. I am resting on that word, ‘I am the Lord thy God’; and on this I mean to die.” To another he said, “The covenant is my charter, and if it had not been for that blessed word, ‘I am the Lord thy God,’ my hope and strength had perished from the Lord.” The night on which he died his eldest daughter was reading in the room where he was, to whom he said, “What book is that you are reading, my dear?” “It is one of your sermons, sir.” “What one is it?” “It is the sermon on that text, ‘I am the Lord thy God.’” “Oh, woman!” said he, “that is the best sermon I ever preached.” And it was, most probably, the best to his soul.–Gray.NO OTHER GOD.–Whatever it be that sets up a rival interest in our souls, absorbing that love and service which belongs to the true God, that is another god before him.

Consequently, the proud man, who idolizes himself; the ambitious man, who pays homage to popular applause; the covetous man who deifies his wealth; the sensualist who lives to gratify his low appetites; the doting lover, husband, father, mother, who suffer their hearts to be supremely absorbed in the love of the creature, all come under the charge of transgressing the first commandment.–Bush.IDOL GODS.–A little boy, who lived in the house of a heathen, one day took a stick and broke all the images except the largest, into the hands of which he put the stick. When the man discovered it, he was furious, and exclaimed, “Who has done this?” “Perhaps,” said the boy, “the big idol has been beating his little brothers.” “Nonsense,” said the man, “don’t talk such stuff as that.

Do you think I am a fool? You know as well as I do that the thing cannot even raise its hand. It was you, you little rascal. It was you, and to pay you for your labor of wickedness, I’ll beat you to death with the same stick.” And seizing the stick he approached him. “But,” said the boy, gently, “how can you trust to a God so weak that a child’s hand can destroy him? Do you suppose that if he can’t take care of himself or his companions he can of you and the world, let alone making you?” The heathen stopped to think, for it was a new idea. Then he broke his great idol and went and kneeled down to pray to the true God, and called him “my Father.” THE LAW AND GOSPEL.–Two things have perplexed Christians. 1. It is universally admitted that a part of the Jewish law is not in force, while other portions, including the commands, are supposed to be. Inspiration has not drawn the line to indicate what part is abolished and what part in force. 2. The fifth commandment requires the observance of the seventh day as a Sabbath, while Christendom, in professed obedience to this commandment observes the first day. How shall this be explained? The true solution is as follows: The law, both moral and ceremonial, belongs to the old covenant; it was the national constitution given to the Jewish race; it was for a nation, not for mankind.

Moses was, under God, the lawgiver. It continued in force until the “handwriting of ordinances was nailed to the cross.” “The ministration of death written and engraven on stones was done away,” until the “old covenant was taken away to give place to the new.” It was an old constitution that entirely subserved its purpose and then gave place to a new constitution established by Christ. When a state adopts a new constitution the old ceases to be of force. Yet the principles of the old one may be mostly found in the new. They are then of force because they are reaffirmed. So the old Jewish constitution was entirely done away, but much of it has been reaffirmed in the new one.

The ten commands, changed and modified, are found there. In the change the Lord’s day has taken the place of the old Jewish Sabbath. POINTS FOR . 1. Note the circumstances; Fifty days after the passover; Israel before Sinai; a nation with Jehovah as God and King, but without a law. 2. Bring out the terrors which invested the declaration of the Ten Commandments. 3. Show that five of these commands relate to duties to God. 4. Point out what is implied in the Lord thy God; Jehovah, the Covenant God, not any idol. 5. Show what it implies “to have no other gods before me,” and how that command is violated now. 6.

Bring out the meaning of making no graven image and Show how it is violated in the name of religion. 7. Show how God is a jealous God and what this means. 8. Show how the name of the Lord is taken in vain and the sin of it. Inconsistent with worship or adoration. 9. Bring out the basis of the Sabbath command; why it was to be kept by the Jews, the modification under the Gospel, and the authority for that modification. 10. Show that obedience to the spirit of these commands must follow from a loving reverence for God.

