The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 139

Vers. 3-6.-The first and SPCOftd commandments: against polytheism and image- VJOrsliip. These two commandments seem tu be bound together nnturn.Ily by the reason given in vcr. 5. There Jehovah says, "l nm a jealous God;'' obviously such a feelin« of jealousy applies with !lb much force to the won;hip of other gods as tu the makina0 J graven images. Consider- I. THE P068IBLE TRANSGRESSION HERE INDICATED. The having of other gods thnn Jehovah, a.nd the representation of them by images of created things. 'l'he declarntiuu here is not fl,,,"Rinst more gods than one. Such a declaration would have been incom- prehensible to the lsrnelite at this time, even to Moses himself. The utter emptiness of all idolatry, the non-existence, except as the imagination of a superstitious .and darkened mind, of any other Deity than Jehovah wns a truth not yet appreciable by those to whom Jehovah spoke. He had to take his people as they stood, believers in the existence a.nd power of other gods, and proclaim to them with all the impressiveness that came from the dcmonstrntions of Sinai, that none of these gods was to be in the smallest degree recognised. An idolater in the midst of his idolatries, and not yet laid hold of by Jehovah's hand, might as well have a thousand gods as one. Jehovah speaks here to those who are already bound to himself. Have they not made their promise? Did not the people answer and say, " .All that the Lord bath spoken we will do "? It was the right and dutiful course of every Israelite to worship him, serve him, a.nd depend upon him. 'l'he great and pressing peril was that, side by side with Jehovah, the people should try to put other gods. And to have other gods meant, practically, to have images of them. How necessary and appropriate these two comwandments were to come at this particular time a.nd in this particular order, is seen when we consider the image-making into which Israel fell during the seclusion of Moses in the mount. This seems to have been the accordant a.et of the whole people; .Aaron, who was soon to be the chief official in Jehovab's ritual. being the e11ger inhtrument to gmtify their desires. Nor was this a mere passing danger to the hrn.elites, a something which in due time they would outgrow. 'l'he peril lies deep in the infumities of human nature. Those whom Jehovah bas brought in any measure to himself, need to be reminded that he is IIlB.l!ter. Jesus has put the tl,ing as plain as it can be put," .No ma.n can serve two masters." We cannot serve God a.nd Mammon. Dependence on something else than God, even though there be nothing of religious form in the dependence, is a peril into which we are all liable to come. It is hard to fight--he.rder than we imagine till we are fairly puL t.-0 the struggle -against the allurements of the seen and temporal. Even when we admit that there is an invisible God whose claims e.re supreme, and whose gifts, present and future, 11.re beyond anything that the seen in its pride and beauty can afford-even then we have ti,e utmost difficulty in carrying our admission into practice. JJ. CoNSJDEB Di' PABTICULAB BOW THE 001111.A.NDHENT AGAINST IIIAGE•W0BSBIP MAY AJ•1•1.v To us. Those who go in the way of right worship are in the way to a profitnhle Lu,,wledge: uf Gud. They come to be re<:ogoi:;ed Ly him, accepted by him, and lifo-DOJ en. u. 3-G.] 'l'frn BOOK OF EXODUS. 145 -------------------------~------- by him. Having gmven images inevitably led away from ,Jehovah. There, was n<> possibility of keeping the first commandment, even in the le:rst degree, if the sec,Jn,I ovon in the least degree was broken. Certainly we are under no tern ptation to make images, but it comes to the same thing if we have images ready made. It is conceivable that the day may come when not an image shall be left in the world, except on musenm shelves, and the trade of Demetrius thus oome to an end. But what of that? The change may simply be one of form. Why men should first have made images an,i called them gods is an impenetrable mystery. We cannot but wonder who was tho first man to make an image and why he made it. But that image-making, once established, should continue and return into practice again and again in spite of all aLtempts to destroy it, is easy enough to understand. Habit, tradition, training, will account for everything in this way. Yet the practice of image-worship, at all events in its grossest forms, can only exist together with dense intellectual darkness. When men begin to think and question as to the foundation vf things, when they get away from their mother's knee, then the simple faith in what they have been taught deserts them. There is a frequent and natural enough lamentation that those who have been taught concerning Christ in childhood, oftentimes in manhood depart from him by the way of scepticism, into utter disbelief and denial. Yet we must remember that it is exactly by this kind of process thousands in still image-worshipping lands have broken away from their image-worship. It has not satisfied the awakened and expanding intellect. There is this difference, however, that whereas the awakened intellect forsaking ChrisL may come back to him, and indeed actually does so oftener than we think, the awakened intellect forsaking image-worship cannot go back to it. But to something as a dependent creature he must go. A man leaving his old idolatries and not tindin~ Christ, must needs turn to some new idolatry, none the less real as an idolatry, none the less injurious to his best interests because the image-form is absent. We must not make to ourselves anything whatever to take the place of God, intercept the sight of him, or d~.a.den his voice. We may contradict the spirit of the second commandment, in doing things which we think profitable to the religious life and glorifying to God. A great deal that is reckoned beneficial and even indispensable in the Church of Christ, that has grown with its growth and strengthened with its strength, might come to look very questionable, if only the spirit of this commandment were exactly api,reciated. How many splendid buildings, how many triumphs of the architect, how many combined results of many arts would then be utterly swept away! Men delude themselves with the notion that these things bring them nearer to God, whereas they simply take his place. In worshipping him we should regard with the utmost jealousy all mere indulgence of the senses and even of the intellect. III. 'l'HE DIVINE REASON GIVEN FOR ATTENDING TO THESE COMMANDMENTS. Many reasons might have been given, as for instance, the vanity of graven images, their uselessness in the hour of need, the degradation in which they involv~d the worshippers. But God brings forward a reason which needed to be brought forward, and put in the very front place, where human thought might continually be directed to it. Poly- theism and image-worship are indeed degrading and mischievous to man-but what is of far greater moment, they are also dishonouring to the glory of Deity. Those who were sliding away into the service of other gods were showing that they bad no truly reverent appreciation of Jehovah; and in order to intimate the severity of his requirements with respect to exclusive and devoted service, Jehovah speaks of himself as possessing a feeling which, when found among men is like a devouring and unquenchable fire. A jealous man does well to be jealous, if he bas sufficient ground for the feeling at all, if the affection, service, and sympathies that should he reserved for him are turned elsewhere. Think then of such a feeling, exalted into the pure intensity of a holy anger and bursting into action from God himself, ~nd th_P'.l you have the measure of his wrath with those who think that the glory ot the mcorrupt1hle God can be changed iuto au imaae made like to corruptible man. He makes his jealousy apparent in unquestionable~ deeply penetrating action. It is the acti?n of the lc(rnat I AM, who controls thousands of crenerations. God does, as a matter of fact, v1s1t ihe iniquities of the fathers on the children, and the magnitude of what he does is accounted fo~ by the intensity of his feelings with respect to those who give_his glory_ to anothor. His almighty hand comes down with a blow the affi1ctlve ener~1es of ~-hich .EXODUS-II. L 146 THF. BOOK OF EXODUR. [en. u. 11, 7.