V. 2. 3. that you fear the Lord your God etc.
It seems to be peculiar to this Shebrew] language that it says "the fear of God" where.
we say worship or reverence of God or Greek θεοσέβεια, as Moses here connects the two pieces, the fear and the keeping of the commandments.
From this point on, we want to divide this interpretation, which Moses wrote about his Decalogue himself (because what is, from this point on, the whole rest of the book other than an extremely rich and very clear explanation of the Ten Commandments, as we will see), into two parts. The first part is supposed to be the explanation of the three commandments of the first table, which continues almost to the twentieth chapter; the second part, however, is the explanation of the remaining commandments of the second table until the end of the book. Of course, many people have written interpretations of the commandments (praeceptoria) and whole compilations (summas), but mere garbage when compared to this interpretation of Moses. For Moses will teach you what it means, not to have other gods, what it is, not to take God's name in vain, what the holiday is etc. He now says:
V. 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.
You see that he interprets the first commandment itself in an affirmative way, namely that there is One Lord. For here the name consisting of four letters (tetragramma- ton [that is XXXX]) is put, which is peculiar to God alone. But he acts this unity of God in the spirit, that is, he does not have in mind both that God is one, but rather that he should be taken by us for one, since no benefit accrues to us from the fact that there is one God; but if we take him for one and for our God (as he says here), that is life and blessedness and the fulfillment of all commandments.
Thus Jacob says Gen. 28:21: "The Lord shall be my God." How is the Lord to be his God? Was he not before? He says this only because he intended to have only the Lord as his God, with certain ceremonies (ritu) and a kind of worship. Thus God becomes and changes according to the change of our heart against Him, as it is said in Ps. 18, 26, 27: "With the holy you are holy, and with the perverse you are perverse." Thus, the Antichrist exalts himself above every god, that is, he will establish his own worship, which he will exalt above all true and false worship of all gods, because nobody's word
is more feared and worshipped [than his].
So the first declaration of Moses from the first commandment is this, that the Lord our God is to be held for One Lord, that is, that He is not to be worshipped with always other services invented by us, but only with the one He has appointed.
V. 5. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart etc.
The second explanation of the first commandment; for the first, just given, concerns faith. For no one can have One God unless he alone clings to Him and trusts Him alone; otherwise he will be carried away by various works and invent various gods for himself. The second, which follows from the first, concerns love. For when we put all our trust in him, cling to him, and recognize that everything flows from him and that he takes care of us, then a sweet love for him necessarily follows. That is why he uses the negative (negativa) expression in the commandment: "Thou shalt not have other gods" etc., as if he wanted to say: It is necessary that you deny yourself and despair of yourself, so that you do not make many gods, that you have one God, because nature cannot do otherwise than idolatry.
Therefore, when he says: The Lord your God is a single Lord, he takes away all [other] trust. When he says: You shall love the Lord, he encourages a joyful and free service to God. For if I love God, then in truth I want everything that God wants, so nothing is dearer to me than to hear and do what God wants, just as carnal love does towards the beloved object. Thus, through unity with God in faith, we receive everything from God in vain; through love, we do everything to God in vain.
But that he adds: "With all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength," is so difficult that, if God did not forgive, no saint could fulfill it. Yes, who is there who would not be deficient in both things, both in that he should have One God and in that he should love Him? because
There is no one who does not sometimes waver in faith and love other things at the same time. This is proven by the fruits. For if I loved God with all my heart, nothing would hurt me more than to see the commandments of God despised, as Paul lamented in his letters to the Corinthians and Galatians, seeing that the honor of God was being trampled underfoot. But where are the people who lament that the name of God is so trampled upon throughout the world?
"With all the heart" means: from the bottom of the mind and with all the mind; "with all the soul": with the whole bodily (animali) life; "with all the faculty," that is, with all the powers and limbs, of which I have said enough elsewhere. Not that we should love no other things, since everything that God has made is very good and lovable, but that in the love of God, and the things that are God's, nothing should be equated or preferred, and the love of all things should be pressed to the point that love toward God becomes complete. From this, notice how wrong those are who enforce their statutes and commandments so strictly, but allow God's commandments to be so neglected.
V. 6-9. And these words, which I command thee this day, thou shalt take to heart etc.
Not only in the book, not only in thoughts, but in the innermost mind, so that they are the highest treasure for you, because where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Therefore, nothing shall rule in your heart but faith and love for God. Let your heart meditate on this day and night, Ps. 1, 2. For if they are first in your heart in this way, then the right consequence cannot fail to be that they are also in your mouth.
"And thou shalt sharpen them unto thy children," that is, daily thou shalt repeat and inculcate them, lest they grow dull and cold, and be consumed with rust. Then it shall follow that thou shalt speak of them everywhere and always. Finally, you shall also bind them as a memorial on your hand and before your eyes. Lastly, you shall write them on the posts.
