When we study God’s word, a correct understanding of that word is the result of a number of factors and ingredients. Not only do we need an understanding of the people and the times of the particular book under consideration, but the overall context.
We see God in His word as One attempting to initiate and desiring to establish and maintain an intimate relationship with His people. His desire has always been to make an atonement for the world in general and His people in particular. This provides the background of our studies, not only for the commandments, but for every law, every rule, every ordinance, prohibition, every sanction, as well as every blessing, promise and every prophecy that God gave to His children and through them to the world.
From the time God asked Abraham to look into the sky and count the stars, through the long period until the first stone hit the holy brow of Stephen, there was something very special that God wanted to do with the Jews, to the Jews, for the Jews and through the Jews to the world. So, Jesus began to codify in Exodus a set of laws predicated on the demonstrated fact that you can do, because He has already done. God enjoins that to His people today. We can indeed do all things because of what Christ has already done.
When we were kids and we were playing, my dad many times would tell us to do something, or more accurately tell us to stop doing something. Sometimes we would get a little insubordinate, a little obstinate or hardheaded and the context for what ensued was the fact that my father did not take a particular liking in saying anything twice. There were times as kids when we thought we were out of range and in a safety zone, that we would actually question one of my father’s directions. He would say, “Don’t do that.” Sometimes in a fit of insanity we would say, “Why”? My old-schooled dad would provide a context for the discussion. “Because I am your father,” he would say. “I brought you in; I will take you out,” or “Because I said so.”
Once when I was 10 or 11, I searched my brain and it occurred to me that because “I said so,” or “because I am your father,” was not sufficient justification to alter or abate my intended course of action. I might have even used the word, “Stupid.” I thought I was out of reach and I thought he had not heard me, but my father sprang like a cat with blinding human strength and lifted me off my feet and said, “Because if I catch you doing that again I will kill you.” While growing up in my house there were many infractions to which death was the ultimate penalty. But I stayed alive long enough to baptize my dad into the Seventh-day Adventist church.
Yet over and over again we see this preamble that we are about to look at that contextualizes the perspective future relationship and activities between God and His people.
Exodus 20:2 says, “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” We see this pattern over and over again no less than ten times—four times on God’s behalf and six times it was recited by the Lord Himself. He recited this many times to a people who in many instances did not know God and even when they were introduced to Him they were disposed to develop an almost irresistible case of spiritual Alzheimer’s. There are pages in the Old Testament riddled with stories of a people afflicted with a selective memory loss. This loss resulted in their continual wandering from God. They never really got it right.
A loving Lord, knowing the unstable nature of his chosen people, would often have to reformulate in their minds the reality that He was the Lord God and beside Him there was no other.
He is the Lord God. Not just any god, but your God. He is the God who brought you out of Egypt. Pharaoh was a type of Satan, a type of sin. Jehovah is saying, I delivered you from their presence and their power. This is what I did for you; now I want you to do the following for me.
Verse 3 says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” I always thought it was interesting that the Lord would have to put that there. It occurred to me that, other than Jehovah God, the one true God, there is no other god.
The word used in the Hebrew is Elohim, the im is a plural ending. It is mostly used in Scripture for God and often denotes the title or office of God. El was also the head of the Canaanites Pantheon, so it was a borrowed word. They had El; we have Elo—our God is greater than your god. Elohim bespeaks divinity, might, power and keeping ability. It is masculine in gender and always plural. Sometimes it means Jehovah, the real God; other times it means the false god. How do you know the difference?
When the context is singular with a plural Elohim, it is the true God. An example of this is found in Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in his own image.” So Elohim created man in his image. You have the plural Elohim with the singular word his. The plural with the singular is talking about the true God.
Another example is found in Genesis 1:29: “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb.” Again Elohim plural with singular word I. Look at Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.” When you have a singular with a plural, you are talking about the true God.
When you have a plural with a plural, you are talking about a false god. It is the same word but a different god. God says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me [Exodus 20:3].” No false gods before God.
There is but one true God. The mixed multitude in the desert thought that there were many gods. They had been seduced by 400 years of living in Egypt, over 200 of which they were in Egyptian bondage. But God would have them to know that there is only one true God and anything else is fiction or an idol. How dare we attempt to replace the real God with fiction.
The core meaning of the first Commandment is not to elevate to god status anyone or anything that can never really be God.
As bad as it is not to know God, it is arguably and grievously worse to know Him and live like He does not exist. Nothing comes before God. Nothing is more important than God. Not your money, your home, your job, your reputation, not your spouse or your family. Family is very important—next to God, but none of these temporal things can save you. Like jaundice—these things that replace God are symptoms of a deeper problem.
If your job is more important than Jehovah, you have a problem because the real issue is not your job and may lie somewhere else that is far more invasive and sinister.
The real demigod is not what we own; it is what we are. What you own is a symptom of what you are. Some say, “Tell me where a person spends his money and I will show you what he is.” Paul says, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves.” II Timothy 3:1, 2. People are going to fall out of love with God and in love with themselves. God says that the prevailing sin of these last days, of the end times, the fertile garden from which so much misery grows, is the sin of self love. The problem we have is that we are so much in love with ourselves that we do not have room for God. We have replaced God with us.
