He Knows How It All Works – First Commandment

He Knows how it all Works

The First Commandment

Exodus, 20.2, 3; Deuteronomy 5.6, 7

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”

Yahweh is our God because He made us.

We’re insisting that the commandments of God flow from the very nature of God Himself. They are eternal and unchanging, just like Yahweh Himself, and they offer clear and reliable guidance by which to steer our lives. They also happen to be a kind of “owner’s manual” for how human life is meant to work. The LORD Who gave the commandments is also “your God.” That phrase is agreeable to a little more flexibility in translation. The “your” part is a pronominal suffix in the Hebrew, and so it can be translated “your” or it could be translated, “God to you” or even “over you.” The idea is not so much Israel’s ownership of God, since that had yet to be proven, but God’s ownership of Israel. After all, He had made them according to His divine design and purpose. He knew them better than they knew themselves, and He knew best what would work to enable them to realize His creational purposes. They had not chosen Him, but He had chosen them. He is our God in the same way that He was their God, for we also are His creatures, made by His design and for His purposes. Life can be filled with peace and joy when we understand and submit to the Creator’s design and purposes, and when we bring our lives into line with the “Owner’s Manual” which is His Law.

What does it mean to you to say that God is “your God”? How do you demonstrate in the way you live? Is it readily apparent to others that Yahweh is your God?

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is 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.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.