Behold the order of acting upon God's word: first, consider it in your heart; second, be faithful to your children and to
third, to speak publicly and everywhere; fourth, to draw on the hand and to paint before the eyes; fifth and last, to write on the posts and gates of the house, not in books, because Moses himself had already written them in a book. Here I pass over these secret interpretations that drawing the commandments on the hand and placing them before the eyes means that one fulfills them in the work and contemplates them. He simply wants these words to appear to us everywhere and to be in our memory.
You will notice that Moses does not put this admonition with the other commandments, but only with the first one, and with its declaration that they should be in the heart, that they should be sharpened, spoken, drawn and written, so that you may know that the first commandment is the measure and rule for all the others, to which they must yield and be obedient; as, if it is according to faith and love, you shall kill against the fifth commandment, just as Abraham killed Genesis 14:15. 14, 15. killed the kings, and king Ahab sinned that he did not kill the king of Syria, 1 Kings 20, 34. ff. So it is also with theft, so with deceit and deceitfulness against the enemies of God, so with the robbery, goods, wives, daughters, sons, servants of the enemies. So you shall hate your father and mother, that you may love the Lord.
In short, where anything is contrary to faith and love, you must not want to know that there is any other commandment, either from God or from men. But where it would be according to faith and love, you shall know that the commandments are there in all things and everywhere, for the saying stands firm: "These words shall be in your heart", there they shall reign. Furthermore, if they were not also in the heart, surely no one could understand nor obey these various applications according to circumstances (hane epii- kian), nor could he ever use the laws wholesomely and surely and rightly, as also Paul says 1 Tim. 1, 9. "that no law is given to the righteous," because [1 Tim. 1, 5.] the fulfillment of the law is love out of a good heart and uncontaminated faith, which uses the law rightly by having no laws,.Mv
has all laws; none, because none [laws] bind if they do not serve faith and love; all, because all bind if they serve faith and love.
So it is the opinion of Moses at this point: If you want to understand the first commandment correctly, and in truth have no other gods, then keep yourself in such a way that you believe and love the one God, deny yourself, receive everything in vain, and do everything in vain.
V. 10-12. Now when the Lord your God will bring you into the land etc.
He stops with the interpretation of the first commandment and begins to show in what way the first commandment is sinned against and teaches that one should avoid the occasion to sin against it, and takes first of all wealth and abundance, namely mammon and avarice, of which Baruch [Cap. 3, 17] writes: "The gold in which men put their trust. And Paul says that avarice is idolatry [Col. 3, 5.] and a root of all evil [1 Tim. 6, 10.]. Beware, says Moses [v. 11, 12], when thou art full, lest thou forget the Lord thy God. For the human heart trusts in the good that is available; if there is no good, it is full of distrust, as it is commonly said: Good makes you brave, poverty hurts. But trust in riches and faith and love cannot rule in the heart at the same time. And this is what he calls "forgetting the Lord your God. For this does not mean to remember the Lord when you speak his name, but when you cling to him in your heart with constant faith and love him.
And see for yourself how Moses acts the first commandment first spiritually against the idolatry of the heart, against the trust in goods, in order to awaken trust in God, before he says about the idols, so that you do not think that Moses had nothing else in mind than the idols. So this is the meaning: You shall have One God, that you trust in Him alone. If riches come to you, you should not trust in them; if they do not come, you should not be fainthearted, but always trust in the Lord, just as you trust in the Lord.
The Psalm [Ps. 62:11, Vulg.] says, "If riches come to you, do not set your heart on them," and, "Do not seek robbery, nor become vain."
V. 13. But fear the Lord your God and serve him alone.
"Thou shalt fear," that is, thou shalt reverence, and out of reverence for Him thou shalt shun trusting in mammon, that is, when goods are abundant, since men are wont to live in security and despise God and serve their lusts, thou shalt fear Me, and rule over the goods, shalt serve Me, and shalt not be carried away by them according to thy lusts. This also is a glorious explanation of the first commandment, namely, that we should fear most when everything is superfluously present, well kept 1) and secure, and there is no cause for fear. For this is the nature (virtus) of faith and the essence (vis) of the first commandment, that we be fearful in well-doing and fear God, again in adversities (as follows) secure and unconcerned and trusting in God, and, whether things go well or not (utroque tempore), clinging only to God.
Here the sophists have invented many a dream of the δουλεία, λατρεία and δπερ- δουλεία. The Hebrew denotes by one and the same word service against God and men, so that their distinction is without use. But he wants to say this: "Thou shalt serve Him alone," that is, all that thou doest and livest, whether under the servitude of men or in the government of things, thou shalt do with reference to Me, and it shall be done in no other way (nomine) of thine, but that thou mayest be sure in faith, that therein I alone am served, and if thou knewest not that I am served in the matter, thou shouldest soon desist, so that thou wouldest do nothing to please men against me, even if thou were their prisoner, and shouldest not yield to thy lust or honor, though all things abound to thee. So also Paul teaches that the
1) Instead of tota in the Jena and the Erlangen we have adopted tuta with the Wittenberg.
Servants to be subject to their masters, but as to the Lord [Eph. 6:5], and wives to be subject to their husbands, but in the Lord [Eph. 5:22], and he himself to enjoy Philemon, but in the Lord [Philem. V. 20.], and he wants a virgin to be free [1 Cor. 7, 36.], but in the HERN [V. 39.], and [1 Cor. 11, 12.] that the man may come through the woman, but in the HERN. He dreams nothing of the and
but raises the one and only servitude to God higher than all things, and spreads it over all things. Thus Peter says in the Acts of the Apostles [Cap. 13, 36.] that David served the will of God. Yea, if the δουλεία be separated from the λατρεία, it is already neither 3ουλεία, but idolatry (idololatria), since thou hearest here, "Thou shalt serve him alone." So either your service (dulia) will be a worship (latria), or an idolatry (idololatria) if it is separated. But this is what the sophists invented, looking at the outward appearance (larvam) of the works and the sects, and measuring the worship of God according to the diversity of the works, although by this word God abolishes the diversity of the works and gathers them into the unity (unitas) of faith in the heart, so that you may consider only this, that you may do any works, whatever they may be and wherever they may be, in the fear of God and in His name, and serve Him only through them. Here, too, the papacy and every realm of human statutes fall by which such works are taught, thereby serving godless people who either turn away from God or force them to deny God. In this sense, Christ also answered Satan, who asked him to do works that should not be done to God alone, this word [Matth. 4, 10.]: "Get thee away from me, Satan, for it is written: Thou shalt worship God thy Lord, and serve him only."
And you shall swear in his name.
There are two things to note here. First of all, Christ forbids swearing in Matth. 5, 34; here it is commanded to swear. But also elsewhere we have said that the
The custom of the oath is twofold; the one that we swear for ourselves without cause according to our recklessness; this Christ forbids altogether; the other, since we swear for the glory of God and the salvation of our neighbor out of faith and love, in order to confirm the truth. This Moses commands, in such a way that he does not command to swear, but urges it: If it is necessary to swear, you shall not swear other than by the name of God.
But how does this rhyme with the preceding? He had said: "You shall serve him alone"; in this service he did not distinguish the religious (religiosa) and ceremonial works of worship to God from the worldly (profanis), but rather combined them all into one, whether they be done to God or to men, so that they should all be done to God from the heart alone. This is also how the name of God is to be judged here. He does not want that one only takes the name "God" into his mouth when he has to swear, since Paul also says [1 Cor. 15, 31. Vulg.]: "By your glory, I die daily" etc. And Christ says [John 16:23], "Verily, verily, I say unto you," and Paul [Romans 9:1], "My conscience doth bear me witness."
Therefore, you swear by the name of God when you refer what you swear by to God and take it in the name of God; otherwise you would not swear if you knew it would displease Him; in any way by serving God alone when you serve men in the name of God; otherwise you would not serve. By this oath you are kept from serving God alone and from being drawn into ungodly works or oaths. So Christ also declares Matth. 23, 16-22, that he swears by God who swears by the temple and the altar and heaven. And Matth. 5, 34-36. He forbids to swear by Jerusalem, by the head, by heaven, by all things, because in all these things one swears by God. But if one swears by God carelessly and uselessly, that is taking the name of God uselessly.
That he therefore wants one to swear by the name of God and by no other, is not only the reason that for the
Truth (which is God) is not to be confirmed by anyone other than God Himself, but that man alone remain in God's service, and learn to carry everything home to Him, and to do, have, use and suffer everything in His name, so that they would not be turned away from God if they used another name, and become accustomed to swearing as if it were none of God's business, and thus finally, through evil use, make a distinction between the works by which God is served and the works by which God is not served, since He wants to be served in all things, and that everything be done in His fear, being present, watching and judging.
Therefore, one should use the oath as well as the sword and sexual intercourse (copula sexus). It is forbidden to take the sword, because Christ says [Matth. 26, 52.]: "Whoever takes the sword shall perish by the sword", because he takes it without command and of his own will. But the command is there to wield the sword, and it is a service of God, Rom. 13, 4. when it is decreed by God or through men. For then it is wielded in the name of the Lord for the good of the neighbor, as Paul says, "She [the authorities] is God's servant, for your good." Thus it is forbidden to use the flesh for sexual intercourse, because it is a disorderly (vaga), evil lust. But where sex is joined to thee by marriage, it is a duty to use the flesh, which must be performed, and now thou mayest use the flesh in the name of the Lord, and do thy trespass against the divine law, that is, against love. In the same way, use the oath that you do not swear for yourself, but to God or to your neighbor in the name of the Lord. In this way, you will always remain in the service of God alone.
V. 16. You shall not tempt the Lord your God.
As he taught in the previous word about the fear of God, that we behave rightly in prosperity, so that we may not be secure, so he teaches in this word that we suffer rightly in adversity, so that we may be
We must be secure and unconcerned, and be sure that God will take care of us, who will not abandon us, but will be close to us and present in all our needs, which is not done by the unbelievers and the godless, who are attached to [visible] things. But God is tempted in two ways. First, when we do not use the necessary things that are at hand, but seek others that are not there, as the devil tempted Christ by asking him to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple, while there were stairs on which he could descend. So would he [God] tempt who would not use the garment in cold weather, but expected a sign from heaven so that he would not freeze, just as the Jews despised the signs that were there and desired another from heaven. Likewise [tempts the one God] who snores and will not work, and thinks that God must feed him without work, whereas God has promised him that He will provide for him through work, as it says Prov. 10:4: "The hand of the diligent makes rich, but the lax hand will starve."
Such is the common celibate state, since God, by creating and adding the woman, has provided counsel for sin and the weakness of the flesh, and foolish people let this go, presuming to keep chastity by a miracle from heaven. It has also been said above how God shows His works under the cover of existing things, and wants us to use them, but not to trust in them. For although it is true that an industrious hand makes one rich, it is also true that the blessing of the Lord alone makes one rich, as Solomon says, namely, through an industrious hand. For if an industrious hand were hindered by force, the blessing of the Lord would still make rich. Thus, God gives salvation by the sword alone, and yet the salvation (salus) that comes through a man is vain (as David [Ps. 44, 7.] says): "And my sword cannot help me." But it will help God by the sword if it is there, and without the sword if one cannot have it. One must therefore
of things, but not trust in them. But in God alone one must trust, and that as much when that is there, which you may use, as when it is not there.
Secondly, God is tempted when there is nothing present of which one has need but the mere and sole word of God. Moses is actually talking about this temptation here, since he adds: "As ye tempted him at Massa," where they quarreled, saying [Ex. 17:2, 7], "Is the Lord among us, or not?" For here the ungodly people are not satisfied with the word; if GOtte does not do what He has promised at the time, in the place, in the way they prescribe, they depart from Him and do not believe. But if one wants to prescribe the place, the time, or the way to God, this is actually trying him, and wanting to grasp him with one's hands, as it were, to see if he is there. But this is nothing other than wanting to restrict God and subject Him to our will, and to completely take away from Him the divinity, which must be free and unrestricted and unlimited, and rather to prescribe to us place, manner and time.
Therefore both kinds of temptation are contrary to the first commandment, both that which occurs merely out of arbitrariness and presumption, when things are plentiful, and that which occurs when lack presses, and the weakness of faith persuades. And here you see that the first, most spiritual commandment is interpreted by Moses in the most spiritual and perfect way. For he has not yet come to the images, but with the condemnation of the inclination to ungodliness, which is the root of external idolatry and images, he deals in the first place.
V. 20-24. Now if your son will ask you today or tomorrow.
You see how much Moses makes it his business to inculcate the first commandment according to his spiritual mind, and we have shown that this is the way in which he most insists on the commandment, namely, that one should know that unless this opinion and mind is set right before all things (primo loco), it is nothing, even if they destroy all images and do everything; but if the heart is right in this, everything else will be done in the right way. With the other commandments he does not dwell so long, does not take so much trouble, does not make so many words.
V. 25. And it will be our righteousness before the Lord our God.
What is this? Is righteousness before the Lord achieved by works? Far be it from that, but (as I have said) it has to do with the first commandment and its chief work, which is to teach faith, love and the fear of God with all the heart. For through these the law is fulfilled and God is satisfied. Therefore, righteousness is properly set forth and praised here in this place, which is valid before God. For then we have in truth the righteousness that is imputed to us by God (which actually the word means Ps. 33, 5., in that it includes the imputed mercy), when we believe, love, fear God, and that with all our heart. Then the righteous will live by his faith. Therefore, Moses does not put this saying where he speaks of other works of the Law, because they do not justify, but rather are justified by the heart, which is already justified by faith. For he boasts of this alone, that he makes commandments and statutes etc. that it may go well with him [Israel] etc. [Cap. 6, 1. 3.].