Sham Conversion
(No. 2928)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1905.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
DECEMBER 10, 1876.
"And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they
feared not the LORD: therefore the LORRD sent lions among them, which
slew some of them. They feared the LORRD and served their own gods,
after the manner of the nations from which they were carried away. Unto
this day they continue practicing the same rituals: they fear not the
LORRD." 2 Kings 17:25,33,34.
THE world is full of deceptions and counterfeits. We have had to
protect ourselves by law against adulterations of the most common
articles of food, but all the laws in the world will not be able to
protect us against the constant, the almost universal deceit which is
found in daily life. Men seem continually to be set on making the worse
appear the better–putting the bitter for the sweet and the sweet for
the bitter. If any man shall go through this world with his eyes shut,
believing all that he hears, he will find himself the dupe of a
thousand knaves. You must keep your eyes open–you must carry a test
with you by which you shall be able to discern between things that
differ, or else in the ordinary affairs of life you will soon be
brought to bankruptcy and poverty.
In the highest regions, also, where we have to do with spiritual and
eternal things, there are even worse cheats than anywhere else! That
old enemy of God and man who is rightly said to be a liar from the
beginning, takes care to use falsehood in order, if it were possible,
to deceive even the very elect. If there is a Christ, he sets up an
antichrist. If there is a Church of Christ, he makes a world's church
that shall mimic it. If there is a Gospel, he, too, comes with his good
news and sets up "another gospel, which is not another." In the matters
which concern the inner man–in the work of the Holy Spirit upon the
soul–Satan is also adept at deception there. He can imitate repentance
with remorse. He can match faith with credulity. He can mimic assurance
with presumption. He can give us the pleasures of this world instead of
the joy of the Lord and, instead of a simple confidence in Christ, he
can offer us that which may look remarkably like it, and yet, after
all, be confidence in self. Hence, one of the very first things that a
man has to do if he would be right at last is to search his own heart,
to test and try that which he supposes to be there whether it is the
work of God or not– whether his spot is the spot of God's children or
only a vile imitation of it.
Conversion which is absolutely necessary to salvation–conversion by
which man turns from sin to righteousness, from self to Christ, from
the world to Heaven, from rebellion to obedience–conversion which we
must all experience if we are to be right towards God, for, "except you
are converted and become as little children you shall not enter into
the Kingdom of Heaven"–conversion, too, has been mimicked in many
ways. In this discourse we are going to look at one instance in which
the false has been put for the true in order that by the light of that
instance, as by a beacon, we may be warned off this dangerous rock!
Another man's shipwreck ought always to be a beacon to us–so where
these Samaritans failed, let us take heed unto ourselves lest we fall
after the same fashion.
We shall have three points which will follow the order of the
narrative. We shall look, first, at their first estate– "They feared
not the Lord." Secondly, their sham conversion–"They feared the Lord
and served their own gods." Thirdly, their real state while they
professed thus to be converted–"They feared not the Lord."
I. First, then, let us observe these Samaritans in THEIR FIRST ESTATE.
They were brought, very likely much against their will, from different
parts of the Assyrian empire and they were put down as colonists in the
various towns which had formerly been occupied by the tribes of Israel.
There they were compelled to dwell. They do not appear to have had any
reverence for God at all. They were wholly indifferent ''They feared
not the Lord." They scarcely knew His
name and they seem to have made no inquiries. They found that the land
was good and they tilled it. The vines were fruitful and they pruned
them. The houses were built and they inhabited them. And thus they
settled down. What did it matter to them about Jehovah? Who was He and
what was He? No doubt there had been a people living there who more or
less had reverenced His name, but what was that to them? They were
strangers. It had never crossed their mind that they should be
interfered with at all in the matter of worshipping Jehovah and so they
lived altogether carelessly and indifferently. How many there are that
are doing the same today–many who are altogether thoughtless about
Divine things, taken up with trifles–occupied only with the things of
this life. It does not seem to enter into their heads that they are
immortal–that they will have to live in another state. As to their
having a Creator and One who daily preserves them in life, no doubt
they believe it, but they are not concerned about it! Practically they
say, "Who is the Lord that we should obey His voice?" That was the
condition of these Samaritans at the first. They were altogether
indifferent to the matter. It never troubled them at all.
