July 5

The First Commandment

            Then God spoke all these words:  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.

            Exodus 20:1-3

             Moses went up the mountain to receive the Law of God.  God wrote Ten Commandments on two pieces of stone for the people to follow.  Commandments Two through Ten are really just elaborations on Commandment Number One: “I am the Lord your God…you shall have no other gods before me.”

            He will be our God and we will be His people.  That is the agreement.  The nuts and bolts of that are explained a little bit more in the rest of Exodus 20.  In order to follow God, the people should not murder or steal or lie.  They should honor their god and their elders.  They should be grateful for what they had and remember who gave it to them.  And they should dedicate their lives towards their God, choosing not to follow other deities.

            This life has millions of choices in it.  The biggest choice of all is who we will serve.  Will we devote our lives to another religion?  Will we serve money?  Will we serve power?  Will we serve popularity?  Will we serve pleasure?  These are all viable options that have countless followers.  To serve a god means to allow yourself to be transformed into a reflection of that being.  You want what they want, love what they love and hate what they hate.  God gave the Jews the Law and then gave them Jesus to demonstrate exactly what a life that is devoted to God looks like.  Everything that Jesus lived out was reflected in the original 10 commandments that Moses brought down the mountain.

·         God is in control, not humanity.  He calls us to follow what we cannot see and believe that He is out for our good.  We could follow the god of Control and make idols to worship.  It has been done throughout humanity’s history.  Instead we are to live by Faith that God exists and knows us and speaks to us.  We are not in control of how the Divine looks or what language He speaks or what He will do.  He sets the priorities, not us.

·         We could pursue the god of Passion, saying and doing whatever feels right at the time.  Instead we are to watch what we say and how we say it.  We are to use our words and actions to give honor to our Creator and to those who raised us, even if they did not do a perfect job.

·         We could pursue the gods of Accomplishment and Busyness and try to prove to ourselves and the world and God that we are worth His respect.  Instead, God calls us to sabbath and rest and rejuvenation.  We stop working so that God can show us that we need not vie for His respect when we already have His love and provision.

·         We could pursue the god of Competition and create arbitrary standards that make us better than the rest of humanity.  Instead God says that to be in His image, we are not to take the life or take the spouse or take the possessions or take the honor of our brothers and sisters.  They too, are made in God’s image and you cannot love God and hate those made to reflect Him.

·         We could pursue the god of More.  It is not enough to just not take what belongs to others, God invites us into contentment with what He has given us.  More will not relieve the ache of humanity, only God will.

He is our God and we are His people.  We are to serve Him and Him alone and allow ourselves to be shaped to reflect the fullness of who He is.  We are to raise our children to be able to make that choice as well.  Show them the goodness of God through you.  Show them that serving God is the way to true life.  Explain to them why we have chosen this path and how they can join us.  That is our joy and our responsibility and our privilege as parents.

A moment to reflect:

What other gods are you tempted to serve?