The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 46

!lentenC'e~ by the light of tl1c knowledg11 and experience that God has vonchsafed to man during the int.en·cning pe1iod 1 we find in them a profound eignificnnce, I\ completeness, a harmony, and a due proportion of morn\ and spiritual truth, euch ne afford proofs of their Divine power and authority, far clearer 1tnd more convincing to 1hC' C'll!ightcnC'd spirit of man, than any that could be gi,·en by the most overwhelming nntward manifestations of t.he Divine presence. Who but the living and t.ruo God, 1,e to whom is known all that is in the nature of man, and who foresees the end from the beginning-all thnt would be developed out of that naturo in the history of the world-could thus in "ten words" have set forth the fundament.n! laws of the whole religious and moral 01·der of human life, comprehending the pri:noiplea necessary for C'very sphere of man's rights and man's duties, reaching nt the snnie time not only to the outward act, but to the first germs of evil within the heart? Well might Moses, in his recapitulation of the Divine lnw, while he reminded the people of the privileges ,d1ich the nation possessed above all other nations in the tokens of the Divine fo.vour which they had received, urge on them, that true nntionnl greatness could only be maintained through obedience to the law of their God, especially that which wns given "the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb." 47. But is there not an important question here? We have examined the extent of the commands of this law of God ; we recognise ,vithout difficulty the obligations imposed thereby ; but one thing more is necessary in order that it may be law .indeed ; there must be "a sanction 1 threatened in the event of disobedience." What is the punishment which follows the transgression of the law of God ? There can be no difficulty in answering this question. The sanction of the law 0£ Paradise was, "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die ; " the sentence being carried out, as we ban seen ( § 15), by the body of man becoming not only mortal, but" dead because of sin," and his spirit being separated and alienated from God," dead in sin." Those terrible curses denounced on Israel as a nation,2 if they did not hearken to the voice of the Lord their God, which Moses called "tlie c1wses of tlte covenant," 3 were the expression of that which no human language can fully express or humnn thought conceive, the wrath of the Infinitely Holy God against ein. But did the Israelites know and believe that this condemnation of God was not for thie life only, but for a life after the death of the body? It is impossible to doubt this.. The belief is inherent in the very nature of man, and only obscured in proportion as the belief in 1.he existence of God is obscured. The Egyptians themselves, among whom the Israelites had lived for some centuries, fully believed in judgment after death; and it has been supposed, with some reason, that the silence of Moses on the subject of a future world and of the punishment of sin hereafter .may be explained by the danger of the false and superstitious notions as to the future judgment, which formed so large a part of Egyptian religion, being confirmed in the minds of those who had r,een long familiarised with these errors. This explanation does, at all events, point to the true solution of the difficulty, namely, that the time had not yet come for a clear revelation of the realities of a future world, and therefore, under the dis- pensation of law, that world was hidden in a mysterious and awful darkness, which was only dispelled very gradually, until our Saviour Jesus Christ aboliBhecl 1 See § 26, supra. The particular force of this wo:d! which is~ term from Roman law, will ~e expla~ncd ~.v the fol!owi~g-_passages from Forcellm_1 : "Sa~c~10 leirim qure certam pamam irrogat ils qm," &c. Papinian. "Plus valet sanctio perm1ss1one ti. e. !ex qure co~t qunm qnre permittit." It in,p'il's the solemn confirmation of a law by the penalty or pumshmont attached to it. Tims C'icero (' De Leg.' lib. iiL c. 20) says: "Noxiw pama par csto, ut in suo vitio quisque plectatur, vi; capite, avaritia. mulcta, houoris cupidit:is ignominia sauciatur." ' Deut. xxviii. 15, &c. J Deut. xxix. 21 ; a11rJ r-f. Dr·nt. xxvii, 26 nn<l Gal. iii. 10.  I~TllODUOTION 'fO THE PENTATECCH. uxiii