Exodus 19

Division 2. (Exodus 19:1-25; Exodus 20:1-26; Exodus 21:1-36; Exodus 22:1-31; Exodus 23:1-33; Exodus 24:1-18; Exodus 25:1-40; Exodus 26:1-37; Exodus 27:1-21; Exodus 28:1-43; Exodus 29:1-46; Exodus 30:1-38; Exodus 31:1-18; Exodus 32:1-35; Exodus 33:1-23; Exodus 34:1-35; Exodus 35:1-35; Exodus 36:1-38; Exodus 37:1-29; Exodus 38:1-31; Exodus 39:1-43; Exodus 40:1-38.)The legal covenant with its types of the fuller salvation. Relationship to the Redeemer. We now come to the second division of the book, the character of which has been already briefly given. That it is largely typical needs no insisting on. Every Christian will recognize this in the whole tabernacle-service, which forms so large a part of it. But the truth, less generally received, is that the whole division -the whole book, therefore, -is typical, a perfect system of types, which is only properly appreciated when seen as a whole, -every part joined to every other part in a symmetry which at once proclaims itself divine. And this is the character of all these historical books: but there is no need to dilate upon this, as the book itself is before us, and will surely respond to the reverent inquiry of faith. There are two subdivisions, manifestly depending upon a double giving of the law, which the first time is pure law, with no provision for failure as to the people at large; at the second giving they have already failed, as they did immediately; and God declares Himself as forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Now, also, the law, which at first was written on the tables by the hand of God Himself, is written by the hand of the mediator, Moses. The character of this second subdivision will perhaps be better realized after we have gone through the first; and to this, therefore, we shall at present confine ourselves. Subdivision 1. (Exodus 19:1-25; Exodus 20:1-26; Exodus 21:1-36; Exodus 22:1-31; Exodus 23:1-33; Exodus 24:1-18; Exodus 25:1-40; Exodus 26:1-37; Exodus 27:1-21; Exodus 28:1-43; Exodus 29:1-46; Exodus 30:1-38; Exodus 31:1-18.)The first giving of the law, then PURE law; and the counsels of God in grace (the tabernacle). The sovereignty of the Redeemer. In the first subdivision, we have two very distinct sections: the first, giving the announcement of the law proper -the ten commandments, and others related to them; the second, the instruction as to the tabernacle, in which the types of salvation come before us. In the first part, we have that of which the apostle says, “The law is not of faith;” in the latter part, what addresses itself to faith, although with a vail over its glory, such as a legal system could not but maintain. This latter part anticipates the failure of the first, and shows beforehand the provision of His grace, which is no after-thought, but according to the counsel of God from the beginning.

Exodus 19:1-24

Section 1. (Exodus 19:1-25; Exodus 20:1-26; Exodus 21:1-36; Exodus 22:1-31; Exodus 23:1-33; Exodus 24:1-18.)Law: the proclamation of the righteousness of a sovereign God; the people being yet unfallen. Typically, the obedience which grace enables for and makes necessary to the redeemed. In the first section, then, we have law in its purity, -the proclamation of the righteousness of God to a people standing on the ground of legal covenant. The measure of requirement must, of course, be in conformity with this, which, save One, no man has ever satisfied. Yet in the new covenant it is said, “I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their heart” (Jeremiah 31:33); and as so written, it becomes a “law of liberty.” Apart from any question here of the Christian rule of life -which Galatians 6:16, Colossians 2:6, will answer -it is plain that redemption, as bringing the soul to God, sets up His throne within it, and obedience is the only liberty. It is plain, too, that there is a “righteousness of the law” which the law itself gives no power to fulfill, but which is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." (Romans 8:4.) What is merely dispensational passes, but not that which is the expression of God’s character, and required by it. Nothing of this can pass.

1. The people are now at Sinai. The name is nearly the same as that of the wilderness in which the manna fell, and has the same meaning. The scene is still a “wilderness,” and the throne of the almighty Lawgiver a barren mount. Law cannot bring into the land, nor produce fruit from the barren heart of man; and of this God would encompass us with reminders. Here, then, at Sinai, He proclaims the principle of law, -obedience as the ground of blessing. He recalls to them the mighty deliverance He had accomplished for them, and the way in which He had sustained and blessed them, and brought them to Himself. And now it was in His heart for them to have them as His own, -from among all the nations, His peculiar treasure. In an earthly place, and not a heavenly, they should be to Him a kingdom of priests , a nation all holy. For this He demands obedience: without it, plainly this access to Himself would be a denial of His nature. Grace still must affirm this, therefore, not set it aside; but it does what law does not -it provides for the accomplishment of the condition. First of all, the obedience of Another, who owed none, has glorified God infinitely with regard to those who owed but did not pay. Secondly, -for this even could not release (nor could there be blessing in release) from the personal obligation, -grace apprehended in the heart brings back the heart to God, and the heart brought back in love serves of necessity. (1) There is that which abides for us here, but the law, while it rightly claims, cannot produce it. Israel never under the law became a “kingdom of priests.” The choice of Aaron and his family afterward shows this fully. The people thus as a body were set aside from the priesthood, and it was death for any not of Aaron’s seed to invade the priestly office. Thus the promise is one of conditional election, which of course does not touch the fact that God’s grace will at last make this good to the nation, when it is plain that in themselves they have no title. (2) The people eagerly, and in ignorant self-confidence, accept the covenant. They have had plentiful proof of their own evil, and of their need of grace, and had been shown grace; yet, in spite of this, do not hesitate to put themselves under law: and just on this account they had to be put under law, that both they and all others through them might learn by their experience. And immediately they do learn what strict law is. The character of God’s dealing with them changes: cloud and darkness, and bounds set round the mount, enforced by the severest penalties, warn them of what law must entail upon a sinful people; the commandments themselves are made known in all the length and breadth of the divine holiness; and yet they go on, after the whole is thus declared, to ratify their engagement as confidently as they had undertaken it at first. Apart from the legality of this, there is a truth which remains, an answer of the heart to God’s offer of love, which He seeks from us, a free-will offering of ourselves to Him (2 Corinthians 8:5). And so Barnabas exhorted the disciples, that “with purpose of heart they should cleave to the Lord.” (Acts 11:23.) (3) On the third day, (the day of manifestation) the glory of Jehovah appears upon the mount; but though this be the seal of the covenant, the people are not able to draw nigh; and the mercy of God interdicts what would be fatal to man in his sinful condition. Thus already it is plain that the issue of the covenant cannot be favorable to him.
2. The ten commandments, as spoken by Jehovah Himself in the ears of the people, are expressly said to be the “words of the covenant.” “Write thou these words,” He says to Moses, “for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. . . . and he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.” It is very evident, therefore, that the ten commandments are not formally addressed to any other than Israel, the covenant-people. In their form, they bear the most decisive marks of this: “I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt,” and “that thy days may be long in the land that Jehovah thy God giveth thee,” apply distinctively to Israel, as is plain. In Deuteronomy 5:15, the commandment to keep the Sabbath also is based upon their redemption out of Egypt. It is thus that the law is given to the people as a redeemed people; and this is noteworthy in two ways: — First, it reminds us that man as man is fallen, and under condemnation, and that relationship with God must be on other than natural grounds. Only in grace could God give even a law to man now, although not, of course, the full grace that is made known in the gospel. The law as the terms of the covenant was necessarily the sign, therefore, of covenant-relationship. Secondly, we see how still “all these things happened unto them for types.” In the wisdom of God, that same law, whose principle was “do and live,” could yet be the type of the obedience of faith in those who are the subjects of a spiritual redemption, the principle of which is “live and do.” Let us remember, however, that law in itself retains none the less its character as opposed to grace, and that as a type it does not represent law any longer: we are not, as Christians, in any sense under the law, but under grace. (1) The ten commandments divide, as our Lord has divided them, into duties Godward and manward: this being also the common division. There are four commandments in the first, and six in the second part; and so reckoned, they show the universal numerical stamp: — The first commandment plainly affirms the unity of God: it also affirms His exclusive sovereignty. The second forbids idolatry, -the abasing Him to some creature-conception. (See Romans 1:23.) The third requires the hallowing of His Name, -that which stands for what He really is as revealed. These three commandments thus guard the grand primary truth upon which all others rest, for faith and practice. They are different in character from the fourth, so that this last has been by some of old transferred to the second division; but in fact, this only shows that the 4 here is, as usually, a 3 + 1. The difference sustains, therefore, the numerical arrangement. The fourth commandment here falls into its place as a memorial of creation, -man owning in it his place as a creature, yet in rest, because God rested. True, sin has broken in upon His rest, but this is not noticed here, because in the law there is covenant-relationship supposed, though only while the law is kept. But the rest is in earthly blessing, and, like all else here, never carries us beyond. (2) We come now to the second part: here of six commandments. The first claims honor for parents, the earth-type and representatives of the Creator-Father. And to this, as the apostle notes, a special “promise of life”-though but the continuance of it -is attached. The second forbids killing -of course, of men: which our Lord interprets as the prohibition even of anger without cause. It is, as one may say, the salvation-ordinance of the life that is. The third sanctions and sanctifies marriage, and how far it extends the Lord again declares. The fourth has to do with things, not persons, -the goods of others, which it protects from the spoiler. The fifth, under the prohibition of false witness, condemns deceit of every kind, the resource of weakness at all times where God is not before the soul. The numerical place here seems to be intended to remind the creature of his need of God, walking with whom the holiness of truth will be maintained. The sixth and last tracks sin to its lair, discovers it in “lust,” as the apostle shows (Romans 7:7), and shows where victory over it must be found: although the secret of the victory it cannot penetrate. The law is but the “strength of sin” (1 Corinthians 15:56), and not of holiness. In these “ten words” the measure of human responsibility is given -of man naturally. Christian responsibility we must not expect to find in it: that is measured only by our new place in Christ before God, -heavenly, so as to make us strangers and pilgrims upon the earth. Of this we have no hint here, and could not have: it would be mere confusion if introduced into it.
3. The unfitness of the people to approach God is demonstrated even to themselves, though they neither understand aright the cause nor receive the discovery aright. Ignorant of the sin which is the real barrier, and misreading, therefore, the mind of God, who would have His people with Himself, instead of seeking to have the barrier removed, they readily accept the place of distance, and beg that God may no more speak directly to them, but through Moses as the mediator. It is this spirit which would interpose the more tolerable image-worship, by which God is attempted to be brought nigh, but in reality banished. This leads, therefore, to the renewed interdiction of idolatry, while God prescribes the way in which He is to be approached. “The altar” as our Lord says, “is that which sanctifieth the gift.” Now, if we take the “gifts” that are here spoken of, the burnt-offerings and peace-offerings undoubtedly prefigure the work of Christ. The only thing, then, that could make the work of Christ acceptable was the supreme excellence of the Person who did the work.

Of Him the altar of burnt-offering, -as in due time we may see, -assuredly speaks. Of Him no less must the altars here. But as the burnt-offering will be found to have also a secondary application to the believer, so it will be found in this case also. The gift, the Lord teaches, cannot be acceptable, where the heart of him that offers it is not right. (Matthew 5:23-24.) This is easily understood: and thus the type before us finds very simply its meaning in both applications, whether (as primarily) to Christ, or to the worshiper. The material that God accepts for His altar, then, is either earth or stone, -things which are in contrast with one another; “earth,” deriving its name from its crumbling character (eretz, from ratz, to crumble, says Parkhurst of the Hebrew word); and stone, which resists pressure, and is characterized by its hardness and durability. Of the dust of the earth man was made, and as the earth is fertile as it yields to the hand that dresses it, so is man to God, as He yields Himself to the divine hand. Earth seems thus naturally to stand for the creature in its frailty, -conscious of it, and accepting the place of weakness and subjection, thus to bring forth fruit to God. While stone stands for the strength that is thus found in Another, linked with and growing out of the consciousness of weakness: “When I am weak, then am I strong.” Now in both respects He was perfect, who came down to all the reality of manhood, to know both its weakness and the wondrous strength which is wrought out of weakness thus waiting upon and subject to God. It was thus in endurance He yielded Himself up, and endured by yielding Himself to His Father’s will. The stone of the altar no human hand might shape; and he who approached was thus warned that by no work of his own could he gain acceptance with God, or even help to do so. And again, he was not to go up by steps unto God’s altar, for steps are human machinery to reach a higher level than otherwise belongs to us. God, blessed be His name, has come down to our need, and He would have also our worship and our walk on the same level. Otherwise the effort to take a higher place will surely but expose our shame. That there is a secondary application of these altars to the believer also seems to be true, however, and may be indicated. Our justification is as ungodly (Romans 4:5); our acceptance, in Another, wholly; yet there are acceptable conditions of soul in drawing near to God, which seem to answer to what is here. If we realize our weakness, we find, as in Hebrews, provision for it in the “High-Priest over the house of God” (Hebrews 10:21), and all the tenderness of divine compassion drawn out by our necessity. On the other hand, we have our unchangeable position as in Christ before God, and realize thus “the strength of our salvation.” The two things, though in contrast, yet suit well together, and we need to have them thus in counter-balance in order to know the fullness of the blessing which is ours, whether we consider what we are in ourselves, or what we are in Christ. 4. The ten commandments are in themselves a perfect rule of duty: yet the bluntness of man’s spiritual sense requires help in the application of them to practice. It has been seen thus by many commentators that the divisions of the three following chapters correspond, though not in exact order, with the commandments of the second table, and with that of the Sabbath, several of the divisions developing one of these each. Yet we must not suppose, on the other hand, a full development, which would be practically impossible, or, from its immensity, of little use, but test-cases, if we may call them so, illustrative of their application; leaving plenty of room for individual exercise, ever healthful and necessary to the discipline intended by them. This we shall see in the brief examination which it is alone possible to give them here. “Bertheau, and after him Baumgarten, maintain,” says Murphy, “that as the ’ten words’ constitute the great Decalogue, so each of these sections forms a minor decalogue. There is, we conceive, some tenable ground for this subdivision. This brings out in a striking light the wonderful system lying in the structure of this seemingly unconnected collection of injunctions. Seven groups of ten precepts each form the fundamental polity of the commonwealth of Israel.” Those who see so much should look further. What is true of these chapters is true of the whole Word of God, that there is a numerical structure every where which connects all together, and gives added significance to every part. The seventh section, however, in conformity with its character, which is mainly promise, seems to be rather divisible into seven than into ten parts. (1) “The first of these sections,” says Murphy again, “refers to the duties of masters and servants, and is therefore a natural expansion of the fifth commandment, which relates to parents and children.” This is true, and deeply instructive: how instructive is it, and yet how simple, that the master is thus seen in the place of the parent! It is of slavery the commandment treats -an evil which as yet could not be done away; and which, in the limited form in which it is here permitted, became often a benefit. How truly so if the slave became thus, as it were, the adopted child of his master, or the maid-servant became the wife of her master or of his son! But how infinitely is the servant’s place here exalted, when we see in the One who voluntarily chooses it forever the type of the blessed Person whose “body prepared” Him was really what the digged ear of the Hebrew servant was, -the sign of love’s surrender to perpetual service! Upon all this there is no space to enlarge; but this is how God has filled up the valleys, and glorified what is lowly. Blessed be His name! (2) The second section is, without any doubt, an expansion of the second commandment of this table. Any comment upon it would have to be in detail, and is therefore beyond the scope of the present work. (3) The third section does not follow the order of the Decalogue, but passes on to the fourth commandment, -the question of property. This is quite suitable to the significance of the number, however; the third commandment only finding brief reference in the fourth section, which is not at all, as Murphy very strangely makes it to be, devoted to it. (4) The fourth section, rather, as Lange says, pronounces against unnatural crimes, sins against either the assigned place in creation or the relation to the Creator, or that which we well call “humanity,” the consideration of the need and weakness of the creature. And here the numerical stamp is evident. (5) The fifth section plainly connects with the fifth commandment. (6) The sixth section brings us back to the law of the Sabbath, but this only as connected with its subject, which is here to be sought certainly below the surface. On its face, it is a series of laws as to the religious seasons, and this, of course, must be the form under which we shall find the deeper truth. For deeper truth there must be: these positive outward institutions must have a purpose in the care of God for His people, as surely as they have also a typical meaning for us. Of the latter, here is not the place to speak: we find them here in connection with moral precepts, which are given for the spiritual education of the people, and these carry their meaning upon their face: the moral purpose of the religious seasons must be as truly in them if not as evident. Now, in general, it is plain, as we have seen, that these sections take up in order and apply the commandments of the second table, and that in this section, therefore, we should reach the last commandment, “Thou shalt not lust,” or “covet.” Can there, then, be any correspondence between that commandment, the most spiritual of all, and these merely (as it might seem) external observances? Yet it becomes evident, as we look at what is here before us, how great a check to covetousness these ordinances would be. Every seventh day a Sabbath of rest; every seventh year sabbatic likewise; three times a year for every male to appear before the Lord, and never empty; the first-fruits to be for Him. In fact, we find that such laws were being constantly broken through by the greed and unbelief of the people. Even then they were witnesses against this. Beside which, a positive law, to which the conscience of the mass does not respond in the same way as to that which therefore they call moral, -if it require much, -tests the state of the heart more than this even. It rests more entirely for its sanction upon the authority of God; it demands more complete subjection from the will of man, which, in its revolt from God, and attracted by the world around, is lust. For those really subject, it becomes, on the other hand, a fruitful discipline. Moreover, in this continual bringing God before the soul, and the soul to God, the true remedy is pointed out for this root and stronghold of sin within the soul. Attracted to God, the allurement of other