You shall have no other gods before me’ (Deuteronomy 5:7).

We live in a world where there are many things competing for our attention. Turn on the TV and you will be confronted by latest must watch series. The ad breaks will be filled with adverts that were trying convince you that some product will be a step further in making your life complete, or at least a little easier. Either way, there’s always something competing to get our attention.

So if First Commandment seems pretty straightforward, the Hebrew translation sets us some major challenges, as it can be translated ‘no other gods, beyond me’ or ‘in addition to me’. The Israelites were not far removed from the practice polytheism (the worship of many gods). That temptation would still be present when they entered the Promised Land as the nations of the land were polytheists in their religious practice. This was going to be a constant temptation to them, and you don’t have to look very far in the Bible to see they were only to ready to turn to other gods!

Therefore, this commandment was of great importance. Frank McClelland writes: ‘this commandment is first because it is the foundation of all true religion.’[1] Put simply, if they got this right, everything else would fall into place! God had done everything for them in their redemption from Egypt, so now He asked for what is rightfully His, their undivided commitment and love towards Him as the God who had been so gracious and merciful to rescue them.

If this was a temptation for them, there is certainly double a temptation for us today. We may say that we are exclusive in our worship of God, but in this materialistic age it’s very easy for us to have gods ‘beyond’ or ‘in addition’ to the living God. Any time that God is pushed into second place by our leisure, home life, family or job is a case of us creating our own little gods and relegating the Lord to second or third place. A friend and fellow Pastor once told me that a man he knew had consistently turned down promotions at work. His reason was simple, he knew if he took the promotion he would have less time for his service for the Lord. That’s not to say that Christians can’t accept promotions, but for him it would have been too much temptation.

We, like the Israelites, owe God everything because of His grace and love towards us shown in Jesus Christ. He commands the first place where our love and devotion is concerned and is not to be relegated to second or third. Even our daydreams that focus on selfish or materialistic desires can take precedence over God, so, we need to challenge ourselves on where our thoughts have been in the idle hours of the day! The use of the word ‘thou’ in the King James Version of the Bible is particularly useful here. ‘Why is the Commandment in the second person singular, Thou? Why does not God’s say, you shall have no other gods?’ is the question that the Puritan Thomas Watson poses in his book ‘The Ten Commandments?’ The answer is simple, ‘because the Commandment concerns everyone, and God would have each one take it as spoken to him by name’. [2]

[1] Frank McClelland. The Ancient Law for the New Age, A Concise Examination of the Ten Commandments (Toronto, Wittenburg Publications, 1990). 31.
[2] Thomas Watson. The Ten Commandments (London, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1965). 49.