 |  |
The Covenant and the Commandments.
Each of the commandments are vital parts of the covenant, and in many cases
passages may be found where this connection is definitely stated. On others it is clearly
implied. We will not occupy space in printing the commandments, but the reader with
Exod. 20: open before him may find some help by noting the following facts and
particulars.
1: "No other God."--It is implied in the expressions, "Thy God", "I will be their
God", "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob", that there is a covenant relationship
between the two parties named. This is established by such a passage as:--
"Behold, I make a covenant . . . . . thou shalt worship no other god . . . . . lest thou
make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land" (Exod. 24: 10, 14, 15).
2: "No graven image."--Had this command been observed by Israel, it alone would
have made them a separate people on the earth, for idolatry and image worship was
practically universal:--
"Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which
He made with you, and make a graven image, or the likeness of anything . . . . . . ."
(Deut. 4: 23, 24).
"Wherefore hath the Lord done this unto the land? . . . . . because they have forsaken
the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers . . . . . FOR THEY WENT and served
OTHER GODS" (Deut. 29: 9-28).
3: The covenant Name.--When the Lord bade Moses hew two tables of stone in
order that the words of the covenant might be written thereon, we read:--
"And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the
NAME of the Lord . . . . . and He said, Behold, I make a covenant" (Exod. 34: 1-10).
The name here proclaimed is "The Lord God", and the title "The Lord thy God"
occurs in each of the commandments on the first table. It is the covenant name, and
therefore sacred and central.
4:
The sabbath.--The sabbath was a sign of the covenant:--
"Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath . . . . . for a perpetual
covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel" (Exod. 31: 16, 17).
5: The honouring of parents.--The honour due to father and mother is a marked
feature of the Old Testament, and it gains in importance when we see that this command
finished the first table that deals with Israel's relation to God. We may the better
understand the Lord's words in Matt. 15: 4-6 when we see the place of this fifth
commandment. The Pharisees transgressed this commandment by their tradition. They
taught that if a man declared that all his possessions were given to God, saying, "It is