The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Exodus Part 22

_THE PROLOGUE._

xx. 2.

The Decalogue is introduced by the words "I am the Lord thy G.o.d, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."

Here, and in the previous chapter, is already a great advance upon the time when it was said to them "The G.o.d of thy fathers, the G.o.d of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, hath appeared." Now they are expected to remember what He has done for themselves. For, although religion must begin with testimony, it ought always to grow up into an experience.

Thus it was that many of the Samaritans believed on Jesus because of the word of the woman; but presently they said, "Now we believe, not because of thy speaking, for we have heard Him ourselves, and know." And thus the disciples who heard John the Baptist speak, and so followed Jesus, having come and seen where He abode, could say, "We have found the Messiah."

This prologue is vitally connected with both tables of the law. In relation to the first, it recognises the instinct of wors.h.i.+p in the human heart. In vain shall we say Do not wors.h.i.+p idols, until the true object of adoration is supplied, for the heart must and will prostrate itself at some shrine. A leader of modern science confesses "the immovable basis of the religious sentiment in the nature of man," adding that "to yield this sentiment reasonable satisfaction is the problem of problems at the present hour."[35] It is indeed a problem for the unbelief which, because it professes to be scientific, cannot shut its eyes to the fact that men whose faith in Christ has suffered s.h.i.+pwreck are everywhere seen to be clinging to strange planks-spiritualism, esoteric Buddhism, and other superst.i.tions,-which prove that man must and will reverence something more than streams of tendencies, or beneficial results to the greatest numbers. The Law of Moses abolishes superst.i.tion by no mere negation, but by the proclamation of a true G.o.d.

Moreover, it declares that this G.o.d is knowable, which flatly contradicts the brave a.s.sertion of modern agnostics that the notion of a G.o.d is not even "thinkable." That a.s.sertion is a bald and barren plat.i.tude in the only sense in which it is not contrary to the experience of all mankind. As we cannot form a complete and perfect, nor even an adequate notion of G.o.d, so no man ever yet conceived a complete and adequate notion of his neighbour, nor indeed of himself. But as we can form a notion of one another, dim and fragmentary indeed, yet more or less accurate and fit to guide our actions, so has every nation and every man formed some notion of deity. Nor could even the agnostic declare that G.o.d is unthinkable, unless the word G.o.d, of which he makes this a.s.sertion, conveyed to him _some_ idea, some thought, more or less worthy of the thinking. The ancient Jew never dreamed that he could search out the Almighty to perfection, yet G.o.d was known to him by His actions (the only means by which we know our fellow-men); and the combined terror and loving-kindness of these at once warned him against revolt, and appealed to his loyalty for obedience.

In relation to the second table, the prologue was both an argument and an appeal. Why should a man hope to prosper by estranging his best Friend, his Emanc.i.p.ator and Guide? And even if disobedience could obtain some paltry advantage, how base would he be who s.n.a.t.c.hed at it, when forbidden by the G.o.d Who broke his chains, and brought him out of the house of bondage-a Benefactor not ungenial and remote, but One Who enters into closest relations with him, calling Himself "Thy G.o.d"!

Now, a greater emanc.i.p.ation and a closer personal relations.h.i.+p belong to the Church of Christ. When a Christian hears that G.o.d is unthinkable, he ought to be able to answer, 'G.o.d is my G.o.d, and He has brought my soul out of its house of bondage.'

Moreover, his emanc.i.p.ation by Christ from many sins and inner slaveries ought to be a fact plain enough to const.i.tute the sorest of problems to the observing world.

It must be observed, besides, that the Law, which was the centre of Judaism, does not appeal chiefly to the meaner side of human nature.

h.e.l.l is not yet known, for the depths of eternity could not be uncovered before the clouds had rolled away from its heights of love and condescension; or else the sanity and balance of human nature would have been overthrown. But even temporal judgments are not set in the foremost place. As St. Paul, who knew the terrors of the Lord, more commonly and urgently besought men by the mercies of G.o.d, so were the ancient Jews, under the burning mountain, reminded rather of what G.o.d had bestowed upon them, than of what He might inflict if they provoked Him. And our grat.i.tude, like theirs, should be excited by His temporal as well as His spiritual gifts to us.

_THE FIRST COMMANDMENT._

"Thou shalt have none other G.o.ds before Me."-xx. 3.

When these words fell upon the ears of Israel, they conveyed, as their primary thought, a prohibition of the formal wors.h.i.+p of rival deities, Egyptian or Sidonian G.o.ds. Following immediately upon the proclamation of Jehovah, their own G.o.d, they declared His intolerance of rivalry, and enjoined a strict and jealous monotheism. For G.o.d was a reality. Races who wors.h.i.+pped idealisations or personifications might easily make room for other poetic embodiments of human thought and feeling; but Jehovah would vindicate His rights. He had proved himself very real in Egypt.

