Sermons from Lone
Rock Bible Church No Other Gods (Part I) God’s first commandment is a tall
order. We need to look at “having no other gods before Him” from a number of
angles. This commandment is all of the following: 1. Personal I have a nephew named Joe. Joe is a
nice little boy but he kind of has a “take-charge” attitude. He is younger than
our four boys. We were visiting him a number of years ago. Joe is kind of a
militarily-minded kid and it was time to play “War.” My boys went along as Joe
lined them up and explained to them the rules. “This is how our war is going to work.
You are going to do this and you’re not going to do that.” The line that was the
cutest was, “If you don’t follow the rules, you’re going to get fired from
the war!” My boys still occasionally quote that.
Needless to say, Joe’s rules were not taken all that seriously. Why? Because the
young man lacked authority. Rules only work, only matter, if the rule giver has the
authority to put them in place and the authority to back them up. Joe may not have had that authority,
but God surely did. He demonstrates it for us in the book of Exodus. The Ten Commandments
reveal to us at least two truths; that is, God’s authority if nothing else. He simply
says this is the way it must be. And as people respond to God’s authority over the
years, it is painfully obvious how desperately fallen we really are. We’re going to look at the first
commandment today. 1Then God spoke all these words, saying, This commandment really ought to
propel us toward the God of the Bible. It is loaded. It is rich. We are going to approach
it from eight angles, four of them today. What really is this commandment about? What is
the God of heaven, the God of the universe, really saying? 1. Personal The first truth that impresses me
about His commandment is that it is clearly personal. I don’t know how a plaque of
the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse or in a town square might come across to the
reader. But my guess is, most of the time, it will not be personal. It will just be there.
It may evoke memories of Sunday school or something religious, but it is hardly a personal
issue. What we need to understand when we go back to God delivering the Ten -- it was a
personal word from a personal, living God to real, breathing people. We prefer the personal, don’t we?
Other than bills, we tend to focus more immediately on first class mail than on third
class mail. We resent form letters, normally. We do not welcome telemarketers, try as they
might to be personal. When we make telephone
calls, voice mail is a second place option. I for one do not enjoy virtual guides through
the telephone menu. If you do evangelism, and I hope you
do, and you share the gospel of the living God with those who need to hear, please
understand everyone likes it personal. Most people come to faith through a friend or
family. Keep it personal. God did. Perhaps
this escapes our recall. God first communicated directly to the people. Remember, the Ten
Commandments were not Moses’ idea. They were God’s, and the Ten Commandments
were not given while the people were in Egypt as a prerequisite to get them out. Passover,
then Sinai. We have to keep that order right. Nobody ever got right with God by keeping
rules. God saved them and said as we are in relationship, this is how it is going to work.
9The LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I will come to you in a
thick cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe in you
forever." Then Moses told the words of the people to the LORD. "You shall have no other gods
before Me. Not just a good, religious idea, but a personal command by a living God. God has a name and sadly, our English Bibles have
lost this. God introduced Himself to Moses in the third chapter of Exodus when He called
him to the burning bush. He commissioned Moses to go into the land of Egypt and to be God’s
man on the ground, if you will, to bring about the delivery, to deal with the Pharaoh, and
to lead the people out. In Exodus 3:13, Moses having heard God’s
challenging and daunting job description for him is hedging a bit. 13Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of
Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may
say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" In those days they were perhaps,
religiously, a little less sophisticated. They had choices and they admitted it. Who is the God of our fathers? 14God said to Moses, "[I AM WHO I AM"; and He
said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" “I AM” -- that is His name.
We will talk more specifically about the breakdown of the name of God when we get to the
third commandment. But He is saying “I AM.” Yahweh is the word. It means I
always continually, always have been, am currently, always will be, with you and for you.
I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I AM the God of loyal love. I AM your God. He
elaborates in verse 15: 15God, furthermore, said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the
sons of Israel, ' The LORD, “Yahweh” -- that’s
where the English Bible will break down for us. It’s not a bad idea to get in the
habit as you read in your English Bible and it says Lord (capital L, smaller o-r-d), in
English translations that is the name of God -- Yahweh.
