“You shall have no other gods before Me…
For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” (Ex. 20:3, 5)
In man’s grand pursuit of happiness and meaning, everything we hear tells us to listen to our heart, follow our passion, pursue our desires… and therein find fulfillment. But there’s a significant flaw in that approach, as Jeremiah warns: “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9).
Listening to what our heart wants is nothing more than a subtle trap of Satan in an attempt to keep us from pursuing and prioritizing not only God’s best for us but also what He commands of us:
- “Love the Lord your God with all your heart,” (Matt. 22:37)
- “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness,” (Matt. 6:33)
- “Pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord,” (Heb. 12:14)
We may mistakenly believe that idolatry is only a problem in third world countries, or doesn’t apply if you’re not literally praying to a god made of wood or stone. But the truth is that anyone or anything we pursue more fervently, more determinedly, more passionately than God Himself becomes an idol in our life. God warns us that we cannot trust our heart. We cannot believe the deception of our mind, as John Calvin rightly observes, “The mind is a forgery for idols.”
Our ongoing challenge as Christians is to diligently “keep ourselves from idols,” (1 John 5:21) because God is a jealous God. He demands supremacy in our life. Our first love is to be the God who made us, the God who redeemed us, the God who loved us first. A singular pursuit of God is to be our all-consuming passion (Ps. 42:1-2), as He alone is worthy of our worship. And in Him alone can we answer our search for life’s true meaning, happiness, and fulfillment (Ps. 16:11).
- Lord, I know that deviant forms of worship to a god that is not all powerful and sovereign have no inherent value. That kind of a “god” is not worthy of worship. I cannot worship gross misrepresentations of the God of the Bible. Many ignorantly spend week after week, and worship service after worship service serving an idol, and You are angry with them. Does ignorance excuse them? You say “No.” You promise to reject, forsake and finally destroy those who are ignorant about You. Hosea 4:6 states, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” This is a very scary thought. Help me to hold steadfastly to Your truth.
- Lord, You are very serious about the way You will be worshipped and understood! In forbidding the Israelites to worship strange idols or fabricated ideas about You, You told them in Exodus 20:4-5, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.” You equate idolatry with hating You. This is serious business. It is apparent that such a “god” cannot be worshipped without igniting Your fervent jealousy and vengeful judgment.
- What is the sin I find in this commandment, Lord? To make something my god which is not You, by fearing it, loving it, and trusting in it more than in You. This is what it means to worship false gods… or to attempt to worship You, Lord, in a false manner.
- As the first command that You gave the church determines the object of worship (which is You), so this commandment in Exodus 20:4-5 determines the means and ways of worship. In humility I adore and worship You, that You would be pleased to continue every day to propagate and enlarge the bounds of Your church, and Your truth, for the glory of Christ.
Further References for Exod. 20:3-5
Deut. 6:14; Jer. 25:6; Deut. 5:7; Ps. 81:9; 1 Cor. 8:4; 1 John 5:21