They had no fear of God. They may have heard of some that trembled at
Jehovah, but they never trembled. Perhaps they heard that He was a God
whose worship was very troublesome, whose laws were very strict, whose
subjects often had to mourn because they rebelled and, therefore, they
did not want to know too much about Him lest they should be drawn into
the same exercise of heart and have to confess the same sins and fall
into the same sorrows. They knew not and they did not want to know.
They were not troubled.
I should not wonder that when they began to hear something about Him,
they even ridiculed Jehovah Had not their gods overcome the God of the
land? Had they not taken possession of these fair cities? Had not the
hosts of Assyria scattered, like clouds before the wind, all the
companies that the men of Israel could bring against them? So they
would have a sneer for the Israelites and the men of Judah–and for
their God and their worship. Any religion they had only went as far as
to lead them to despise the only true religion and to meet it with jest
and sarcasm. That was all. "They feared not the Lord."
Yet there was this point. They had come to live near a people that did
fear the Lord, for at that time the people of Judah were, in a great
measure, right towards the Lord God of Hosts. Hezekiah, I suppose, was
then upon the throne–a king who in all things walked before the Lord
and sought to uphold, in singleness of heart, the worship of the one
only God. These strangers coming into the neighborhood where the
ancient faith of God's people prevailed must have found it dangerous to
their indifference and perilous to their skepticism and their false
belief. So have I known men without religion or the fear of God, or any
respect whatever for Divine things, who have been brought, in the order
of Providence, into a society where there have been true piety and
fervent religion. That always means trouble for their impiety and
disturbance for their indifference. They receive some sparks from that
fire into their souls and who knows whether the sparks may not light a
fire that will burn down the wood and the hay and the stubble that are
within their spirits? It ought to be a very hard thing for a man to
live near us, my dear Brothers and Sisters, and to remain indifferent
to religion. The preacher ought to preach so that it shall be almost an
impossibility for his hearer to be altogether careless. You Christian
people should set such an example in your households that it shall be
next door to an impossibility for son or daughter or servant to remain
at peace while they remain out of God and out of Christ in a state of
sin! These people feared not the Lord, but the point that would be sure
to bring them difficulty was that they had come near to the people of
Judah that didfear God–near to a commonwealth that was presided over
by Hezekiah, who feared the Lord with all his heart and all his soul!
II. Now, secondly, we come to THEIR CONVERSION. In the 33rd verse we
read, "They feared the Lord," but there is a very ugly, "and," after it
which shows that it was a sham conversion! "They feared the Lord and
served their own gods." Still, it was a sort of conversion–it meant,
at any rate, an outward change.
How came it about? If you read the chapter, as we have done just now,
[See Exposition i mmediately following this sermon.] you will find that
their conversion was caused entirely by terror The country had been
devastated. War had raged all over it for years. The cities and
villages had become uninhabited and, consequently, the wild beasts had
come down from the mountains and had so multiplied that lions became a
terror throughout the land! Imagining that every country had a
different god, these people said, "The god of the land must have sent
these lions among us." Yes. And the sacred writer does not hesitate to
say that God didsend the lions among them, for even common things which
can be readily accounted for in the order of Nature must, nevertheless,
be ascribed to God. He did send lions among them and it was these lions
that converted them! Their teeth and fangs and fiery eyes and the
thunders of their roars converted them. They must have a god to deliver
them! They could not bear the lions, therefore they must fear the Lord
who could send lions and who, perhaps, would cease to send them.
Now, dear Friends, always be somewhat diffident of your own conversion
if you can trace it only and solely to motives of terror. Here is one
man who never would have feared God if disease had not come into the
house, if a child had not died. Then another and another–it seemed as
if they would all sicken–and so he became religious. Another went into
business and, for a while, he was very prosperous, but the tide turned
and he lost his money. Bankruptcy stared him in the face. He made a
second effort, only to fail again, and then he seemed to feel as if the
lions were out against him, so he turned religious! Another had seen
his children grow up and, having trained them for the world they went
to the world–his son almost broke his heart! His daughter so acted as
well near to bring his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave! Everything
seemed to go badly with him and so he said he would go to church or go
to the meeting or something. He turned religious because the lions were
out! Still another who had been a very healthy, strong man, and had
never thought about religion at all–he had an "accident," he had a
fit, or he was attacked with a disease of which he had been warned that
in all probability it would be fatal, by-and-by, and there did not seem
any cure for it. He got worse and worse, and so, well, he thought he
would be religious!
