YouTube video sermon
Exodus 20:1-3
Let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to Exodus 20:1-3. Two weeks ago, we started this new series on the 10 Commandments, and we considered some introductory and preliminary remarks. Today, I want us to consider the first of those 10 Commandments.
In 1952, the Encyclopedia Britannica issued a 55-volume set called The Great Books of the Western World. It’s a compilation of essays and writings by those (at the time) that were considered the greatest minds and contributors to law, science, medicine, art, etc. And it was noted that the longest essay was the one on “God.” When asked about it, the publishing chairman and executive director, Mortimer J. Adler, answered the question by saying, “It’s because more consequences for life follow from this one issue than any other issue.”
Makes sense. The stakes are so high, no wonder the largest essay would be about God. So, we come to this first commandment and we discover there’s really three parts to it, or you might say two parts before the command is given. The first and second component form the rationale for the commandment. So, we have God’s Claim, God’s Care, and then God’s Command. Basically, God says, “This is who I am. This is what I’ve done. Therefore, this is what I want.” This is who I am to you. This is what I’ve done for you. This is what I want from you
1 “And God spoke all these words, saying, 2 ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 You shall have no other gods before me.’”
“O God, we want to invite You now to have full capability in our own free will, where we invite You to speak to us about key issues of our lives. We want the Holy Spirit to have absolute freedom to remind us, convict us, encourage us about anything. And so now we open this book – Your holy Word – and we open our hearts to You. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
So, we begin where God begins: with Himself. That’s the top priority. It’s number one on the list.
God’s Claim
So, go back to verse 2, where the remark begins. The first words that God speaks are His claim. This is who I am to you. “I am the LORD your God.”
I did a little digging this week and discovered that that little phrase, “I am the LORD,” or “I am the LORD your God,” is mentioned 164 times in the Old Testament. Sometimes, it shows up as “I am the LORD your God,” or “I am the LORD their God,” or I am the Lord who does such and such. 164 times. Sometimes it’s an introductory remark, as if to say, “Hello, I’m the Lord.” But more often, it’s a rationale or a basis for what follows.
You remember, as a kid, when your parents told you to do something and you had the gall to ask, “Why?” And oftentimes your parents would say, “Because I said so. I’m the parent. You’re not.” That used to be sufficient. If you were smart you’d stop there in your questioning. That’s kind of what God is saying here.
Think about it. That’s really all the authority that God needs. “I am the LORD.” Now I’ll admit it. We don’t exactly know how the name of God is pronounced. Some think it’s Jehovah, or Yavay, or Yahovah. There are a number of different guesses at it. And the reason we don’t know is because the Jews never said it. They only wrote the four consonants that make up the covenant name of God. They never uttered it. Thus, we can only guess. But it’s what God said to Moses when Moses said, “OK, you want me to lead the people of Israel. Who shall I say sent me?” (Exodus 3:13, paraphrased). And God said, “I AM that I AM” (Exodus 3:14). Or “I will be that I will be.” Yahweh.
The name Yahweh signifies the self-existing One, the self-sustaining One, the One whom nobody made up, nobody invented. This is really who I am. I made everything. I sustain everything. I reveal myself. In other words, God stake’s His name on His claim when He gives these commandments. There’s no apology. There’s no explanation. There’s no argument for God’s existence. There’s no philosophical
clarification, just a bold declaration, “I am the LORD your God.”
We interact with people all the time who swear they’re spiritual. They claim to be spirit-oriented folks. They talk about God in their own fashion. You know what I mean? They say things like, “Well, you know I’ve always pictured God as… My view of God is… Well, you know as I think about it, God must be…” And what you have is people who aren’t working off the revelation that God gave, but the imagination of their own minds. And whenever you push away from what God said about Himself, you’ve got to fill it with something and many times you’re left with your own imagination.
As you know, we have several golfers in our congregation and one of those is Steve Fuller. Well, Steve was frustrated with his golf game, so he went to see Byron Elmore. Now, if you’re new, or visiting, or you’ve never met Byron. He’s another member of our congregation and he’s a retired psychologist. So, Steve goes to see Byron to get some help with his golf game.