I know of one English Bible that translates it that way; most do not. I am
getting in the habit of reading His name when I see that word because He is a personal God
who gave His name. He introduced Himself to Moses the prophet with a name, not with a
title. the God of
your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to
you ' This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations. This is who I AM. My name describes My
person. I AM eternal and I AM utterly committed to you. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. I AM the God of your heritage and the God of your future. I AM the God who
brought you out of the land of Egypt. The personal side of the command is
powerful. God is a Person. A person is defined by theologians and anthropologists and
others, as a being with will, intellect, and
emotions. Will (volition), intellect and emotions. When the LORD spoke to the people in
Exodus 20 and said, “You shall have no other Gods before Me.” That word “before”
is an interesting word. It is a challenge to translate but it found elsewhere in
Scripture. The best of definition of “before Me” is “in addition to Me.”
“I am the only God. You shall
have no others in addition to Me. Do not complicate our relationship by adding any other
object of worship.” I think it is kind of like marriage ought to be. The wife says to
the husband, understandably, “You shall have no other wives before me, in addition to
me. What would that do to our relationship if, in fact, your loyalty, allegiance,
affection, went elsewhere?” That is what God is saying. This is
more than just a theological truism. He will get to that later, that there are truly no
other Gods. But people are wholly capable of fabricating them and bowing down to them, as
we shall see. God is saying “I will have none of that. I do not want you to have any
other objects of loyalty in addition me. I take that personally.” Would your husband?
Would your wife? Yes, real personally, real quickly, probably real powerfully. No others. It is a personal matter
with God. God’s heart was engaged and He wanted the people’s hearts too. In
Deuteronomy 6, right after the part where the Ten Commandments are repeated --
(Deuteronomy means second law, second giving of the law), notice what God says through
Moses: 5"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your might. You shall make it personal, responding
to him. 13"You shall fear only the LORD your God; and you shall
worship Him and swear by His name. “You shall fear” -- that
word is reverence Him. That is a heart issue. And only worship Him. 17"You should diligently keep the commandments of the LORD
your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you. You shall do this diligently; that is,
from the heart. God is interested in a heart relationship. The command “you shall
have no other Gods in addition to Me” is first of all personal. 2. Historical Secondly, it is historical. We may not
think so. I think it is a big deal. This occurred long ago, 3,400 or so years ago.
However, the place -- Mt Sinai, the people -- the Israelites, the date -- there was a
calendar event, the sequence of events are all there. This is a Law that came down to real
people in a real place at a real time from a real God with real expectations. This is not
just sort of happy pie-in-the-sky religious stuff. This event is grounded in history every
bit as much as the cross and resurrection of Jesus are grounded in history and as the
second coming of Jesus will be grounded in history. This is real stuff, historical fact,
and we perhaps do not often think of this but historical fact is absolutely vital for
sensible living today. We have heard in recent months and years and probably will as long
as we are here the squabble over such things as the legal system of the United States, the
nomination and appointment of supreme court justices and that all roads lead back to the
Constitution of the United State. That is the standard, the reference point, the place
where all law is supposed to take its bearing. Isn’t it nice that we have the
Constitution of the United States. It was written in real history by real people. We
really have it. It is a benchmark, supposed to be, for our legal system. Historically, and in the world of
religion, this has not been the case. Go back several hundred years when humanism began to
take its rise about the time of the French Revolution. People began to figure that we were
pretty good in our own right and because of our superior mental capability we could reason
our way any where we needed to go. Following hard on the heels of that were such things as
the “Origin Of The Species” and other different philosophies that began to
surface. Certain things were called into
question as the industrial revolution took on momentum. People began to get more and more
self sufficient. The Bible began to be viewed as more and more archaic, irrelevant,
quaint, obsolete, in the minds of many. After all, we have science, so therefore the
miraculous can simple be defined away. There cannot be any miracles because we have laws
of science that cannot be suspended and therefore, no more miracles. No more miracles? That must mean no
more Bible because the Bible has the miraculous in it from one end of it to the other. The
Bible does not hesitate to say that God created a system and then is free to intervene any
time He wants because He is God. Without a Bible, if the Bible is bunk and it does not
really matter and we cannot prove anything anyway, then we really have no authority
grounded anywhere in history, do we? If the Bible is not relevant, where do
we get our rules? Who says what is right and wrong? Who has the authority? But if we have
history, if we have solid “space and time” grounded fact, we have something from
which to build. If we do not, there is no authority. Perhaps Nietzsche was right. Perhaps
God is dead. Perhaps that is why Nietzsche killed himself, out of despair, realizing that
if there is no authority, if there is no truth, if there is nothing he can take to the
bank, what is our point? Despondency and despair set in. Others would not go quite that far.