There was something sensible in the resolution–no, it was a most
proper resolution had it been but carried out rightly and in the way of
the Truth of God. But you see, in all these cases there was no sense of
having done wrong. There was no desire to do right. It was the lions,
the lions, the lions, the lions! If there had been no lions, there
would have been no religion! If there had been no lions, there would
have been no seeking the Lord. If there had been no lions, there would
have been no needing to know the manner of the god of the land. Such
men have no desire after God, nothing of the kind! The thing that
drives them is just that awful lion–the dread of death is upon them
and the dread of something after death, the judgment to come–nothing
else. Now some are really brought to God by terrors, but many are only
brought into a condition of sham conversion–the root of their religion
has been nothing else but the lions.
Now, notice that their conversion was attended with ignorance. What
little sincerity there was–and there was a measure of sincerity–was,
nevertheless, dimmed by lack of knowledge. Its eyes were put out by an
utter ignorance. They did not really know God at all. They looked on
Jehovah as if He were but the same as the gods of Cuth and Ava and
Sepharvaim, as if He were a petty god of that district, too powerful
for them to dare to withstand–nothing more than that. They did not
want to know Him, you notice, for their request to the king of Assyria
was not that they might know about God, but that they might know "the
manner" of the god of the land. Yes, and there are lots of people who
when they desire conversion, wish only to know the manner of the people
who are converted. What way ought a religious man behave? What is
needed to satisfy outward decencies? What are the sacraments? What are
the doctrines? Their thought is altogether of externals. They only want
to know the manner of the god of the land!
When a man is really awakened by the Holy Spirit, his cry is, "I will
arise and go to my Father!" But when it is not the Spirit of God, but
only fear which awakens him, his cry is, "I will arise and hide in my
Father's house. I need to get into some secret chamber of His abode."
The desire is not for God, Himself, you see, not for Himself, but for
His "manner." I know many who are converted this way–converted to a
profession, converted to a creed, converted to sacraments, to forms.
But as the Lord lives, you must be turned to God, Himself, or else you
are not turned aright! Ignorance of God is a fatal ignorance! Not to
know Him or to seek to know Him, but only to know the manner and the
mode of worshipping Him is a poor desire. Yet many rest satisfied with
that and nothing more.
Further, these people were not only led to their conversion by
fear–not only was their conversion marred by ignorance–but probably
they were instructed by an unfaithful priest The king of Assyria sent
them one of the priests that he might teach them the religion. One of
the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in
Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord. It looks very
suspicious, that dwelling in Bethel I suspect he taught them worship of
the calves of Bethel–and you know that the worshippers of the calves
of Bethel were the Romanists of that day, just as the pure worshippers
of God in Judah were the Protestants of the day. The worshippers of the
calves of Bethel did not, perhaps, worship the calves–they worshipped
God under the image of an ox and they said that image of an ox
signifies power and strength. "So we do not worship it," they would
have said, "we worship God in
it." They were symbol-users–worshippers of emblems–and this priest
was one of them! Well it is a poor conversion which is helped on by a
blinded priest.
O Brothers and Sisters, take heed howyou hear and take heed whatyou
hear! We ought not to entrust ourselves to every person who professes
to be a spiritual instructor. "Try the spirits whether they are of
God." I will give you one good test–see whether they search and probe
you. Rest assured that the Lord has not sent those that speak smooth
words and never trouble your conscience or make you search yourselves!
"If you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as My
mouth," says the Lord to His Prophets–but not otherwise. So this man
came and he taught them, I dare say, in his own easy way. He would say,
"Well, my dear fellows, you see you have all got your own gods and I am
no sectarian, so as long as you worship the true God I do not mind. You
may worship Nergal and Ashima and Tartak and Adrammelech and all the
rest of them whenever you like. I am teaching you, you see, this is to
be the recognized State religion for the present time and I will teach
it to you. But do not afflict yourselves too much–it will be all
right." That is the way these got converted. No wonder that they came
over so easily seeing they had such a nice comforting minister who
never troubled them at all about any vital change!
