Exodus 20

Exodus 20:3-7

Exo. 20:3-7. The three first commandments. The first commandment respects the object of worship; and especially forbids those things in worship that are against God the Father. The second commandment respects the means of worship; and especially forbids those things in worship that are against God the Son, that it should not be by other lords and mediators instead of Christ, the Lord our God, who is, as it were, the husband of His people, and is a jealous God, a jealous husband, that will not bear spiritual adultery. This commandment forbids our making use of other images in our worshipping God besides Christ, who is “the image of the invisible God, the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person,” by which image alone God makes known Himself and sets forth Himself, and shows His glory as the fit object of our worship; for we behold “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” The Heathen had images that they might have something present with them as representatives of the Deity that was absent; but Christ only is our Immanuel or “God with us.” The third commandment forbids those things in worship that are especially against the Holy Ghost, even the unholy manner of worship. We ought, when we come to God to worship Him, to come by the son, that we may come by right means; and we ought to come by the Holy Spirit, that we may worship with a right spirit and in a holy manner. These sins against the Holy Spirit are represented as peculiarly exposing persons to Divine vengeance without forgiveness, agreeable to what we are taught in the New Testament.

Exodus 20:4

Exo. 20:4. “Any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above” - i.e., the likeness of sun, moon, or stars, or any bird; [or “that is in the earth beneath”] - i.e., of any man, woman, beast, or creeping thing; [or “that is in the water under the earth”] - i.e., any fish. This interpretation is evident from Deuteronomy 4:16-18. That the second commandment has respect to worshipping the true God by images, see Deuteronomy 5:7; Deuteronomy 5:8.

Exodus 20:8

Exo. 20:8. “Remember.” This expression “remember” was probably the rather used because this was not the first institution of the Sabbath; it had been too much forgotten, especially while the children of Israel were in Egypt. The sabbath had also been renewedly commanded (chap. 16). God here charges them to take notice of His institution of the Sabbath, and not to forget it as they formerly had done.

Exodus 20:24-26

Exo. 20:24, 25, 26. “An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me - And if thou wilt make 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: neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar.” These rules have respect to what was to be done now immediately, the altars they were to erect, and the sacrifices that were to be offered in the wilderness before the building of the tabernacle. God’s altar was to be very plain and very low, so that they might have no occasion to go up to it by steps. The heathen greatly adorned their altars with the curious works of their own hands, and worshipped in high places, and built their altars very high, thinking hereby to put great honors on their gods, and make their services very acceptable to them. But God lets his people know that their seeming adorning, by their own art and handy work, will be but polluting, and their recommending themselves by their high altars will be dishonoring themselves, and showing their own nakedness: perhaps typifying this, that whenever men ascend high and exalt themselves in their own works or righteousness in God’s service, they show their own nakedness, and pollute his worship, and render the services they offer abominable to God. Mr. Henry has this note on this rule for plain affairs: “This rule being prescribed before the ceremonial law was given, 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.”