Be The Fruit

Idolatry Thursday – What other gods?

by Bill Blair on 17/04/08 at 5:17 am

The first command in the Ten Commandments is, “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3)

On the first reading of this command, it is obvious that God is commanding us not to worship any god that is not Him.  At the time when God gave this command to Moses, people worshipped all sorts of gods.  Remember, the Ten Commandments were given just after the Israelites had left Egypt, and if you are familiar at all with Egyptian art and architecture you would understand why God might put this command first.  In fact, the Israelites broke this command before Moses made it down the mountain by creating and worshipping the golden calf (Exodus 32).  So you might think, “I have not worshipped a golden calf lately so i should be good with #1.”  Right?  Let’s take this a little deeper.

Scripture is clear that there are no other gods in reality, only the one true God.  This begs the question; Why did God command us not to have such gods, that do not really exist, before him?  Why didn’t he just command us not to have any other gods period?  I think the reason he said “before me” instead of “not at all” is because he knew that there are things in our life that stir us to great love that are good for us as long as they are kept in their proper perspective.  The key point is that just about anything can be a “god” if we put it as the top priority in our life.

Robertson McQuilkin, in An Introduction to Biblical Ethics, defines having a god this way: 

“To ‘have’ a god is to ascribe to someone or something attributes that belong only to God or to relate to someone or something as the ultimate –to seek above all else, to trust above all else, to love above all else, to serve and obey above all else is to treat as God.  To make something central in life, the pivot or ultimate reference point, is to ‘have a god.’  To yield ultimate allegiance to or to consider someone or something as the ultimate happiness or most desirable object, even to fear above all else is to ‘have a god.’”

What is your reference point?  What do you love above all else?  Is it God?  Examine your life and see how you spend your time and money and you may see that there are things that get in the way of what God wants you to do.  What are your priorities?  Is it serving God trying to do what He wants you to do, or do you just fit that in when you have time.  The things in your life that keep you from doing what God wants or has commanded you to do are gods that you have put before the true God.

I believe that the big problem with the Church today is that we have so many good things that occupy our time that many people relegate God to some small part of their lives that quickly gets removed when they have “something better to do.”  Think about what you give God and do for his glory and think about what you do for your own.  Think about how you may schedule your life around making money, being entertained, or anything else and not around God.

As I work on writing “Idolatry Thursday” each week, I pray that God uses this new feature to help expose some of the ways we have other gods before the true living God.  I pray that it opens your eyes to things that you need to set aside in order to truly serve and worship God.  I pray that it opens my eyes to things as well.  I pray that we all can learn to put God first and make impacts on the people around us wherever we might be.

Until next time, put God first and “be the fruit.”