Being thus converted they adopted a good many outward ceremonies. "So
they feared the Lord, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them
priests of their high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses
of the high places." They went in for doing the thing thoroughly. As it
was a matter of form, when they had found out how to do it–why, they
would do it! One priest would not be enough–they would make a great
many and they made as many as ever they could get! And as the lowest of
the land would probably be the cheapest, they selected them! Men
generally have an eye to business even in these things. They set to
work worshipping on every high hill though God had said that He was to
have sacrifices offered nowhere but at Jerusalem. He would have one
altar but they took every high place and consecrated it, and they began
with great form and pomp and show to go in for the worship of Jehovah.
Generally the more show the less reality–and it was so in this case.
You see, then, that this conversion, though it looked very fine, was
radically unsound. Let me emphasize the reasons for this.
It was so, first, because there was no repentance. You do not find
these people confessing that they had been wrong in worshipping, every
man, his own god. They are quite willing to worship Jehovah, to have
sacrifices and do the right thing, but as to any confession of sin
making the place a Bochim–a place of weeping, because they had
transgressed against the only living and true God–there is not a word
of it! Now, my Hearer, let me speak to you about your own conversion.
If you have skipped the first page of the book, namely, repentance, go
back and begin again, for that faith which has a dry eye and never wept
for sin is not the faith of God's elect! There must be repentance! It
is an essential Grace–no man is truly saved who has not a hatred of
the sin he loved before and who has not made a confession of it before
God with an earnest prayer for pardon.
Notice again, these converts had no expiatory sacrifice. The true
Believer–the man of Judah–had a Day of Atonement once every year and
there were great sacrifice of sin-offerings whenever there had been
special sin. But there is no mention of trespass-offering or
sin-offering among the colonists–they had no sacrifice, no blood of
expiation. Ah, Sirs, that religion that does not begin with the
Sacrifice of Jesus Christ is a religion that will soon come to an
end–and the sooner it comes to the end the better, that you may begin
again on a surer foundation! A religion without the blood of Christ in
it is a lifeless religion. A religion without the Atonement and
reconciliation by the blood of the Covenant has missed the most
essential part of true godliness! There was a radical unsoundness in
the conversion of these people, for there was no repentance and no
sacrifice.
Moreover, there was no putting away of the false gods. They did not
mind worshipping Jehovah, but every man also worshipped his own god.
This is not a true nor worthy service. "I will trust Christ," says one.
Yes, and you mean to trust your baptismal regeneration too! That is a
false god. You will serve God, but you must indulge some secret sin!
That is another false god which cannot be tolerated. If we are
converted to God, we must take the hammer and smash the idols! Dagon
and Nergal and Adrammelech must not stand in the same temple where
stands Jehovah's Ark. All the false gods can live comfortably together,
but when the living God comes, He is a jealous God and they must all
fall before Him. You worship not God at all if you do not worship God
alone! There must be an image-breaking in the soul if the conversion is
really true. There was none of it here.
In fact, there was no love to God'n these Samaritans. They were afraid
of the lions, but their hearts did not go out to the God who could
deliver them from the lions.
I wonder whether I could pick out any characters among those present
who are like that–some of the Samaritan breed who are trying the fear
of the Lord and serving other gods? I have known a man of this kind. He
came to a place of worship and if he had been allowed, he would have
joined the church and come to the Communion Table. At the same time he
was a great worshipper of Bacchus–a great lover of what he called, "a
little drop," though I question whether you could not have made a very
considerable number of drops out of what he took! I was speaking the
other day to a clergyman who said that there was a man in his parish
who told him that he did not know how it was, but he never felt more
spiritually minded than when he had had four or five glasses of beer.
There are people of that sort about. They fear the Lord and they serve
their own gods. Only think of such a thing as a Christian drunk! Can
there be such a thing? Your common sense shall answer–I need not.
I have also known such a thing as this–a man–such an excellent man!
His guinea was always ready for the cause of God. He had a very
prominent pew and was very well known in connection with religion, but
if you had known that he had a second house beside his own, and known
the way in which he lived, you would have held him up to execration.
