RULES FOR THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED
THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME
DR. JIM DIXON
EXODUS 20:1-17
APRIL 28, 2002
M. Scott Peck is the name of a medical doctor and psychiatrist who, in 1977, wrote the book “The Road Less Traveled.” For M. Scott Peck, the road less traveled is the road that leads to emotional and spiritual maturity. His book was a best seller, and because of his book he became famous. But M. Scott Peck was not the first person to mention a road less traveled. Jesus Himself mentioned a road less traveled in Matthew, chapter 7. Jesus said, “Wide is the gate and easy is the road that leads to destruction. Many there are who find it, but narrow is the gate and hard is the road that leads to life and few there are who find it.” This, then, is the road less traveled, the road that leads to life. If you are a Christian, you are on that road. You’re on the road less traveled. You’ve received Christ as your Lord and Savior. You heard His call when He said, “Follow Me” and you are walking with Him down that road that leads to eternal life.
In these upcoming weeks, we focus on rules for the road less traveled. We focus on the Decalogue. We focus on the Ten Commandments, foundational for us as Christians as we journey through this life.
In 1956, Hollywood made a movie called The Ten Commandments. It was released by Paramount Pictures, directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The movie starred Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brenner as Ramses II, the Pharaoh of Egypt. The movie starred Anne Baxter, Yvonne DeCarlo, Deborah Paget, Edward G. Robinson, Vincent Price. The movie had a cast of thousands. In the movie, The Ten Commandments were really rarely mentioned and frequently violated. One of the critics, after seeing the movie, said the Decalogue was exceeded only by the decadence. Nevertheless, in this movie Hollywood sought to portray the moment on Mt. Sinai, sometimes called Mt. Horeb, the moment when Moses received The Ten Commandments from God and those Ten Commandments were inscribed on stone by the finger of God.
I want to show you that moment in this Hollywood movie. Let’s take a look at this clip. Well, certainly people are still corrupting themselves. As I was looking at that clip, I’m reminded that that was 1956. Obviously the special effects are not quite up-to-date. It looks a little bit like early Star Trek on some of those. You expect to see William Shatner instead of the cowering Charlton Heston there. My son was at the first service. He said, “I didn’t realize what a bad actor Charlton Heston was.” Perhaps it wasn’t his finest moment. It’s hard to believe that that movie made so long ago, 46 years ago, won the Academy Award for Best Special Effects. It shows that times certainly have changed.
Also, it’s kind of hard to believe that Hollywood ever made a movie called The Ten Commandments, that Hollywood ever sought to portray a scene in which The Ten Commandments were given by God to mankind. Of course, there’s probably no subculture in America that has demonstrated less regard for The Ten Commandments than the subculture in Hollywood. The truth is that shortly after the making of this movie, The Ten Commandments began to be banned from classrooms all across the United States of America. Finally, on November 17 in 1980, the Supreme Court of the United States banned the posting of The Ten Commandments in all public schools in the United States.
We have sowed the wind. We have reaped the whirlwind. Today we have reached the point in our culture and in our nation where, according to Harris polls and Barna polls, the average American cannot identify more than two of The Ten Commandments. Perhaps they can identify “Thou shalt not murder.” Perhaps they think of “Thou shalt not steal.” Maybe they think of adultery. But beyond that it’s just a fog. The average American is biblically illiterate.
So, we begin a new series on The Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are foundational to Judeo-Christian values. For us as Christians they are core critical as we seek to walk this road less traveled. Today we begin with the first of The Ten Commandments; “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” The Hebrew words “before me” are literally “to my face.” “Thou shalt have no other gods to My face.” This expression is often debated by scholars and theologians. Does it mean no other gods in addition to Me? No other gods before Me? No other gods beside Me?” One thing is clear. It’s an affirmation of monotheism. “Thou shalt have no other gods.” Monotheism.
