The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. from The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States "No other gods" for Tuesday, 13 September 2016Exodus 20:1 Then God said all these words:
א 2 “I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the abode of slavery.
ב 3 “You are to have no other gods before me. 4 You are not to make for yourselves a carved image or any kind of representation of anything in heaven above, on the earth beneath or in the water below the shoreline. 5 You are not to bow down to them or serve them; for I, Adonai your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but displaying grace to the thousandth generation of those who love me and obey my mitzvot.
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Reflection Questions:
Before God gave any commandments, he reminded Israel (again) that he alone had freed them from slavery. This was consistent with the form of Middle Eastern covenant treaties—
they often began by recounting the overlord’s generous acts toward the vassal person or
kingdom. The first two commandments taught that Israel had only one true God, unlike Egypt, and did not need human, handmade images in order to worship their God.
• The Jewish and Christian faith in the Scriptures (and the Muslim faith also) taught what is called “monotheism”—that is, that there is only one God. Remember, the Israelites were freshly delivered out of Egypt, a land that worshipped multiple “gods” of nature, in addition to their Pharaohs. How did these commandments reflect God’s effort to embed the principle that there is only one LORD for us to worship, rather than many “gods”?
• The second commandment might seem obsolete at first. In our rational age, who worships
hand-carved stone or wood figures (cf. Isaiah 44:9-19)? What things (besides money and
fame—the most obvious, easy answers) do some people worship? “I am a passionate God” was the Common English Bible’s translation of God’s self-description in verse 5, not the
“jealous” God of many other translations. How can it deepen your link with God to see him,
not as petty or possessive, but as passionately eager to start and sustain a loving relationship with you?
Prayer: Lord God, you made me. You freed me. You are the source and sustainer of all that
exists. Help me to worship and serve you, and you alone. Amen.
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Insights from Brandon Gregory
Brandon Gregory is a volunteer for the worship and missions teams at Church of the Resurrection. He helps lead worship at the Vibe, West, and Downtown services, and is involved with the Malawi missions team at home.Some of you already know this, but my son is not my biological son–my wife and I adopted him when he was 10 years old through the foster system. His biological parents did not treat him well, and, through a painful process of about five years, it was determined that they would never be in a state where they could adequately take care of him and they lost custody. That’s where we stepped in, and we worked to try to put the pieces of a shattered childhood back together.
Although my son knew he had parents in a biological sense, he had never known parents in a familial sense. He had never known someone who would make sure all of his needs were met, or offer positive guidance and instruction, or push him when he needed to grow. This led to some very bad self-reliant habits. If you can imagine if a five-year-old was responsible for feeding himself in a house where no one cooked, you have an idea what his eating habits were like. He had no one to look after his emotional needs, so things like revenge and avoidance were basic survival mechanisms.
Most children have an intrinsic bond with their parents because they know that their parents are responsible for meeting their needs and looking after them, and that their parents are there to stay. My son had to learn this relationship for the first time at 10 years old. It was not a magical journey, filled with awe and wonder and self discovery. It was hard. Really hard. He had to learn to trust in something that he had always known to be untrustworthy. He has made amazing progress and grown in love as well as trust; but even now, four and a half years later, he still occasionally has trust issues. That’s the impact of a life of mistreatment.
When the Israelites were brought out of Egypt, their relationship with gods had been a lot like my son’s relationship with his biological parents. They had never known a god to be faithful or benevolent to them. The gods they knew consistently favored their captors, who consistently mistreated them. For the most part, the Israelites were responsible for meeting their own spiritual needs, and they had picked up some very unhealthy spiritual habits because of it.
God had delivered his people from Egypt in a spectacular fashion. We like to imagine that these signs of power should have been enough to sustain their faith for generations to come. But, like my son, they needed to be reminded again and again that the relationship they had learned not to trust had suddenly become trustworthy. So when God says that he will punish families who hate him, but be loyal and gracious to families who love him, it’s not a threat of retaliation; it’s a promise of permanence. It’s a promise that God will never ignore them or leave them, even if they walk away from Him. This was something they had never experienced before, so it needed to be spelled out to them. It was a lesson that would take the Israelites centuries to fully grasp. In many ways, it’s a lesson modern day Jewish and Christian believers still have to re-learn today.
Any other god–anything else we put faith in to save us and give our lives meaning–will be neglectful at best and abusive at worst. Things like money, power, and popularity, or even seemingly good things like intelligence, job security, and human love, can and will let us down. They’re not bad things; but they’re bad objects of total devotion. In a world full of impermanence, it can be hard to accept the permanence of God–sometimes even when we claim we do accept it. Like the Israelites, this might be something we need to be reminded of over and over. But remember God’s promise that he will never give up on us, even if we give up on Him. He was faithful to the Israelites in the desert, and He will be faithful to you–you can count on it.
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