Yet he dared to come into the House of God and if he did not actually
unite himself with the church, he was prominently identified with it.
At the same time he was living in the lusts of the flesh and professing
to be a servant of God–fearing the Lord–keeping a bit of religion,
because he was afraid of the lions–that was all. And all the while he
was worshipping his own god as well.
You know the thing is also done in business. There is a man who can
sing a hymn most beautifully and he can pray in the Prayer Meeting. But
he can prey upon you as well. His mode of business is such that he
takes advantage, cheats and sails wonderfully near the wind–yet he has
the name of being a very good man. He is a religious scoundrel! Oh,
that God would save our churches from this kind of people who are to be
met with so often! The lions make them fear God. They are such cowards
that they must be religious and yet all this while they are worshipping
other gods.
I have known a woman, too–I think I may truthfully say a woman in this
instance–and she has been, oh, such a dear Christian soul, only there
was nobody's character safe within seven miles of her tongue–she was
always ready to slander the character of the best that lived! She was a
slandering saint, a gossiping mother in Israel. God save us from such!
I cannot describe all the characters that may be suggested by those
Samaritans, nor am I intending to hit anybody I know to be here just
now, but if I do, I pray you take the cap and wear it and keep it on
until it does not fit you any longer! Although you smile, these
inconsistencies are very serious matters and, what is more, they are
very common matters. Sham conversion is a thing that may be met with
all over the world. Oh, we have got it on a large scale in this
"Christian" England of ours which fears the Lord and yet sells opium!
Fears the Lord and is the most drunken nation under Heaven! God save us
from such national hypocrisy! God also save us from similar hypocrisy
on a minor scale in all ranks and classes and conditions of men who
attempt to fear the Lord and to serve their own gods! Such double
religion will not run! It is no use–it will not work. If God is God,
serve Him. And if the devil is your god, serve him! But the attempt to
join the two together will never succeed, either in this world or in
that which is to come!
Such is the pattern of the sham conversion which these people
experienced.
III. Now, lastly, we have got before us THEIR REAL STATE AND GOD'S
VERDICT UPON IT. He says, "They feared not the Lord."
No, they insulted the Lord. They did not fear Him. The men who
worshipped God and worshipped Baal, worshipped God and Adrammelech were
impiously daring! The Lord's claim is that He, only, is God, and He
would have us know that the gods of the heathens are not gods. Our God
made the Heavens, but as for these–they are the work of men's hands!
One of the Roman emperors was willing to put up a statue of Christ in
the Pantheon among all the rest of the gods and there were some who
thought that that showed a kindly spirit. But what an insult to set up
Christ by the side of lustful Jupiter and infamous Venus–and all the
rest of these horrible gods which were only fit for a reformatory, the
very best of them! And for the Samaritans to mention the name of
Jehovah side by side with those cruel, bestial gods which they
worshipped was not to do Him honor, but was to insult His sacred
majesty! Even so, Sirs, to try and keep religion and yet to keep your
sins is not to fear God but to insult Him! "Unto the wicked God says,
What have you to do to declare My statutes or that you should take My
Covenant in your mouth?" Keep clear of such trickery! If you must sin,
do not add to your sins this needless and unnecessary one of making a
hypocritical pretense of fearing the living God! Save yourself that
superfluity of evil.
These people did not fear God for they did not really obey Him. Obey
Him? Why, had they obeyed Him, they would have broken their gods to
pieces at once! But no, they only wanted to know "the manner" of the
God. They were willing to fall in with that, but as to really asking
what His mind and will were–and being willing to do it–that was
foreign to them. Therefore they feared not God.
They were not in Covenant relation with God, as were the Israelites.
They were under His old Covenant of Works, but they were not under the
Covenant of Grace, neither did they know anything of it. God had not
brought them up out of Egypt with a high hand and an outstretched arm.
He had never redeemed them by blood and set them apart to be His
people. They did not know anything about that. There are multitudes of
professed converts to religion today who know nothing about the
Covenant of Grace–nothing about Redemption by blood! They cannot sing
the song of Moses and of the Lamb. No, they simply keep an outward
ceremonial observance of the manner of the God of the land and they are
content with that, but into the very vitals of religion they have not
come, therefore they fear not God.
