The First Commandment

“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."   Exodus 20:2-3


This is the first of the 10 commandments given to the Israelites.  This is an introduction as well.  God reveals himself to the people here as the God behind all the miracles that delivered them out of slavery to the Egyptians.  Having vanquished the gods of Egypt, God tells them, you will have none other before me. 



What does it mean to have another god before Him? All it simply means is that you don't recognize Yahweh for who He is and make a choice that something else is more important than Him. That choice could be active in that you make a firm choice that He will not be your God. It could also be passive in that you just go about your life without acknowledging Him as your God.  Or, it could be that you make your decisions based on your own understanding for your own gain rather than seeking out what God has to say and acting according to what God has said to do.  Your 57 Chevy could be a god before Yahweh.  Your job could be.  Your spouse, children, house....  Anything that you put on a higher priority than Yahweh, is putting something before Him. 


What it also means is that for those who choose to believe is that in everything you do, you acknowledge Him. That means thanking Him, and Praising him in both good times and bad. It means trusting in Him like a little child trusts, without question or debate. It means putting your well being into His hands and trusting that if you follow His ways, all of your needs will be met. It means believing that He will pull you through, even in the darkest of hours.  It means putting aside your own desires to do what God says do.


Today we have so many choices as what to believe. There are many other religions, you could choose no be not religious. You could follow teachings of men like L Ron Hubbard or the myriad of other gurus who promote the self as the ultimate being. You could be an evolutionist and believe that we are just randomly formed and only the strongest survive and thrive. There are literally millions of options. The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob is above all those ways.


All those choices can be boiled down to one simple choice when it comes to this, the first commandment. Believe it or not. No one can make that choice for you. No one can coerce you into believing or not. No one can change your mind. Also, no one else will have to answer for that choice but yourself.  We also have to make it a daily choice.  Every day we have to make choices about what to do, say, act, think, buy, etc..  In all of those things we can choose to put god first and seek out His wisdom in making those decisions, or we can do it on our own.


If God is just a mythical being, well, then there is nothing to worry about and I am just wasting my life for nothing. If God is who He says he is, then an eternity hangs in the balance on what choice you make. As for me and my house, I choose to serve the Lord.