328
July 1932
K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
T h e
COMMENTARY Children’s Division In Holy Places B y H elen G ailey B y H erbert H. T ay
LESSON Golden Text Illustrations B y A lan S. P earce
Outline and Exposition B y B. B. S utcliffe
Blackboard Outlines B y B essie B. B urch
the law was given to all peoples, including the Gentiles, is wholly erroneous and has led to much confusion o f Scripture truth. III. T he S ubstance of the C ommandments (3-11). There were two tables o f the law given, the first containing man’s relation to God, and the second containing man’s relation to man. The first had four command ments, looking Godward; the second had six, looking manward. The first table o f the law provides the lesson for today. “ Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” This does not mean merely that there is to be no god recognized as higher than this God, but that there is to be no other god at all. The God who gives these com mandments is exclusive and absolute Deity; there is no other. He has no rival and no equal. All other supposed gods are vanity, that is, nothingness; there is no reality or truth in them. Those who wor ship them, worship demons (1 Cor 8:4-6; 10:18-21). The true God is not only supreme, but He is spiritual; hence, there can be no image made o f Him. Man’s natural incli nation is to have something which he can see as an object o f worship. This would make the worship to be a mere psychical exercise and not a spiritual communion. Therefore, there is to be no physical con ception made; but God, who is a Spirit, is to be worshiped “in spirit and in truth.” God, while unseen, is nevertheless real, actual, true, and living. He is o f necessity a jealous God, because He is the only One. He will not—because He cannot, being what He is—sanction idolatry of any kind. Trying to visualize God by the use of an image, or a likeness o f anything with which we are familiar, is idolatry and the object o f the consuming jealousy o f God. The world presents other gods as ob jects o f worship by appealing to the sup posed needs o f the present. The flesh sug gests other gods to follow by appealing to sensual satisfaction. And the devil brings other gods to the minds o f men by ap pealing to the opportunity for open sin. But these three, the world, the flesh, and the devil, secure consideration o f their claims through man’s own selfish desire to have something apart from the true and living God. Verse 5 reveals that the iniquity o f the fathers is visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generations. This has been proven to be correct by the ob servation of physicians, and it has worked out in the natural fulfillment o f physical laws. The mercy o f the Lord, however, being spiritual, extends to thousands of generations, as the sixth verse declares: “ Showing mercy unto a thousand genera tions of them that love me” (R . V .). God’s name (v. 7) is to be held as sa cred. The Yiame stands for His character. Hence, His name is Himself, and He is not to be taken in vain, which implies both vanity and falseness. There is need for the
AUGUST 7, 1932 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS I È xodus 19:1 to 20:11
principles which were to govern the social life o f Israel. The ordinances cover those matters which were to govern the re ligious life o f Israel. I. T he S ource of the C ommandments (1 ). Moses is frequently referred to as the great law-giver. But we should remember that he was merely the human agent through whom God was pleased to give ex pression to His mind concerning what man ought to be and to do. Apart from God, Moses had no more understanding of those things than the youngest member of the Israelite nation. The commandments did not come from Moses, but “ God spake all these words.” God did not merely give the concept, and then allow Moses to clothe that concept in his own words, but the words as well as the concept were God’s. And God spake all these words; there was nothing for the ingenuity of Moses to supply. All was given by God; hence, all was perfect. This a once disposes of the idea that what Moses wrote was a sort of compila tion o f already existing precepts and prin ciples. It is not true that Moses, being fa miliar with a wide range o f religious teachings from Babylonian and other sources, chose from his own knowledge the principles and commandments which are set forth in this portion o f the Bible. These commandments came directly from God, but they came through Moses as the human channel. II. T he R ecipients of the C ommandments ( 2 ). I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out o f the land of Egypt.” The law was given to a special people, who had been brought from a certain land, the land o f Egypt. It could not be said that the law was given to the Egyptians, nor to any other people except those who were brought forth from the house o f bondage. These were in a special sense God’s people, redeemed by blood in Egypt, redeemed by power in the wilderness, delivered from Egypt by both blood and power, and now, separated and distinct from all other peo ples, given the law. The common idea that BLACKBOARD LESSON Gr\Vi CCS) 7Y F Y^YvTj THOU. SH ALT LO VE J E H O V A H . W IT H A L L T H Y • 1
Lesson Text: Ex. 20:1-11. Golden Text: “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deut. 6:5 ). Mount Sinai O ne can hardly imagine a more ap propriate place for the giving o f the law than Mount Sinai. It is situ ated in the southern tip o f the Peninsula o f Sinai. All o f this district is a “waste, howling wilderness.” It is almost as far away from the civili- ® zation o f Egypt as nothing to distract the attention from the word o f God. The mountain itself is awe-inspiring. It rises like a mammoth mass o f granite from the plain at its base. So precipitous is its ascent that one can stand in the level plain and reach out his hand and touch the mountain as it rises before him. There was some point in Moses’ commanding the Israelites that they should not touch the mountain with their hands while God was delivering the law upon its summit. The deep canyons, with which its face is fur rowed, serve only to heighten its venerable appearance. The solid and massive char acter o i the mountain makes it a most ap propriate place for the deliverance o f God’s unchanging law. “Heaven' and earth shall pass away,” said Jesus, “but my word shall not pass away.” Most o f the region o f the southern part o f the Peninsula o f Sinai is mountainous. Bleak and barren ridges, most of them o f forbidding granite, rise tier upon tier in every direction. Their menacing aspect is softened only by the purple haze o f the distance. In this region, far from the habitation o f man, God gave His eternal laws to the world. Outline and Exposition This lesson, together with the one fol lowing, is occupied with the portion of the law commonly called the Ten Command ments. These two Sundays, therefore, will present a splendid opportunity for point ing out the majesty and perfection o f the law, as well as the dangers of legalism. The commandments express the righteous will o f God, which is holy, just, and good (Rom. 7:12). The judgments express the
one could get in this peninsula, and in a place in which very few men c a r e to d w e l l . W h e n one stands before Mount Sinai, he feels that he is alone with God. The world, with its man-made laws is far away, and there is
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