No Other gods - EVER!
By Jim Murriner
Ex.20:1-3 "And God spake all these words, saying"
"I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
In this third verse we are told that we are not to have other gods, and most times we just get the idea that this verse tells us that we are not to let other gods be more important than the true God.
This is very true, we are never to let other gods be more important than the true God, however this is not the thought here.
The Hebrew word which is translated "God" here in the King James Version of the Bible, is the word "Elohim". This is the very first word used for "God" in the Bible. It is used in Gen. 1:1 - 2:4 where God is presented to us as the Creator.
The word "Elomim" comes from a root word which means to worship. So in Genesis as we are being told of the creation, we are being told that we are to worship the Creator.
In all places that we see the word "Elohim" used we are to understand that we are reading about not just the creator, but about the one who is to be worshiped.
The word "Elohim" is in a plural form but it is used with a singular verb.
Those who would deny the Deity of our Saviour, by taking words away from parts of the New Testament, and changing other words in the New Testament, are ignorant of the Hebrew word for "God" which is used in these verses teach the Trinity, and therefore make Christ part of the Godhead.
God is telling us here that we are not to have any objects of worship before Him.
What about the phrase "before Me"? Remember now that I stated that this does not simply mean having other gods or objects of worship in first place with God being in second place. The Hebrew word used for "before Me", is a word which means "in my face" or "in my presence".
God is telling us here the same thing that our mothers told us when we were children, when our mother would say, "I had better not see you do that".
We might hide from our parents, even from others, but where could we go and hide from the presence of the Almighty God?
Notice what we are told in Ps 139:7 -12 "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?"
"If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there."
"If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;"
"Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."
"If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me."
"Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee."
We then are to understand that we are never to have any other object of worship, or any thing between our face and the face of God.
All or our devotion all of our service is to be to the God of the Bible, the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
There is to be nothing which would take away the devotion, which we are to give to God only.
Yet if we will take an honest look at ourselves, we will find that each of us are guilty quite often of violating this commandment. There are indeed many times in which God finds that there is something between our face and His face.
We violate this commandment each time that we allow anything to keep us from being as faithful unto God as He has commanded us to be.
Anytime that we are able to be in the house of the Lord, and yet we find other things to do, we are allowing those things to become our god, or else we are setting ourselves up as little gods, saying that it does not matter that we are not faithful unto God this time.
When your family and friends come to visit and you stay home with them rather than go to the house of the Lord, you are either making them your god, or else making yourself your own little god, by ignoring the command of God to forsake not the assembling of the saints together.
When we spend money for other things and do not pay our tithes, we then either make the other things our god, or make ourselves little gods by ignoring the command to bring all the tithes into the storehouse
It is even possible to do the right things and still be violating this commandment not to have other gods ever.
Any time we sing or pray publicly or do any service of the Lord in order that we might be seen of others we then make the others our god.
In Jesus' commentary on the ten commandments found in Mark 12:30, He tells us that we are to love the Lord our God with all our faculties.
"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
We should be able to see even in this first of the ten commandments that in our natural state, prior to being quickened by the Holy Spirit, it is impossible for us to obey this command.
We therefore are found to be sinners, and have a need for one who is perfect to pay for our sins.
If you are one who is trying to keep the commandments in order to reach heaven, you need to turn from trusting yourself and turn to trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ.