Exodus 20 · The Lantern

And God spake all these words saying:—

I, am Yahweh thy God,—who have brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of servants:—

Thou shalt not have other gods besides me.

God commands us by His prophet not to esteem any new God to be God, and not to worship any strange God. Now it is clear that that is called new which is not from everlasting, and on the contrary, that is called everlasting which is not new.

It must be said that this truth, that God is one, is a truth not only believable, but also intelligible: since it is necessary and certain not only from the testimony of Scripture and the illumination of grace, which is found in faith; but it is also certain from itself and from the testimony of creatures.

The entire law of Christ depends upon charity. And charity depends on two precepts, one of which concerns loving God and the other concerns loving our neighbor. Now God, in delivering the law to Moses, gave him Ten Commandments written upon two tablets of stone.

Thou shalt not make to thee an image, or any form, that is in the heavens above,—or that is in the earth beneath,—or that is in the waters beneath the earth:

thou shalt not bow thyself down to them nor be led to serve them—For, I, Yahweh, thy God, am a jealous GOD, visiting the iniquity of fathers upon sons, unto three [generations] and, unto four, of them that hate me;

but shewing lovingkindness unto thousands [of generations],—of them who love me, and keep my commandments.

Thou shalt not utter the name of Yahweh thy God for falsehood, for Yahweh will not let him go unpunished who uttereth his name for falsehood.

Although making a variety of suppositions about him, we all know something of God but do not all know what he is, for few indeed and fewer (if I may say so) than few are they who grasp his holiness in all things. Thus we are rightly taught to pray that our concept of God may be hallowed among us.

You are told "Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain"; do not regard Christ as a creature because for your sake he put on the creature. And you, you despise him who is equal to the Father and one with the Father.

This is the Second Commandment of the law. Just as there is but one God whom we must worship, so there is only one God whom we should reverence in a special manner. This, first of all, has reference to the name of God. "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." "In vain" has a threefold meaning.

Remember the sabbath day, to hallow it:

To teach a Christian anything about the observance of the sabbath would seem to be rather superfluous. On the contrary, not only is it not superfluous, but it is in fact basic, bedrock doctrine, because it is a shadow of things to come. The people, you see, are forbidden to perform servile works on the sabbath. Now are we, I ask you, not forbidden to perform servile works?

Under the law the people were ordered to work for six days and to rest on the seventh, [and] to plow and reap for six years and desist during the seventh, because the Lord completed the creation of the world in six days and desisted from his work on the seventh.

This is the Third Commandment of the law, and very suitably is it so. For we are first commanded to adore God in our hearts, and the Commandment is to worship one God: "You shall not have strange gods before Me." In the Second Commandment we are told to reverence God by word: "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." The Third commands us to reverence God by a…

Six days, shalt thou labour, and do all thy work;

but, the seventh day, is a sabbath unto Yahweh thy God,—thou shalt do no work, thou nor thy son nor thy daughter nor thy servant, nor thy handmaid, nor thy beast, nor thy sojourner who is within thy gates,

For, in six days, did Yahweh make the heavens and the earth, [and] the sea—and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day,—for this cause, Yahweh blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.

Honour thy father, and thy mother,—that thy days may be prolonged upon the soil, which Yahweh thy God is about to give unto thee.

And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: [Exodus 20:12] But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall b…

The formation of the children is then the prerogative of the parents. Therefore honor your father, that he may bless you. Let the godly man honor his father out of gratitude and the ingrate do so on account of fear.

Perfection for man consists in the love of God and of neighbor. Now, the three Commandments which were written on the first tablet pertain to the love of God; for the love of neighbor there were the seven Commandments on the second tablet. But we must "love, not in word nor in tongue, but in deed and in truth" [1 Jn 3:18].

Thou shalt not commit murder.

And that you may learn that we know this from the first, the Lawgiver, when He afterwards gave laws, and said, "Thou shalt not kill," did not add, "since murder is an evil thing," but simply said, "Thou shalt not kill;" for He merely prohibited the sin, without teaching.

And God also gave the law by the hand of Moses, which was filled with many and divers commandments, and to all the commandments He linked fear, for without fear the commandments would not be kept. "Thou shalt do no murder", and "whosoever slayeth shall be slain;" for the sickness He ordained the medicine of fear, that it might not increase and grow strong in iniquity.

