SERMON III.
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT: SPIRITUAL SENSE.
"I am Jehovah, thy God, who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of servants. Thou shalt not have other gods before my face. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing, nor any likeness of anything which is in the heavens above, or which is in the earth beneath, or which is in the waters under the earth: thou shalt not bow thyself down to them nor serve them. For I, Jehovah, thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons, upon the thirds and upon the fourths with those that hate me, and showing mercy, to thousands, with those that love me and keep my commandments."—Exodus xx. 2—6.
Having given, in the previous discourse, a general view of this Commandment in its literal sense, I now proceed to consider it in its internal or spiritual sense.
"The spiritual sense of this Commandment," says the Doctrine of the New Church, "is, that no other God than the Lord Jesus Christ is to be worshiped; for he is Jehovah, who came into the world and effected the redemption, without which neither man nor angel could have been saved. All who acknowledge and worship any other God than the Lord the Savior, Jesus Christ, who is Himself Jehovah God in the human form, sin against this Commandment. So also do those who persuade themselves that there are three Divine Persons existing from eternity."[1]
That Jesus was Jehovah manifest in the flesh, thus that the Divine Creator was Himself also the Savior, is taught, in Scripture, in the most express terms. Thus in Isaiah;[2] "It shall be said in that day, Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us; this is Jehovah: we have waited for him; we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." Again, "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of Jehovah; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."[3] And again, "I, even I, am Jehovah, and beside me there is no Savior."[4] So in Hosea,[5] "I am Jehovah thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no God but me, for there is no Savior beside me." In these passages it is declared emphatically that there is no Savior but the one Jehovah: now all acknowledge Jesus to be the Savior:—then he must have been that Jehovah. In like manner, Jehovah is declared to be the Redeemer. "I, Jehovah, am thy Savior and thy Redeemer.[6] "As for our Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts is his name."[7] "Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel; fear not, for I have redeemed. thee."[8] Here it is affirmed that the Creator is also the Redeemer; thus that they are one and the same.
Moreover, Jesus himself when he was in the world affirmed that "he and the Father were one,"[9] and that he who saw him, saw the Father:[10] said he, "Before Abraham was, I am,"[11] showing thus that he was the I am, Jehovah himself, clothed in a human form.
Now, if this be so,—if Jesus be Jehovah, the one God, at once the Creator and the Redeemer, then, it is plain that to worship any other God than he, is a violation of this Commandment. And this is still more clearly seen, when we consider the words that follow, understood in their spiritual sense. "I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of servants." Now by these words, spiritually understood, is signified the Redemption. For by the deliverance of the Israelites from the oppression of the Egyptians, was represented the Lord's work of Redemption, by which he delivered his people, that is, the good, the spiritual, from the bondage of hell, the tyranny of infernal spirits. By the people of Israel in the land of Goshen, while under the power of the Egyptians, were represented the spiritual, who lived before the Lord's coming, and who were reserved in a part of the spiritual world, termed the "lower earth," where they were, in a measure,, infested by the hells. They could not be delivered and elevated into heaven, until the Lord came in the flesh. But when he came, he emancipated them. This is what is meant in the old Apostles' Creed,, by the words, " He descended into hell"—hell, here meaning properly the lower earth, which was near the hells. As the apostle says, "he descended into the lower parts of the earth."[12] Those who were there are meant in Scripture by the "bound," or the "captives," whom the Lord delivered out of the prison-house, and by the prisoners whom he drew out of the pit.[13] The same state, also, is referred to in Peter's saying, that the Lord "preached to the spirits in prison,"[14] that is, instructed these waiting spirits in the truths which it was necessary for them to know, before they could put off their falses, and so be elevated into heaven. Captive spirits in a similar condition to these are described in the Apocalypse—by the souls under the altar, who were waiting for their deliverance, and crying, "How long, O Lord?"[15] The state of such captive spirits was represented by the Israelites in bondage in Egypt; and the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt by Jehovah's "strong hand and outstretched arm," represented the work of Redemption accomplished by Jehovah in the Humanity, that is, by Jesus Christ, whereby he delivered the good out of the bondage of hell and of evil spirits, and conveyed them to the heavenly Canaan, that is, elevated them into heaven.
