No Other Gods Before Me (Akutan)

Scripture

English Standard Version Chapter 20

The Ten Commandments

20 And God spoke all these words, saying,

2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

7 “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

13 “You shall not murder.

14 “You shall not commit adultery.

15 “You shall not steal.

16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Context of redemption

This evening I want us to consider the first of the ten commandments, but before we do it’s important that we consider the broader context of these commandments, and to recognize the importance of the prologue or introduction there in verses 1-2 which says, “And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”” We must not forget that these commandments were not given in a vacuum or in isolation, but were given within the broader context of redemption. That God had made a covenant with Abraham hundreds of years before, and promised to give him a land, the land of Canaan, and to give him a son, and that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars.

But God also told Abraham in Genesis 15:13-14,

Genesis 15:13–14 (ESV)

“Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

So, before Abraham’s descendants would take possession of the land of Canaan, they would first be sojourners and servants in a different land, and afflicted for hundreds of years before being rescued from their bondage to slavery.

Therefore, when we fast-forward to the closing chapters of Genesis, over a hundred years after these promises were made to Abraham, his descendents, Jacob and his sons, sojourned in the land of Egypt to escape a severe famine. God protected Jacob and his family from the famine by sending his son, Joseph, ahead of them providentially.

But later, in Exodus 1:8-14, we read,

Exodus 1:8–14 ESV

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

God’s prophecy to Abraham had come to pass, but the story wasn’t over yet. Skipping ahead to Exodus 2:23-25, we read,

Exodus 2:23–25 (ESV)

the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

God had heard Israel’s cry for help, and the time had come to bring judgement against Egypt, to deliver Israel from it’s bondage to slavery, and to bring them out of the land of Egypt into the land promised to Abraham.

This is why we read at the beginning of Exodus 20, in verses 1-2,

English Standard Version Chapter 20

20 And God spoke all these words, saying,

2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

In other words, the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai came as a result of God delivering Israel out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. That he’s not only their creator, but their king and their redeemer, and that it’s their deliverance out of Egypt that has provided the grounds, or the basis, for his claim upon them. They’re his people, and he’s their king, and it’s on these grounds that he gives them the law, these ten words. He’s their supreme authority and their lawgiver.

Which parallels the message of the Gospel. The gospel of the kingdom, as Jesus called it, is fundamentally a proclamation that Jesus is Lord, that he is king of kings. Which is why Paul writes in Romans 10:9 that, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

And like the Israelites, Jesus’ claim on us is grounded in our own redemption, because he has delivered us out of the world, and from our bondage to sin. We too have been bought with a price. So, before God gives the Israelites his law, he begins by saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” And it’s within this redemptive context and upon these grounds that he gives them these ten words, these ten commandments.

Redemption preceded the law

Furthermore, it’s important that we notice that these commandments came after Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. That God’s grace toward them preceded the giving of the law. In other words, it wasn’t their obedience to the law that motivated God to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians. They didn’t follow the law in order to be saved. Instead God intended for them to keep the law as a result of their redemption. Again, this parallels the Gospel in the NT, we’re not saved as a result of keeping the law, but we keep the law as a result of being saved. Our pursuit to keep the law should be motivated by our love toward God, not as a means to justify ourselves or to garner his favor.

Importance of the first table

Now, as we examine these first four commandments we need to keep in mind that these commandments comprise what’s referred to as the first table of the law. These first four commandments summarize our duty to God, or our duty to love and worship him; they’re vertical commands. Whereas the second table of the law, which includes the last six commandments, are horizontal commands that deal with loving our neighbor, or our duty to love one another.

In our culture, even today, very few people take issue with the second table of the law, or the last six commandments. Whether people will admit it or not, this is, in large part, due to the influence of Christianity upon the West over the last two thousand years. However, a vast majority of people do take issue with the first table of the law, or the first four commandments. They continue to acknowledge the importance of the second table, but they argue that the first table is unnecessary. That they don’t need to believe in God to be a good person. They say, “I can be good without God.”

And in one sense they’re not altogether wrong. Mankind can render external obedience to God’s law, at least for a time. But what most people don’t realize is that the second table, when isolated from the first, becomes like a ship without a compass. Most people don’t realize that the second table of the law is steered and supported by the first table. Therefore, to neglect the first table of the law in favor of the second will cause us to lose sight of our reason for keeping the law. Therefore, over time, men will begin to forsake it whenever it conflicts with their own desires. If your desire to keep the second table is not rooted in a desire to keep the first, you will either find other reasons, or you will lose sight of any reason for keeping the law at all.

You see, the first four commandments provide the last six commandments with purpose. The first table is the reason and motivation to carry out the commandments of the second. To say it another way, our duty to love our neighbor is grounded in our duty to love God, and the reason we love our neighbor is because we love God. Our love for God motivates us to love one another, and it’s God who dictates to us what love looks like. This is why the the Apostle John would later write that our love for one another is a litmus test for determining whether we love God or not. Listen to 1 John 4:19-21,

English Standard Version Chapter 4

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Anyone who says they can be morally upright without God will have to ground their duty to love their neighbor in something other than their duty to love God. They will inevitably replace the first table, their duty to love God, with a duty to love themselves. In other words, love for themselves becomes the sole motivation and driver behind loving their neighbor. They’re no longer loving their neighbor to please God, but to please themselves. Turning their so-called love for their neighbor into a self-serving endeavor. Therefore they’ll love their neighbor insofar as it serves their own interests. Their love becomes merely self serving, it become an idolatry of self, rather than worship given to God. And over time, what previously resembled the second table of the law, now only resembles their own personal desires. They’ve usurped God’s authority, and have put themselves in his place, and have defined for themselves what is good and evil according to their own pleasures. This is what we’re witnesses in our culture today.

This is why our own manufactured righteousness is like filthy rags before God, because they’re fundamentally idolatrous, we do them to serve ourselves rather than God. This is why it is impossible to please God without faith. Our desire to carry out the second table of the law must always be rooted in a desire to please God. Genuine obedience to the second table is always grounded in genuine obedience to the first table. Without the first table any attempt to obey the second table on our own will fail, because the first table is what steers and supports the second. And the first table guards us from compromising the second table of the law. So, my point here is simply to demonstrate the importance and priority of the first four commandments, so as we begin to examine them you’ll understand their vital role within the decalogue.