things is met and broken, and we find true deliverance. This is what the apostle shows us in the seventh of Romans, though there in a manner beyond any thing the law could speak of. Thus the connection of this sixth section with the sixth commandment is clearly to be seen however, and the importance of these institutions in Israel may be better realized. (7) The seventh section is rather promise and assurance than command, although command there is also. It carries Israel’s heart on to the land of their inheritance, as ours are carried on to one more glorious. The still smaller division of these subsections have been only indicated in the text. To have taken these up in detail would have enlarged these notes beyond their intended limit. We have before us yet much of the book, and where detail will be more required. 5. The law being now substantially complete, and when it is again, formally, accepted by the people, they are permitted to be with God as in covenant-relation. The glory of God is seen, though but afar off. It is for this reason that this manifestation of Himself does not come in its usual numerical place, but under the number which speaks of governmental dealing and human responsibility. This blessedness does not and cannot abide for them. How much can man keep of what is committed to him? (1) And this is intimated at the outset: for the people, even in their representatives, cannot draw near. He who has come down to dwell among them has yet to hold them at a distance, while Moses alone, as type of a greater Mediator, is called to approach. This position of Moses is emphasized in Jehovah’s words here. (2) We then find the covenant ratified, not alone by the reiterated consent of the people, but by the shedding of blood -the proclamation of the penalty of disobedience, and not the witness of the power of atonement for them. This, no doubt, seems strange and unlikely, when we read, as here, of burnt-offerings and peace-offerings offered, the well-known figures of the blessed Lord’s work for men. But when was cleansing by the blood of Jesus the result of man’s doing or engaging to do the work of the law? and this was, as Moses said to them, the blood of the covenant they were then making, that old covenant of law which is in contrast with the new covenant, and cannot be “added to” the promise of the gospel. (Galatians 3:8-18.) How, then, can the blood of the precious sacrifice be the blood of the legal covenant at the same time? For we may not say that the burnt-offering is not the blood of atonement (Leviticus 1:4); and we may not say that this blood atoned: how then? We have only to look at the cross of Christ, and we shall find in it the answer to this question. Christ’s blood is the “blood of the new covenant” (Matthew 26:28); but was it not also (in a sense) the blood of the old? Certainly in this way it was, that it affirmed the righteousness of the penalty of the law for those under it. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us,” says the apostle. (Galatians 3:13.) And this affirms the righteousness of the penalty. Even yet, then, for every one who presumptuously undertakes to stand upon the footing of law-works before God, the blood of Christ bears witness that he must meet the penalty, which for those who are “justified by His blood” (Romans 5:9) has been met. How solemn, then, does this make the witness here! (3) But for the moment all seems well with the people, though they are not brought nigh. But how little man thinks really of being brought nigh! how well content he is to be in the sufferable distance, if only he may escape wrath! So the representatives of the people worship in the far-off place, and all is well. And they see the God of Israel, -not as Moses, “face to face,” -nor must we speculate as to the vision. What is “under His feet” is what is dwelt on for us, -the sapphire work, like the clear transparent depths of the heavens themselves, which a comparison with Ezekiel’s vision, as well as also the language here, would seem to show as really meant: that “terrible crystal” vault, suggesting with its immeasurable depths the infinite to the finite, yet which God transcends by His whole Being: -for whom they are but the footstool for His feet. Wondrously this reveals Him whom yet we see not; for there is no likeness of Him, and they saw none (Deuteronomy 4:12). Yet we have seen Him, marvelous to say, in the likeness of the Son of Man! (Revelation 1:13.) (4) The spoken law has yet to be given into man’s hand as a written one. Such is man’s need, and so little can be trusted to tradition. In the wisdom of God the people are also to be tested by Moses’ absence from them: of this trial the forty days of absence definitely speak. (5) The mount, covered with the cloud six days, on the seventh breaks out into flame to the people’s eyes; but the voice of the Lord calls Moses up to Himself, -to that serene Presence where cloud and fire are not. These are but as the ***** (infolding?) enfolding fire at the gate of Eden; beyond is the ineffable glory and the eternal peace.