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(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. 4: 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 made you a graven image, or the likeness of anything . . . . ."
(Deut. 4: 32).
"Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? . . . . . because they have forsaken
the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers . . . . . FOR THEY WENT and served
OTHER GODS" (Deut. 29: 24-26).
(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: 5, 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 O.T., and it gains in importance when we see that this command finishes
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 Corban, that is to say,
a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free" (Mark 7: 11).
This the Lord condemned as transgressing the commandment of God.
It is not
possible to honour God by the dishonouring of parents.
We must reserve comment on the second table until the next number.