In the divine law which tells us we must love God and our neighbor, it is commanded that we not only do good but also avoid evil. The greatest evil that can be done to one's neighbor is to take his life. This is prohibited in the Commandment: "You shall not kill." In connection with this Commandment there are three errors.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Therefore whatsoever things God commands (and one of these is "You shall not commit adultery") and whatsoever things are not positively ordered but are strongly advised as good spiritual counsel (and one of these is, "It is a good thing for a man to not touch a woman")—all of these imperatives are rightly obeyed only when they are measured by the standard of our love of God and…

The law cuts away sins of the flesh, but our Redeemer condemns even unlawful thoughts. If therefore they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if someone rises from the dead, because when will those who neglect to fulfill the lesser precepts of the law grow strong enough to obey the higher commands of our Savior?

After the prohibition of murder, adultery is forbidden. This is fitting, since husband and wife are as one body. "They shall be," says the Lord, "two in one flesh" [Gen 2:24]. Therefore, after an injury inflicted upon a man in his own person, none is so grave as that which is inflicted upon a person with whom one is joined.

Thou shalt not steal.

"You shall not steal:" [Exodus 20:15] for Achan, when he had stolen in Israel at Jericho, was stoned to death; [Joshua 7:1] and Gehazi, who stole, and told a lie, inherited the leprosy of Naaman; [2 Kings 5:27] and Judas, who stole the poor's money, betrayed the Lord of glory to the Jews, [John 12:6] and repented, and hanged himself, and burst asunder in the midst, and all his…

But we cannot possess these three in relation to others unless we have them first in relation to ourselves. Wherefore there are three more commandments: one that straightens all deeds, another that straightens all speech, and yet another that straightens all affective dispositions.

The Lord specifically forbids injury to our neighbor in the Commandments. Thus, "You shall not kill" forbids us to injure our neighbor in his own person; "You shall not commit adultery" forbids injury to the person to whom one is bound in marriage; and now the Commandment, "You shall not steal," forbids us to injure our neighbor in his goods.

Thou shalt not testify against thy neighbour, with a witness of falsehood.

The law says to you, for example, "You shall not bear false witness." If you know what the truth of the evidence is, you have light in your mind. But if you are overcome by greed for sordid gain and decide in your heart of hearts to bear false witness for the sake of it, then you are already beginning to be tossed about by the storm in the absence of Christ.

One offends his neighbor in word, against which there is one commandment, namely: "Thou shalt not bear false witness." By false witness are signified all things that a man can say against his neighbor.

The Lord has forbidden anyone to injure his neighbor by deed; now he forbids us to injure him by word. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." This may occur in two ways, either in a court of justice or in ordinary conversation. In the court of justice it may happen in three ways, according to the three persons who may violate this Commandment in court.

Thou shalt not covet, thy neighbour’s house,—thou shalt not covet, thy neighbour’s wife nor his servant nor his handmaid nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything which belongeth unto thy neighbour.

Love of money then is an old, an ancient vice, which showed itself even at the declaration of the divine law; for a law was given to check it.

The Law of the Old Testament certainly forbids coveting another's wife, but it does not punish a king for commanding brave deeds of soldiers, or for desiring water. And we all know that David, pierced by the sword of concupiscence, both coveted and took away another man's wife.

"You shall not covet your neighbor's goods." There is this difference between the divine and the human laws that human law judges only deeds and words, whereas the divine law judges also thoughts. The reason is because human laws are made by men who see things only exteriorly, but the divine law is from God, who sees both external things and the very interior of men.

And, all the people, were witnessing the voices and the torches, and the sound of the horn, and the mountain smoking,—so then the people were struck with awe and shrank back, and stood afar off.

And they said unto Moses, Speak, thou, with us, and we will hear,—but let not God speak with us lest we die.

And Moses said unto the people—Do not fear, for to the end he may prove you, hath God come,—and to the end the reverence of him may be upon your faces that ye sin not.

So then the people stood afar off, and, Moses, approached unto the thick gloom, where God was.

Then said Yahweh unto Moses, Thus, shalt thou say, unto the sons of Israel,—Ye yourselves, have seen that out of the heavens, have I spoken with you.

Ye shall not make [aught] beside me,—neither gods of silver, nor gods of gold, shall ye make to yourselves.

An altar of earth, shalt thou make to me, then shalt thou offer thereupon thine ascending-sacrifices and thy peace-offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen. In every place where I may mention my name, will I come in unto thee and will bless thee.

But if, an altar of stones, thou wilt make to me, thou shalt not build them hewn,—for as soon as thou hast lifted, thy sharp tool, thereupon, thou hast profaned it;

neither shalt thou go up, by steps unto mine altar,—lest by any means thy shame be discovered thereupon.

Exodus20