“You shall have no other
gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3)
We live in a time when the “Ten Commandments” seem to be fading from the world.
Places exist on the planet where few have ever even heard of them.
Strangely enough, in other places where they are well known, like Europe
and the United States, there seems to be a concerted effort to get rid
of them altogether. Before they are removed from the radar of our
understanding it seems like a good idea to examine them and see how they
affect our lives. And so, for the next ten weeks, we will look at one of
them each week, and see for ourselves what relevance they may have for
you and for me. Here are the Ten Commandments as I see them, in the
order they are listed in Exodus Chapter 20:
1. Our Creator, our God is to be first in our life
(Verse 3)
2. We are to have NO idols of any kind (Verses 4-5)
3. God’s name is never to be used profanely (V. 7)
4. The Sabbath is our time for rest and worship (V. 8-11)
5. We honor our parents, now and when they are old (V. 12)
6. We never will commit murder (V. 13)
7. Committing adultery is not part of our lives (V. 14)
8. We will not steal from others (V. 15)
9. We don’t lie about other people (V. 16)
10. Don’t even think about taking what others have (V. 17)
Today we will focus on what may be called “the
first and greatest commandment.” in relation to, “You shall have
no other gods before Me” in Exodus 20:3. The phrase, “the…
greatest commandment,”
consists of words used by Jesus in Matthew 22:38, which was His response
to the question, “What is the greatest commandment
in the Law?” His answer included: “Love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind” (Matthew 22:37). He quoted Deuteronomy 6:5, and when
you think about it, if you love God with everything you’ve got, the
First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods
before Me,” is utterly satisfied. You please God when you love
the Lord.
But many people don’t WANT to “Love the Lord your God with all (their)
heart(s) and with all
(their) soul(s) and
with all (their) mind(s).” And they
DO want to have “other gods before (Him),”
because they want to be the chief “god” in
their own lives. If He is in charge, you aren’t, and you might lose
control of what’s happening in your life. But to say that Almighty God is
not your Creator, King, and Leader is a form of “denial,” much like the heavy drinker
who says he or she is not an
alcoholic. Many “suppress the truth in
unrighteousness” as it says in Romans 1:18, but the evidence that
God is exactly who and what Scripture says about Him is – everywhere.
When Scripture says, “In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis
1:1), we should note that the earth has been perfectly made for us. The
force of gravity is just right and the atmosphere is 50 miles in depth;
precisely sustaining our lives. Our planet, earth, is exactly the right
distance from the sun and the moon. The moon’s gravity creates ocean
tides so the waters do not become stagnant and yet the oceans don’t rage
across the land. God created the water that we drink in order to live,
which is correctly called a “universal solvent,” carrying minerals and
nutrients throughout our bodies. He designed and built the human brain,
which processes more than a million messages a second, filtering out the
unimportant and focusing on what we need to know. The brain interprets
colors, touch, handles emotions, contains memories, monitors breathing,
reveals hunger and controls muscle movement. Your eyes can distinguish
seven million colors, they focus automatically and can process
millions of objects simultaneously (from Marilyn Adamson at www.everystudent.com). You are “fearfully and
wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). You really are.
In other words, the reason you can read these
words or listen to them, the reason you can understand what it all
means, the decisions you make about whether you like what is said, your
ability to feel the plastic on your keyboard, the breaths you are taking
right now – it’s all from God, your Creator. When He created the first
humans, you were genetically inside of them. He planned you from before
the beginning and you are His. The name you have, the body you think is
yours, the parents, the relatives you may or may not like, the country
you were born in – it’s His plan for you. Life is not about being rich
or famous, though that is part of His plan for some - it’s about
trusting in the Lord; placing your faith in Him. “You
shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3) means that He
is first in your life.
These days, most people owe a lot of money to
creditors. Jobs have been lost, houses are being foreclosed upon,
reputations are being ruined and the economy of nations is in jeopardy.
What’s happening to individuals is reflective of our standing before
God. He is our Creator and we owe Him – everything. “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts
17:28). He has lavished His love upon us and what He asks in return is
simply that we will have faith in Him, a component of love. He has given
us more than we have ever realized. We owe Him our very lives and are
indebted to Him. It is a debt we can never repay, but we take a step in
the right direction when we decide to respond to His command: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3).
We all need to discover how we can avoid having
“other gods” and then make Him our
priority in response. Sadly, it is very difficult to actually do it. Paul the Apostle struggled to keep the Law, but that
honest man observed, “I know that nothing good
dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me,
but the doing of the good is not” (Romans 7:18). We may want to “have no other gods before” our Lord, but a need for
money, for security, concerns about our children, anxiety about our
reputation, worries about our jobs and health, can subtly become like
annoying little “gods” that rule us through
our own emotions. We wish, we hope and pray, knowing that God should be
first in our lives, but as Paul noted, “the doing
of the good” eludes us.
To have these subtle little “gods” high on our priority list is indeed “sin,” but
the Lord understands because He bore those sins on the cross. Scripture
reveals that, “if we say we have no sin, the truth
is not in us” (1 John 1:8). But it blessedly continues, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John
1:9). We are to “confess.” It is the Lord
who forgives and makes us clean. To “confess”
is to trust, to have faith that God can and will do what we cannot.
And if we have just a little bit of faith;
even the willingness to have faith, He hears our call and rescues us. As Jesus noted, we are all people of “little faith” (Matthew 6:30), and He continued, “Do not be anxious then, saying, ‘What shall we eat…
(or) drink… (or how shall we)
clothe ourselves?...
The Father knows you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom
and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.
Therefore do not be anxious…” (Matthew 6:31-34). As you trust in
Him, you begin to find that “You…
have no other gods before (Him)” (Exodus
20:3). He will bring it to pass.
Lord, we confess our sin of idolatry, of
being afraid instead of looking to You. Please forgive us and
heal us. Thank You. We trust in You now. In Jesus Name.
Amen.
