“And God spoke all these words: ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:1-3)
As I wrote about last week, I’ll be spending the next couple months taking a look at each of the Ten Commandments and what they mean for us today. Today we’ll take a look at the first commandment, which simply put is, “You shall have no other gods.”
Growing up in the Lutheran church and going to a Lutheran school, I had to memorize much of Luther’s Small Catechism. Not only did I need to learn the commandments, but also their meanings according to Martin Luther. For this commandment, the meaning is simple: “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” That may be simple to memorize, but it’s VERY difficult to live!
Having another god is not just bowing down to a statue of an idol or something like that; every time we put any little thing above God in any way, we’re breaking this commandment. If I trust in the government to take care of me rather than putting my trust in God, I’ve broken this commandment. If I spend more time focusing on my phone and social media instead of reading the Word, I’ve broken this commandment. If I consider another person (even my spouse) to be more important in my life than God, I’ve broken this commandment. Any little thing we put more importance on in our lives than God is breaking this commandment.
In the original Hebrew text, this commandment can be translated more literally as, “It will not be for you to have any other gods upon My face.” It’s a common expression in Hebrew to say “upon my face” instead of saying “before me” or “in front of me.” Last week, I mentioned a book called God’s Brushstrokes, written by my friend Preston Hunteman. I want to share a section of his analysis of this commandment, as it gives a great picture of how we break this one:
An example for this is a beautiful hand painted mural. A man looked at the mural and thought, “Surely I can put something there that is more pleasing to the eye.” The man then took a hammer and hit a nail into the mural. He proceeded to hang his picture upon the nail. The nail punctured the mural, but the new picture hid the face of the mural. Every time that man looked upon his picture he did not see the mural. That man admired his work more than the art that was on the mural.
The mural, in this allegory, is God’s face. The man is us. We all have the choice to hang a picture on the mural. We can hang as many pictures up as we want. Each picture is a ‘god,’ something we admire and worship instead of worshiping the only true God. The nail is our stubbornness, our ‘I know best’ attitude toward God. Our God is merciful and gracious. God never tells us to take down our pictures and to take out our nails. We have the choice to do so. When we take down the picture we have admitted that we did wrong. The nail is still in the mural until we fully repent, then the nail comes out. The nail is the hardest thing to pull out of the mural. When we pull that nail out we then must let go of that nail, before God can come and fix the hole. God fills all the holes with grace, and then we are truly forgiven of putting our gods before His face.
As you can see, this commandment is one we all break, many times a day. If you claim you don’t break this one, then you’re not being truthful (1 John 1:8). But fortunately for us, Jesus, who is God, came to this earth in human form, lived a perfect life including never ever breaking this commandment, died, and was raised so that we might be forgiven from all of our sin when we repent of it (1 John 1:9). We know that we will break this commandment, as hard as we may try not to. But praise God that because of our faith in Jesus and the grace that He gives us, we may be forgiven!
What kind of pictures are you putting up over the mural of God in your life? What things do you place your trust in, rather than trusting in God above all else? Consider that as you go about your day and your week.
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