Exodus 20:12

THE .–Exodus 20:12-21. GOLDEN TEXT.–Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.–Matthew 22:39. TIME.–Pentecost, in the year B. C. 1491. PLACE.–At the foot of Mt. Sinai, in Arabia. HELPFUL .–Deuteronomy 5:1-21; Matthew 5:21-37; Matthew 15:1-9; Matthew 19:3-9. LESSON .–1. Honor to Parents; 2. The Shalt Nots; 3. An Awe Struck People.. When the Ten Commandments were “written and engraved on stone” by the divine finger, they were upon two tables; four supposed to be on the first table, and six on the second. Of these the four considered in the last lesson relate to the duties men owe to God; the second set, those to be considered in this lesson, relate to the duties that a man owes to his fellow-mortals. The first four are summed up in the Golden Text of that lesson; the second table of six in the Golden Text of this lesson. I. HONOR TO PARENTS.—

1. Honor thy father and thy mother. Let it be noted that both parents are placed on the same footing. Honor is due to both alike. This requires not only outward respect but a cordial obedience to their commandment. No child that speaks lightly of or is ashamed of parents, or is disobedient to their will, keeps this commandment. Filial respect is the ground of national permanence. When the Jews were about to be cast out of their land, the rebuke of the prophet was that they had not walked in the old paths and had not respected the voice of their fathers as the sons of Jonadab had done.

Jeremiah 6:16; Jeremiah 35:18-19. And when in later times the land had been restored to them, and they were about to be cast out of it a second time, the great sin of which they were convicted was that they had set aside this fifth commandment for the sake of their own predictions. Matthew 15:4-6; Mark 7:10-11. Every other nation that has a history bears witness to the same truth. Rome owed her strength, as well as the permanence of her influence after she had politically perished, to her steady maintenance of the patræ protestas. Maine “Ancient Law,” p. 135.

China has mainly owed her long duration to the simple way in which she has uniformly acknowledged the authority of fathers. The divine words were addressed emphatically to Israel, but they set forth a universal principle of national life.–Canon Cook. That thy days may be long. There is a double promise here. So long as the nation rejoiced in the possession of obedient children it was assured of a long life or existence in the land of Canaan; but there is also included the promise of a long life, i. e., a great age, to individuals, (Comp. Deuteronomy 6:2; Deuteronomy 22:7), just as we find in 1 Kings 3:14 a good old age referred to as a special blessing from God.–Keil. Length of days or inheritance is a law running through the moral government of God, counteracted, no doubt, and modified by the interference of other laws that contribute no less to the ultimate, if not immediate, good of the individual; for if life be shortened to a child of God he only enters the sooner upon a better and higher life. And if the inheritance be shorter than the life, yet he cannot be deprived of that precious and present inheritance that all things, even affliction, work together for his good.–Murphy. The men who have made their mark as benefactors of the world, have not only had good parents, but have been distinguished by that filial respect and obedience.

George Washington is a conspicuous example. It was his respect for his widowed mother’s wishes that turned his life into a channel that made him a soldier, the General of the Revolution and the Father of his country.

When a boy of sixteen he had a great passion for the sea, and some of his influential friends secured him a berth as midshipman in the British navy. Everything was in readiness. His trunk had been taken on board the boat, and he went to bid his mother farewell, when he saw tears filling her eyes. Seeing her distress, he turned to the servant, and said, “Go and tell them to fetch my trunk back. I will not go away to break my mother’s heart.” His mother, struck with his decision, said to him, “George, God has promised to bless the children that honor their parents, and I believe be will bless you.” This decision kept him in the colonies and turned his life in the direction that schooled him for the great work to which the Lord had undoubtedly called him. It should be noted farther that one who disobeys parents will be disobedient to law, both human and divine.

