TEN COMMANDMENTS
THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME
EXODUS 20:1-20
DR. JIM DIXON
JANUARY 19, 1992
Anne Baxter, Yvonne De Carlo, Debra Paget, Vincent Price, Edward G. Robinson, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, John Derek, Yul Brynner, Charlton Heston—just a few of the actors and actresses who performed in the Hollywood movie spectacle called “THE TEN COMMANDMENTS,” released by Paramount Pictures in 1956 and directed, of course, by Cecil B. DeMille. In the movie, the Ten Commandments were rarely mentioned but often violated. One critic, having watched the movie, said the Decalogue was exceeded only by decadence. Now the Decalogue, of course, is a reference to the Ten imperatives given by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai and inscribed in stone. The Ten Commandments, those Ten Imperatives, are foundational for Judaism and, of course, for Christianity as well. Yet, strangely, we live in a nation, we live in a country where the average person can only identify two of the Ten Commandments. Perhaps this should not surprise us, given the rapid erosion of Judeo-Christian values in our time. It’s a good time for us as Christians to stop and examine each of these Ten Commandments in light of our commitment to follow Jesus Christ.
Today we will specifically examine this first Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Theologians and Bible scholars have taken two different views of this first commandment. We will examine both of them this morning. First of all, there are those who take the view that this first Commandment deals primarily with the subject of monotheism—that there is only one God. “You shall have no other gods before me. Monotheism.”
Now in the city of Rome, near the center of the city, there is a very ancient, well-preserved structure that is called the Pantheon. The Pantheon is today a national shrine and a burial place for famous people throughout Italy’s history. The Italian Renaissance painter, Raphael, and King Victor Emmanuel I are buried there. But of course, the Pantheon was not always a national shrine. From the year 609 to the year 1885, for all of those centuries, the Pantheon was a Christian church where the gospel of Jesus Christ was preached, and where God was worshipped in spirit and in truth. Of course, the Pantheon was not originally a Christian church. It was built in the second century A.D. by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, and he built it to honor all of the gods of Rome—from Jupiter to Minerva—all of their gods. Indeed, the name Pantheon refers to all or every one of the gods that the building was meant to honor. Ancient Rome was polytheistic. They believed in many gods. This was not only true of the ancient Roman world, but it was also true of the ancient Greek world. They were polytheistic, believing in many gods. And indeed, for most of the nations on the earth in the time of Moses, religion advocated polytheism, and it was a very amazing moment when God declared to Moses on Mt. Sinai, “There is only one God.” Monotheism. One God. Yahweh Elohim.
And when you stop to think about it, that was really what the battle on Mt. Carmel was all about 2800 years ago—the fact that there is only one God. Ahab was King of Israel 2800 years ago, and he took for his wife Jezebel, who was a Phoenician princess, and she had worshipped the Canaanite deity, a fertility deity of the Ugaritic religion, whose name was Baal. When King Ahab of Israel married Jezebel, he thought, “Well, I’ll take her god, Baal, put him right alongside my God, Jehovah, and I’ll just worship both gods, and we’ll have temples to both gods, and we’ll have priests in the service of both gods and prophets in the service of both gods. We’ll just add a god,” and this he did. The religion of Baal worship began to grow in Israel. Of course, you know Elijah, the great prophet of the one true God, came in indignation to King Ahab and to the prophets of Baal, and he set that great challenge on top of Mt. Carmel where he invited the 450 prophets of Baal to build an altar, make a sacrifice, and call upon their god to bring down fire from heaven and light the offering, light the sacrifice, light the altar because, after all, Baal, it was said, had power over all the elements. So you have that scene, set in 1 Kings 18, where all the 450 prophets of Baal are on Mt. Carmel, and for hours on end, they are calling upon their god to bring down fire from heaven and light that altar and light that offering. They began to cry out in loud voices. They began to slash their wrists. They began to mutilate their bodies, crying for Baal to bring down fire from heaven. Baal did nothing. Elijah, the prophet of God, began to mock the prophets of Baal. He said, “Perhaps your god is on vacation.” “Maybe your god is just asleep, and you need to wake him up.” Of course, the real problem was their god did not exist. There came that great moment when Elijah took over, and the 450 prophets of Baal stood back, and the people all looked on as Elijah, without shouting, without slashing his wrist, simply called upon the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to bring down fire from heaven. He had flooded the altar with water. He had done it three times because he wanted them to see this wood was soaked, and yet when he called upon Yahweh Elohim, the one true God, to bring down fire from heaven, fire fell, and the top of Mt. Carmel was ablaze. The people shouted, “The Lord God is God.” “The Lord God is God.” One God. Monotheism.
Of course, there are today, in the world, a lot of monotheistic religions. The real issue is “Who is this one God, and how can we get to know Him?” I mean, there are a lot of religions on the earth today that are monotheistic, and they have come to the conclusion there is only one God, and they’re seeking to understand who that God is. And who is that God, and how can we get to know Him? I must say, in light of the Bible, that most of the religions of the world are in a sincere quest to know God. Man’s reaching out to find God has formed the various religions of the world. I must also say that there is some truth in virtually every one of the religions of the world. Most of these monotheistic religions on planet earth have some truth. Most of them have discerned, perceived, some measure of truth with regard to the nature and character of God. And many of these religions describe God as omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. But along with the truth in these religions of the world, there is also great distortion and error regarding the nature and many of these religions describe God as omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. But along with the truth in these religions of the world, there is also great distortion and error regarding the nature and person of God.
Now, in Judaism, we must say biblically there is no distortion or error concerning God, but Judaism does not provide the complete picture of this one true God because the Bible tells us that the complete picture of the one true God is only seen in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Only in Him can we truly know God.
This was what Paul was trying to tell the Greek people in the city of Athens when he went up on the Acropolis and saw the Parthenon and all the altars to all of the gods. He then went up on the Areopagus and preached to the leaders of the Greek people, saying, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way, you are very religious, for as I’ve walked along, observing objects of your worship, I saw one altar with this inscription: ‘To an unknown god.’ What, therefore, you worship as unknown, this I declare to you, the God who made the universe and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by men, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all men life and breath and everything. For He did make from one man all the nations of men to dwell upon the face of the earth, having determined their allotted periods of the boundaries of their habitation, that they might feel after Him, that they might seek after Him and find Him, for He is not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being. As even your own prophets have said, ‘We are indeed His offspring.’ Being then, God’s offspring, we ought not to assume that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, mere representations of the art and imagination of men. The times of ignorance, God overlooked, but now He has set a day upon which He will judge the world in righteousness through one whom He has appointed, and of this, He has given evidence to all men by raising that one from the dead.”
Paul went on to share with the Greeks that only through that one, Jesus Christ, could they come to know God truly. That is why the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He is Emmanuel. He is God with us. “No man has ever seen the Father,” the Bible says. “The only Son, who’s in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known.
In many and various ways, the Bible says “God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, God has spoken through His Son, through whom also He created the worlds. He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of His nature.” When Philip, one of the disciples, said to Jesus, “Show us the Father, and we will be satisfied,” we have that great moment where Jesus responded and He said, “Have you been with Me so long and you do not know me, Philip, how can you say ‘Show us the Father?'” “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. I and the Father are One. ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.’ There is only one God, monotheism., and that one God can only be truly known through His Son, Jesus Christ.
And yet, there is a second view of this first commandment taken by many Bible scholars and theologians. In this second view, the first commandment is not viewed as teaching primarily monotheism but what might be called henotheism. You have probably never heard of henotheism. You will probably never hear of it again. Monotheism is taught at least implicitly in the first commandment if not explicitly. “You shall have no other gods before Me.” It doesn’t really say whether there are other gods. It simply says “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Now we know from the rest of scripture there are no other gods, but in the first commandment, it simply says, “You shall have no other gods before Me,” and perhaps the emphasis is not so much there on monotheism as henotheism because henotheism means “the worship of one god.” “The worship of one god” is the whole point of the first commandment. It does not really talk about how many gods there are out there. It says this: “You must worship only Yahweh Elohim.” That’s the point of the first commandment, not so much monotheism as the worship of one god.