Other G.o.ds would not displace Him: He would observe them: they would be "before Me."[36] G.o.d does not quit the scene when man forgets Him.

Now, it is hard for us to realise the charm which the wors.h.i.+p of false G.o.ds possessed for ancient Israel. To comprehend it we must reflect upon the universal ignorance which made every phenomenon of nature a portentous manifestation of mysterious and varied power, which they could by no means trace back to a common origin, while the crash and discord of the results appeared to indicate opposing wills behind. We must reflect how closely akin is awe to wors.h.i.+p, and how blind and unintelligent was the awe which storm and earthquake and pestilence then excited. We must remember the pressure upon them of surrounding superst.i.tions armed with all the civilisation and art of their world.

Above all, we must consider that the G.o.ds which seduced them were not of necessity supreme: homage to them was very fairly consistent with a reservation of the highest place for another; so that false wors.h.i.+p in its early stages need not have been much more startling than belief in witchcraft, or in the paltry and unimaginative "spirits" which, in our own day, are reputed to play the banjo in a dark room, and to untie knots in a cabinet. Is it for us to deride them?

To oppose all such tendencies, the Lord appealed not to philosophy and sound reason. These are not the parents of monotheism: they are the fruit of it. And so is our modern science. Its fundamental principle is faith in the unity of nature, and in the extent to which the same laws which govern our little world reach through the vast universe. And that faith is directly traceable to the conviction that all the universe is the work of the same Hand.

"One G.o.d, one law, one element;"-the preaching of the first was sure to suggest the other two. Nor could any race which believed in a mult.i.tude of G.o.ds labour earnestly to reduce various phenomena to one cause.

Monotheism is therefore the parent of correct thinking, and could not draw its sanctions thence. No: the law appeals to the historical experience of Israel; it is content to stand and fall by that; if they acknowledged the claim of G.o.d upon their loyalty, all the rest followed.

Their own story made good this claim. And so does the whole story of the Church, and the whole inner life of every man who knows anything of himself, bear witness to the religion of Jesus.

Never let us weary of repeating that while we have ample controversial resource, while no missile can pierce the chain-armour of the Christian evidences, connected and interwoven into a great whole, and while the infidelity which is called scientific is really infidel only so far as it begs its case (which is an unscientific thing to do), nevertheless the strength of our position is experimental. If the experience which testifies to Jesus were historical alone, I might refuse to give it credit: if it were only personal, I might ascribe it to enthusiasm. But as long as a great cloud of living witnesses, and all the history of the Church, declare the reality of His salvation, while I myself feel the sufficiency of what He offers (or else the bitter need of it), so long the question is not between conflicting theories, but between theories and facts. To have another G.o.d is to place him beside One Whom we already have, and Who has wrought for us the great emanc.i.p.ation. It is not an error in theological science: it is ingrat.i.tude and treason.

But it very soon became evident that men could apostatise from G.o.d otherwise than in formal wors.h.i.+p, chant and sacrifice and prostration: "This people honoureth me with their mouths, but their hearts are far from Me." G.o.d asks for love and trust, and our litanies should express and cultivate these. Whatever steals away these from the Lord is really His rival, and another G.o.d. "What is it to have a G.o.d? or what is G.o.d?"

Luther asks. And he answers, "He is G.o.d, and is so called, from Whose goodness and power thou dost confidently promise all good things to thyself, and to Whom thou dost fly from all adverse affairs and pressing perils. So that to have a G.o.d is nothing else than to trust Him and believe in Him with all the heart, even as I have often alleged that the reliance of the heart const.i.tutes alike one's G.o.d and one's idol.... In what thing soever thou hast thy mind's reliance and thine heart fixed, that is beyond doubt thy G.o.d" (_Larger Catechism_).

And again: "What sort of religion is this, to bow not the knees to riches and honour, but to offer them the n.o.blest part of you, the heart and mind? It is to wors.h.i.+p the true G.o.d outwardly and in the flesh, but the creature inwardly and in spirit" (_X. Praecepta Witt. Praedicata_).