Exodus 20:13

II. THE SHALT NOTS.— 13. Thou shalt not kill. Life is placed at the head of these commandments, not as being the highest earthly possession, but because it is the basis of human existence, and in the life the personality is attacked, and in that the image of God. Genesis 9:6.–Keil. The peculiar sacredness of human life lies in this, that man is a responsible being, liable to be rewarded or punished according to his deeds. Life is the reward of obedience, and death is the penalty of disobedience. The circumstance that this life is to the sinner the season of invitation to return to God, who will have mercy on him, deepens immeasurably the crime of cutting short his life in the midst of his impenitence. Life is also used in a pregnant sense in Scripture.

It raises from the mere natural life to the spiritual life which is rekindled in the dead soul by the spirit of life through the word of life. This widens immensely the scope of this commandment, and if we now advance from the mere negation of refraining from evil to the position of abounding in good, we behold opening before us a boundless prospect of well-doing for the children of God.–Murphy. The spirit of the precept plainly interdicts all those callings, occupations, and practices which are injurious to the health or safety of the community–such as the manufacture or sale of articles of diet or beverage which we have every reason to believe will be abused to the hurt or the death of men’s bodies, to say nothing of their effects on the undying soul. The Savior also prohibits the feelings of anger or malice which might lead to violence.

Exodus 20:14

14. Thou shalt not commit adultery. This commandment forbids every form of sensuality in act or thought. (1) The most fearful denunciations of Scripture are against sensuality. (2) Nature protests against it. (3) It breaks down the moral principalities. (4) It does violence to the virtues. (5) It ruins others; it involves other persons in guilt. (6) It leads to every other sin. (7) It frustrates the great end of human life. Conclusion: (8) Beware of beginnings; (9) Give this passion no allowance in your thought; (10) Be watchful against the least temptation; (11) Avoid bad associates; (12) Avoid every incentive to vice in dress, in fashion; (13) Attend to the words of wisdom; (14) Give your hearts to Christ.–W. Warren. The Savior rebukes sensual thoughts as adultery and fornication in embryo.

Exodus 20:15

15. Thou shalt not steal. This not only prohibits what the law calls theft, but much more. Fraudulent bargains, which impose on the ignorant, the credulous, or the necessitous, contracting debts which one is unable to pay, extortion and exorbitant gain, controlling the market by stratagem, and thus obtaining inordinate prices for one’s commodities, entering into combinations unduly to raise or depress wages, taking unjust advantage of insolvent laws, extracting usurious interest for money, unnecessary subsistence on charity, evading the duties and taxes imposed by government, or in any way defrauding the public, whether by embezzling its treasuries, or encroaching upon its domain, using false weights and measures, removing landmarks, keeping back the wages of servants and hirelings, withholding restitution for former wrongs, refusing, when able, to pay debts from which we have obtained a legal release–all these are violations of the eighth commandment, and as such failing under the special condemnation of heaven.–Bush.

Exodus 20:16

16. Thou shalt not bear false witness. It will be evident, at a glance, that not only false witness in court, but also statements in common discourse, false promises whether deliberate or careless, exaggerations and high colorings of facts, equivocation and deceit by word or sign, hypocritical professions, and compliments, together with slandering, backbiting, tale-bearing, circulating malicious reports, imputing evil designs, or making injurious representations without sufficient proof, are all direct infractions of the spirit of this command. These are all obvious methods of working ill to our neighbor, of prejudicing his reputation, and injuring or destroying his usefulness and his peace, and consequently cannot consist with the law of love.–Bush.

Exodus 20:17

17. Thou shalt not covet. The improper desire is the root of all evil. It can seldom be reached by human legislation; but it is open to the Searcher of hearts. The intent is that which, in the last resort, determines the moral character of the act. This last “word” is, therefore, the interpreting clause of the whole decalogue. Romans 7:7. It raises the code immeasurably above every code of man who looketh on the outward appearance of conduct, and at once renders it worthy of the Lord who looketh on the heart.–Murphy.

