The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 202

rrp1 t hr promise to send 1he Rngel, is RhRolnk nhnminRtion of hnman sacrifices, and pnllutod Thr1r rrRliRation depcn,ls on H strir.1 anrl hPRrl)· wi1b the s1ill more dchll8ing evil of religious ,,hi:"l\1('UrP. impurity. "The •Rrrifice offered to Ash- t-Orcih," says Dr. Dollinger," consisted in the Yer. 20.-Beholcl, I ■end a meuenger prostitution of women: the women submitted before thee. J <'Wish commentators rogard the t hemsekes to the visitore of the foRBt, in tho m<'ssenger as Moses, who, no doubt, was a t~mple of the goddess or the adjoining pre- "l"'cially comruissionoo. ambRBsRdor for God, cinct. A legend told of Astart.e (Ashtoreth) :111d who might, therefore, well be t.ermed having prostituted hersel( in Tyre for ten (),.,r, messruger. Bu1 the expressions-" He years : and in many places matrons, RB well RB will not pardon your transgressions," and "My maidens, consecrated themselves for a length name is in him," are too high for Moses. An of time, or on the festivals of the goddess, 11ngel must be intended-probably "the with a view of propitiating her, or earning Angel of the Covenant,"-whom the best her favour as hieroduli of unchwitity. , . . expo,,i1ors identify with the Second Person In this way they went so fer at last 118 to con- of the Trinih-. the Ever-Blessed Son of God. t.emplate the abominations of unnatural lust 118 To keep thee in the way is not simply " to a homage rendered to the deity, and to exalt guide thee through the wilderness, and pre- it into a regular cultus. The worshlp of the ,·ent thee from geographical error," bnt to goddess at Aphaca in Lebanon was specially keep thee altogether in the right paths, to notorious in this respect. The temple in a guard thy going out and thy coming in, to solitary situation was, 118 Eusehius tells us, a prevent thee from falling into any kind of place of evil-doing for such RB chose to ruin wrong conduct. The plane whiah I have their bodies in scandalous ways, . . • . prepared is not merely Palestine, but that Crimrnal interconrse with women, impurity, ,lace of which Palestine is the type-viz., shameful and degrading deeds, were pra.ctised ! lc,n·en. Compare John xiv. 2 :-" I go to prc\,are a place for you." in the temple, where there Wll8 no custom and no law, and no honourable or decent \ er. 21.-Provoke him :not. On the dis- human being could be found." (Jew and obedience of the Israelites to this precept, see Gentik, vol. i. pp. 428, 429 ; Damell's trans- Num. x.iv. 11; Ps. lx.xviii. 17, 40, 56, etc. lation.) Thon Bhalt utterly overthrow them. lty name is in him. God's honour he will The heathen gods are identified with their not give to another He does not set His Name images. These were to be tom from their in a 1Il8Jl. The angel, in whom was God's bases, overthrown, and rolled in the dnst for Nan1e, must have been co-equal with God- greater contempt and ignominy. They were one of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity. then to he broken up and bnrnt, till the gold Ver. 22.-If thou &halt indeed obey hill and the silver with which they were overlaid voice, a:nd do all that I speak. The change was calcined and could be stamped to powder. of persons in the latter clause-" all that I Nothing was to be spared that had been de- speak," instead of "all that he speaks "-im- graded by idolatry, either for its beauty or its plies the doctrine of the periencho_r~ or elaborate workmanship, or its value. All was circumi,1868Si.o, that God the Father IS m the hateful to God, and was to be destroyed. Son and the Spirit, as they are in him. A:n Ver. 25.-Ke ahall bleas thJ bread and thy advenia.ry to thy advera&ries. Rather " an water. If the Israelites were exact in their afllictor of thy afliictors." obedience, and destroyed the idols, and served Ver. 23.-The Amai:ittm, a:nd the Hittites, God only, then he promised to bless "their etc. The nations of C8.D.118D proper, to whom bread and their water"-the food, i.e., whether the Gergashites ere sometimes added. See the meat or drink, on whlch they subsisted, and to comment on eh. iii. 8. I will out them oif. give them vigorous health, free from aiokness Or•· cut them down," i.e., destroy them from of any kind, whlch he pledged himself to take heing any longer nations, but not e x ~ t e away from the midst of them. Though them, w, is generally supposed. David had a Christians have no such special pledge, there "Hittite" among hiii "mighty men" (2 Sam. is, no doubt, that virtuous and godly living ,..xin. 39), and ww. on friendly terms with would greatly conduce to health, and take Aramiah the" Jebusite "(ibid. eh. x.xiv. 18- away half the sicknesses from which men 2! J. suffer, even at the present day. Ver. 24.-Thon shalt not bow down to Ver. 26.-There shall nothing oaat their their gods nor 11erve them, nor do after their young, nor be barren in thy la.nd. This work&. It is olways to be home in mind that blessing could not have followed upon godly with the idolatries of the heathen were con- living in the way of natural sequence, but only ut-cted "works of darkness," which it is by Divine favour and providential care. It sl,arueful even to spea.k of. The rites of would have rendered them rich in llocks and Baal !l.lld Ash1oreth, of Chemosh, Molech, herds beyond any other nation. The number Rmur,on, 11Ld the other Cwaanite and of thy days I will fulfil. There shall be no byrwu deities wert- at ouce defiled by the premature deaths. All, both 111e11 and women, en. :xxm. 2G-3I.] TIII~ ilOOK OF EXIJDUS. 213