Saint Stuart
December 27, 2022

“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 20:2-3)

To me, this commandment signifies that God demands our focus and attention on Him alone when it comes to divine things or objects of worship. Until recently I often took this to mean that other gods are false, or even that they don’t exist. I don’t read it that way anymore. If anything, it is a biblical confirmation that other gods do exists, and God is telling the Israelites as His very first commandment not to have them before Him.

What is a god? Is it a being that has attained a divine status, able to greatly influence mankind? Is it that thing in our life we expend a great amount of emotional energy thinking about, dedicating time to giving praise and thanks to instead of our divine creator?

This commandment doesn’t say to deny those things exist, or to avoid considering them, but to give credit where it is due. God is the originator of those things and alone deserves the praise and thanks for them along with the many other blessings He has provided us. When I read this commandment now, I start to consider the belief of other gods, but know that my worship belongs to the one true God. Many people have come into the world to influence masses of people with human teachings that appease carnal knowledge and passions. If we are swayed by their doctrine and start to live without God’s purposes in mind, then I believe we are breaking this commandment.

Let’s consider the latter type of god – the blessings we have that might distract us from our relationship with God. Money, friendships, popularity, competition, knowledge, innocence, good works, music, entertainment, stories, health and fitness, romance. These are all good things, many of which God commonly wants for us. If they become a priority in our lives, though, and we fail to acknowledge their source – God’s love – then that can become an existential problem. It’s like enjoying something without saying thanks to who made it possible. “Say thank you,” is what God is saying to us in this commandment, as a parent would say to their child when someone does something kind for them. We shouldn’t give praise and thanks to the act or provision itself, but to the one responsible, in turn strengthening our relationship with them, and acknowledging that we appreciate and benefit from their act of love.

The Israelites broke this commandment many times throughout the Bible. They were in the midst of it while Moses was up the mountain receiving it as a commandment:

“1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”

(Exodus 32: 1-6).

What an odd turn of events. They lost their leader and it’s as if they needed something to collectively focus on, to unite them, but what they did was fashion an earthly image and declare it to be God that brought them out of Egypt.

Do we see this sort of behaviour elsewhere in society and around the world? Do people lose leaders guided by God and panic to find what will keep them united? Patriotism, humanism, communism, socialism, liberalism, conservatism, anarchism, atheism, moralism, postmodernism, religious dictatorships, military conquest, democracy. If God is not acknowledged by the masses, they might easily turn to these ideologies, declaring them the ultimate sources of progress and the responsibility of their happiness instead of their true originator. Most of those ideologies can and do bring real peace and progress to societies, but if God is not in the picture they will be corrupted by human abuse of power and lead to conflict and war.

“Have no other gods before me.” Acknowledge God in all things, especially the things that can benefit our lives and the world when He is at the receiving end of our praise and thanks for them. If we don’t, our individual lives and collective societies will lose site of their ultimate purposes in life that are guided by Him alone.