The precept reaches deep into the interior springs of action, and lays its interdict upon the very first risings of that discontented spirit, which is the prolific germ of all unhallowed lustings; to be dissatisfied with what we have is to desire something which we have not; and as most things which we have not are in the possession of our fellowmen, there is but a step between desiring what is not our own and coveting what is another’s–Bush. No human eye can see the coveting heart; it is witnessed only by him who possesses it, and by Him to whom all things are naked and open. But it is the root of all sins against our neighbor in word or in deed. James 1:14-15.–Canon Cook.

Exodus 20:18

III. AN AWE STRUCK PEOPLE.— 18. Thunderings and lightnings. The portentous sound of the trumpet and the thunder which had ushered in the day, and which continued to be heard while the people were assembled at the base of the mountain, probably ceased while the words of the law were pronounced in an articulate voice by Jehovah, but were again resumed, and perhaps with increased intensity, as soon as the delivery of the decalogue was completed.–Bush. By this terrible display of his glory, God desired to inspire them with the true fear of himself, that they might not sin through distrust, disobedience, or resistance to his guidance and commands.–Keil.

Exodus 20:19

19. They said unto Moses. This, it appears from Deuteronomy 5:23, was done through the medium of the elders and heads of the congregation, who came from the people to Moses, while he remained in his place. For he says in the passage just cited, that “they came near unto him,” when they spake these words; which implies that they were at some distance before.–Bush. Speak thou with us. The solemnities of the divine presence beget the feelings of reverential awe, under the influence of which they retire to a respectful distance. They have no more any doubt of the divine commission of Moses; and they entreat, by their elders that God would speak to them through Moses, and not directly to them. They are filled with such terror that they fear “lest they die.”

Exodus 20:20

20. Fear not . . . his fear many be before your faces. Moses encourages and comforts them against that fear of immediate death which they appear to have entertained, and at the same time assures them that from fear of another kind they were not by any means to be freed. Indeed, it was one special design of the present array of terrors to inspire them with it. The language marks very clearly the distinction between the fear which has torment, which flows from conscious guilt, which genders to bondage, and which drives away from God, and that salutary fear which prompts to a deep reverence of the divine majesty.

Exodus 20:21

21. Moses drew near. Of his own motion Moses would scarcely have durst to venture into the thick darkness from which ever and anon the appalling gleams of lightning burst forth; but being specially called and encouraged of God, he was virtually taken by the hand and lead up into the precincts of the divine presence. The incident plainly pointed to their and our need of a mediator in all our attempts to deal with a God of immaculate purity and inflexible justice.–Bush. AND . God demands reverence toward parents, as the foundation of an orderly and permanent organization of society. Ver. 12. God demands respect for human life, as his gift, which no man has the right to take from another. Ver. 13. God demands purity of morals, as the great protection of the family Ver. 15. God demands respect for property, as an encouragement to honest labor and the enjoyment of honest earnings. In these days of socialistic schemes it is well to note the law of God. There is the same love in the law as the Gospel, the difference is only in expression; as when I warn one against venturing into the roaring flood, and when, on his leaping madly in, I follow to save him. In the law, love warns; in the cross it redeems. Both are, as I undertake to show, the true mirror of him who thus defines his own character–“God is love.”–Guthrie.POINTS FOR . 1. Note the place and surroundings of Israel at the date of this lesson. 2. Note the circumstances of the giving of the law. 3. Note the two divisions of the law made by Christ and which this lesson considers. 4.

Bring out what Honor to Parents implies and the results of obedience or disobedience. 5. Point out why taking life is the greatest of crimes and what this command implies. 6. Note the various “Shalt Nots” with the Savior’s explanation of these. 7. Note what is embraced in the command “Thou shalt not covet.” 9. Show how these commands are all comprehended in the Golden Text. 9. Observe the consternation of Israel at the voice of God and why. 10.

Contrast the terrors of the law and the love of the Gospel.