The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 41

duty to onr neighbour, wo will examine them in order, RO as to determine the distinct principle which each embodies. 36. (I.) The first commandment, as oxpressing tJie most fundamental of all prin- ciples, vii. tho unity of God, is, in a certain sense, the basis and root of the whole lnw. In it he who wae in covenant with his people Israel, the seed of Abraham his ROrv11nt, asserts his own eternal and infinite Being, and that he is the only true nml living Go<l. The lnw proper is the prohibition, "Thon shalt havo no other gorls before me." 1 The unity of God is exclnsive: Le is one, and there is no other: firnt, and there is no second : alone to be loved, honoured, obeyed, and served, as God. 37. (II.) A second principle, distinct from this of. unity, is embodied in the second commandment. God must be worshipped, not as man imagines him, but as he is. Ever since the fall, whenever man has not either denied the existence of God, or for- gotten him altogether in fleshly lusts, he has been prone, being incapable of appre- hending the idea of the personality of Infinite Spirit, to represent God to himself by those things which· are outward and visible; which sin against the very being of God- in its grossest form, the worship of graven images-is prohibited in this law. The language of the commandment, in which those who transgress it are spoken of as "those who hate Me," reminds us that this tendency in man is the result of" the carnal mind which is enmity against God ; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." 2 This sin, though closely allied to that of serving other gods, so· that both are often classed together in Holy Scripture, is undoubtedly not the same. St. Paul, in the passage from the Romans which has already been dis- cussed ( §· 25), declares that, of all sins committed by man, this is the most direct insult to the majesty of the Creator, and has most entirely debased man and brought: on him that most terrible of all judgments, his being given over by God to hie own lusts; and the law itself threatens that this sin must of necessity, in God's government of the world, bring an inheritance of evil for several generations. When we regard this commandment from the other aspect, and consider not only what it forbids but what it commands,-that is, the worship of him who is a Spirit in spirit and in truth,-we find that this subject is necessarily connected, through this law, with the incarnation of the eternal Son of God. He being "the brightness of the glory" of God, and "the express image of his person," was and is, though in the likeness of man, to be worshipped as God, because "in him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily." In him God, though the Infinite Spirit, is fully represented to man; and Jesus Christ, the God-man, alone satisfies those cravings of the human soul which otherwise turn to idolatry. Thus we see that while the negative pole (so to speak) of this law is idolatry, the positive is the worship of God in Christ. 38. (III.) But God demands of man, not merely spiritual service and worship, but also that he should honour God with all that he is, and speciully by that which distinguishes man as a reasonable being from all other creatures, and by wl1ich his reason expresses itself, that is, by language. The tongue, 11s ,ve are fre'luently reminded by the psalmist and others in the Old Testament, and by our Lord and his apostles in the New, is the glory of man when it is used in the service of God, the condemnation of man when language, the overflowing of the heart, is a stream of purposeless or evil words. The third commandment prohibits the highest offence of this class, taking God's name in vain, of which the grossest form is "swear- ing falsely " And man is so little o.ble to realise the profound and mysterious relation between our words, the expresstons of our will am! reason, and the mirnl 1 Litemlly "before my focc ;" thnt is, beside or in addition to, not bitt or instead ojmo. 3 Cf. Rom, viii. 7 and Rom. i, 28, with § 30.  INTHODUCTION TO TIIE PENTATEUCIT.