They would say there may or not be a God. We’ll call ourselves agnostics. We think
the Bible is nice. It is full of good literature and there may be some truth to it. There
may not be a God, but in the best interest of humanity, let’s at least pretend that
there is, so that we can have some rules and have some social order and have some
predictability and have some answers and even have some festivals from time to time. Let’s
at least pretend. Others say we are pretty sure the
Bible is true. We are not exactly positive, but if we just will study it long enough, then
maybe it may not be the Word of God, but hopefully it will become the Word of God to me in
my given circumstance and in the decisions that I face, the problems I deal with. If the
Bible is not the Word of God, then hopefully someday it will become that. Brothers and
sisters, we are left with where we are today. If you do not know this, we live in a
post-modern world, where outside of serious Christians of whatever denomination, there is
nothing to believe any more. There is nothing for someone to hang onto. There is no point,
there is no authority. There is no value to human life or anything else if there are no
absolutes in history. I am so delighted that we can go here.
We can go to these places. We can trace it through and we are as sure of ourselves
historically in this event as we can be in anything. That is why the historical, actual,
physical resurrection of Jesus is absolutely huge. Paul said it himself, “If Jesus is
not raised, we are a hurting unit.” (My paraphrase.) If that did not happen in
history, we are in big trouble. Jesus did not just appear to rise from the dead, we just
hope He did, we think He did. No, He did and He appeared and he proved it. He continues to
change lives by His resurrection power today. We are still waiting for archaeology
and paleontology and these other disciplines to debunk the Bible. That has not happened.
As a matter of fact, archaeological developments continue to endorse the Scriptures. On one hot day in 1947, a little
Bedouin boy named Mohammad Adib was out with his goats. When he was exploring the ravines
and so forth on the north end of the Dead Sea he saw a hole, a cave, wondered if he could
hit it with a rock, like little boys do. He heard pottery break, went in and found
scrolls, lots of them in pots, lots of them, Bedouins are quite sensitive to the
antiquities market. As a result we have the Dead Sea Scrolls. I am sure we have all heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls but do we know what they mean? They are not just a find of Biblical archaeology. Prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls our oldest Old Testament manuscripts were dated almost at 1,000 A.D. They were manuscripts that were handed down from you might say monastery to monastery. Because of the reverence shown toward the Scriptures, if they got old or tattered or faded they were destroyed after a new one was copied. They did not keep the old ones Our oldest is 1,000 years after Jesus.
