No Other Gods: The First Commandment
“And God spoke all of these words: ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.’” Exodus 20:1-2
When my young son Sawyer hops on his bike to head down the street to play, he hears it even before his feet touch the pedals: “Put on your helmet. Watch out for cars. Look both ways. If T.J. can’t play, you come straight home. You may not play with the older boys. Be nice to Phoebe. No dirt clod fights. Play fair. Be home no later than seven.”
Sometimes as I go through the litany of instructions and warnings, Sawyer will begin to roll his eyes and say, “Yeah, yeah, I know.” To which I always break in with the question, “Now why am I telling you these things?” And he replies, “Because you love me.” And so it is with our heavenly Father. Because He loves us, God encircles us with a parent’s instruction, His law. Because He esteems His people as precious, He redeems them and then tells them how they are to make their way in the world. Should we miss the grace and fatherly love that undergird God’s instruction to His people, His Torah, we will not receive and appreciate God’s law for what it is.
Indeed, the gracious love of God is writ large, right across the top of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. In Exodus 20:1-2, immediately prior to the first commandment, we read: “And God spoke all these words saying, ‘I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.’” God is speaking directly to His people. Years later, Moses would recall the Sinai theophany as God speaking to His people “face to face at the mountain” (Deuteronomy 5:4). The Ten Commandments are not 10 abstract principles. They are not a collection of impersonal dicta, a body of laws addressed to whomever it may concern, and written by a faceless committee. The Ten Words are the direct, unmediated instruction of God Himself written by His own finger to His people and for His people.
When my young son Sawyer hops on his bike to head down the street to play, he hears it even before his feet touch the pedals: “Put on your helmet. Watch out for cars. Look both ways. If T.J. can’t play, you come straight home. You may not play with the older boys. Be nice to Phoebe. No dirt clod fights. Play fair. Be home no later than seven.”
Sometimes as I go through the litany of instructions and warnings, Sawyer will begin to roll his eyes and say, “Yeah, yeah, I know.” To which I always break in with the question, “Now why am I telling you these things?” And he replies, “Because you love me.” And so it is with our heavenly Father. Because He loves us, God encircles us with a parent’s instruction, His law. Because He esteems His people as precious, He redeems them and then tells them how they are to make their way in the world. Should we miss the grace and fatherly love that undergird God’s instruction to His people, His Torah, we will not receive and appreciate God’s law for what it is.
Indeed, the gracious love of God is writ large, right across the top of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. In Exodus 20:1-2, immediately prior to the first commandment, we read: “And God spoke all these words saying, ‘I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.’” God is speaking directly to His people. Years later, Moses would recall the Sinai theophany as God speaking to His people “face to face at the mountain” (Deuteronomy 5:4). The Ten Commandments are not 10 abstract principles. They are not a collection of impersonal dicta, a body of laws addressed to whomever it may concern, and written by a faceless committee. The Ten Words are the direct, unmediated instruction of God Himself written by His own finger to His people and for His people.
The Nature of the Law is Personal
Impersonal instructions or statements of law do not mean much to many of us. The sign that says “Speed Limit 35 mph” isn’t really talking to me. Forty-three to 45 will do nicely thank you. But what if the policeman is parked right next to that sign, and his radar gun is pointed at the hood of my Subaru? Suddenly, it is a whole different story. He is talking to me. It’s about him and me. Recently PBS aired a re-mastered, digitized, and Dolby-ized version of Ken Burns’ superb 1990 documentary on the Civil War. One of the things that struck me in watching the documentary was the way in which politicians and generals talked about God in their speeches and published prayers. God was always “the Almighty,” “the Divine,” “the Omnipotent,” or simply “Providence.” Whether it was Lincoln or Jeff Davis, Hooker or Johnston, they always spoke of God in terms that were vague and nondescript, impersonal to the point of depicting God as a moral principle or a mysterious cosmic force.
Biblical religion, however, never affirms or licenses belief in deity in general. Mere theism is not a virtue. The Ten Commandments cannot be separated from the prologue of verse two. The thoroughly personal nature of the law given at Sinai is emphasized by the first words God speaks. “I am Yahweh, your God.” It could even be rendered, “I, Yahweh, am your God.” With this introduction, God establishes His personal presence with His people. He is Yahweh, the God of our fathers, the patriarchs, the God who revealed Himself to us by mighty deeds in Egypt, the God of the covenant. And He is here now, speaking to us. God is doing family business here. This law stuff is about Him and us.
