The First Commandment – The Intent of the First Commandment

The First Commandment

The Intent of the First Commandment (1)

Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 5:7

“…You shall have no other gods before me.”

To have God. In His infinite mercy and love, God redeemed Israel from Egypt and captivity that He might possess them unto Himself as a people for His glory. He gave them His Law as a temporal means of enabling them to live together in a way that was approved by Him and beneficial to all other human beings.

But for Israel to realize the full benefits of God’s covenant love, they must reciprocate love to God as their highest priority, “having” God as their God with as much zeal and love as He had shown in taking them as His people. What does it mean to “have” God?

In the Hebrew language the sense of the possessive is expressed by a state-of-being verb, together with the preposition “to,” and either a noun or a pronominal suffix. In the first commandment, God literally says to His people, “Not there shall be to you other gods before My face.” Beginning tomorrow we will note three emphatic aspects of this commandment.

This series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.