The Ten(der) Commandments: “Keep God First”
Exodus 20:3
I’m sometimes asked, “What is the hardest thing about being a pastor? What’s the greatest burden you feel in the ministry? Preaching? Counseling? Administering? My answer has to be, “None of the above.” While any one of these tasks can be daunting or demanding on any given day, there is something even more difficult than these. The greatest challenge I face every day as a pastor is probably the very same one that you face every day: to keep God first.
Last week I began a sermon series on the Ten Commandments. This morning we’ll be looking at the First Commandment, Exodus 20:3, which places the challenge squarely before us.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.”
Not only is this our greatest challenge, it is perhaps our most important challenge as well. The songs Babbie just sang are powerful reminders to us of the greatness of our God. Now we need to understand that our number one task as believers is to make sure that nothing - no person, no object or task or duty or pleasure - is allowed to come between us and our great God.
“You shall have no other gods before me.” Let us pray...
Life was complicated for ancient people. Not in the same way as ours, of course. Our pace of life is faster, it is more crowded, and we deal with a wider variety of issues than ever before, but thankfully we deal with only one God.
It was not so with our ancient ancestors. They were certain that our world was populated by innumerable gods, each with their own special power and sphere of influence. There was a god of the sun and a god of the moon. There was a god for the water, a storm god, several fertility gods, gods of grain and wisdom and heaven and the nether world. Like humans, they were born, they begat, they died. They were sovereign only in their particular areas of influence, they often sinned, and they had physical needs that required certain human actions to satisfy.
Because of that, many religious practices arose as attempts to manipulate or appease these so-called gods. If by your actions you could please a certain god, either by making an offering or by going through a certain ritual, that god could presumably be swayed to look upon you with favor in the future. It was in this environment that the Hebrew people lived, and for the most part they accepted it as true. In the time of Moses they too believed in many gods and were constantly searching for the most powerful one.
Imagine, then, how they must have felt when, in the midst of great rumblings, smoke and fire at the foot of Mt. Sinai, the one true God appeared. From that moment on, life and history were forever changed for the Hebrews. That day God called out to the people from the mountainside and revealed to them something of his true nature as He gave them a set of commandments to follow. First and foremost among them were the words,
“You shall have no other gods before me.”
For the Hebrew people this was a radical departure from their accustomed way of thinking. They had to accept that their God Yahweh was not just the most powerful god, but in fact the only God; there simply were no others. There was not an Egyptian god, a Canaanite god, an Assyrian god, and a Hebrew god. There was just the one true God, and it was this One God who was now calling for their worship and unconditional obedience.
Why did God make such a point of having no other gods before him? For one, God doesn’t play games. Lip service doesn’t count. Straddling the fence won’t work. God is holy and will not be treated as some “god of convenience,” to be followed when we feel like it. If we are to be God’s people we must put God first.
The First Commandment also exists because God wants us to be like him, or more precisely, God wants his children to reflect his grace. We tend to take on the characteristics of whatever we worship, of whatever is most important in our lives. Does it not make sense, then, that God would call us to put him first, to let nothing else come before him in our lives?
The First Commandment - You shall have no other gods before me
- also exists because God wants to care for us. No one and nothing can care for us better than God can. God is faithful, committed to us even when we fail him. Think of all the times that God has helped you, sustained you, saved you from trouble. Remember the times when God has helped you overcome doubt, disappointment, and failure. Remember the times when he spared your life, kept your children from danger, protected you from foolish decisions. God is so good. He has loved us and reached out to us and delivered us even though we’ve never deserved it. Don’t let anything else get in the way of God’s love!
Friends, knowing how much God loves you, is it too much to ask that you make God number one in your life? Don’t invest your life in all the fleeting, temporary distractions that surround you. Those things of the world that you chase after and give loyalty to aren’t going to bring lasting blessing and prosperity to your life. God’s tender commandment,
“You shall have no other gods before me,” protects us from harm by helping us keep our priorities straight.
Friends, when you allow God to be first in your life, it will change your life. It will give you confidence to face the challenges of
life. As the Psalmist said in Psalm 56:3, “In the day when I am afraid, I will still have confidence in you, O God”
(Psalm 56:3). In spite of your troubles, you can have confidence that your life is really in God’s hands and God will care for you. When you put God first and he’s everything to you, you can give your anxieties to God and begin living with peace. As Peter said in 1 Peter 5:7,
“Cast all your anxiety on him, for he cares for you.”
When you allow God to be first in your life, it will change your life, but it will also change other people’s lives. If you put God first, people will notice. They will sense something different about you because of the way you operate under stress and pressure and the way you respond to life itself. People will wonder how and why you respond the way you do, and your witness will be strong.
Perhaps it all comes down to this: Do you really want to put God first? This has always been at the heart of our faith. In fact, the great summary statement for the Jewish and later the Christian faith is based on this: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” (Deut.6:4-5) That is what it meant to keep God first, and it is no small task!
Friends, the most important thing we can do is also the first thing we must do. We must fall upon our knees and pour out our heart to God. We must ask, we must seek, and we must knock. We must give our lives to God and let the Lord empower us. If you will ask it of him, he will do it.
Really, when you stop and think about it, why would you not want to put God first? Why would you ever want to put anyone or anything in front of God? Why do we look to other things to be our savior, when God has promised us everything we need, and keeps his promises?
Friends, God is our life. God is our salvation. God is our future. God is everything to us. Do not put anything else before God! Amen
