The First Commandment

Hey everyone.

So, I am back from camp.  It was truly an amazing week.  This week, Wendy and I are going to California and driving up the coast in celebration of our 25th anniversary.

Any way, I have continued in my study of the book of Deuteronomy, and I am now in chapter 5. In Deut. 5, Moses recounts the Ten Commandments.  Deuteronomy 5: 6-21 is almost word for word what the Bible says in Exodus 20:2-17.  Preceding the recounting of the Ten Commandment, Moses reminds them that God had made a covenant (agreement) with them.  Later, he reminds them that if they keep this covenant with God, that it would bring great blessing. (Deut. 5:32-33) Needless to say, keeping this covenant with God was in their best interests.  Of course, it is the same for us today.  I have made a covenant with God, and it is my best interests to keep it.

Before giving the first commandment, God gives a little preamble.  It is recorded in both accounts. God says, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."  He reminds them of what He had done for them, and why they should obey these commandments.  He had brought out of slavery.  This much, by itself, should have made them so grateful that they would be obedient to God for the rest of their lives.  Had God written the Ten Commandments just for me, e may have said something like, "I am the Lord your God who has brought you out of slavery to sin and have given you abundant blessings."  That reminder of the truth of my former situation should make me willing to obey whatever God commands.

Right after this, God gives the first command.  "You shall have no other gods before me."  These ancient Israelites lived in a time when most people worshiped many gods, but who were, in fact, no gods at all.  Never-the-less, the Israelites were constantly tempted to forsake the one and only true God for these false gods.  Our modern society is not so different, it is just that the false gods have changed to careers, materialism, celebrity or even our own comfort.  But God has not changed in his desire to have a relationship with and to make the reasonable demand that we put Him first.  In Isaiah 42:8, it says, "I am the Lord, that is my name!  I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols."  God will not, and should not, yield his glory to another god.  So if we have given our allegiance to another god, we have taken that glory that is rightfully His and given it to another.  God later tells us that He is a jealous God. He has that the right to be. When we consider all that God has done for us, we realize that we should never break that covenant and give His rightful glory to another. The Israelites, over the ensuing generations, did this many times, and missed out on an abundance of blessing that could have been theirs.  Let us keep God first in our hearts, so that we "may live and prosper and prolong our days in the land."

Tom