The Will of God

Moral and Political Guidance from Calvin’s Commentaries on the Mosaic Law

Alex Soto

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9781610977531
  9781498262019
• eBook ISBN:
  9781630875770
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

Your daughter asks if she can wear a tuxedo to the prom. How should you answer her? A thief breaks into your home at night. Can you protect your family to the point of killing the thief? A politician campaigning for your vote has no regard for Christ's gospel. Can you vote for him? Crime is rampant and mounting. How exactly does a society confront it? Do you know God's particular will for these situations? The general guidance offered from many pulpits and the specific guidance offered from many talk shows should not satisfy those committed to taking every thought captive to Christ (see 2 Cor 10:5). In moral dilemmas, God's general guidance or the "wisdom" of men will not do. We need God's voice, and we need it particularly. The Will of God: Moral and Political Guidance from Calvin's Commentaries on the Mosaic Law overcomes these drawbacks of authorized generalities or unauthorized specifics. It comprehensively yet succinctly expresses God's entire moral will by: ogiving specific, not general, ethical direction oclosely tying direction to God's commandments, avoiding the "ingenuities" of men olooking to the interpretations of a trusted theologian, John Calvin osummarizing Calvin's interpretations in bullet points for rapid learning In a word, The Will of God offers an ethical gourmet meal at a fast food pace. The book especially aims for the biblical reformation of politics. No other sector calls for moral reform like the political sector, and if there is any weak area in contemporary Christian teaching it is in political ethics. Christian teachers have simply baptized current non-Christian theories. The Will of God presents a biblical political theory that does not annul one of the least of God's commandments (see Matt 5:19).

First Commandment

You shall have no other gods before Me.

General Principle: We must not worship any but Jehovah.

Exod 20:3

You shall have no other gods before Me.

Deut 5:7

You shall have no other gods before Me.

No gods may be opposed to the true and only God.

We defile and corrupt true religion when God’s glory is diminished in the least degree.

The literal Hebrew reads “no other gods before my face.”

This commandment comprehends the inward worship of God (external idolatry is the second commandment).

Only God, not figments of our imagination, may be worshipped.

Exposition

Deut 6:4, 13

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! . . . 13 You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him.

Deut 10:20

You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast.

Deut 6:16

You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him in Massah.

God has the sole (“one”) power and glory and is alone to be worshiped.

Since he is the only God, we must worship him undividedly.

He commands voluntary reverence that is demonstrated in worship.

We must not depart from him in the slightest, avoiding all corrupt worship.

God’s peculiar attributes must be acknowledged.

We must believe in his providential care.

Lev 19:1–2

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.’”

God’s nature is the standard of our service to him.

We should study to be holy.

Deut 6:14–15

You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you 15(for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you), lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.

God establishes his authority alone so that the common belief of the Gentiles might be despised.

Threats are added. His jealousy permits no rival and the nearness of his presence inspires terror and reproves the ingratitude of seeking gods afar off.

Deut 18:9–14

When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. 10There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. 13You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. 14For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you.

We are not to mix up the worship of God with the inventions of men.

Our natural desire for knowledge gets corrupted by two errors: to know more than has been revealed and to seek knowledge illicitly.

God condemns these practices: (a) burning children, sometimes even to death, as propitious sacrifices to gods; (b) augury, astrology; (c) divination, soothsaying; (d) jugglery (deceiving by sleight of hand); (e) enchantments, magic arts; (f) witchcraft, fortune-telling; (g) wizardry (claiming special knowledge for deceit); (h) necromancy (prophesying upon the answers of the dead).

We must avoid the sins of unbelievers that provoke God to judgment.

Our worship should be “blameless,” that is, with no corruptions that draw us away from the one true God.

Israel’s religion was not to follow the superstitious defilements of the Canaanite nations.

Deut 18:15–18

The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, 16according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.” 17And the Lord said to me: “What they have spoken is good. 18I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.”

“A Prophet” is an enallage (grammatical substitution) for a number of prophets.

The doctrine of the Prophets should alone have force among Israel. Hearkening unto the prophetic word should be the continual manner of the church’s government.

Christ ultimately fulfills and ends the prophetic office (Heb 1:1–2).

The comparison to Moses is to ensure the coming prophets’ authority, since Moses’ authority was not questioned.

Convinced of their weakness, at Mount Sinai the Jews themselves asked for prophets.

The prophetical teaching office is a sign of God’s favor.

Deut 13:1–4

If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let us go after other gods”—which you have not known—“and let us serve them,” 3you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.

Deut 18:21–22

And if you say in your heart, “How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?”—22when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

The Law, as the Gospel (Eph 4:14), was given to keep the church pure by exposing imposters within its ranks.

God sometimes allows Satan’s ministers to predict events (e.g., Balaam).

Imposters who work miracles are servants of God’s vengeance to ensnare rebels (2 Thess 2:10–12).

False signs test, that is, lay open what was before concealed. As in the case of Abraham, testing separates hypocrites from true believers (this is also a function of heresies, 1 Cor 11:19).

People who may at times prophesy correctly do not always deliver true revelations (e.g., Caiaphas).

Ordinarily, claims to prophet-hood are tested by fulfilled predictions (see Jer 28:8–9).

Signs inseparably connect to righteous doctrine, as aids to faith.

True prophets are indicated by fulfilled prophesy along with right doctrine.

Lev 18:21

And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

Lev 19:26, 31

Nor shall you practic...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Preface to the Decalogue
• Chapter 1: First Commandment
• Chapter 2: Second Commandment
• Chapter 3: Third Commandment
• Chapter 4: Fourth Commandment
• Chapter 5: Fifth Commandment
• Chapter 6: Sixth Commandment
• Chapter 7: Seventh Commandment
• Chapter 8: Eighth Commandment
• Chapter 9: Ninth Commandment
• Chapter 10: Tenth Commandment
• Sum and Use of the Law
• Bibliography