Man’s god today is himself. What was alluded to in Timothy is stated emphatically in Romans 1:25: “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.” Heaven’s complaint is that those who were created for God’s glory have decided they don’t want Him anymore.
At the beginning of Christ’s mediatory work in the Holy of Holies in the days surrounding 1844, heaven stepped into high gear and so did Satan.
Just as God began to raise up young people like James White, 1821, and Ellen White, 1827, with strength, stamina and the Holy Spirit, Satan also raised up his champions, Karl Marx, 1818, and Fredrick Engels, 1820.
Charles Darwin in 1831, the same year that William Miller preached his first sermon, jumped aboard a ship called HMS Beagle. As an unpaid naturalist, he made amazing discoveries in the Galapagos Islands about 1,000 leagues west of the country of Ecuador. By the time he returned in 1836, he had convinced himself that mankind was the product of an evolutionary process that he called natural selection. Chance was in, God was out. He fine tuned his ideas for 23 years. Others bought into his theories and during the days of the Great Disappointment, October, 1844, Darwin was saying that God had nothing to do with creation.
By the time the first edition of the Origin of the Species came out in 1859, it sold out in one day. Five additional editions also sold out within days of their release. One doctor said, commenting on Darwin’s work, “He is the single most influential individual on planet earth in the last 250 years.” And it is no coincidence that Darwin came to the front about 1844. When Christ stepped up His ministry, Satan also stepped up his.
Another doctor stated, “With the publishing of the book, Origins, mankind had finally escaped from God.” Satan didn’t stop there. Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels collaborated on a book called The Communist Manifesto, released in 1848. The Communist Manifesto served as inspiration for countless 20th Century and 19th Century dictators and tyrants, including Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Polpot and many others who got their theology from The Communist Manifesto. None of them had any value for human life. When you take God out of the picture, all you are left with is an animal in a world that asserts that daddy was a gorilla and mommy was a chimpanzee.
The Bible says, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” Psalm 53:1. There are scientists that will tell you that it takes more faith to believe in evolution than it does in creation. Dr. Mike Denton says that by the time Darwin’s last edition of Origins came off the press in 1872, even Darwin himself was plagued by self doubts because he was unable to meet the many objections to his own theories. By the end of his life, Charles Darwin wasn’t even buying what he was selling.
In 1844 one month after the great disappointment, Engels collaborated on another book called The Holy Family. There was nothing holy about it. The book was described as a sarcastic assault and revolt against the state, the family, religion and God Himself. Engels lived with a woman all of his life but he never married her. He refused to marry her. As an affront to God, he taught that marriage was unnatural, unethical and evil.
It was not a coincidence that these men came to the front about the end of the 2300 days because Satan knew his time was short. Now the whole world accepts a myth or theory as fact.
Science was the hook used to pull God from His throne and to replace Him with us. So a new ideology is born. Nobody buys that God is dead. The new theology simply is that God is unnecessary because we have science, art, medicine, college degrees and PhDs. We are not illiterate; we don’t live in tents, we live in houses and we rely on ourselves. God is just not necessary. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” Romans 1:22.
The most overused, underrated, bankrupt word in the English language is love. “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” 1 John 4:8. The concept of love, like ethics and morality, has absolutely no meaning without God. You can talk about emotionalism and physical attraction, but if you are talking about real love you have to be talking about God. How curious it is that the further we move from God or stray from God in these last days, the more we tend to use words that substitute for God and the more we use terms that have their relevance and meaning only in God.
We tend to deify the terms and forget about God. We have made a god of love. I love my dog. I love my cat. I love my new clothes. I love my television. I love this summer. I love, I love, I love and if any of them get old and rusty I am turning them in on a new model. The concept of the word love itself has been adulterated. We talk about love, we read about love, we hear about love and sing about it, we sell love, we worship love. Ever searching, never finding, looking for love in all the wrong places.
You cannot purchase a $1,500 handbag or a $4,500 watch for a cool $25. Love in today’s world is little more than justification of self-indulgence.
God is love, but love is not God. The God of love, as much as He loves, says you cannot have any other gods before me, not even love itself. So man is latter day’s god. Love is his holy spirit and the logical, predictable end to that kind of ideology is evolution. When you put man at the top and take God off the throne, you are in for trouble. We see how twisted we can become when we leave out the pure gospel. I am my god and you are yours.
Have you heard of the story of the self-made man who worshipped his own god? He is absolutely pathetic, and of all men most miserable. If you are your own god, may I suggest to you that your god is too small. If you are your own god, one day you are going to run into something that your god can’t handle. If you are your own god, some days your god is going to be sick. If you are your own god, occasionally your god is going to have a day where he simply does not want to be bothered. If you are your own god, sooner or later your god is going to face a problem he can’t solve. If you are your own god and your god can’t keep you, can’t heal you, can’t help you, can’t cure you or comfort you or free you or constrain you or transform you—if your god can’t save you, then what in the world is your god going to do with me?
