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No Other God!
The Ten Commandments
Are you old enough to remember seeing the Ten Commandments posted in your classroom or at some other key location at school? Perhaps, you may remember it posted in courthouses and even some police stations.
A lot has changed over the last 50 years. You may not believe it, but we even prayed before school started every day. It is a different world today in which our children grow up, and sadly, one that gives them less guidance.
Those days may never come again. As a parent, I appreciated my children being exposed to God’s truth at school and church. It helped reinforce our daily home Bible study.
I do not make excuses for the conduct we see in our society, but I do believe that it was easier when everyone knew there was right and wrong. Today, the idea is whatever a person feels like doing is OK. That is not true; there are rules.
Society’s ideas of right and wrong may change, but God’s Truth never will.
We need rules that will never change.
I feel led by God’s Holy Spirit to present to you a review of His Holy Commands.
These commands were first given to Moses on Mount Sinai (also called Mount Horeb). They were carved in stone, but when Moses came down the mountain, the Israelites had made a golden image and were worshiping it. He was so upset that he threw the tablets down, and they broke.
(You can read all the good and the bad parts of this story in Exodus 31-32 NKJV.)
God had just rescued the Israelites from 400 years of slavery in Egypt. They did not have their own laws to control such a mass of people. The Scripture tells us that there were about 600,000 Israelite men between 20 and 60 who walked out of Egypt. When you add women and children, there could have been 2 or 3 million people.
God had rescued them!
However, they were not a nation yet. They did not have laws, courts, or elected officials to make sure that they worked together. Their Egyptian task masters were left behind, and they were now free.
They needed structure and guidance on how to get along with others. So God gave them what we call the Ten Commandments to enable them to live productive and peaceful lives, lives centered on the God who delivered them.
The Egyptians had many gods.
Many of them had drifted into worshiping these false gods. Four hundred years is a long time to remember how God had provided for them. The God of Abraham was still remembered, but many had fallen away and followed other gods.
The Egyptians worshiped many false gods. Ra was the sun god; the Nile gods were Hapi, Khnum, and Isis. Hathor and Min were their fertility deities. They also worshiped Set, the storm god.
The bull was one of the idols Egyptians worshiped. It was a symbol used to represent power and authority. This is probably why the Israelites made a golden calf in the wilderness while Moses was with God for 40 days and nights.
God’s First Commandment
God knows His Creation. He knew that they would need more than Moses to form them into a nation. Moses was only a man, like you and me; without God’s help, he could do nothing.
I believe that many of us have a problem understanding how the Israelites could have fallen so soon after being delivered. However, we can look around us and see the problem. Most of us know the difference between right and wrong, yet we still do those things that we know in our hearts are wrong.
God’s first Commandment may be the hardest!
In Exodus 20:3 NKJV, God says, “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
Since there is only one true God, you might ask, “How is that so hard?”
It is hard because God will only accept first place in your heart. Placing God first means that you must place yourself second. The idea of placing yourself second has always been rejected by our desires to have what we want right now. In other words, we want to put ourselves in first place.
When Jesus was questioned about the greatest law, in Matthew 22:37-38 NKJV, Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment.”
We are to put God first, love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind.
These Scriptures give little room for your own will or wants. God is just not willing to be second to anyone or anything in your life. Why? Because He knows that He is ALWAYS what is best for us.
He requires us to make a choice and to keep that choice in mind all day long, every day.
Why is the First Commandment so Hard?
Because we want things and are afraid that we will miss something if we trust in God to provide. Our self-centered desires tell us that we need a better car, job, house, wife, husband, etc, and we need it now. We get so wrapped up in what we want and how to get it, we fail to consider the cost in our relationship to God.
We are to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. If we love Him in this way, our lives become easier. This is not because we get everything we want, but because we rest in Him. Our joy comes from the Lord and is not dependent on the world or worldly things.
God understands our wants, but He knows what we really need, and will provide. His timing may be different, but I promise you, He is faithful to keep His promises.
Remember when Satan tempted Jesus?
Satan also tried to tempt Jesus with hunger after He had fasted for 40 days. The devil tempted Jesus to turn the stones into bread to satisfy His hunger, but Jesus answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” Matthew 4:4 NKJV
When that failed, Satan, showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and said he would give them all to Jesus if He would “fall down and worship me.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” Matthew 4:10 NKJV. Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 6:13.
Jesus, shows us how we can overcome worldly temptations. Remember that God is the answer and put Him first in all our decisions.
God is aware of your every need.
Our first responsibility is not to provide ourselves with all the things we want, even if they are real needs. Jesus says in Matthew 6:33 NKJV, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
We need to make sure that our priorities are right, and trust God to provide all the things we need. This is true of our personal lives and of our ministries. God is both able and willing to provide what we need to do His will.
Ask God before you commit any of the resources He has given you. His Holy Spirit will help you make wise decisions, if you will allow it.
Never trust snap decisions, they usually come from our wants and not from our needs. Always PRAY before you make a decision!
Will we obey or disobey the First Commandment?
Many factors can cause us to fail to put God first. One thing I see, over and over in the world around us, is the love of money.
This is not a new problem. It is as old as time.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:24 NIV, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Many of our temptations come from our desire for money and all the things money will buy. God is not against money, but the love of money often changes our focus from God to ourselves. As the Scripture says, you cannot serve two masters. “You cannot serve both God and money.”
Another stumbling block is pride. All of us have a problem with pride from time to time. James 4:6 NKJV he quotes, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” He also says in James 4:10 NKJV, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”
Often, our pride causes us to make decisions based on our wants and not on what God knows we need. If you have to use credit to acquire it, you can be almost certain that it is not in God’s will for you at this time.
We are not equal to God, and our wants and desires are not ever to be placed above our Lord and Savior.
Our pride is one of our most common human failings; it breaks the First Commandment by putting ourselves before God.
We need to seek God’s help to see things from God’s perspective—to get outside our own selfish worldview.
God is a Jealous God!
You can see in the history of Israel how often God’s Prophets point His people back to God. They turn away from Him, and He punishes them and then rescues them. The Old Testament gives us constant examples of Moses and God’s other leaders encouraging the people to remain faithful to the God of all Creation.
One such warning is found in Deuteronomy 8:11-12 NKJV. 11 “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12 lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them;
In Exodus 34:13-14 NKJV, the Scripture commands the children of Israel to destroy all the altars, pillars, and wooden images they were worshiping. Pay attention to these words. 13 But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images 14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
God, by His own statement, is a jealous God. He even says His name is Jealous.
Our Creator will not accept anything less than our full commitment to Him. Worldly possessions or anything that we put ahead of God will cause us to fail.
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”, tells us how much He values us.
Do we value Him enough to make Him first in our lives?
Can we obey this Commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” In Exodus 20:3 NKJV
You can, if you will ask for His Help, Love Him with all of your heart, and, in all ways, PUT GOD FIRST!
Click to go study the other Commandments, The First Commandment – No Other God!, The Second Commandment – No Idols