The Significance of the Name

Our God is not a generic god; our God has a proper name.  The significance of the name YHWH (the LORD) is that we know who God is.  Not just any god will do.  It is not just any god who offered freedom and abundant life to the Hebrews, it is one specific God, the one who revealed his name to Moses at the burning bush. (Exodus 3:15)  It is YHWH, the one who saved the Hebrews from slavery to Pharaoh, who now delivers the first of our "10 Words to Live By"!  When we hear him speak the first of the 10 Commandments, much rides on our being able to distinguish the voice of this God--YHWH (the LORD), the One God, the Only God--from all the other gods.  The "1st Word" is based on a distinction between the God of the Bible, whose "10 Words" these are, and all the other gods.  As the "1st Word" makes clear,  YHWH (the LORD) is our God.  We know his name and we have a prior relationship with him; he has chosen us and we are his.  We no longer belong to another power; we no longer belong to any other power.  We do not even want to know the names of others.  This God is also the God of our ancestors and parents (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob).  We have a history with this God (a history of salvation and liberation) and we have entered into an exclusive relationship with this God, one that is specific and concrete.  That relationship will shape us, both in our present and in our future, through the "10 Words" that follow.  Our identity and character is dependent on this God's identity and character; we are the people God created and saved.  This God is fully known in Jesus Christ, his Son (John 1:18).  This God is the one who raised Jesus from the dead (Acts 2:32, 3:26, etc.), the one God with whom Jesus Christ places the whole world into right relationship (2 Corinthians 5:19).  What God did for the Hebrews, God has done for us all through Jesus. (Luke 4:18)  In Jesus we too have heard this God's voice, speaking these "10 Words" of freedom and resurrection life to us.  We too have one God alone, and no others!

The Primacy of the "1st Word"
       
"I am the LORD thy God... 1) Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

This "1st Word" serves in both a positive and negative sense to protect the loving relationship that God has established with us.  The positive statement of this commandment is most clearly seen in Israel's prayer, the Shema, where once again the Prologue ("I am YHWH") is combined with the commandment ("Love YHWH your God"):

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5, KJV)

The breaking of this "1st Word" means that we have severed that exclusive relationship with God.  This commandment stands as a warning and a corrective when we are about to endanger the relationship; it is a mirror to show us when we have broken it already, and a sharp goad to send us running back to the love of God when we have wandered away.  All of the commandments work in this way (Calvin's Institutes), but this "1st Word" has a special place to fill.  Since the first commandment (especially when combined with the Prologue or preface) has our relationship with God front-and-center, it is this "1st Word" from which all the others flow, and we would do well to take it apart and analyze it fully by asking the following questions.

• What does it mean to "have" a God?
• What are "other gods"?
• What does "before me" mean?
  

Having a God

To have a God means to be a slave; it means to be completely owned by Another.  The Hebrews knew what an awful thing the worship of another master was, because they had worked in Pharaoh's death-inducing labor camps.  Worship of God, our God, on the other hand, means being freed from any other slavery.  Today we like to think of ourselves as autonomous, being under our own law (auto meaning "self" and nomos meaning "law"), being our own masters, speaking our own "10 Words" to ourselves.  But this is just another form of slavery.  If we are honest with ourselves, in our wayward hearts, we sometimes want nothing more than to "be our own boss."  But this "1st Word" that God speaks to us puts the lie to that delusion.  When we become our own masters (that is, when we try to become "like God, knowing good from evil"), we sign our own death warrant and die the death of a thousand different allegiances.  In trying to abolish every god but ourselves, suddenly we find ourselves beholden to every god known to humankind and at risk of death from them all: our job, the economy, money or a lack of it, our mortgage, the health-care system, too much time on our hands or not enough, the educational system, the government or a crusade against government, gun control or gun rights, prejudice or marches to end prejudice, pleasure, alcohol, sex, hunger or the latest cause to end hunger, over-eating, waging war or working for world peace.  Self-sufficiency in such a world beset with other gods is the biggest lie of the devil.  And do not be misled, serving "no god" (atheism) is as ludicrous an absurdity as serving ourselves, since we are always under the life-destroying power or influence of someone or something.  That is, unless we have been freed from all that to serve God!

To have a God is to have the courage to live and love.  It means to enter the relationship that God has begun with us, to love God completely in return.  To have a God is always a matter of the heart.  It is always a matter of caring.  It is contradictory to say "I have a God, but I'm not all that invested in loving and worshiping God."  What does it mean to say, "I believe in God, but I'm not one of those people who go overboard"?  This "I can take it or leave it" or "I don't have to have it" kind of attitude toward God is an offense.  It is a violation of the "1st Word" and  is a symptom of the Christian atheism (a "kind of limp, flaccid rejection of God," more agnosticism than atheism) that bedevils our age.  (Hauerwas and Willimon, p. 28)

With our God, the one God, it is all or nothing--and God wants all of us, heart and soul, mind and strength.  As Joy Davidman says, we "modern pagans" no longer make a conscious choice for atheism out of a burning conviction, we make it instead "without knowing it--not by clear conviction but by vague drifting, not by denying God, but by losing interest in him" (p. 23).  "We live in an age of lost faith and lost hope and empty hearts.  Today the Commandment, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me,' must include, 'Thou shalt have me'" "The beast in the heart is always the self" (Davidman, p. 23) So, where's your heart?  Our God is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5), full of fiery emotion, not calm, cool and collected or detached and aloof.  Do you have the courage to love this God back?  Having a God is not a passive existence.  It is an exciting life!  Are you all in?

Other Gods

So, just what are these "other gods"?  The first thing to note, of course, is that "other gods" is plural.  The question is not whether we have managed somehow to substitute love and trust in some one other god for love of the true God--or trust in no other god for love of the one God--but when we break this commandment, we have substituted love and service to "other gods" (plural) for the love of our God.  Most of us think we have left the world of polytheism far behind, but this "1st Word" begs us reconsider.  We still live very much in a world of darkness, where we seem liable to deceptively attractive powers (plural).  This "1st Word" suggests that the most important question we can ask ourselves is whether we are suffering from divided loyalties, whether we are trying to serve two (or more) masters.  (Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13)  The result of trying to serve two gods instead of one God is constant half measures and "half-heartedness," a constantly tepid half love and half hate, half trust and half suspicion. (Revelation 3:14-22)  Violation of the "1st Word" is a recipe for becoming a "dead man walking" and for living a half-life of constant vacillation in our attention and devotion between the conflicting and life-draining demands of these "other gods."  Under the demonic reign of these other gods, our lives become hopelessly fragmented by centrifugal forces while we are pulled in every conceivable direction, "beyond the limits of human management"  (Miller, p. 23)  But our God has saved us and offers us this "1st Word" as a means of living a new life in loving relationship, with integrity and wholeness.  This "1st Word" is God's gift of love, God's grace, to us.                  

Before Me

Because of the many ways this phrase is used throughout the Old Testament, its use in this "1st Word" appears to have multiple possibilities for meaning.  As Patrick Miller says, this phrase could mean:

1. "before me," that is, "in front of me"
2. "beside me," that is, "alongside me"
3. "besides me," that is, "in my place," or "instead of me"
4. "over against me," that is, "in hostile confrontation with me," "against my face"  (Miller, p. 20)

Which of these meanings is intended?  It appears that they all are. In other words, there is no place for other gods, anywhere.  The positive statement of the commandment is that--to use the double negative--there is no place where our God is not.  From highest heaven to deepest Sheol, our God is God.  There is no place to hide from our God's love.  

How to Keep the First Commandment

As already stated, this "1st Word" is an incredible gift to safeguard our loving and passionate relationship with God.  For this reason, "thanksgiving is one of the primary positive ways of keeping the First Commandment" (Miller, p. 25).  The First Commandment reminds us who God is and all that God has done for us and provided for us.  It reminds us that we cannot rule ourselves and also reminds us of the life-denying despotism of all those other would-be rulers we could be suffering under.  Utter gratitude is the appropriate response to such care from our God.  And when we turn toward our God to offer thanks, we cannot but automatically turn away from all other gods.  That is why Martin Luther (The Large Catechism, Book of Concord) can say that the "whole Psalter" is a "meditation and exercises based on the First Commandment" (Miller, p. 41).  Thanksgiving, praise and prayer increase the fervency of our love and our trust that our God can and will provide our every need until the end.  So, if you want to keep this "1st Word" aright, turn to a reading and singing of the Psalms.  Open your hymnal and sing out.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise God all creatures here below, praise God above ye heavenly hosts!      

Discussion Questions

Read Exodus 20:2-6 and Deuteronomy 5:1-7

1.  Do you have a "history" with God?  If so, how does that history help you recognize that the same God is speaking these "10 Words" to you?  Share one example of your "history" with God.  If not, can you imagine knowing God like you know your parents or your spouse or children?  Can you imagine living with and sharing a home with God?

2.  Do you have the same God that your parents did?  That your children do?  Your neighbors?  Your friends?

3.  Can you spot "other gods"?  If so, what are some popular gods in our culture?  Have you ever been attracted toward them?  Name a few you have served.  What was the result? 

4.  Hauerwas and Willimon (The Truth About God: The Ten Commandments in Christian Life , p. 38) tell the story of Millard Fuller and his wife, who sold all their possessions, quit their jobs, and moved to a poor part of Americus, Georgia to wait for God to tell them what to do.  What God wanted them to do, it turns out, was to begin building houses for the poor (Habitat for Humanity).  Would it be fair to do this to your children if they were minors?  Is it OK to drag your children into your love of God and to "ask them to sacrifice for your values"?  Are we all "sacrificing our children to some god or another"?

5.  Martin Luther (The Large Catechism, Book of Concord) said that to "have a God, as you can well imagine, does not mean to grasp him with your fingers, or to put him into a purse, or to shut him up in a box.  Rather, you lay hold of God when your heart grasps him and clings to him." (Miller, p. 19)  How might this definition of "having a God" keep us from having "other gods"?  Can you think of an example of a time when your heart or that of someone you know "grasped" and "clung" to God?

6.  If an appropriate response to this "1st Word" is to engage in heart-felt, enthusiastic worship of our God, how can we best teach our children to keep this commandment?

7.  What has our God done for you?  Spend a few moments listing some things for which you are thankful.  Personalize the Prologue and the First Commandment by paraphrasing them using the list of things for which you are thankful to complete the statement: "I am the LORD your God who...."  Does expressing thanks to our God help you stay away from the clutches of other, would-be gods?

8.  Think about the polytheistic religious environment into which the Israelites were moving as they entered the Promised Land.  Many of their neighbors, the Canaanites, loved and trusted Baal and "other gods."  How does the religious environment in your community impact your ability to keep the First Commandment? 

9.  What does it mean to love God?  What is one way you can show your love for God this week?

10.  Sometimes we are not fully aware of the most basic aspects of our lives.  The good news is that God has spoken these "10 Words" to show us what kind of people we are and what kind of lives we are living.  Recently I received a financial incentive from my health insurance company to keep track of how many calories I was eating each day.  They did not even ask me to reduce my calories.  They simply told me how many calories a person of my height, age, and gender needs in various categories (whole grains, fruit, vegetables, fat, and the like).  And they gave me a method of keeping track and an incentive to notice how many calories I was consuming in each category.  But just noticing can sometimes produce changes in behavior!  This week, take 5-10 minutes at the end (or beginning) of each day to keep a journal of the day that just passed.  How many minutes or hours did you spend "serving" various masters?  How many hours did you work?  Study?  Play?  Eat?  Watch TV?  Surf the web? etc.  Are any of these having a negative impact on your life?  Is it possible that they are your "other gods"?

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Copyright © 2010 by Gregory L. Glover