People questioned, “How do we know if they are accurate? How do we know we can trust
them” The Dead Sea Scrolls is arguably the greatest archaeology discovery of all
time. They are still being unrolled, carefully, dated, and translated. The oldest of the
Dead Sea Scrolls goes back to about 250 B.C., so we picked up about 1,250 years worth of
time with their discovery. The Dead Sea Scrolls contain almost
the entire Old Testament with the exception of one book. There were lots of other writings
that the community there had put together. The whole Old Testament was there and suddenly
we have a manuscript 1,000 years older that the oldest one we ever had. The question is --
are they going to match up? Are we going to find that that there are two Isaiahs now or
three Isaiahs, now that we have this older manuscript. Scholars are studying and
translating and coming to the conclusion there is no difference in a thousand years of
time. Archaeology and so forth do nothing
but support Scripture. This delivery of the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai long ago, really
happened because God was really there and He was not kidding. The Commandments are
personal and the Commandments are historical. 3. Logical He says this: "I am Yahweh
your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” That is the premise. Did I or did I
not do that? Yes, You did. Does it not then stand to reason that you should have no other
gods besides Me? Does it not just make sense? Perhaps this has happened to you or you have
heard of it happening -- you are going through the woods and you see that kitty caught in
a trap by accident, and think I need to go over and free the kitty. I run over to work the
trap -- the kitty might take my hands off. Maybe it’s a big kitty, maybe it has
spots. Would you not think, would it not make
sense that if I go to the trouble of freeing kitty from the trap, that kitty would come
and purr and rub up against me and be my kitty? No, kitty runs away, because animals do
not act that way. God is saying, people, think this
through. I am Yahweh your God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. By the way, to
Abraham in Genesis 15, God promised He would one day deliver these people. He came through
on His promise. I did what I said I would do. Now, is it too much to ask that I be your
God and that you have no others.” Is that not logical? After all, Israelites, who else is
going to set you free? What are your options? Moses? Is Moses going to do this? He tried
once, remember? He thought he was the main deliverer guy and he actually killed an
Egyptian. In his own flesh and in his own strength and 40 years before God’s time.
Moses cannot do it. Who else can do it? Are you going to
deliver yourselves? Oh yeah, the Egyptians tell you to make bricks, keep the quota up, and
by the way, go get your own straw now and keep the quota up. Are you going to rebel
against that? You don’t have what it takes. It is not going to happen. You are not
going to deliver yourselves. You are not inclined and you are not capable. Who is going to
deliver you then? Is Pharaoh just going to wake up one day in a good mood? Say you can
leave; take my economy with you and just go. Pharaoh is not going to deliver. How about the gods of Egypt? They had
quite a few and by the way, the gods of Egypt are discernable in the plagues on Egypt. As
a matter of fact, much of the ten plagues of Egypt was God’s way of saying, “I
can take that god; I can take that god; I can take that god. I am not intiminated by your
gods, Egyptians.” Which of those gods are going to deliver these people? Not a one.
God thumped them all. They are not going to get it done. Other gods from elsewhere -- all those
other gods, the gods of the Chaldeans and the gods of the Amorites and the gods of
Assyria, they did not come through for them. Who are your choices? You have one choice,
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yahweh, the God of all creation says He will do it
and He did it. He brought you out and it just makes sense that you would want to follow
Him. It reminds me of that moving episode
in the 5th chapter of Marks’ gospel where Jesus takes His disciples
deliberately through a storm at night across the Sea of Galilee to the southeast corner to
the country of the Gerasenes. There he disembarks and coming to meet Him from the tombs
was a demon possessed guy. We think about this man and we think, what a hopeless piece of
work. There is a reason he is living in the
tombs. Nobody wants him anywhere else. He is supernaturally strong because he is possessed
by a myriad of demonic hosts. He can break chains. Nobody can hold him. He has decided
clothes are not worth it any more and he is on suicide watch. He is constantly cutting
himself with stones because the enemy’s agenda is to kill, steal, and destroy. That
is what this guy represents. He has to be the most miserable man in three counties. He
does not have any friends. His life is over, until Jesus showed up. Mark 5 is a fascinating account
because it depicts this meeting and all the drama that is connected with it and the
interaction between Jesus and the demons as they are telling him their name. They are
telling Him, “Please don’t send us away into the abyss, we want to go into the
pigs.” We see the pigs become infested now with demons. They are now on self-destruct
just like the man was and they follow through. The people who own the pigs see it and
don’t like this. They have seen their livelihood now go into the drink. They are
unsettled by this man who came from across the water. They do not care that the
demon-possessed guy is now clothed and seated and in his right mind and whole. They do not
care about him; they care about the pigs. They entreat Jesus to please leave. “You
make us really uncomfortable.” Except for the man. It is so moving that he
continually entreats Jesus that he might be with Him. Who else could have set this guy
free? Where else does he have any hope? Nowhere else. “Please Jesus, let me be with
You.” That was his heart. I wonder about our hearts. Who else is
going to pay our way to heaven? Who else is going to change our lives in this world? 4. Legal This first commandment, “You
shall have no other gods besides me,” -- it’s legal. It is a good law. It is
like a command. The tone is authoritative. They call it a prescriptive verse. It is just
like when you go to the doctor. You are sick; that’s why you are there. The doctor
says “I will write you a prescription.” Depending on the severity of your
illness, it is not a suggestion. It is a prescription. You go to the drugstore. The
drugstore sells you a drug that is prescribed by the doctor to fix your problem. It is the
only way to go. It is not a suggestion and there is nothing tentative about it. God is
saying this raw command, “You shall have no other gods before me.” That is a
command. My mother used to say when she would
tell us kids to do this or don’t do that, after we got a little older we would say,
“Why?” Her answer, “Because I am your mother and I said so!” That
works for awhile and then you want a little more than that. But the point is well taken.