It was on this ground that he included charms and spells among the sins against this commandment, because, though "they seem foolish rather than wicked, yet do they lead to this too grave result, that men learn to rely upon the creature in trifles, and so fail in great things to rely upon G.o.d" (_Ibid._)

This view of false wors.h.i.+p is frequent in Scripture itself. The Chaldeans were idolaters of an elaborate and imposing ritual, but their true deities were not to be found in temples. They adored what they really trusted upon, and that was their military prowess-the G.o.d of the modern commander, who said that Providence sided with the big battalions. The Chaldean is "he whose might is his G.o.d," whereas the sacred warrior has the Lord for his strength and s.h.i.+eld and very present help in battle. Nay, regarding men "as the fishes of the sea," and his own vast armaments as the fisher's apparatus to sweep them away, the Chaldean, it is said, "sacrificeth unto his net, and burneth incense unto his drag; because by them his portion is fat and his meat plenteous" (Hab. i. 11, 1416). Mult.i.tudes of humbler people practise a similar idolatry. They say to G.o.d "Give us this day our daily bread"; but they really ascribe their maintenance to their profession or their trade; and so this is the true object of their homage. They, too, burn incense to their drag.

Others had no thought of a higher blessedness than animal enjoyment.

Their G.o.d was their belly. They set the excitement of wine in the place of the fulness of the Spirit, or preferred some depraved union upon earth to the honour of being one spirit with the Lord (Phil. iii. 19; Eph. v. 18; 1 Cor. vi. 16, 17). And some tried to combine the world and righteousness; not to lose heaven while grasping wealth, and receiving here not only good things, but the only good things they acknowledged-_their_ good things (Luke xvi. 25). As the Samaritans feared the Lord and served graven images, so these were fain to serve G.o.d and mammon (2 Kings xvii. 41; Matt. vi. 24).

Now, these departures from the true Centre of all love and Source of all light were really a homage to His great rival, "the G.o.d of this world."

Whenever men seek to obtain any prize by departing from G.o.d, they do reverence to him who falsely said of all the kingdoms of the earth, and their glory, "These things are delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give them." They deny Him to Whom indeed all power is committed in heaven and earth.

What is the remedy, then, for all such formal or virtual apostasies? It is to "have" the true G.o.d-which means, not only to know and confess, but to be in real relations.h.i.+p with Him.

Despite His so-called self-sufficiency, man is not very self-sufficing, after all. The vast endowments of Julius Caesar did not prevent him from chafing because, at the age when he was still obscure, Alexander had conquered the world. To be Julius Caesar was not enough for him. Nor is any man able to stand alone. In the Old Testament Joshua said, "If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve,"-implying that they must obey some one and will do better to choose a service than to drift into one (Josh. xxiv. 15). And in the New Testament Jesus declared that no man can serve two masters; but added that he would not break with both and go free, he was sure to love and cleave to one of them. Now, he only is proof against apostasy, who has realised the wants of the soul within him, and the powerlessness of all creatures to satisfy or save, and then, turning to the cross of Christ, has found his sufficiency in Him. "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of everlasting life." Marvellous it is to think that underneath the stern words "Thou shalt have none other," lies all the condescension of the privilege "Thou shalt have ... Me."

_THE SECOND COMMANDMENT._

"Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, ... thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them."-xx. 46.

How far does the second of these clauses modify the first? Men there are who maintain the severe independence of the former, so that it forbids the presence of any image or likeness in the house of G.o.d, even for innocent purposes of adornment. But the Decalogue is not a liturgical directory: what it forbids in church it forbids anywhere; and on this theory the statues in Parliament Square would be idolatrous, as well as those in Westminster Abbey. And such Christians are more Judaical than the Jews, who were taught to place in the very Holy of Holies golden cherubim overshadowing the mercy-seat, and to represent them again upon its curtains.

It is therefore plain that the precept never forbade imagery, but idolatry, which is the making of images to satisfy the craving of men's hearts for a sensuous wors.h.i.+p-the making of them "unto thee." The second clause qualifies and elucidates the first. And what the commandment prohibits is any attempt to help our wors.h.i.+p by representing the object of adoration to the senses.

The higher and more subtle idolatries do not conceive that wood or gold is actually transformed into their deities; but only that the deities are locally present in the images, which express their attributes-power in a hundred hands, beneficence in a hundred b.r.e.a.s.t.s. But in thus expressing, they degrade and cramp the conception.

They may perhaps evade the reproach of Isaiah that they warm themselves with a portion of timber, and roast meat with another portion, and make the remainder a G.o.d (Isa. xliv. 1517), by urging that the timber is not the G.o.d, but an abode which he chooses because it expresses his specific qualities. But they cannot evade the reproach of St. Paul, that being ourselves the offspring of G.o.d, we ought not to compare Him to the workmans.h.i.+p of our hands, graven with art and man's device (Acts xvii.

29).

