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The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:12
The commandment with promise. I. THE DUTY IMPOSED. 1. Its reasonableness. Reverent, loving subjection to parents is obedience to the deepest instincts of the heart. 2. Its pleasantness. This subjection is rest and joy:…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:12
Previous commandments have dealt with the object and manner of worship; this deals with the nursery and school of worship. Consider:— I. THE INJUNCTION IN ITSELF. 1. Absolute; parents to be honoured, whether living or d…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:13-17
Our threefold duty to our neighbour. I. HE IS NOT TO BE INJURED IN ACT. 1. His life is to be held sacred. It is God's great gift to him and it is God's only to take it away, by express command, or by his own judgment. T…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:13
Thou shalt not kill. Here again is a moral precept included in all codes, and placed by all in a prominent position. Our first duty towards our neighbour is to respect his life. When Cain slew Abel, he could scarcely ha…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:13
The second table. Fraternal relations; the outward-looking aspect of life. May classify them either According to I. ITS BEARING ON ACTIONS. Murder, the criminal taking of life, varies in character; according to the natu…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:13-17
The individual Israelite considered in his duties towards his neighbour. Of these five commandments—namely, against murder, adultery, theft, slander and covetousness, it almost goes without saying that their very negati…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:14
A correspondence between the two tables: to worship a false god is to aim at the life of the true God. Idolatry is spiritual adultery. Besides this the sixth and seventh commandments are clearly related; the one guards…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:14
Thou shalt not commit adultery. Our second duty towards our neighbour is to respect the bond on which the family is based, and that conjugal honour which to the true man is dearer than life. Marriage, according to the o…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:15
The eighth commandment Guards the sanctity of property. Consider:— I. PROPERTY AND THE RIGHTS OF PROPERTY. Property is that which gives expression to individual and family life. In some sort it is an extension of the bo…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:15
Thou shalt not steal. By these words the right of property received formal acknowledgment, and a protest was made by anticipation against the maxim of modern socialists—"La propriete, c'est le vol." Instinctively man fe…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:16-21
The ten words. "And God stake all these words." "And the people stood afar off: and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was." (Exodus 20:1, Exodus 20:21). Our subject is the law of the ten commandments, an…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:16
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. False witness is of two kinds, public and private. We may either seek to damage our neighbour by giving false evidence against him in a court of justice, or simpl…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:16
Connect with the preceding commandment. That guards the property, what belongs to a man outside himself. This guards the character, what belongs to a man inside himself. To steal the purse may be only to steal trash, bu…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:17
Thou shalt not covet. Here the Mosaic law takes a step enormously in advance of any other ancient code. Most codes stopped short at the deed; a few went on to words; not one attempted to control thoughts. "Thou shalt no…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:17
The last commandment of the second table. Murder, adultery, theft, slander, all these spring from a corrupt heart. The wrong thought admitted nourishes the wrong desire, which in time gives birth to the wrong action. Ou…
Matthew Henry on Exodus 20:18-21
This law, which is so extensive that we cannot measure it, so spiritual that we cannot evade it, and so reasonable that we cannot find fault with it, will be the rule of the future judgment of God, as it is for the pres…
Terror with Which the Law Was Given. (b. c. 1491.)
TERROR WITH WHICH THE LAW WAS GIVEN. (B. C. 1491.) I. The extraordinary terror with which the law was given. Never was any thing delivered with such awful pomp; every word was accented, and every sentence paused, with t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:18-22
The terrors of Sinai their design and their effects. I. THEIR DESIGN. 1. Not to slay the people. The people dreaded that if God spoke to them again, they would die (Exodus 20:19). But Moses said—No; this was not the des…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:18
The people saw the thunderings. The use of a specific verb for a generic one, with terms to all of which it is not, strictly speaking, applicable, is common to many writers, and is known to grammarians as zengma. "Saw"…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:18-21
EXPOSITION WITHDRAWAL OF THE PEOPLE, AND NEARER APPROACH OF MOSES TO GOD. The effect produced upon the people by the accumulated terrors of Sinai—"the thunderings and the lightnings, the noise of the trumpet, and the mo…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:18-21
The Divine presence at once attractive and repellent. When Christ was upon the earth, so winning was his graciousness that crowds flocked to him, and one man at least exclaimed, "Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:19
And they said unto Moses. Their whole speech, as delivered in Deuteronomy, was as follows:—"Behold, the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire:…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:20-22
The law of the altar. I. THE OBJECT Or WORSHIP. The true God, not gods of silver, or gods of gold (Exodus 20:23). The God who had talked with them from heaven had appeared in no visible form. "Ye heard the voice of the…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 20:20
And Moses said unto the people. Not immediately—Moses first held colloquy with God. God declared that the people had "spoken well" (Deuteronomy 5:28); and authorised Moses to allow of their withdrawal (Deuteronomy 5:30)…