The First Commandment

Exodus 20:2-6

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.  You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

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This morning we begin a series that focuses on the Ten Commandments. We often think of the Ten Commandments as a series of laws that function as a means to bind and restrict the things we can and cannot do. That's not an entirely inaccurate way to think about the Ten Commandments. Yet if that's the only way we can interpret them, then we are missing out on a much more vibrant message, a message of what it means to live in a covenant relationship between God and one another. We will learn that living in a covenant relationship requires real commitment and sacrifice. It will challenge us to question the value of the things we hold onto with hands closed tight and show us the endless possibilities of God's kin(g)dom if we trust and lean hard into the life-giving work of our calling as God's hands and feet. 

The Prologue and the First Commandment set the stage for exploration into embracing the Ten Commandments as a way of life. Yet what does it mean to live in a covenant relationship? We don't often talk about relationships using that kind of language. There's a piece of fictional/fantasy literature though that I think might help us understand what it takes to enter into and maintain a covenantal relationship:

Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.(George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire)

Those who know their contemporary culture might recognize this as the oath of The Night's Watch from George R.R. Martin's series "A Game of Thrones." Although The Night's Watch is fictional, it is an example of a bond that is covenantal. The members of The Night's Watch commit themselves to a cause, a community, that impacts how they see themselves in relationship to the world around them. In the Prologue of the Ten Commandments and the First Commandment, we told what God expects of us and asked if we are willing and ready to make such a sacrifice that is radically life changing. 

The Prologue (“I am the Lord your God.”) and the First Commandment (You shall have no other gods before me.”) set the stage for our striving to embrace the Ten Commandments as a way of life. God sets the backdrop for the Ten Commandments from the very beginning. There is a reminder that God is with us and has been from the start. This desire for a relationship between God and the people of God did not come out of thin air. The yearning for connection was present since the dawn of creation. In the Prologue to the Ten Commandments, God lays out ways in which God has remained faithful. The part that should concern us is that the Prologue asks whether or not we have been committed to God in the words we have spoken, acted, and treated one another. By now, you might begin to realize that the Ten Commandments are much more than a simple list of moralistic laws. The Ten Commandments are a summons to live a life that is grounded in the love of God. 

Part of what it means to live a life grounded in such love involves following God. The First Commandment states, "You shall have no other gods before me." What does it mean when God says, "You shall have no other gods before me?" Is God talking about other deities, or is there something else that God could be alluding to in this First Commandment? At the heart of the First Commandment, I believe we will uncover the piece that is so essential for our lives. Martin Luther, often known as a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation, writes this in his "Larger Catechism:"

To have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe in that one with your whole heart. To have a God, as you can well imagine, does not mean to grasp him with your fingers, or put him into a purse, or shut him in a box. Rather, you lay hold of God when your heart grasps God and clings to the Lord.  

Where we place our trust is vital to what it means to live out the First Commandment in our daily lives. To follow a god means that there is something in our lives that we are willing to place our complete trust and faith. So do we commit our faith in the Lord? Or do we find that there is something else that is tempting us, leading us away from the life-giving promises of God? That is what we need to check at this moment. We need to check where our hearts are placing their trust. Because it isn't enough to say that the Lord is our God, we have to live that truth out daily from the bottom of our entire selves. 

If we aren't careful, it's easy for us to replace bit by bit the commitment we have made to God with something else. We see throughout Scripture, people relying on other powers that ultimately lead to death and destruction. The Prophet Hosea is one such example, who called out the people of God who went astray. Instead of living into the covenant relationship they had with God, one that required work on their end, they decided to place their trust in things like kings, wealth, and military power. Instead of following God, who alone shows us the way of life-giving love, the people had placed their trust in gods who could only bring death. The temptation of those who came before us is not a problem exclusive to them. We can say that we follow God and God alone and that God is at the head of our hearts, but our lives need to reflect that truth. If we are not modeling the love of God, the justice of God, or the compassion of God, then we have not lived up the expectations placed on us by the First Commandment. 

"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." These words of God in the form of the Prologue and First Commandment are just the beginning of our study of the Ten Commandments. As we reflect this week on where we put our trust, may the words of the First Commandment inspire you to grow in the love, justice, and mercy of God. The First Commandment is not a condemnation, but a warning of what happens when we place our trust in things we know will lead to destruction. Living in such a covenantal relationship is not easy. The sacrifices it requires at points seems unbearable, but the reason we continue is that we know God is continually working alongside us. So let us take to heart the First Commandment, which asks us to place our trust in God for the well-being of our souls and the well-being of one another. Amen.