Theology aside, it just makes sense to serve the living God. If you reject God, all you are left with is you. When it comes to my salvation you are not good enough for me. The Lord said, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore in loving kindness I have drawn you.” Jeremiah 31:3. That is the God I want.
Look around. We have paid a heavy price for our arrogance. This year I heard on the news that nine fourth graders were arrested for plotting the murder of their teacher. It was so well organized that it shocked the community. When asked why, they said it was because she talked mean to one of them. The god of this world has replaced reason, sanity, morality, humility, kindness and sympathy. And terrorists, allegedly in the name of God, flew a plane into a 110 story building and we cry, where was God? He is right where you left Him.
He has not gone anywhere. He is right where you left Him. In the beginning God—He was there, and He is still there now. He says in Jeremiah 29:13, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
What are the ideologies of this world? They are contingency, temporality, relativity and autonomy.
Demi-god #1: Contingency
This suggests that everything that happens in this world is the result of cause and effect. You do something, you get a response so there is no need to ascribe any of the outcomes in my life to God. I do the work, I get the reward. In other words, 299 people apply for a job. I get the job, 298 did not get the job. It was not because God helped me; it was because I deserved the job. I worked for the job, I am better than the rest of them or just plain dumb luck. The bottom line—no God. The new god—man. Man controls his own destiny, not God.
Some Christians believe that they have to help God out. If I don’t do it, it won’t get done. Do you see how that pushes God to the side, takes Him off the throne and puts self on top?
Demi-god #2: Autonomy
This concept is, I determine who calls the shots in my life. I reserve the right to make my own decisions. The concept is that it is my life and I can do what I want. There is no need to seek or follow God for direction. If I want something I get it and I don’t need to ask God or anybody else about it. I don’t owe anything to anybody. An animal lover will leave five million dollars to his pet and leave nothing to feed starving children in Haiti who are eating mud patties. “I” determines what has value. Autonomy says I report to me. Bottom line—no God. New god—autonomy. I give meaning to my life and I don’t need God. God is unnecessary. Defacto god—man.
Demi-god #3: Relativity
This suggests the idea that absolutes are unintelligent and unreasonable. It insists that the idea that one size fits all, that there is one rule or one set of rules is stupid. In any situation you adjust the rules to fit the situation. That is relativity. I am different and you are different so the rules for each one of us must be different. Why would we ascribe to one set of rules? Bottom line, there is no God. New god—relativity. Defacto god—man.
Situational ethics says that what is right for me, is what is right. What is right for you is not right for me. What is right for me is not right for you. You determine what is right for you and I will determine what is right for me and this idea that there are ten rules that never alter or change, that is not right. That is relativity.
Demi-god #4: Temporality
This simply suggests that nothing lasts forever. Your car, house, your wife, your job, your religion—they are not going to last forever. They will all change. There are people today who expect things to change and even engineer change. My car is going to last so many years; I will have to get a new one. They don’t expect to be in the same place or relationship. The idea that some things can be unchangeable, the same yesterday, today and forever, is incomprehensible. Bottom line, there is no God. New god—change. Defacto god—man. If this marriage were to get rough, I am gone. It will never last, so why work at it.
Just imagine what a world we would have if we all could simply put all man-made gods away and put God first. The tall skyscrapers are built on a firm and deep foundation. The glory of all of the ten wonderful commandments, the constitutional reality of man’s existence, is foundation and revolves around the fact that In the beginning God (Genesis 1:1) and God desires and deserves no rival, for truly there is no god but God. There is none like Him.
God does not try to justify, explain or rationalize it. He simply says, In the beginning God. You have to accept that first page, that first chapter, that first line or else close the book because everything else in the book is based on In the beginning God. If you are going to live with Him and live for Him, then you can’t have anybody else in front of Him. God says, I am a jealous God (Exodus 20:5). God, God and only God.
“Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them show unto them. Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.” Isaiah 44:6–8.
Ellen White says, “We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us.” Christian Experience and Teachings of Ellen G. White, 1922, 204. If you cannot see the future, look back toward the past. You should be able to see a pattern of God inserting His hand into your life and bringing you from day one to today. You should be able to look and see where God kept you, directed you, instructed you. It is not an accident that you are here. God is in control of all life. There is no god but God.
Our God says, Don’t put anybody in front of me—not your children, not your sister, your husband or your wife. He is going to say to you, I knocked but you didn’t answer; you didn’t hear me over the sound of the television. I sent a letter, but you left it in the mailbox. I prayed for you, but you didn’t answer. Thou shall have no other gods because no one on this earth has a heaven to give you or a hell to keep you from. We owe our all to God and there is none other than God and one day very soon we are going to see Him face to blessed face.
Don’t let anything get between you and God. When you put your hand into His hand, nothing can take you out of His hand. He will take us home if we will but walk with Him.
Pastor C.A. Murray’s sermon was taken from the Ten Commandment Weekend, 2008 series aired on 3ABN. For more information contact www.3ABN.org.