Focal Passage: Exodus 20:1-17
Before the Ten Commandments were given, the Author gave the basis for their existence. He once again declared Himself to be the true and living God as evidenced by His recent miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. Before He addressed practical issues of morality, He dealt with the foundational issue of worship. While we typically hear more about people breaking the latter six commandments, our ultimate struggle lies in the first four commandments.
Most of us have memorized the first commandment as, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). God is not merely giving Himself first place as though it is ok to have lesser gods. The CSB correctly communicates the mandate that God’s people must have no other gods besides Him.
As a people who were surrounded by idolatry in Egypt and in the wilderness, the children of Israel needed to know that God’s unique and sovereign power was the basis of their existence and success. They would learn through great difficulty that merely traveling with God’s people was insufficient. If you do not worship God for who He is, nothing else ultimately matters!
Rust
Not only were the Israelites not to worship false gods, they were also forbidden to worship the way foreigners worshiped. An idol either leads you to worship part of the creation or places great limitations on who God is. Our God is transcendent and omnipresent. He cannot be contained by size, weight, shape, facial expression or any other physical definition we could give Him.
God warned that such idolatry would stir His jealousy, and produce sin that trickled down to the third and fourth generation. He does not punish descendants for the sins of their forefathers (Deuteronomy 24:16), but their sins are often woven into the fabric of the family’s character and are passed down for generations.
God is not jealous in a sinful sense, but maintains a holy jealousy. If a wife sees another woman vying for the affection of her husband, she may respond with a holy jealousy that says, “He is mine!” because the husband and wife have an exclusive relationship. God later clarified the exaltation that belongs exclusively to Him: “I am the LORD. That is my name, and I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols” (Isaiah 42:8).
Many of us were taught that taking God’s name in vain simply meant tying a profane word to it. However, the prohibition runs much deeper into the words our thoughts produce. God will not tolerate the misuse of His name which comes from a heart that takes His glory lightly. The third commandment forbids us dropping God’s name as an interjection to communicate our emotions. To put it bluntly, if you say “Oh, my God!” you had better be praying. This God is so worthy of our worship that the creation pattern of Sabbath rest was codified in the fourth commandment. Although we as new covenant believers are not under the same Sabbath restrictions, we still observe the Lord’s Day because God is worthy of a people who set aside a day to stop focusing on survival and rest in the exaltation of the God who gives them life and salvation! B&R