Many of you have traveled to the city of Rome. You’ve traveled to the city of Rome and perhaps you’ve seen the Pantheon. It’s right in the middle of the city. Barb and I, just a few years ago, journeyed to Rome. We stayed in a hotel on a courtyard that was right in front of the Pantheon. You could go down in the courtyard, buy a pizza, and then go into this ancient building built by a Roman Emperor. A pizza and the Pantheon. An amazing experience.
The Pantheon is today a national shrine. Famous Italians are buried there. Rafael, the great Italian Renaissance painter is buried there. King Victor Emanuel I is buried there. What we sometimes forget is that for almost 1300 years, the Pantheon was a Christian church. From the year 609 to the year 1885, for almost 1300 years, the Pantheon functioned as a Christian church. Inside the Pantheon, the Gospel of Jesus Christ was preached. Inside the Pantheon, women and men worshipped God in spirit and in truth. But the Pantheon was not an originally a Christian church. It was built in the second century by the Roman Emperor Hadrian. He built it to honor the Pantheon. He built it to honor all the gods, the Roman Pantheon of gods, from Jupiter to Minerva. Hadrian wanted to honor them all. We sometimes forget that the Roman world was a polytheistic world. We sometimes forget that the Hellenized Greek world was a polytheistic world.
Indeed, more than 3200 years ago, when Moses stood on Mt. Sinai and God gave Moses this first commandment, it was a polytheistic world. Monotheism was virtually unknown, and this first commandment was absolutely radical. “Thou shalt have no other gods.” Radical!
The Jewish people struggled with that throughout their history as the Old Testament reveals again and again. Twenty-eight hundred years ago, Ahab became King of Israel. Of course, he knew that he was to be monotheistic. He was to honor the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Yahweh Elohim. God alone he was to honor but he married Jezebel. Jezebel was a Canaanite princess and she worshipped Baal.
Baal was a Canaanite god of the Ugaritic religion. Ahab, King of Israel, thought, “What shall I do? I worship Yahweh. My wife worships Baal.” He thought, “I’ll do this. I’ll just add Baal to my worship, and she can add Yahweh to her worship.” As in Israel we have temples to Yahweh, we’ll also have temples to Baal. As we have altars dedicated to Yahweh, we’ll also have altars dedicated to Baal. As I’ve appointed priests and prophets to Yahweh, I shall now appoint priests and prophets to Baal. Thus, we have the encounter in 1 Kings, chapter 18, between Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal.
If you’ve read 1 Kings 18, you know that incredible story, almost humorous, where the prophet of God, the prophet of Yahweh, confronts the 450 prophets of Baal. It’s all about monotheism. It’s all about the dangers of polytheism. You know the challenge. Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Build yourselves an altar here on Mt. Carmel and bring a sacrificial bull to the altar but do not light it. Call upon your god to bring down fire from heaven to light the altar. I’ll do the same. I’ll build an altar. I’ll bring a sacrificial bull and I’ll call upon my God. Let’s see what happens.” You have that incredible scene as the people of Israel are gathered around and the 450 prophets of Baal begin. They build their altar and they bring their animal. Then they call upon Baal, the Ugaritic god, the Canaanite god. They call upon him and they beg and they scream and they yell and they shout. The time goes by. Hours go by.
Elijah begins to mock them. He says, “Maybe your god is on vacation. Maybe he’s on a little trip.” Elijah said, “Or maybe your god’s asleep and you just need to be louder still in order to wake him.” Of course, the real problem was their god didn’t exist. The heavens were silent, and the fire did not come. Then you have that awesome moment when Elijah, prophet of God, steps forward. The altar is prepared. The animal is brought. A moat is dug around the altar and he commands that water be poured upon it. Not once but three times. He wants this thing to be so soaked that it’s virtually impossible to light. Then he prays. He does not shout. He does not slit his wrists as the 450 prophets of Baal did in their desperation. He simply prays to Yahweh Elohim, the God of his father, and the fire comes. The heavens thunder. The fire comes and the altar is inflamed. The people fall down. You’ve read the story. The people fall down on their faces en masse. They all shout, “The Lord God IS God!” Monotheism. There is one God.
Today, there are three monotheistic religions on the earth, three well-known monotheistic religions—Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. There are many polytheistic religions. There is Hinduism which is polytheistic, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, Tribal Animism. They’re all polytheistic. Buddhism, not philosophical Buddhism but theological Buddhism. Polytheistic. This world is still very polytheistic. Our missionaries could tell us stories to confirm that.
Paul confronted a polytheistic world. When you read Acts, chapter 17, you read how Paul came to the city of Athens, the cultural religious center of the Greek and Roman world, the Hellenized world. The Bible tells us that the Apostle Paul went up onto the Acropolis. He saw the Parthenon on top of the Acropolis and temples erected to various gods and altars dedicated to various gods. Paul even saw one altar dedicated to the unknown god.
The Bible tells us that Paul then left the hill of the Acropolis and came across to the hill of the Areopagus. There he spoke to the people. He said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious, for as I passed along observing the 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 has need of anything since he gives to all people life and breath and everything. For He didn’t make from one person all the races of people to dwell upon the face of the earth, having determined their allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation that they might seek after Him, that they might feel 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 poets have said, “we are indeed God’s offspring.” Being, then, God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like unto gold or silver or stone, mere representations of the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked but now He has set a day upon which He will judge the world and righteousness through one man whom He has appointed. Of this He has given evidence to all people by raising that man from the dead.”
Now, do you see? Do you see what Paul was doing as he went into this polytheistic culture? He proclaimed the one God, maker of heaven and earth. He told the people that “this one God does not live in shrines made by men. He is transcendent.” He told the people that “He cannot be represented by human art or by images of silver and gold and stone.” He told the people that “God is not far from any of them, that He is our maker” and then he began to introduce the people to Jesus Christ. Why is that? Because as Christians we are monotheistic but we know and believe that the one true God is known only through Christ.
The Bible tells us “no man has ever seen the Father. The Only Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known.” The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. The Bible tells us that He is Immanuel, God with us. Jesus said to Phillip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”
The other monotheistic religions of the world have accused Christianity of polytheism because of our affirmation of the Trinity. Jews have accused Christianity of polytheism. Muslims have accused Christianity of being polytheistic because of our affirmation of the Tri-unity of God. But, you see, Jews and Muslims do not really understand the complexity of God as revealed in scripture. They really don’t understand the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
The Bible is clear both in the Old and the New Testament that there’s one God, but the Bible is also clear that the Father is deity, the Son is deity, and the Spirit is deity. This is clear in scripture. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity or the Tri-unity of God is just an effort to combine these two biblical concepts, monotheism with the deity of the Father, the Son and the Spirit. How do you combine these two concepts? You have the doctrine of the Trinity. The oneness of God is indeed complex but we see this in an analogy with our human condition because the Bible says that each and every one of us are trichotomous. I’m trichotomous. You are trichotomous. You are a tri-part being. I am a tri-part being. The Bible says I am body, I am soul and I am spirit. Soma, psyche, pneuma. I am one being but tri-part. Body, soul and spirit.
There are other analogies to the Tri-unity of God. Even in the world of science as we look to the world of chemistry. If you take two atoms of hydrogen and you take one oxygen atom and you combine them, you get a chemical compound called H-2-O. This substance H-2-O, is found in three very different forms. It can be a solid. It can be a liquid or it can be a vapor or a gas. When H-2-O us a solid, we call it ice. When it is a liquid, we call it water. When it is a vapor or gas, we call it a cloud or we call it steam. But it’s the same substance, the one chemical compound, H-2-O.
All of these analogies are inadequate because when we’re looking at God, we’re dealing with the transcendent. Even though these analogies are inadequate, nevertheless they DO illustrate that oneness can be very complex. As this is true in the world of people and as this is true in the world of science and chemistry, so this is true theologically. Oneness can be very complex and what a marvel God is in His complexity as He comes to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
But we are, nonetheless, monotheistic. If we are not monotheistic, we violate the first commandment. But, you see, the first commandment is not only about monotheism. There’s a second teaching this morning and it is this. The first commandment is about monolatry. It’s not enough to be monotheistic. Monotheism is simply a theological affirmation. It is a doctrine. This first commandment is not simply about doctrine and theological affirmation. God is not simply telling us to believe there is one God. He’s also telling us we are to be monolatrous. We are to worship only the one God. Worship only one God. That’s what the first commandment is about.
How are we doing? How are YOU doing? Day-by-day, do you worship the one God or are you violating the first commandment. This first commandment is not about Henotheism which is the worship of one god while believing there are many gods. You find that in any of the religions of the world. You see, the first commandment is monotheistic and monolatrous. There is one God. Therefore, worship Him. Worship the one true God.
You might be thinking, “Well, I’m doing okay here… I’m doing okay with this first commandment. I only worship one God.” Of course, this is the great deception of the western world because we are one of the most idolatrous cultures in the history of the world. We’re clever. We no longer speak of other gods. We don’t give other gods names. We would deny the Canaanite pantheon. We would deny the Roman and Greek pantheons. We don’t allow other gods to have names, but we still worship other gods.
When we give our lives to the pursuit of pleasure and entertainment, when that becomes the focus of our life, it’s just like we’re worshipping the Canaanite god, Baal or the Greek Hedone. When we really live our lives focused on food and drink, it’s like we worship the Roman Bacchus, or the Greek Dionysus. When our lives are consumed with sports and competition and that’s really what energizes us and gives our lives meaning, we’re worshipping the Greek god Aries or the Roman god, Mars. Of course, in the sense of sports and competition, men really ARE from Mars. When we put our trust in human wisdom and science and the rational faculties of the human mind, we’re worshipping the Roman Minerva or the Greek Athena.
When we make health the most important thing in our life, it’s “If you have your health, you have everything.” That’s what some people say, and it’s like the Greek god Hygieia or the Greek or Roman Asclepius. If commerce and business is the focus of our life and that’s what we get up each morning focused on and that’s what we live for is commerce and business, that’s the Roman god Mercury or the Greek god Hermes. We don’t give the gods names anymore but we’re still polytheistic and we’re not monolatrous. We’re not devoted to the one true God. We have many idols and many gods and our lives are divided. We violate the first commandment and God grieves.
Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters. He will either love the one and hate the other, be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon.” Jesus uses the word mammon with a capital “M.” There’s some evidence that there was a Canaanite deity named Mammon which means “money or wealth.” Even in the Christian world there are men and women living for money and wealth. Divided loyalties. We’re not monogamous. We’re violating the first commandment.
If we were not violating the first commandment, we would be more faithful in our giving. We would be more willing to give if we didn’t worship money; we’d let it go. If we worshipped God, we would seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. You see, the Sermon on the Mount, in a large sense, is really an explanation of The Decalogue and The Ten Commandments. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” is really a summation of the first commandment. But do we do that every day as we wake in the morning? Do we really worship the one true God?
I think we think of worship as something we do at church. We come to church to worship. Certainly, what we do in this worship center involves worship, praise and adoration. The Word of God is also exclaimed and proclaimed, and it’s a time of fellowship and Christian community. But we need to understand that worship really focuses on our daily lives. It’s what we do when we leave here.
There are many different Greek words for worship in the Bible—“latreuo,” “sebomai,” “proskuneo.” Most of the Greek words for worship mean either “to bow,” relating to submission, or they mean, “to serve” because worship is expressed through submission and service. The most common Greek word in the New Testament worship is “proskuneo” which means, “to kiss towards,” showing love and devotion.
When you wake up in the morning, who do you “kiss towards?” Do you kiss towards God each day when you get up? As you go through the day, do you kiss through God? Is your love and devotion directed to Him? Does your life express itself in submission to Him and in His daily service? Have you put everything else in life under the umbrella of His will? This is what the first commandment requires of us. Anything else is disobedient. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.