Ten Commandments: No Other Gods Before Him

“‘I am the Lord your God, who has 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, AMP)

The Ten Commandments. What is your knee jerk reaction to them? Do you picture two stone tablets with each command written out? Do you think of the Old Testament law? Do you think of a moral code of ethics given to us by God?

Ultimately, all those things are correct, but just because the Ten Commandments were given to the people of Israel and represents a part of Old Testament law, doesn’t mean we can just gloss them over or throw them away. Because despite the fact that they are found in the Law, doesn’t mean they don’t apply to us. At their core, these commandments are all things that we should gladly sign on to. Don’t murder. Don’t steal. Honor God above all else. Nothing about those things are negated by the cross or the New Testament.

So let’s take some time to dive into them; to take them in and meditate on them. They are a moral code that should be adhered to not just because they’re good and nice things to do, but because they are literally God-breathed and God-honoring rules to live by. And they aren’t given to us so that we can earn our salvation by doing them. They are provided to us after we have received salvation as parameters to live within. For Israel, God didn’t give these commands while they were still in Egypt and in bondage. God didn’t say, “Follow these rules and then I will lead you out of slavery.”

Instead, He took them all out of Egypt, leaving no one behind, brought them into the wilderness to the foot of a mountain, and made Israel a nation chosen by God and consecrated with these statutes.

It’s the same for us. God made a way out of our bondage to sin before we could ever respond to Him. Jesus paid our debt of sin on the cross before we could draw near to Him. Our salvation was already made available to us before we said or did anything. But now, since we’ve entered into a covenant with God and given Him our lives, there is a code by which we must live. We can’t be redeemed and then refuse to live in a way that honors God. 

And that’s why the first commandment is so important: because once we are free from sin, our only natural response should be to never put anything in a place of more importance than the God that saved us. 

“You shall have no other Gods before me,” is not some chauvinistic or controlling statement. It is simply the reality that we live in being freed from sin and living a life in surrender to the only One who could make that possible. If you were waiting on death row and found out that someone stepped in to take your place so you could go free, would you ever stop thinking about that person that made that sacrifice? Or would you live the rest of your life indebted to that person, knowing that you could never repay them for that gift?

When God gave Israel the Ten Commandments, it wasn’t just that He wanted them to remember that He was the One that got them out of Egypt. It was because He knew that there was a real temptation in that time to worship other gods. First of all, there was the whole suite of gods the Egyptians glorified, and they all specialized in different subjects. Then there were other gods like Baal, the god of financial success and money, or Ashtoreth, the goddess of sex, romance, and fertility. And although we might think it’s silly to worship or acknowledge gods with strange, half-person-half-animal likenesses, back in that day it was widely accepted and normalized to idolize and worship these local, pagan deities.

But God already showed Israel that He was greater than any god put forth by any ancient civilization and myth. He debunked all of Egypt’s gods with the plagues. He produced food and water from heaven in the middle of the wilderness for Israel to persist on. His presence swallowed up a mountain and He spoke out of the thunder and shook the ground so that Israel could not mistake that their God was real and powerful.

So this commandment is to not only confirm God’s rightful place in our hearts and lives, but it is meant to set us– His people– apart. God proved He is like no other god worshiped by the pagans, therefore He expects His people to be different like He is. He expects us to be holy and righteous in our conduct in a world with their plethora of false gods.

And sure, maybe today we don’t offer burnt sacrifices or sing worship songs to gods like Baal or whatever, but the idols we make in our hearts aren’t like that anymore. We may not worship the representation, but you better believe that many people worship the idea behind them. We might not bow down to Baal, but many worship materialism and the pursuit of money. We might not offer sacrifices to Ashtoreth, but lots of people live lives that glorify sexual deviance and would sell their soul to increase their fertility when they’re desperate to start a family. 

And you know what? I am not even saying that some of these idols we can build in our hearts are all-around evil. I’ve been in the fear-of-infertility boat. There were months where my husband and I wanted a baby and there is nothing wrong with that. But if your desire for a baby and to start a family habitually supersedes and replaces God’s role as supreme over your life, then yes, it is an idol. Your love for your spouse can be an idol. Your kids can be an idol. Your dreams and goals can be idols. None of those things individually are bad, but if they come before God in our hearts and priorities, then we need to confront that within ourselves and come back to alignment.

Sometimes we create idols without even noticing it. John Calvin said the human heart is a perpetual idol factory. We will always be tempted by other things trying to compete for God’s place of preeminence in our hearts. But the reality is that God doesn’t save us so we can casually add Him into our lives. He doesn’t redeem us in the hopes that we might include Him alongside all of the other things we’re doing. He draws us near to Him and saves us so that we will submit everything to Him and live our lives in His name.

We can’t flippantly allow these idols to go unchecked. Ephesians 5:5 says that anyone found to be an idolator will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. We have no hope of offering ourselves as a living sacrifice to our Savior if we allow other things to come before Him, no matter how innocent or well-intending they are.

That takes work. It takes constant self-awareness over our desires, goals, and passions. But if we allow God the time, devotion, and worship He is due, there shouldn’t be an opportunity for anything else to supersede Him. If we live our lives from a position of humility in spirit, knowing that we could never do or say anything to make us worthy of Him and His grace, we should be able to keep our eyes on Him to the best of our ability.

So today, take a moment. Take stock of the things in your heart. Is there something you hold on to tighter than you hold on to your need for the Lord? If there is, go to Him in prayer and surrender that thing back to Him. Ask Him to retake His rightful place in your heart. He is your Rock and your Salvation. Everything flows from Him who is worthy to be praised, and He deserves to be before all else.