Yiewed in this light, it may be seen, that the words, "who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of servants," refer in their true and spiritual sense, to Jesus the Savior; and thus that the God who here speaks of himself as the only God, and alone to be worshiped, is in fact Jehovah Jesus, at once the Creator and the Redeemer of mankind.
And this is, truly, the one God who is to be worshiped, and there is no other. Before the incarnation, indeed, Jehovah, that is, the abstract, essential Divinity, was the Object of worship. But as the unclothed abstract Divine is invisible to man's mental sight, and inaccessible to the finite mind, men's minds were in comparative obscurity, and a shadow rested on the world. But when that Jehovah became incarnate, and appeared in the form of Jesus, then a light arose on mankind: "the people that sat in darkness saw a great light, and to those that sat in the region and shadow of death light sprang up."[16] This was because the Divine was now accommodated to men's perceptions: clothed in Humanity, he had now made himself accessible to them. Hence Jesus called himself "The light of the world."[17] He also appeared transfigured before the Apostles, "His face shining as the sun, and his raiment white as the light.[18] This was the internal Humanity, which they beheld with their spiritual sight, through the veil of the flesh not yet glorified. But after his resurrection, he rose with the humanity wholly glorified, and in that glorious body ascended," as the Apostle says, "far above all heavens, that he might fill all things."[19] This is now the one true object of worship—Jehovah incarnate, Jehovah clothed with Humanity, the Lord earth, and there is no other: He is at once the Father and the Son, the Divine and the Human, in one glorified Person. Whoever beholds this Divine Person before his mind's eye, beholds the one true God; whoever looks to any other object than Jesus, and addresses it as God, is addressing a phantasy, a creature of his own imagination, a Being that has no existence,—and consequently he is not worshiping the true God.
This, then, is the sense of the opening words of this Commandment, and it is a sense most important to be understood. We now proceed to consider the spiritual sense of the other portions of the Commandment.
"Thou shalt not have other gods before my face." "These words signify, in the spiritual sense, that truths ought not to be thought of from any other source than from the Lord."[20] The term God signifies distinctively Divine Truth: hence "gods," in the plural, signify Divine truths. In the Psalms, the angels are sometimes termed "gods," simply on the ground that they are recipients of Divine truth.
"It is to be shown," continues the New Church Doctrine, "what is meant by truths which are from another source than from the Lord. They are such truths as have not the Lord in them. The Lord is not in truths with man, in case a man denies Him and his Divinity; nor even though he acknowledges Him, and yet believes that good and truth are not from Him, but from self, and hence claims righteousness for himself. Truths, also, in which the Lord is not, are those which, while drawn from the Word, especially from the literal sense, are yet so explained as to favour the love of ruling and the love of gain: these in themselves, indeed, are truths, but yet they are no longer truths, because they are misinterpreted and thus perverted. Truths which are not from the Lord, only appear as truths in the external form, but within they are either empty, or false, or evil. In order to constitute a truth, there must be life in it, for truth without life is not a truth of faith with man; and life is from no other source than from good, that is, through good from the Lord."[21]
Here, then, we learn something important to be known,—that the truths we possess are not genuine, not real truths in the sight of the Lord, unless there be good within. Hence, merely to be in the science of truths, to have truths stored up in the memory, as they are learned from books or heard in preaching, does not really make them ours; they are truths to us no farther than they are joined to a good life, no farther than they are accompanied by humility of heart, and an acknowledgment that all genuine good and truth are from the Lord, and not from ourselves or our own minds.
