The First Commandment

I thought I would take a few days and discuss the ten commandments. Believe it or not, there is some disagreement as to which is the first commandment.

The first "shall" in Exodus 20 is "I am the Lord your God and you shall have no other gods before me". I would therefore identify this as the first commandment. The Jewish Talmud, however, separates this sentence into two commandments, stating that "I am the Lord your God" is the first commandment, and "you shall have no other gods before me" is the second. (The Jewish Talmud [תַּלְמוּ talmūd "instruction, learning"] is a record of rabbinic discussions on Jewish law and custom dating back to the third century A.D., and is a central text of modern mainstream Judaism.)

It would appear, however, that this was a later change by the Jewish rabbis, as both 1st century Jewish philosopher Philo, and 1st century Jewish historian Josephus, identified the first "shall" as being the first commandment ("The first commandment teaches us, That there is but one God, and that we ought to worship him only;- the second commands us not to make the image of any living creature to worship it;"- Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus, Book III, Chapter V, Section V).

We are therefore on solid Biblical, as well as historical ground, in accepting the first "shall" in Exodus 20 as the first of the ten commandments.

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. "You shall have no other gods before Me. (Exo 20:2-3)

(for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
(Exo 34:14)

When there is a covenant relationship between two parties, there is a belonging to one another that is exclusive of others. You are theirs, they are yours, and there is a fitting jealousy for the affection and attention of that person.

A husband that is constantly giving his affection and attention to those other than his wife is not giving her the respect and love due her. God faithfully gives His attention and affection to His own, and He has every right to expect this devotion and love to be reciprocated.

Does God have to compete for your affection and attention? If He does, make a genuine effort to make it right.

Yours in Him,

Pastor B.