And Byron said, “Look, what you do is you go play a game of golf. Except, this time, use an imaginary ball.” Steve thought, “I’ve never done that before.” Byron said, “Trust me. Go out there and go through all of the motions, take all of the right clubs out, but use an imaginary ball. Just imagine your ball going down the fairway. Visualize where you want it to go.”
So, Steve went out a few weeks ago and took out his driver, teed up his imaginary ball, swung, and he imagined it going 260 yards right down the fairway, perfectly straight. And he stood there and said, “That was a great shot.” See, he made it up. Steve went down there with his five iron and then his approach shot and he parred the hole.
He played a whole round of golf till he got to the 18th hole and he saw Paul Vidovich playing exactly the same way – with an imaginary golf ball. So, Steve went to speak to Paul, and sure enough, they had both been to see Byron.
So, Steve says to Paul, “Hey, why don’t we play the last hole together? And I’ll bet you $20 on this hole.” Paul says, “You got yourself a deal.” So, they get out there, and Steve gets up, swings, and says, “Did you see my shot? 280 yards straight down the fairway.” Then Paul gets up, tees his imaginary ball, swings and says, “Look at my ball; right next to yours.”
They get down to the fairway and Steve takes out his five iron. Nice, beautiful swing. And then he waits a while and says, “Did you see what happened? My ball hit the edge of the green then that reverse spin brought it back and it went right in the hole. I win.” “No, you didn’t,” said Paul, “You just hit my ball.”
See, when you use an imaginary golf ball, you can make anything up. And so many people go through life with an imaginary God, one that they’ve concocted, one they’ve made up. It’s a god of their own imagination. It’s not the God of the Bible. And we wonder why there are so many different ideas about God in the world? Short answer is because men throughout history have suppressed the revelation that God gave about Himself.
Romans tells us, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness” (Romans 1:18). The apostle Paul says, “They’re futile in they’re thinking. They have vain imaginations. And they suppress the knowledge that God gave at creation.” So, when God begins His commandments, He stakes His claim based upon His name. “I am the LORD your God.” That’s His claim.
God’s Care
Now let’s look at His care. God goes on to say, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of slavery.” That’s redemption. That’s redemption that set Israel apart from any other nation in the ancient world. That’s redemption that the Jews celebrated and still celebrate every Passover.
You can go from Exodus – which is where the Passover begins – throughout the entire Old Testament, and you’ll discover the Israelites always point back to their delivery from the Egyptians. So, it’s this historical hinge that sets the stage for the first two commandments. Number one, no other Gods besides me. Number two, no graven images.
It’s as if God is saying, “Look, 90 days ago you were slaves in a land that oppressed you and tortured you and ridiculed you. But I delivered you from that land. Can you name any other god that did that? Did Osiris (the god of the Nile) help the Egyptians when I judged them? Did Hecket (the frog goddess) protect you or the Egyptians for my wrath? Did Geb (the earth god) intervene when I smote all of the cattle of the land with lice? Did Apis (the strong bull god of valor) protect anybody? No! I am the LORD God who delivered you, like no other deity, from the hand of the Egyptians.”
This event – this Passover and Exodus – becomes so paramount that the entire Jewish calendar gets reoriented. When the Passover was taking place in Exodus 12, the Lord said, “This month shall be the beginning of months to you. It will be the first month of the year to you” (Exodus 12:1-2). So, the entire Jewish calendar gets centered around redemption. It’s a new beginning for Israel.
It’s similar to what some Christians do. I remember the first time an adult (probably 30 years old), said to me, “I’m two years old today.” And I thought, “Well, you’re a wing nut today, that’s for sure. What do you mean you’re two years old?”
No, two years ago I gave my life to Jesus. I was born again two years ago, and the Bible says if any man is in Christ, he’s a new creation. Old things are passed away, all things become new. I go, “I get it now.” What you’re doing is reorienting your entire earthly life around your redemption from sin through Jesus Christ. So, who God is and what God had done made Him of supreme value to the children of Israel, and that’s the basis for this commandment.