The text proceeds, "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing, nor any likeness of anything which is in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth: thou shalt not bow thyself down to them, nor serve them." " By a graven thing, in the spiritual sense, is denoted that which is not from the Lord, but from the proprium [or selfhood] of man: that which is from the intellectual proprium is signified by a graven thing, and that which is from the will proprium is signified by a molten thing: to account either the former or the latter a god, or to adore it, means to love above all things that which proceeds from self. Those who do this, do not at all believe that anything of intelligence and wisdom flows in from the Divine, but attribute all things to themselves; and such things as befall them they ascribe to fortune or chance, absolutely denying any Divine providence in such things. They suppose that if there is anything of Deity present at all, it is in the order of nature, to which they ascribe all things. They profess indeed, with their lips, to believe in a God, the Creator, who has impressed such powers on nature, but in heart they deny the existence of any God above nature. Such are those who from the heart attribute all things to their own prudence and intelligence, and nothing to the Divine. These are the makers of graven things, and the graven things themselves are what they hatch from their own proprium, and are willing should be adored as Divine."[22]
How many breakers of this Commandment, in the sense thus given, exist in our day! The world is full of them—the literary world, the scientific world, the world even of common life. There are writers, eminent and admired, who, it is to be feared, are thus framers of graven images, which they themselves worship—namely, their own ideas—and hold up to be worshiped by the world. They are such as are proud of their "originality," as it is termed—as if anything good or true could originate from any other source than the Lord alone. They are men who, having been gifted by their Creator with some talents and abilities, look upon these abilities as self-derived, are proud of them, and take a delight in displaying them before the world, and holding them up to the admiration of mankind. Continually engaged in self-contemplation and self-admiration, every idea that comes forth from their haughty minds, they look upon as beautiful and true, and worthy of all regard. The sparkle of quaint conceits they mistake for the brilliancy of genuine truth; and the gaudy dress of pompous words, they look upon as the expression of lofty thoughts. Such persons are self-worshipers: they are truly gods to themselves; or they are worshipers of the graven images which their own hands have made—that is, they love and admire above all things the ideas which, as they suppose, emanate from their own minds.
These are of the literary class. There are others, men of science, who, proud of their acquirements in astronomy, geology, or some other study, are so puffed up with their knowledges as to think themselves possessed of all wisdom. They admire the greatness of the human mind, which has been able to invent such wondrous instruments as the telescope or microscope; and because by such means they have been able to obtain a glimpse of distant stars, they fancy themselves almost as great as He who made them. Such persons are man-worshipers, and are too much struck with admiration of human powers, to be able to bow down in heart before the Great Being from whom, in fact, all those powers are derived, and by whom they are momentarily sustained. But there are men in ordinary life, men who are neither literary nor scientific, but who are so puffed up with self-conceit, with pride at the thought of their own intelligence, and admiration of their own prudence, as to be unable truly to worship any God but themselves. Such men are truly idolaters. Unless, perchance, sickness or distress of some kind should be found sufficient to break down their pride, they can hardly find a place hereafter among the angels of heaven, who are all humble worshipers of the Lord.
The Commandment continues: "Nor any likeness of anything which is in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth."
Here, now, a different kind of sin is referred to, namely, the sin of hypocrisy, which puts on a "likeness" of what is good and true, while within there is nothing but evil and the false. By the expressions, "heavens, earth, and waters under the earth," are signified, in the spiritual sense, not the outward universe, but the inner world of man's mind, in its various degrees or divisions. "The heavens" signify the heavenly or spiritual mind, "the earth," the natural mind, and the "waters under the earth," the sensual or corporeal mind, that is, the part of the mind which is next to the senses, and which gathers all its ideas through the senses: it is said "waters," because waters signify knowledges of truth, such as are laid up in the natural memory. Now, in all these degrees or divisions of the mind, when in their proper order, there are various forms and degrees of good and truth; for there is spiritual good and truth, such as respects heavenly life, there is natural good and truth, such as belongs to moral and civil life, and there is sensual good and truth, or such as concerns the orderly pleasures of the senses, and scientifics. To "make a likeness" of any of these, is to assume or pretend to good or truth in any form, which the man does not really possess—in other words, to act the hypocrite, the dissembler. This is the evil that is forbidden by this portion of the Commandment, understood in its spiritual sense. Any one may see that a hypocrite cannot be a true worshiper of God: he has not the primary principle of worship, namely, truth and sincerity,—still less that more interior principle, humility of heart. Says the Doctrine of the New Church, "The things which are in the heavens, and in the earth, and in the waters, mean such things as are from the Divine everywhere. Likenesses of things from the Divine are made by men, when they speak Divine things with the mouth, and also in act do such things as are commanded by the Divine Being, and thus induce a belief that they are in good and truth, when yet in heart they entertain altogether different thoughts and will only what is evil. Such are dissemblers, hypocrites, and the deceitful: these are they that make 'likenesses' of the things which are from the Divine."[23] All such hypocrisy and deceit are here forbidden.
