We are to worship God alone.
Last week, we looked at the setting for Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on stone tablets. The people were grumbling again, and God wanted to talk to them, to give them some guidance. It is quite a good story and now we start the journey through the Ten Commandments.
In Eerdmans Handbook to the Bible, we read, “The first four commands concern men’s relationship to God, the remaining six concern their relationship to one another. Hence Jesus’ two-clause summary of the law in Matthew 22:36-40 NIV 1
“36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
It is God’s design that we love Him first and then we will follow God’s laws.
Encyclopedia of the Bible gives us this view:
“God first brought His people out from slavery in Egypt, then He gave them the law. It was not the other way round: they were not expected to obey the law in order to be delivered. Jesus came to show us that faith and salvation comes first, then God will show you how to live for Him.” 2
Henry Halley, in Halley’s Bible Handbook, states:
“Reverence for God is the basis of the Ten Commandments. Jesus indicated that He considered it the elemental quality in man’s approach to God, and made it the first petition in the Lord’s Prayer. “Hallowed be Thy Name.” 3
Now on to the First Commandment that God wrote on those tablets He gave to Moses.
The 1st Commandment is in Verse 3 of chapter 20 in the book of Exodus.
Exodus 20:3 NIV
“You shall have no other gods before (besides) me.” A short but clear command from God.
The NIV Study Bible has an explanation for this word:
Before (Besides) “The Hebrew for this word is translated ‘in hostility towards’ in Gen. 16:12; 25:18. Something of that sense may be intended here. In any event, no deity, real or imagined, is to rival the one true God in Israel’s heart and life.” 4
In Deuteronomy 5, Moses reminds the Israelite people of when God gave them the law and what those laws said.
Deuteronomy 5:6-7 NIV
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”
In Deuteronomy 13, we see Moses speaking about how serious a matter it is to have only one God, our Lord.
Deuteronomy 13:6-11 NIV
6 If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known,
7 gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other),
8 do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him.
9 You must certainly put him to death. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people.
10 Stone him to death, because he tried to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
11 Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again.
This was serious business back before Jesus came to forgive us and show us the way out of this slavery to sin that we live in. But you have to know, God still wants you to worship only Him. God will deal harshly with those who worship other gods, even today.
Now let’s look at a time when God showed how much He did not like other gods in the picture. Elijah and the prophets of Baal is a familiar story but worth looking at again.
The story of Elijah and King Ahab with the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah is a good old-fashioned duel.
Read 1 Kings 18:16-39 NIV and point out several key verses.
1 Kings 18:21 NIV
“Elijah went before the people and said, ‘How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God, follow Him.”
1 Kings 18:27 NIV
“At noon Elijah began to taunt them. ‘Shout Louder!’ he said. ‘Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”
1 Kings 18:39 NIV
“When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, ‘The Lord – He is God! The Lord – He is God!”
God speaks through Isaiah to tells us this too!
Isaiah 46:9 NIV
“Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.”
Paul gives a new perspective in Romans 8:1-4 NIV
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,
4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
Lawrence Richards puts it this way: “In Christ we are freed from the futile search for a salvation we earn by trying to keep God’s Law. In Christ we are freed to express the reality of a salvation we have received as a free gift. And one way we express our salvation is by living a life that’s in full harmony with the standards God revealed in the Ten Words (Commandments) spoken from Mount Sinai. 5
Now that we are saved, how do we live? Moses was given the first Ten Commandments in this chapter of Exodus to give to the people for them to use to live godly lives. Jesus gave us two commandments that encased the ten to live by. Do we actually live by and believe they are God’s new commandments? It is a daily struggle that I have to be the best that God can make me be. Join me in the struggle – it is worth it!
Let’s pray!
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