But just in case His people do not get it yet, just in case they were not paying attention to the grace that has been poured out on them, Yahweh reminds His people of just who He is—and who they are. “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I am Yahweh, the living God who acted on your behalf. I took on the machinery of Pharaoh to bring you here. I crushed Pharaoh’s metaphysical machinery in the plagues I visited on his gods. I drowned his military machine in the sea. I, and I alone, brought you to this mountain.
“And who are you? You were slaves, property, little more than beasts of burden. You had no more value than an ox or a donkey. But not now, for I am Yahweh your God. And you who were not a people are now my people. I value you.”
The Law is an Expression of God’s Grace
Earlier, I said that the Ten Commandments cannot be separated from the prologue of verse two. Without verse two we might miss the personal and gracious nature of the law. God’s law can only be appreciated by the people of God within its fatherly, redemptive, out-and-out, nothing-but-grace context. The entire story up to here has been grace. For 18 chapters, all the way to Sinai, it was God who acted, God who did, God who performed. Where are Israel’s deeds in the narrative? Where are Israel’s mighty acts and merits? There are none. God acted on Israel’s behalf. Israel stands before the mountain of God, free from Egyptian bondage, constituted as a people, because, and only because, God has acted. And because God has sovereignly and majestically delivered Israel out of Egypt, He can now make demands of Israel.
Indeed, there is an implied “therefore” between the prologue and the first commandment. On the basis of His sovereign grace in delivering Israel, God now gives His law to His people. But the Lord is not saying that His gracious work on Israel’s behalf is over and now comes the law. The way of the law is a gift of God’s grace, an expression of His good will for His people. Because God has redeemed Israel and made her His own, she is commanded to walk in His ways. The obedience called for by the law is an obedience out of trust in God’s goodness and out of gratitude for His grace. Such obedience comes from grace, is enabled by grace, and must always keep grace firmly in view. In light of this grace, how is Israel to respond? How is she to live?
God Himself tells her. The first commandment is, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Already in the first commandment it comes into focus that the law is about protecting and nurturing the gracious relationship between God and His people. The thoroughly personal issue of the law is stated right up front. You, you singular, will have no other gods before me. This is personal. This is about you and me. The law is not only personal for us; it is personal for God as well. It has been quite common to depict the first commandment as a declaration of monotheism. There is no God but Yahweh. In Isaiah 45:5, God Himself declares: “I am the Lord and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.” Again in Isaiah 45:20 He says “there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me.” So yes, there is no God but Yahweh.
The First Commandment Recognizes the Power of Idols
But the point of the first commandment is different. It is not metaphysical monotheism that is in view here but practical monotheism. Or to state it differently, God is not giving a lecture in metaphysics here, but making a demand about our actual life-in-the-world experience. The first commandment is not an assertion that Yahweh is the only choice or that all worship and religious devotion goes to Him because He is the only God. The Old Testament makes it exceedingly clear that there were other options for worship and allegiance in the world of ancient Israel. In a sense, the first commandment was called for by the many gods who clamored after Israel’s allegiance. Other gods do have a certain existence—the existence we give them. Did Baal exist? No more than materialism does with its alluring power. Did Re exist? No more than nationalism or racism or individualism does for us.
The first commandment recognizes the power of the idols, the gods of our imaginings. You don’t have to warn people against things that do not exist. The wording of the first commandment grants the existence of other gods, but only to declare them out of bounds, to deny them any legitimacy, to undeify them. The people of God are to have no relations with them. In the case law that follows the Ten Commandments, Israel is forbidden to sacrifice to other gods, warned not to invoke the names of other gods, and commanded not to pay any homage to other gods.
The second commandment (Exodus 20:5) tells us why. Yahweh is a jealous God. Far from being something base or primitive, jealousy is the natural expression of God’s exclusive right of allegiance and devotion from the believer. He will not share His glory with another. He will not share His people with another god. No husband who truly loves his wife could endure to share her affection with another man. God will not share Israel with a rival. He will not accept my practical polytheism: Jesus plus careerism, Jesus plus my concern for my reputation, Jesus plus a nice house and a nice car, Jesus plus any allegiance next to Him. In other words, Yahweh does not play well with other gods. Israel saw it in the utter disdain with which Yahweh treated the gods of Egypt through the plagues He visited upon the Egyptians. Yahweh will not broach any competition for the devotion, allegiance, and worship of those He has redeemed. Thus, Israel is to have only Yahweh as God.
He insists on possessing the sole prerogative of deity among His people. The message of the first commandment is worship only Yahweh. Value only what He values. Love only what He loves. Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, all your strength, every fiber of your soul, your every thought. After all, He has proven Himself sufficient to your every need. There is nothing left undone, nothing that some other god is needed for. Whatever help the divine can give, Yahweh does it. Whatever praise and thanksgiving the divine calls forth belongs to Him. Yahweh is, ultimately, all that is divine.
Imagine going to an Ancient Near Eastern database of deity titled Who’s Who Among the Gods. See what it says. Re—Egyptian personification of the sun as divine; chief among the Egyptian pantheon; shamed, defeated, exposed as man-made by Yahweh. Baal—see I Kings 18; priests dead. Yahweh—maker of heaven and earth and all things in them; savior of His people; keeps every promise; awesome in majesty; God with a capital “G.”
A Prohibition that Reveals Our Worth
So why doesn’t the first commandment just say: “Worship Yahweh alone”? He is the sovereign Lord of all things. All other gods are no gods at all. Why doesn’t it just say: “Love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your strength, and with all your soul”? Why is the first commandment a prohibition?
A simple answer is that the prohibition removes that which endangers covenant relationship. The prohibition removes obstacles to healthy covenant life. And surely that is part of the reason that the first commandment is stated as a prohibition. But it would still be easier to state the point as an exclusive affirmation: Worship Yahweh alone. After all, not all of the Ten Commandments are prohibitions. “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” “Honor your mother and father.” I would like to suggest that the emphasis in the first commandment does not only protect the singularity and sovereignty of God, but also tells the people of God—each and every one of them—their true worth. And this, I think, is why the first commandment must be a prohibition.
A paraphrase of Exodus 20:2,3, the prologue and the first commandment, makes this point. “I, Yahweh, am your God. I saved you, I made you my own, my children. Do not waste your precious time on misplaced worship. I value you too much to see you court and run after the futile, the empty, the foolish, the detestable.” God holds His people precious. He values us. You and I are important to Him. Our worship, our devotion, our allegiance is of worth to God. And the object of our worship, that by which we interpret all things and live our lives, had better be worthy of our commitment.
You are important to the King of heaven and earth. That is what the first commandment is telling you. Do not squander this gift. Do not waste this grace. Through this commandment God is saying: I love you. I saved you, made you my own. Now live within my grace. Embody my love. Write it out in your every thought and deed. Do not waste your life, the life I have given to you, with worthless idols.
But where is the theocentric focus of the first commandment? Sounds like it has been pushed aside for some sneaky anthropocentrism. To be sure, God calls us to be God-centered. But that does not mean that He is as well. If God were God-centered, wouldn’t that make Him self-centered, even narcissistic? I have heard Reformed Christians speak as if God is precisely that. He does all things to glorify Himself, to praise Himself. And if human beings get used up in the process, too bad. Soli Deo Gloria.
Yes, God works all things to His glory. But what does that mean? How is God glorified? How is a father glorified? Isn’t it that moment when His son or daughter sits on His knee and says: “Daddy, when I grow up I want to be just like you! I want to write out your character, your ways in my life. I want to live such that you will be proud of me. I want to honor you.” God is glorified when, in loving obedience, His children bring honor to His name by transcribing His character into their own lives. To that end He gives all, even His own Son. Only a God who loves His chosen people enough to be jealous and personally offended when they worship others could give this law.
Listen to the words of a truly God-intoxicated man, a man who can be God-centered because he knows that God is worthy of all our praise and has given us all things in Christ in order to be worthy of praise. With this quotation, I will close: John Calvin wrote in Institutes of the Christian Religion, “[The pious mind] restrains itself from sinning, not out of dread of punishment alone, but because it loves and reveres God as Father, it worships and adores him as Lord. Even if there were no hell, it would shudder at offending him alone.”
Dr. Michael Williams is associate professor of systematic theology at Covenant Theological Seminary. This article originally appeared in Covenant magazine, the quarterly magazine of Covenant Theological Seminary (www.covenantseminary.edu).
Impersonal instructions or statements of law do not mean much to many of us. The sign that says “Speed Limit 35 mph” isn’t really talking to me. Forty-three to 45 will do nicely thank you. But what if the policeman is parked right next to that sign, and his radar gun is pointed at the hood of my Subaru? Suddenly, it is a whole different story. He is talking to me. It’s about him and me. Recently PBS aired a re-mastered, digitized, and Dolby-ized version of Ken Burns’ superb 1990 documentary on the Civil War. One of the things that struck me in watching the documentary was the way in which politicians and generals talked about God in their speeches and published prayers. God was always “the Almighty,” “the Divine,” “the Omnipotent,” or simply “Providence.” Whether it was Lincoln or Jeff Davis, Hooker or Johnston, they always spoke of God in terms that were vague and nondescript, impersonal to the point of depicting God as a moral principle or a mysterious cosmic force.
Biblical religion, however, never affirms or licenses belief in deity in general. Mere theism is not a virtue. The Ten Commandments cannot be separated from the prologue of verse two. The thoroughly personal nature of the law given at Sinai is emphasized by the first words God speaks. “I am Yahweh, your God.” It could even be rendered, “I, Yahweh, am your God.” With this introduction, God establishes His personal presence with His people. He is Yahweh, the God of our fathers, the patriarchs, the God who revealed Himself to us by mighty deeds in Egypt, the God of the covenant. And He is here now, speaking to us. God is doing family business here. This law stuff is about Him and us.
But just in case His people do not get it yet, just in case they were not paying attention to the grace that has been poured out on them, Yahweh reminds His people of just who He is—and who they are. “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I am Yahweh, the living God who acted on your behalf. I took on the machinery of Pharaoh to bring you here. I crushed Pharaoh’s metaphysical machinery in the plagues I visited on his gods. I drowned his military machine in the sea. I, and I alone, brought you to this mountain.
“And who are you? You were slaves, property, little more than beasts of burden. You had no more value than an ox or a donkey. But not now, for I am Yahweh your God. And you who were not a people are now my people. I value you.”
The Law is an Expression of God’s Grace
Earlier, I said that the Ten Commandments cannot be separated from the prologue of verse two. Without verse two we might miss the personal and gracious nature of the law. God’s law can only be appreciated by the people of God within its fatherly, redemptive, out-and-out, nothing-but-grace context. The entire story up to here has been grace. For 18 chapters, all the way to Sinai, it was God who acted, God who did, God who performed. Where are Israel’s deeds in the narrative? Where are Israel’s mighty acts and merits? There are none. God acted on Israel’s behalf. Israel stands before the mountain of God, free from Egyptian bondage, constituted as a people, because, and only because, God has acted. And because God has sovereignly and majestically delivered Israel out of Egypt, He can now make demands of Israel.
Indeed, there is an implied “therefore” between the prologue and the first commandment. On the basis of His sovereign grace in delivering Israel, God now gives His law to His people. But the Lord is not saying that His gracious work on Israel’s behalf is over and now comes the law. The way of the law is a gift of God’s grace, an expression of His good will for His people. Because God has redeemed Israel and made her His own, she is commanded to walk in His ways. The obedience called for by the law is an obedience out of trust in God’s goodness and out of gratitude for His grace. Such obedience comes from grace, is enabled by grace, and must always keep grace firmly in view. In light of this grace, how is Israel to respond? How is she to live?
God Himself tells her. The first commandment is, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Already in the first commandment it comes into focus that the law is about protecting and nurturing the gracious relationship between God and His people. The thoroughly personal issue of the law is stated right up front. You, you singular, will have no other gods before me. This is personal. This is about you and me. The law is not only personal for us; it is personal for God as well. It has been quite common to depict the first commandment as a declaration of monotheism. There is no God but Yahweh. In Isaiah 45:5, God Himself declares: “I am the Lord and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.” Again in Isaiah 45:20 He says “there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me.” So yes, there is no God but Yahweh.
The First Commandment Recognizes the Power of Idols
But the point of the first commandment is different. It is not metaphysical monotheism that is in view here but practical monotheism. Or to state it differently, God is not giving a lecture in metaphysics here, but making a demand about our actual life-in-the-world experience. The first commandment is not an assertion that Yahweh is the only choice or that all worship and religious devotion goes to Him because He is the only God. The Old Testament makes it exceedingly clear that there were other options for worship and allegiance in the world of ancient Israel. In a sense, the first commandment was called for by the many gods who clamored after Israel’s allegiance. Other gods do have a certain existence—the existence we give them. Did Baal exist? No more than materialism does with its alluring power. Did Re exist? No more than nationalism or racism or individualism does for us.
The first commandment recognizes the power of the idols, the gods of our imaginings. You don’t have to warn people against things that do not exist. The wording of the first commandment grants the existence of other gods, but only to declare them out of bounds, to deny them any legitimacy, to undeify them. The people of God are to have no relations with them. In the case law that follows the Ten Commandments, Israel is forbidden to sacrifice to other gods, warned not to invoke the names of other gods, and commanded not to pay any homage to other gods.
