THE COMMANDMENTS.—PART 1.
By A. C. Spicker
THAT the whole moral law is not, in Genesis, formally stated in specific detail as from Mt. Sinai is not evidence that it was never enunciated and was not known to the antediluvians. The law of sacrifices is not recorded as afterward given from Mount Sinai, nor till long after sacrifices were offered, and it is positively certain it was known, as Cain and Abel offered sacrifices; “and Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl [a distinction utterly impossible for him to understand or to make except by positive instruction from God] and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor,” etc. Gen. 8: 20, 21. If it be objected that these apparent manifestations of a knowledge of the precepts of the decalogue (substantially as given from Mt. Sinai—we are not arguing for precise words), were but intuitions—spontaneous inhering knowledge—in man, the answer is, So be it; for this fact, if a fact it is, would be the very strongest possible argument that these precepts were founded in nature, and that they are and must be as unchangeable and as perpetual as is the Author of nature himself. But in Gen. 9: 5, 6, we find a formal enunciation, substantially of the sixth command of the decalogue, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” And from verses 21–27, we see clearly that Noah understood the fifth command of the decalogue, as he pronounces the penalty thereof against Canaan for dishonoring his father. From chap. 12: 18, 19, it is plain that even Pharaoh of Egypt understood the prohibition of the seventh commandment; also, from chap. 20, we learn the same of Abimelech, king of Gerar, and, more, that God directly and definitely instructed Abimelech therein. Here we may notice, as we pass along down this synoptical history, that it was a little more than two thousand years after the creation of man that (as recorded in Gen. 15) God formally commanded and directed Abraham to make offerings unto the Lord, which is the first record we have of this requirement. But this Abraham had done twice, at least, before (as had Cain, Abel, and Noah), building an altar unto the Lord. Notice, also, the 22d chapter, in which it is recorded that Abraham was instructed to make burnt offerings to God. These records reveal the fact beyond all doubt, and make it a moral certainty, that God’s children in all those early, ancient days, and from the very first, were carefully and thoroughly instructed, not only in the moral law of God, but also in whatever was essential to the rectitude of life, to the worship of God, for atonement for sin, and in essential faith. We next notice “Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God,” “King of righteousness,” “King of peace,” “made like unto the Son of God,” etc. Gen. 14: 18; Heb. 6 and 7. How perfectly evident from even the little we are enabled to learn of this good man of God and of his office, to which Christ, as priest, is likened, is it that he was, like Noah, a preacher of righteousness—of the universal system of religion established by God upon the unchangeable principles of the decalogue, consisting of the same laws, doctrines, faith, promises, and hopes, that are later in the history more fully recorded, and, hence, a teacher of those holy precepts of the decalogue as the basis of their system of religion. We now reach Gen. 26. So far, we have found, it is true, the formal, explicit enunciation, in the language of command by supreme authority, of but one of the ten commandments—the sixth; but here (chap. 26: 3–6) God says to Isaac, “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” It is beyond all doubt or controversy, hence, that to Abraham were taught the commandments, statutes and laws of God, which he kept. And this was also implied in chap. 18: 19, where the Lord said of Abraham, “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord.” What should Abraham command his children and his household, unless God had commanded him? What way of the Lord shall he teach, and how shall he teach it? How can he know God’s way that he may teach it, that they may keep it, unless God has revealed that way to him, or Abraham has been in some way taught it? The question, “What way?” is answered in the same verse, “To do justice and judgment.” This is the way. But justice and judgment imply just laws and statutes, and administration according thereunto. Then the “keeping the way of the Lord” must have been the keeping of the commandments and statutes of God, most certainly, and these the Lord said he knew Abraham would “command [teach to and enjoin upon] his children and his household after him.” The terms “way of the Lord,” “way everlasting,” “way of truth,” “way of righteousness,” must mean the same as “way of thy commandments,” Ps. 119: 32; the same as “the way of thy statutes.” Verse 33. But referring to Gen. 26: 3–5, we ask, What commandments did Abraham keep, if not the ten universal precepts, repeated from Mt. Sinai? What statutes, what laws, but these, and the municipal laws, and the law of sacrifices, and of circumcision—the ceremonial law—made necessary because of sin, and “added [as secondaries, to the moral law, as primary] because of transgression,” “as a schoolmaster,” to foreshadow the atonement and “bring us to Christ?” This then follows: They must have been proclaimed—taught—that Abraham might be able to keep them. It would have been unjust to enforce obedience to law in the absence of a knowledge of the law. So it may be safely said in respect to God’s wrath against the Antediluvians, which led him to destroy that wicked people; that destruction would seem to have been a great injustice, except on the admission that the moral law, including all duties, and directing all rectitude, had been taught them. Passing on, it is noticed in chap. 31: 19, 30–35, that Laban, the Syrian, Jacob and Rachel, understood well the eighth commandment—“Thou shalt not steal”—and that Jacob regarded its violation as so sinful that he said, “With whomsoever thou findest thy gods [which Laban charged Jacob with having stolen], let him not live; before our brethren discern thou what is thine with me, and take it to thee.” For Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them. From this same narrative, we learn, also, that Rachel understood, definitely, the sin of her father Laban’s idolatry, in violation of the first and second commandments; so she stole away his idols. From chap. 35: 1–5, it is not only evident that Jacob and his household knew that these commands had been violated, but it is equally certain that Jacob knew that they were unclean in the sight of God and unfit to come to the altar of God in true worship, while these strange gods were among them. The history makes it perfectly plain that in all those early days man was carefully instructed in the laws of moral rectitude; was commanded to worship God, and intelligently guided and directed in that worship, and properly instructed how to worship him; was forbidden to have any other gods before the Creator of the heavens and the earth, or to make or worship images. In Gen. 38: 24–26, it is definitely written that Judah regarded adultery as a crime worthy of punishment by death, as in the case of Tamar’s trespass, where in return he confesses his own sin as greater than hers; while from chap. 39: 9–12, it is made positively certain that Joseph knew adultery to be forbidden, for he says to the wife of Potiphar, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” Previously God had said to Abimelech that he had “held him from sinning against him,” in respect to Sarah. In chap. 44, in the narrative of Joseph’s dealings with his brethren in respect to his silver cup found in Benjamin’s sack, the brethren say, “Behold, the money which we found in our sacks’ mouths, we brought again unto thee out of the land of Canaan; how, then, should we steal out of thy lord’s house silver or gold? With whomsoever of thy servants it be found, both let him die, and we also will be my lord’s bondmen.” Here is an emphatic indication of a knowledge of the eighth command of the decalogue. Besides, if we mistake not, this transaction quite distinctly indicates that these children of Israel understood very definitely that covetousness would be a sin. Certain it is that Jacob strove to not even appear to covet anything of Laban’s. Hence, though nothing definite is mentioned in Genesis in respect to the tenth commandment, yet, as above, so in several instances, there appears a desire to avoid not only the sin of covetousness, but even the appearance of it.