I’ve always loved what Dennis Avery shared about a Sunday school class. He was walking through the halls on a Sunday and he heard this particular class praying, and an 8-year-old boy was at the head of the class, and he bowed his head and Dennis Avery heard the boy say, “And God bless our mommies, and bless our daddies, and bless our teachers, and our brothers, and our sisters, and God bless our pets, our dogs and our cats, and God please, please take care of yourself, because if anything happens to you, we’re sunk.”
That’s an 8-year-old’s prayer, but I like his thinking. Who God is and what God has done in blessing us makes God of supreme value. So, what has God done for you? Who is God to you?
God’s Command
That forms the basis of the actual commandment that we get in verse 3. Here it is, “You shall have no other gods before me.” God says, this is who I am to you. This is what I have done for you. Therefore, this is what I want from you. And notice that the commandment is just a short, compact, straightforward sentence. Most of the commandments have little (or no) elaboration. The commandment itself is a very short, punchy, straightforward saying. God is the master of the simple. No other gods. No graven images. Honor your mom and dad. No adultery. No murder, etc. And we say to ourselves, “I think I get it.”
There was a woman whose husband died, and she had to put an obituary in the newspaper, so she called the newspaper and she said, print this. “Bernie is dead.” That was it. That was all. “Bernie is dead.” The editor said nervously, “Ma’am, if it’s money that’s an issue, you get six words for $25. You could say a little more.” She said, “OK, print, Bernie is dead. Toyota for sale.”
She was a practical gal, if you think about it. God is very, very practical in these commandments. I am God. You are not. Do this stuff, keep me first. Like Corrie ten Boom used to say, “Don’t bother to give God instructions, just report for duty.”
So, the number one commandment at the top of the list is no other gods before me. You could also translate that as no other gods besides me. I stand alone. I’m not one among many. I want all of your devotion, all of your worship, all of your praise, and all of your obedience. You’re not to worship angels, you’re not to worship people – dead or alive – you’re not to worship theological systems. You are to worship and serve me, God, Yahweh, the great I AM, and only me.
As we close, I want to frame this for you three ways: historically, pragmatically, and personally. First is historically. It’s understandable why God would give this commandment as the first commandment. Israel had come from Egypt and they were going to Canaan, and both of those nations were guilty of polytheism, henotheism, and syncretism. Now most of us are at least vaguely familiar with polytheism – the worship of many gods. In Canaan there would be people there who worshipped the sun god, the moon god, the sand god, the sea god, the river god. There were all sorts of different gods that controlled that land.
But in Canaan, there was also a twist on the normal, run-of-the-mill polytheism. It’s called henotheism. It’s where there are many gods and goddesses, but each one has a limited jurisdiction. Sort of like a neighborhood drug lord. This is my hood. Stay out of it. I’m in charge of this section. So, when nations would fight each other, they saw it as the gods behind that particular area duking it out.
And that helps us understand certain portions of the Old Testament. For example, 1 Kings 20, when the Israelites are fighting the Syrians, and the Israelites win the first couple of battles in that war and the Syrians wonder “Why are the Israelites winning and we’re not?” Listen to 1 Kings 20:23, “And the servants of the king of Syria said to him, ‘[The Israelite’s] gods are gods of the hills, and so they were stronger than we. But let us fight against them in the plain, and surely, we shall be stronger than they.’” Hey, we’re fighting this battle in that god’s jurisdiction, the hills. Let’s move the battle down to the valley, because we serve the valley gods. And if we fight in that jurisdiction, we’re going to win.
And if you keep reading that story you’ll discover that God knew that the Syrians believed in henotheism, and because of that God gave the Israelites a tremendous victory over the allied Syrian armies. So that’s henotheism and polytheism, but there’s a third, and this was the worst of all: syncretism.
This was Israel’s sin. They took God and added Him to the worship of other gods, thus reducing the only true God to the same level as Baal, Ashteroth, Molech, and all of the other false gods of Canaan. So, they worshipped God and other things. That was the big problem. That’s why Elijah, the prophet, would stand on Mount Carmel and sort of put the gavel down and say, “Listen, how long will you falter between two opinions? If Baal is God, then worship him. If God is God, if Yahweh is God, then worship Him. But you can’t have both. It’s one or the other.”
So, we get the picture pretty clear historically. God wants no rivals. He wants no competition at all. No other gods before Him. And some of us here today might be flirting with our own version of syncretism. God and other things. So, historically God would say this. We can understand that.
We can also understand pragmatically why God would give this commandment. God is very practical. God understands us, because He made us. God knows that nothing is going to satisfy the human heart except our relationship with Him. He made us that way. The Bible says we’re subject to vanity or subject to emptiness. We’re never going to be totally fulfilled until we’re in right relationship with the right God. Nothing else will satisfy our hearts.
This is a silly illustration, but you might say worshipping anything or anyone other than God is sort of like hugging a mannequin. Would you go up in a store and say, just a minute. That mannequin looks very lonely. I need to hug it. I need to spend some time with it. (Perhaps in today’s messed up world you might actually hear and see someone doing that.) But a mannequin isn’t a real person.
In Psalm 115, David does something really clear, really brilliant. He does something in a song form. He makes a contrast between the living God and the non-gods in the culture around him. And so, he’s contrasting the true and the living God with all of the pagan deities that were worshipped in statue form, in stone form and wood form. And this is what David says concerning the other gods, “They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them” (Psalm 115:5-8). But our God, he says, is the living and true God.
You see, in real life you need a real God. In real life, you need a God who can hear. In real life, you need a God who can respond in some capacity. In real life, you need a strong God. In real life, you need a God who will never leave you or forsake you. And so historically and pragmatically we understand why God would give this as the first commandment.
Finally, personally. Let’s close on that note. We need to understand this commandment on a personal level. The Lord is saying, “I’m your God by creation. I’m your God by redemption. Now, I want to be your God by devotion. This is who I am to you. This is what I’ve done for you. This is what I want from you.”
So, in personalizing it, I want to ask you a personal question, and then I want to call on you to make a personal decision. Here’s the personal question. What do you think about in quiet moments? Where does your mind go when you’re alone?
You know, you can take a compass and you can go in all sorts of different directions. Turn it upside down, go around in circles, but when you just put it down on the table and let it sit, if it works, it’ll find true north. Our minds are sort of like the needle of a compass. They can focus on a number of things during the day, but when left to settle, where does your mind point? What do you think about? A girl? A guy? A goal? Perhaps your regrets? Having something? Accomplishing something? The Bible says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). So, what do you think about in quiet moments?
And then, if you discover, “You know, I don’t think about God much,” then it’s time to make a personal choice. Now granted, most everyone here has already made the personal choice to exalt Jesus Christ, to be a Christian, to follow Him. But from time to time we need to re-evaluate our lives and ask ourselves if it’s true that first things are first in our lives? Is God first in my life?
Today, maybe you need to repent and renew your commitment to the Lord. Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters. He’s going to love one and hate the other, be loyal to one and despise the other. You can’t serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). One or the other. In the last part of the book of Joshua – do you remember what he said? “Choose you this day whom you will serve, whether you’re going to serve the gods that your fathers served on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). I’m going to serve the Lord. I’m making a choice.
Saint Augustine said it beautifully in a prayer, “Lord you have made us for yourself and we are restless until we find our rest in Thee.” Who’s your God? Who delivered you? Who shows up when you have a need? Who’s number one in your life? “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”
“Father, look upon our hearts today. You know us. You made us. We don’t want to pretend before you. We don’t want to play at church. We don’t want to be simply sloganeers walking out from here. We want Your truth to take root in our hearts. We want You to help us to get rid of little gods that we’ve begun to include in our thinking: gods of our looks, gods of our ego, gods of our success, gods of our acquisitions. Help us, Lord, not to worship there. And then help us tomorrow, when we feel like worshipping there again, to remember that we said today that we didn’t want to worship there. Help us to help one another in this, ’cause all of us are learners from the One who knows the answers.
And may the love of the Lord Jesus draw us to Himself, may the joy of the Lord Jesus give us strength to obey His commands, and may the peace of the Lord Jesus keep our hearts and minds, today and forevermore. Amen.”