No Other Gods Before Me: An Exposition Of Exodus 20:1-6

No Other gods Before Me: An Exposition of Exodus 20:1-6

We begin this morning a series on the Ten Commandments with a study of the first two commandments. There are actually more than ten commandments if one breaks apart the second commandment and separate the prohibition making of graven images from not bowing down to worship them. Also, one can separate the commandment not to covet into several separate commandments. There is general agreement, however, that it is best to distill the 14 prohibitions down to ten, although they might be grouped differently. However, we should realize that the ten commandments are not independent prohibitions. If one covets something that is not his, then they are assigning worth to this object or person. As “worship” consists has at its roots “worth ship,” then to covet is to bow down to another god and putting it before God. This is to steal God of His glory. Paul rightly tells us that if one breaks one of the particular commandments, then he has broken all of them.

The Ten Commandments have been commented upon for millennia by, Jews, Christians, and even non-Christians. They are one of the pillars of Western Civilization. Many unbelievers even attach a sense of divine authority to them. If these commandments were practiced by humanity, then this world would be a better place. Add Jesus who provides the motivation of love and we would have a utopia. It brings up the question, “Why then is the world in such wretched condition?” There is something in us that causes us to rebel against God. We want to find our own way. We want autonomy, something which belongs only to God. The problem has existed from the Fall. The people of Israel, to whom these commandments were first addressed were no exception. The commandments do proclaim the will of God for us. So, it is good for us to study them.

When we see lists of the Ten Commandments in the courthouses and the front lawn signs, there is something missing. We state the prohibitions without providing the rationale. God explains why father and mother should be honored. God explains why we should not bow down and worship other gods. The most grievous error is to start the Ten Commandments in verse 3 which lists the first prohibition rather than the first verse which provides the rationale and the necessary context for understanding them.

The Ten Commandments begin with the words: “I am the Lord thy God which hath brought thee out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” This, first of all reveals that they were first uttered to the Children of Israel, a people whom the LORD had chosen for a special relationship. Although God’s will is just as applicable to any nation, we must not miss that this is given in the context of a covenant between God and His people. The verse reminds these special people that they had been in bondage in Egypt. Egypt had many laws of there own and worshiped many gods. These laws caused the Israelites to suffer cruel bondage. The Egyptians has a death cult, and the name itself in Hebrew means the “place of graves.” This sets up a sharp contrast between the laws and gods of Egypt and Yahweh. If the culture of Egypt led to death and graves, then what we see here in the Ten Commandments is meant to lead one to life and freedom. This is the attitude we need to come to the Ten Commandments for.

The next thing the preamble tells us is that the basis of the Ten Commandments is not law at all, but grace. It is by God’s grace that Israel was freed from Egyptian slavery and brought to Sinai. When we realize God’s purpose for the Commandments is to maintain freedom rather than to introduce us to a new slavery. Satan has always been good at twisting God’s motivation. He made Eve question God’s motives for the prohibition of eating from the tree of the “Knowledge of Good and Evil.” He presented the LORD as being a cosmic killjoy who was trying to keep them down. He also misrepresented himself as being the means to true freedom. Adam and Eve believed the lie, and the world has suffered slavery to sin and death as a result.

The first commandment says: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” From what we have learned from the preamble to the Ten Commandments already, we can see that the worship of other gods will invariably lead to slavery and death. The father the world strays from even the pretense of keeping the Ten Commandments, the deeper into slavery the human race descends. We must remember that God is over all, and His standards are applicable to all creation. When God’s sovereignty is challenged, this leads to a power vacuum. Some other god must be created by men as an authority. The Enlightenment promised freedom and autonomy. The free will of man is proclaimed. They said that we are now free from God and able to determine right and wrong for ourselves. The problem is that every human has a will. Everyone wants to be his own god. But we see a world of increasingly totalitarian world that some people’s free will has more power than others. In order for the elite to have free will, they must impose their “free will” upon others. This reduces the most of mankind to slavery. This can either be expressed openly by use of power and fear. Or it can be done by deception. They deceive the people with the promise of free will. And the people become ignorant that they are being manipulated. The truth is that even the rich do not have free will either as they will one day have to give account to the Sovereign God who alone possesses free will.