A truly spiritual wors.h.i.+p is intellectually as well as morally the most elevating exercise of the soul, which it leads onward and upward, making of all that it knows and thinks a vestibule, beyond which lie higher knowledge and deeper feeling as yet unattained.

Why is Gothic architecture better adapted for religious buildings than any Grecian or Oriental style? Because its long aisles, vaulted roofs and pointed arches, leading the vision up to the unseen, tell of mystery, and draw the mind away beyond the visible and concrete to something greater which it hints; while rounded arches and definite proportions shut in at once the vision and the mind. The difference is the same as between poetry and logic.

And so it is with wors.h.i.+p. We fetter and cramp our thoughts of deity when we bind them to even the loftiest conceptions which have ever been shut up in marble or upon canvas. The best image that ever took shape is inferior to the poorest spiritual conception of G.o.d, in this respect if in no other-that it has no expansiveness, it cannot grow. And in connecting our prayers with it, we virtually say, 'This satisfies my conception of G.o.d.'

It is not to be condemned merely as inadequate, for so are all our highest thoughts of deity; nor only because average humanity (which is supposed to stand most in need of the help and suggestion of art) will never learn the fine distinctions by which subtle intellects withhold from the image itself the wors.h.i.+p which it evokes, and which goes out in its direction. It is still more mischievous because, even for the trained theologian, it is the petrifaction of what is meant to develop and expand, the solidification of the inadequate, the accepting of what is human as our idea of the divine.

Nor will it long continue to be merely inadequate. Experience proves that ideas, like air and water, cannot be confined without stagnating.

Idolatries not only fail to develop, they degenerate; and systems, however orthodox they may appear at starting, which connect wors.h.i.+p with palpable imagery, are doomed to sink into superst.i.tion.

To this precept there is added a startling and painful caution-"For I the Lord thy G.o.d am a jealous G.o.d." That a man should be jealous is no pa.s.sport to our friends.h.i.+p: we think of unreasonable estrangements, exaggerated demands, implacable and cruel resentments. It would not enter the average mind to doubt that one is highly praised when another says of him, 'I never traced in his words or actions the slightest stain of jealousy.' And yet we are to think of G.o.d Himself as the jealous G.o.d.

Upon reflection, however, we must admit that a man is not condemned as jealous-minded because he is capable of jealousy, but because he has an unjust and unreasonable tendency towards it. It is a narrowing and suspicious quality when it operates without due cause, a vindictive and cruel one when it operates in excessive measure. But what should we think of a parent who felt no jealousy if the heart of his child were stolen from him by intriguing servants or by frivolous comrades? Now, G.o.d has called Israel His son, even His firstborn. The truth is that with us jealousy is dangerous and frequently perverted, because we are bad judges of the measure of our own rights, especially when our affections are involved. But some measure of jealousy is the necessary pain of love neglected, love wronged or slighted by those upon whom it has a claim. Jealousy is the shadow thrown where the suns.h.i.+ne of love is intercepted, and it is strong in proportion to the strength of the light. It operates in the heart exactly like the sense of justice in the reason. Justice expects a recompense where it has given service, and jealousy asks for love where it has given affection.

And therefore, when G.o.d tells us that He is jealous, He implies that He condescends to love us, to look for a return, to desire more from us than outward service. We cannot be jealous concerning things which are indifferent to us. Even the jealousy of rival compet.i.tors for business or for place may be measured by the desire of each for that which the other would engross. The politician is not jealous of the millionaire, nor the capitalist of the prime minister.

Now, if G.o.d is jealous when the enemies of our soul would steal away our loyalty, it surely follows that we shall not be left to contend with those enemies alone: He values us; He is upon our side; He will help us to overcome them.

And now we begin to see why this attribute is connected with the second commandment and not the first. The apostate who betakes himself to another G.o.d is almost beyond the reach of this tender and intimate emotion: he is still loved, for G.o.d loves all men; but yet perhaps the chord is unstrung which trembles responsive to this plaintive note.

When a man who confesses G.o.d begins to weary of spiritual intercourse with the Lord of spirits, when he can no longer wors.h.i.+p One whose actual presence is realised because His voice is heard within, when the likeness of man or brute, or brightness of morning, or marvel of life or its reproductiveness, contents him as a representation of G.o.d the invisible, then his heart is beginning to go after the creature, to content itself with artistic loveliness or majesty, to let go the grasp as upon a living hand, by which alone the soul may be sustained when it stumbles, or guided when it would err.

To those who are within His covenant-to us, therefore, as to His ancient Israel-He says, "I the Lord thy G.o.d am a jealous G.o.d." Because I am "thy G.o.d."