These people soon acted so as to prove this. You know what they did a
few years afterwards when God had brought back His servant, Ezra,
together with a company of people to begin to build the Temple. These
persons first of all came and said that they would like to join in the
work. But, Ezra and Nehemiah looked at them very sternly and said, "We
have nothing to do with you. You cannot trace your pedigree to Abraham.
You do not belong to the Covenant seed. You know nothing about it. Go
about your business." Then these people showed the old spirit–they
wrote letters to the various kings that were then in authority and so
the building of the Temple was stopped several times. And they even
tried afterwards to attack the people of Jerusalem and put an end to
the building of the Temple. There are no people in the world that turn
out, generally, to be such haters of real religion and of genuine
Christianity as those people who are scared into a nominal religion by
the lions and yet are abiding in their sins!
When the Methodists first began to preach, you know what an outcry
there was against them. The great and heinous crime that they were
committing was that they were insisting upon regeneration and upon holy
lives. So crowds of people all over you country said, "Why, we are as
religious as people can be! It is true we drink and we do all sorts of
things, but you really cannot set up anything like a pure and perfect
church in the world. To talk of that is mere cant, you know. There
cannot be such a thing! We cannot all be consistent in our profession
and there cannot be anybody that always is–it is all lies and
hypocrisy to suppose that any people can be holy or can walk only in
the fear of God!" And so they began to pelt the pioneer Methodists with
mud and to put them in prison and to oppose them in all sorts of ways.
I say it again, it is Ishmael that hates Isaac because though he is not
in the line of succession, he is very near akin to him and comes of the
same parents. There is no enmity like the enmity of the Samaritan to
the Jew–no enmity like that of the mere moralist or the mere
hypocritical professor to the man that has vital godliness, that has
received the Grace of God into his soul!
Perhaps you will think that I have spoken somewhat severely, but I have
spoken to myself as well as to you with this earnest desire that we may
be right before the living God. There are many of us here that profess
to be Christians. Are we really so? Have we real faith in Christ? Does
our life prove that it is the living faith–the faith that produces
good works? Brethren, if we are, indeed, what we say we are, we have
only one God. All other aims, objectives and designs are secondary. We
seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. If we are, indeed,
Christians, we have broken a great many idols, we have still some more
to break and we must keep the hammer going till they are all broken–
"The dearest idol I have known, Whatever that idol be, Help me to tear
it from Your throne And worship only Thee."
If we are real Christians, we have one only trust–we hang all our
weight on Jesus, and all other trusts have been flung to the bats and
the moles long ago! If we are really the servants of God, we are trying
to get rid of sin! We are not harboring any lust or any false way.
Though we are not perfect, yet we want to be, we long to be! There is
not a willful sin that we would keep. God helping us, we desire to
steer clear of everything that is contrary to His holy mind. May God
grant us
this thoroughness, this depth of sincerity, this real change of
heart–that we be not among the Samaritan trimmers, but that of us it
may to said, "Behold an Israelite, indeed, in whom is no guile." God
bless you for Christ's sake. Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: EXODUS 20:1-17; 2 KINGS 17:23-41.
Exodus 20:1-3. And Godspoke all these words saying, I am the LORDyour
God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; out of the house of
bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. God is the only God
and no other object of worship is to be tolerated for a moment!
4-6. You shall not make unto you any engraved image, or any likeness of
anything that is in Heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or
that is in the water under the earth: You shall not bow down yourself
to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD your God am a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third
and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto
thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments. Here we are
forbidden to worship God under any similitude whatever. The First
Commandment forbids the worship of another god. The Second strictly
forbids us to worship anything which our eyes can see, under the
pretense that we are thereby worshipping God. This is another offense
and much more common than the First–and it is often pleaded–"Oh, we
do not worship these things! We worship God whom these represent." But
here it strictly forbidden to representGod under any form or substance
whatever and to make that an object of worship.
7. You shallnot take the name of the LORDyour Godin vain; for the LORD
shallnot holdhim guiltless that takes His name in vain. A reverence for
the very name of God is demanded and all things that are connected with
His worship are to be kept sacred.