The second commandment (Exodus 20:5) tells us why. Yahweh is a jealous God. Far from being something base or primitive, jealousy is the natural expression of God’s exclusive right of allegiance and devotion from the believer. He will not share His glory with another. He will not share His people with another god. No husband who truly loves his wife could endure to share her affection with another man. God will not share Israel with a rival. He will not accept my practical polytheism: Jesus plus careerism, Jesus plus my concern for my reputation, Jesus plus a nice house and a nice car, Jesus plus any allegiance next to Him. In other words, Yahweh does not play well with other gods. Israel saw it in the utter disdain with which Yahweh treated the gods of Egypt through the plagues He visited upon the Egyptians. Yahweh will not broach any competition for the devotion, allegiance, and worship of those He has redeemed. Thus, Israel is to have only Yahweh as God.
He insists on possessing the sole prerogative of deity among His people. The message of the first commandment is worship only Yahweh. Value only what He values. Love only what He loves. Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, all your strength, every fiber of your soul, your every thought. After all, He has proven Himself sufficient to your every need. There is nothing left undone, nothing that some other god is needed for. Whatever help the divine can give, Yahweh does it. Whatever praise and thanksgiving the divine calls forth belongs to Him. Yahweh is, ultimately, all that is divine.
Imagine going to an Ancient Near Eastern database of deity titled Who’s Who Among the Gods. See what it says. Re—Egyptian personification of the sun as divine; chief among the Egyptian pantheon; shamed, defeated, exposed as man-made by Yahweh. Baal—see I Kings 18; priests dead. Yahweh—maker of heaven and earth and all things in them; savior of His people; keeps every promise; awesome in majesty; God with a capital “G.”
A Prohibition that Reveals Our Worth
So why doesn’t the first commandment just say: “Worship Yahweh alone”? He is the sovereign Lord of all things. All other gods are no gods at all. Why doesn’t it just say: “Love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your strength, and with all your soul”? Why is the first commandment a prohibition?
A simple answer is that the prohibition removes that which endangers covenant relationship. The prohibition removes obstacles to healthy covenant life. And surely that is part of the reason that the first commandment is stated as a prohibition. But it would still be easier to state the point as an exclusive affirmation: Worship Yahweh alone. After all, not all of the Ten Commandments are prohibitions. “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” “Honor your mother and father.” I would like to suggest that the emphasis in the first commandment does not only protect the singularity and sovereignty of God, but also tells the people of God—each and every one of them—their true worth. And this, I think, is why the first commandment must be a prohibition.
A paraphrase of Exodus 20:2,3, the prologue and the first commandment, makes this point. “I, Yahweh, am your God. I saved you, I made you my own, my children. Do not waste your precious time on misplaced worship. I value you too much to see you court and run after the futile, the empty, the foolish, the detestable.” God holds His people precious. He values us. You and I are important to Him. Our worship, our devotion, our allegiance is of worth to God. And the object of our worship, that by which we interpret all things and live our lives, had better be worthy of our commitment.
You are important to the King of heaven and earth. That is what the first commandment is telling you. Do not squander this gift. Do not waste this grace. Through this commandment God is saying: I love you. I saved you, made you my own. Now live within my grace. Embody my love. Write it out in your every thought and deed. Do not waste your life, the life I have given to you, with worthless idols.
But where is the theocentric focus of the first commandment? Sounds like it has been pushed aside for some sneaky anthropocentrism. To be sure, God calls us to be God-centered. But that does not mean that He is as well. If God were God-centered, wouldn’t that make Him self-centered, even narcissistic? I have heard Reformed Christians speak as if God is precisely that. He does all things to glorify Himself, to praise Himself. And if human beings get used up in the process, too bad. Soli Deo Gloria.
Yes, God works all things to His glory. But what does that mean? How is God glorified? How is a father glorified? Isn’t it that moment when His son or daughter sits on His knee and says: “Daddy, when I grow up I want to be just like you! I want to write out your character, your ways in my life. I want to live such that you will be proud of me. I want to honor you.” God is glorified when, in loving obedience, His children bring honor to His name by transcribing His character into their own lives. To that end He gives all, even His own Son. Only a God who loves His chosen people enough to be jealous and personally offended when they worship others could give this law.
Listen to the words of a truly God-intoxicated man, a man who can be God-centered because he knows that God is worthy of all our praise and has given us all things in Christ in order to be worthy of praise. With this quotation, I will close: John Calvin wrote in Institutes of the Christian Religion, “[The pious mind] restrains itself from sinning, not out of dread of punishment alone, but because it loves and reveres God as Father, it worships and adores him as Lord. Even if there were no hell, it would shudder at offending him alone.”
Dr. Michael Williams is associate professor of systematic theology at Covenant Theological Seminary. This article originally appeared in Covenant magazine, the quarterly magazine of Covenant Theological Seminary (www.covenantseminary.edu).
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Ken Shomo
Virginia Beach, VA