And now we have reached the conclusion of the Commandment:—"For I, Jehovah thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons, upon the thirds and upon the fourths, with those that hate me, and doing mercy to thousands with those that love me and keep my commandments." This clause seems, in the literal sense, to express an idea, which strikes every reader, even the minds of the young, with a sense of injustice, namely, that children should suffer for the sins of their parents. "We shall find, that, viewed in the light of the spiritual sense, the meaning is altogether different.
In the first place, by a jealous (or, as it might be translated, a zealous) God, is meant a God burning with zeal and love for the good and happiness of his creatures, and who desires them to look to and worship Him, not for His own sake, but for theirs; and because by so doing, their minds will be opened to an influx from Him of truth, goodness, and blessedness. He is called jealous (for the original word has both meanings), only in the sense of being unwilling that men should turn away from the worship of Him, lest they should thereby shut themselves off from communication with heaven, and so cast themselves into evil and unhappiness. "Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons upon the thirds and upon the fourths, with those that hate me." That this is not to be taken literally, is evident from the consideration that it is contrary to the Divine law, declared in the Word: "The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the soul that sinneth, it shall die."[24] The only way that children suffer for the sins of their parents, is by inheriting from them evil propensities, and this should be a warning to parents to beware how they indulge such propensities in themselves. But in the true spiritual sense, the meaning is altogether different. By the term "father," in that sense, is signified good or love, because the Lord, who is the Father of all, is Love itself: but in the opposite or bad sense, "father" signifies evil. So, the term "son" signifies truth, because truth is derived from good, as a son from a father; but in the opposite sense, "son" signifies falsity. In like manner, the numbers three and four have a spiritual sense. Three signifies what is full or complete, or an entire series from beginning to end: four signifies conjunction, because it is a multiple of two, which signifies conjunction or union of two things. Now, then, by "visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the Sons, upon the thirds and upon the fourths" (there is no such word as generation, observe, in the original) is meant increase of evils and consequent falses in a long series and conjunction. "With those that hate me;" that is, with those who do not worship the Lord, but reject him. The meaning is, that with those who do not worship the Lord, but love only themselves and the world, evils of heart continually increase, and with them, falses also, in a long series, and all conjoined or connected together. Such is the spiritual sense of the passage, and we see how different it is from the literal sense.
The text concludes, "And doing mercy to thousands, with those that love me and keep my commandment." By "doing mercy" is meant doing good to,—conferring blessings upon. "To thousands" means forever and ever; for the expression "thousands," in the spiritual sense, signifies indefinitely or very much, and when spoken of the Lord it signifies infinitely or forever. Thus, the meaning is, that with those who worship the Lord and keep his commandments, truth and good and blessedness will continually increase, even in this life, until they become regenerated and fitted for heaven, and then after death they will be gifted with life eternal and all its endless joys.
- ↑ True Christian Religion, n. 294, 296.
- ↑ xxv. 9.
- ↑ xl. 3, 5.
- ↑ xliii. 11.
- ↑ xiii. 4.
- ↑ Isa. xlix. 26.
- ↑ xiii. 4.
- ↑ xliii. 1.
- ↑ John x. 30.
- ↑ John xiv. 9.
- ↑ John viii. 58.
- ↑ Eph. iv. 9.
- ↑ Isa. xlii. 7; li. 14.
- ↑ 1 Pet. iii. 19.
- ↑ Rev. vi. 9—11.
- ↑ Matt. iv. 16.
- ↑ John viii. 12.
- ↑ Matt. xvii. 2.
- ↑ Eph. iv. 10.
- ↑ Arcana Cœlestia, n. 8867.
- ↑ A. C., 8868.
- ↑ A.C., 8869.
- ↑ A. C., n. 8870.
- ↑ Ezek. xviii. 20.