8-11. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shallyou
labor, and do all the work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the
LORD your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor
your daughter, your maidservant, nor your manservant, nor your cattle,
nor your stranger that is within the gates: for in six days the LORD
made Heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the
seventh day: therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed
it. It is good for us that we make the Sabbath a day of rest–a day of
holy worship–a day of drawing near unto God. Thus far, we have the
first table, containing the duties towards God. The rest inscribed on
the second table are our duties towards man.
12-14. Honor your father and your mother: that your days may be long
upon the land which the LORD your God gives you. You shallnot kill You
shallnot commit adultery. These Commandments take a far wider sweep
than the mere words. "You shall not kill" includes the doing of
anything by which life may be shortened as well as taken away. It
includes anger–every evil wish and every malicious passion. And, "You
shall not commit adultery" includes every form of unchastity and
impurity.
15-17. You shall not steal You shall not bear false witness against
your neighbor You shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not
covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant,
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbor's. It was
the Tenth Commandment that convicted the Apostle Paul, for he says, "I
had not known sin except the Law had said "You shall not covet." When
men break the other commandments they often break this one first.
2 Kings 17:23, 24. So was Israel carried away out of their own hand to
Assyria this day. And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and
from Cuthah, and from Ava and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and
placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel:
and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof It was a
part of the tactics of the Assyrian empire to take people away from
their original location and colonize them in other places–to shift
them to another land so that while the Israelites were taken to
Babylon, numbers of those who had lived round about Babylon were
brought to live in the Samaritan province in order that nationalities
might thus be broken down and patriotism might expire–thus making it
easier for the Assyrian tyrant to govern the land.
25-27. And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that
they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them,
which slew some of them. Then they spoke to the king of Assyria,
saying, The nations which you have removed and placed in the cities of
Samaria know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore He has
sent lions among them, and, behold they slay them, because they know
not the manner of the God of the land. Then the king of Assyria
commanded, saying Carry there one of the priests whom you brought from
there; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach in the manner
of the God of the land. He did not care one single farthing himself
what religion they were of, but if they did not happen to have a
religion to suit the country, "Well, then, send one of the priests who
used to live there who can teach them what it is." According to his
notions, they could take it up just when they liked.
28-31. Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria
came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the
LORD. Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the
houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation
in their cities wherein they dwelt and the men of Babylon made
Succothbenoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath
made Ashima, and the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites
burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of
Sepharvaim. It would answer no practical purpose if I were to explain
the meaning of the names of these various gods. They were some of them
of brute forms. Their worship was generally attended with the most
lascivious rites and especially the worship of Molech or Moloch, who is
mentioned under two different forms here. He was a god whose worship
was consummated with the most dreadful cruelties, for children were
passed through the fires and burnt in his honor.
32-38. So they feared the LORD, and made unto themselves of the lowest
of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the
houses of the high places. They feared the LORD, and served their own
gods after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from there.
Unto this day they continue practicing the same rituals: they fear not
the LORD, neither do they follow the statutes, or follow the ordinances
of the law and commandment which the LORD commanded the children of
Jacob, whom He named Israel, with whom the LORD had made a Covenant,
and charged them, saying, You shall not fear other gods, nor bow
yourselves to them, nor serve them nor sacrifice to them but the LORD,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a
stretched out arm, Him shall you fear, and Him shall you worship, and
to Him shall you do sacrifice. And the statues, and the ordinances, and
the laws and the commandment, which He wrote for you, you shall observe
to do forevermore and you shall not fear other gods. And the Covenant
that I have made with you, you shall not forget; neither shall you fear
other gods. How this warning comes over and over and over again! "Hear,
O Israel. The Lord your God is one God." The worship of anything else
under any pretext whatever, besides the one ever-blessed Trinity in
unity is forever forbidden to us!
39-41. But the LORD your God you shall fear, and He shall deliver you
out of the hand of all your enemies. Howbeit they did not listen, but
they did their former manner. So these nations feared the LORD and
served their engraved images, both their children, and their children's
children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day. Trying, as
far us ever they could, to link the old idolatries with the worship of
the true God, which thing is the most loathsome in the sight of the
Most High.