"And
God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God,
which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage" (Exodus 20:1, 2).
This
Preface to the Moral Law is to be regarded as having equal respect to all the Ten Commandments (and not to the first one only), containing as it does the most
weighty arguments to enforce our obedience to them. As it is the custom of
kings and governors to prefix their names and titles before the edicts set
forth by them, to obtain the more attention and veneration to what they
publish, so with the great God, the King of kings, being about to proclaim a
Law for His subjects, that He might affect them with a
deeper reverence for His authority and make them the more afraid to transgress
those statutes which are enacted by so mighty a Potentate and so glorious a
Majesty, blazons His august Name upon them.
What
has just been pointed out above is clearly established by those awe-inspiring
words of Moses to Israel:
"That
thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD"
(Deuteronomy 28:58).
"I
am the Lord thy God." The word for "Lord" is
"Jehovah," who is the Supreme, Eternal and Self-existent One, the
force of which is (as it were) spelled out for us in "which was, and is,
and is to come" (Revelation 4:8). The word for "God" is
"Elohim," the plural of Eloah, for though He be one in nature yet is
He three in His Persons. And this Jehovah, the Supreme Object of worship, is
"thy GOD," because in the past He was thy
Creator, in the present He is thy Ruler, and in the future He will be thy
Judge. In addition, He is the "God" of His elect by covenant
relationship and therefore their Redeemer. Thus, our obedience to His Law is
enforced by these considerations: His absolute authority, to beget fear in
us—He is "the Lord thy God"; His benefits and mercies, to engage
love—"which brought thee out of the (antitypical) house
of bondage."
"Thou
shalt have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20:3)
is the
first Commandment. Let us briefly consider its meaning. We note its singular
number: "thou" not "ye," addressed to
each person separately, because each of us is concerned therein. "Thou
shalt have
no other
gods" has the force of, thou shalt own, possess, seek, desire, love or
worship none other. No "other gods;"
they are called such not because they are so, either by nature or by office
(Psalm 82:6), but because the corrupt hearts of men make and esteem them
such—as in "whose god is their belly"
(Philippians 3:19). "Before Me" or "My face," the force of
which is best ascertained by His word to Abraham, "Walk before Me and be
thou perfect" or "upright" (Genesis 17:1)—conduct thyself in the
realization that thou are ever in My presence, that Mine eye is continually
upon thee. This is very searching. We
are so apt to rest contented if we can but approve ourselves before men and maintain a fair show of godliness outwardly; but Jehovah
searches our innermost being and we cannot conceal from Him any secret lust or
hidden idol. Let us next consider the
positive duty enjoined by this first Commandment. Briefly stated it is this: thou shalt choose, worship and serve
Jehovah as thy God, and Him only. Being who He is—thy Maker and Ruler, the Sum
of all excellency, the supreme Object of worship—He admits
of no rival and none can vie with Him. See then the absolute reasonableness of
this demand and the madness of contravening it. This commandment requires from
us a disposition and conduct suited to the relation in which we stand to the
Lord as our God, who is the only adequate Object of our love and the only One
able to satisfy the soul. It requires that we have a love
for Him stronger than all other affections, that we take Him for our highest
portion, that we serve and obey Him supremely. It requires that all those
services and acts of worship which we render unto the true God be made with the
utmost sincerity and devotion (implied in the "before Me"), excluding
negligence on the one hand and hypocrisy on the other.
In
pointing out the duties required by this Commandment we cannot do better than to quote the
Westminster Confession of Faith. They are "the knowing and acknowledging
of God to be the only true God, and our God (1 Chronicles 28:9; Deuteronomy
26:17, etc.); and to worship and glorify Him accordingly
(Psalm 95:6, 7; Matthew 4:10, etc.), by thinking (Malachi 3:16), meditating
(Psalm 63:6), remembering (Ecclesiastes 12:1), highly esteeming (Psalm 71:19),
honoring (Malachi 1:6), adoring (Isaiah 45:23), choosing (Joshua 24:15), loving
(Deuteronomy 6:5), desiring (Psalm 73:25), fearing of Him (Isaiah 8:13),
believing Him (Exodus 14:3 1), trusting (Isaiah 26:4),
hoping (Psalm 103:7), delighting (Psalm 37:4), rejoicing in Him (Psalm 32:11),
being zealous for Him (Romans 12:11), calling upon him, giving all praise and
thanks (Philippians 4:6), and yielding all obedience and submission to Him with
the whole man (Jeremiah 7:23), being careful in all things to please Him (1
John 3:22), and sorrowful when in anything he is offended (Jeremiah
31:18; Psalm 119:136), and walking humbly with Him" (Micah 6:8).
Those
duties may be summarized in these chief ones. First, the diligent and lifelong
seeking after a fuller knowledge of God as He is revealed in His Word and
works, for we cannot worship an unknown God. Second, the
loving of God with all our faculties and strength, which consists of an earnest
panting after Him, and deep joy in Him, and a holy zeal for Him. Third, the fearing of God, which consists of
an awe of his majesty, supreme reverence for His authority, and a desire for
His glory: as the love of God is the motive-spring of obedience, so the fear of
God is the great deterrent of disobedience. Fourth, the
worshipping of God according to His appointments, the principal aids to which
are these: study of and meditation upon the Word, prayer, and putting into
practice what we are taught.
"Thou
shalt have no other Gods before Me." That is, thou
shalt not give unto anyone or anything in Heaven or on earth that inward heart
affiance, loving veneration, and dependence that is due only to the true God;
thou shalt not transfer to another that which belongs alone unto Him. Nor must
we attempt to divide them between God and another, for no man can serve two
masters. The great sins forbidden by this Commandment are these: first willful
ignorance of God and His will through despising those means by which we may
acquaint ourselves with Him; second, atheism or the denial of God; third,
idolatry or the setting up of false and fictitious gods; fourth, disobedience
and self-will or the open defiance of God; and fifth, all inordinate and
immoderate affections or the setting of our hearts and minds
upon other objects.
They
are idolaters and transgressors of this first commandment who manufacture a
"God" as a figment of their own minds. Such are the Unitarians, who
deny that there are three Persons in the Godhead. Such are Romanists, who
supplicate the Savior’s mother and affirm that the pope has
power to forgive sins. Such are the vast majority of Arminians, who believe in
a disappointed and defeated Deity. Such are sensual Epicureans (Philippians
3:19), for there are inward idols as well as external.
"These
men have set up their idols in their hearts" (Ezekiel
14:3).
The
Apostle Paul speaks of "covetousness which is idolatry" (Colossians 3:5)
and, by impartial reasoning, so are all immoderate
desires. That object to which we render those desires and services which are
due alone to the Lord is our "God," whether it be self, gold, fame, pleasure, or friends. What is your God? To what is your life
devoted?