Biblically, she has the authority to levy a command that is expected to be obeyed. She
does not have to go any further than that under those circumstances. Now she knows it is
in her best interest as her children grow to go a little further. If the 2-year-old is
toddling toward the wood stove it’s probably not the best idea to say nothing and
depending on the temperament of the 2 year old, a suggestion may not work. When they are
little, it’s “Don’t touch the woodstove!” End of discussion. As children grow, it may be a little
more like this: “You are not to cross the street alone!” That is the rule. I’m
your Mom, that’s the rule. You do and you will wish you hadn’t. There will be
punishment. All we really need is, “Because I
am your mother and I said so,” but obviously with traffic whizzing by and
inexperienced little legs it only makes sense. In this point we are dealing with the raw
command. As children grow, those rules are modified, but they are still rules and they are
still legitimate and still handed down by one who is in legitimate biblical authority.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. In this case, when God says, “You
shall have no other gods besides Me,” all we really need to know is that He is God,
He has spoken, case closed. But by His grace and in His wisdom He goes further than that.
He takes the rule to a bit of a higher level. Now, Moms and Dads know better than their
kids. It’s experience. It’s wisdom. It just comes with the years. God is still way ahead of that. When
God says you shall have no other gods before Me, God knows what He wants. It is not just
God handing down rules. This is the God of the universe who knows exactly what He wants
and He knows perfectly your heart and my heart. He knows our inclination before there is a
word on our tongue. He knows it all, wherever we go, when
we stand up, when we lie down. He is already there before tomorrow arrives. He has got it.
He has designed us. We have been on His blueprint drawing table. He has created us at His
own personal expense. By His grace He keeps our hearts pumping and provides us with air to
breathe. He is the designer, He is the creator, He is the sustainer, He is the one who has
the plan, He knows the end from the beginning. He knows every choice we have and every
hypothetical option that may occur as a result of that. He knows everything! If the One who is the designer and the
creator and the sustainer and the judge and the jury and the
executioner and who knows absolutely everything and He gives you and me a command,
that is a no-brainer at face value, isn’t it? He ought to know. He is already there.
He knows what is coming. He knows what will be. He knows where He is taking things. He
knows the beginning and He knows the end. Further, He knows what we need. He
knows the number of the hairs on our head. He knows all that. A sparrow does not fall to
the ground without Him being right in the middle of it. His care for us matches His
knowledge of us. When He says, “You shall have no other gods before Me,” it is
beyond just a command, just a good idea. It is in our best interest. Our Father knows it
and He expresses it accordingly He knows what we need -- we need
simple, single allegiance to the only One who really matters, the God of heaven. I’ll
close with this passage from Deuteronomy 6. The First Commandment is repeated, only it is
repeated from a positive slant. You will notice that the Ten Commandments are largely
given from a negative frame of reference. You shall not. You shall not. The reason that is
true is because God knows the inclination of the human heart so he couches commands with
regard to Himself negatively. Otherwise we will naturally go there. He knows that. The opposite is equally true. In the 4th
verse of Deuteronomy 6 we see the turnabout, the converse, the opposite of “You shall
have no other gods before Me.” 4"Hear, O Israel! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one! Jesus said this is first and greatest commandment. "Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2006, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |