This sermon on the first commandment was
preached years ago but much of what I said could be said today. In fact, there may be an even greater need
for its lessons.
The Right God
Text: EX 20:3
"You shall have no other gods before me. DT 5:7 "You shall have no
other gods before me.
Text intro: Many
of the commandments may have sounded strange to the ears of the Israelites.
Just like they may sound strange to us. As we look at them, in the light of our
culture, we may need to recapture that strangeness in order to fully appreciate
what God demands of us.
As we look at this
commandment, and the others, we will find that it, like the other, has both a negative
and a positive thrust.
Ex. 20:2,3
Sermon Intro: You may remember that Madonna, the flamboyant
singer and actress, gave birth to a daughter last year [1997]. If you don't remember the wedding, there's a
reason for that but we won't go into it just now.
According to a
news item dated in early December, Madonna, raised a Roman Catholic, has
decided to have her daughter baptized. Now, before you assume Madonna may be
returning to the faith of her childhood; maybe you should hear her own words on
the subject.
There
are a lot of things about Catholicism that I disagree with, but there are a lot
of things I’m still intrigued by. I
still go to church and light candles.
The church provides a kind of sanctuary and a sense of community. I’ll teach [my daughter] about Catholicism but also about all religions, especially
Buddhism, Judaism and the Kabbala [Jewish mystical teachings]. My own religion combines all those. I would rather present the Bible to my
daughter as ‘Some very interesting stories you could learn from’ rather than
‘This is the truth.’
This kind of
thinking isn't limited to Hollywood types, you can find it almost everywhere
today.
Under the guise of
tolerance (which used to mean that divergent viewpoints would be allowed to
exist side by side but now means that divergent-even contradictory--viewpoints
must be seen as having equal value) we have created a culture in which
Madonna's plans for her child are considered enlightened.
Thirty-five
hundred years ago, many of the peoples the Jews might have encountered would have told them "Of
course, you may continue to worship Yahweh; think of him as one of the many
gods." Later, the genius of the Roman conquerors would be seen in their
willingness to add new gods to the pantheon. Conquered nations could continue
to worship their own gods, while adding the gods of the Romans.
Our own age is
hardly more subtle. The dictates of our pluralistic age iiisists that Jesus is
one of many religious teachers, each of whom is worthy of our admiration. If I find satisfaction in Jesus, fine; but
this does not permit me to try to “sell” you
on Jesus if you have found satisfaction in another spiritual
leader. Our enlightened perspective
allows us the freedom to pick and choose our own “gods” according to our own
“needs” and tastes.
The first commandment
does not allow the true believer to worship at such a spiritual
smorgasbord.
The relationship
God wants us to have with him involves our complete commitment to him.
THE FIRST
COMMANDMENT CALLS US TO CONTINUAL DILIGENCE.
On our vacation
this past summer we visited the ruins of the Mayan city of Chichen Itza. This
city, which was old when Columbus "discovered" the New World, was a
center of training in Mayan science, government, and the worship of the Mayan
gods. The most prominent feature of the ruins, which cover some 12 square
miles, is a massive pyramid. Atop that pyramid is the temple of Kuculcan, the
snake-god of the Mayans. Even though the pyramid has weathered the elements for
centuries, it is still apparent that a committed people built this place of
worship and the other structures around it.
The longing for
some god to worship lies deep within the human heart and, almost inevitably, it
will find expression. [Some twenty years after I preached this sermon, popular
writers speak of ‘the god delusion,’ suggesting that the almost universal human
tendency to believe in some ‘god’ is rooted in the pitiful hope that we are not
alone, that beyond this world there is a powerful being who cares for us. One is tempted to ask why that should be the
delusion and to ask, rather, why atheism shouldn’t be the delusion. Just a thought.]
Certainly it did
among the peoples in the ancient world. Every culture had gods who were seen to
be responsible for every facet of nature.
Although the Hebrews
had been redeemed by Yahweh, they, too; were susceptible to the enticements of
the “gods” of Canaan. For example, they
sometimes joined in the various gods associated with agriculture rather than
worshipping the God who created the seasons.
.
1. The first commandment
addresses this temptation.
The Hebrew idiom
used in the first commandment might be translated either as “in addition to me”
or “in opposition to me.” William
Albright translated as “thou shalt not prefer any other gods to me.”
The Old Testament
never quite affirms the existence of these gods and by the time we reach the
days of the prophets, they were viewed as a demonic illusion.
Still; the worship
of these gods remained a powerful temptation that plagued Jewish life until it
was finally purged by the hard days of the Exile.
2. Even though we are seemingly more
sophisticated than these ancient peoples, we are also susceptible to the enticements
of the “gods’ of our culture.
If God-the
Creator; the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ--is not the God we worship, some
other “god” will replace him.
Luther understood
this. Listen to his description of a god. “A god is that to which we look for
all good and in which we find refuge in every time of need. To have a God is
nothing less than to trust and believe Him with our whole heart. As I have
often said, the trust and faith of the heart alone make both God and an
idol.... That to which your heart clings and entrusts itself is, I say, really
your God."
1. We must be
diligent or we may succumb to the gods of sensuality.
----In the ancient
world sensuality was personified as such goddesses Diana, Venus, Astarte.
----In any
community of some size you’ll find the shrines to sensuality (adult book
stores, art movies). Much entertainment seems to be driven by appeals to our
sensual natures. [Today (2015), near the
area of town referred to as “the campus” there are large billboards urging
people to take STD—sexually transmitted diseases—seriously, to go to a doctor
at the first suspicion something might be wrong. A national news magazine reports that HIV
infections are on the rise again. At the
risk of sounding prudish, the commitment to the gods of sensuality is so
consuming that many are willing to risk their lives in pursuit of its
pleasures.]
2. We must be
diligent or we may succumb to the gods of materialism.
----We called the 8Os
the decade of greed, but has that much changed in the 90s? [Or in our age.]
"Things'
still give security to too many people.
3. We must be
diligent or we may succumb to the gods of fame.
It is frightening
the number of people who seem to worship celebrities. They hang on every word a popular singer or
movie star utters. They take their
advice about how to live even though the star’s own life might be in shambles. As elections near, politicians would rather
have the endorsement of a rock singer than that of an economist or historian.
----Both Elvis and
Diana have “cult” followings long after their deaths.
5. We must be
diligent or we may succumb to the gods of selfism.
----Some people
find alternative gods by looking in the mirror. (ILL) Robt. Bellah interviewed
Sheila Larson. Here’s what she said: I
believe in God. I’m not a religious fanatic. I can't remember the last time I
went to church. My faith has carried me
a long way. It's Sheilaism. Just my own little voice."
----We worship at
the altar of selfism when we insist that our opinion has more weight than the
very word of God. Whenever we take more
comfort in our perspective than in God's revelation.
----Within our culture,
within our churches, there is a temptation to succumb to the gods of selfism in
the form of spiritual self- confidence.
This is at the
heart of what Luther said about other gods: "That to which your heart
clings and entrusts itself is, I say, really your God."
When we look to
ourselves as the source of our hope and our salvation, we displace God--who is
the redeemer.
THE FIRST
COMMANDMENT CALLS US TO A CONFIDENT DEVOTION.
1. Our devotion to
God is a response to God's devotion to us.
The negative side of
this commandment says, "You will have no other gods...." The positive
side of the commandment is implicit--"You will have me...."
God had already
demonstrated his commitment to them when he redeemed them from slavery. Early
in the story, when the Lord was instructing Moses regarding his message to the
people, Moses was told to tell the people--Exodus 6:6-8.
Throughout their
history God would again and again demonstrate his commitment to those who
trusted him.
In the OT the
Exodus was the great reminder of that commitment; in the NT the cross would be
the great token of that commitment.
2. Our confident
devotion is rooted in God capacity to redeem.
Only a few weeks
before the people of Israel had seen the great deliverance God accomplished on
their behalf They could confidently pledge to worship him alone.
When we understand
the breadth of the salvation God has provided through Jesus Christ, we can
commit ourselves to him with complete confidence.
Why should we need
to kneel to another God when we have so great a salvation provided through
Jesus Christ?
The later prophets
would underscore the simple reasonableness implicit in worshiping God. (Isaiah
44:6-20)
CONCLUSION
We
face the challenge of this commandment every day. Here’s an anonymous testimony many of us
could claim as our own.
As
a young Christian, I thought it incredible that a group of people who had
witnessed the Red Sea parting could forget what God had done and return to the
worship of false gods. Soon after their miraculous deliverance from the hands
of the Egyptians, the Israelites were again committing sin. And the Bible
reports scores of incidents throughout Israel's history when people knew the
goodness of God but still pursued other paths to life.
These
stories used to surprise me. But today, when I face the realities in my own
life, I'm not surprised at all. I am a believing man, a man who has seen God's
hand obviously working in my life. And yet at times, I still search for
something other than God to give me satisfaction and fulfillment. And in so
doing, I fail to remember what is true.
Richard
Gorrie tells about one of the problems missionaries faced when working in
India. Many of the Hindus, upon hearing the story of Jesus, were quite willing
to add Jesus to their list of deities. Asked if they were Christians, they
would answer in the affirmative. For them, being a Christian was a matter of
worshipping Jesus also. Only when a convert testified to worshipping Jesus
only was he or she considered a true Christian.
It's
a test that may need to be invoked in our culture as well. Are we in danger of
simply making Jesus one source of spiritual insight in our lives? Or are we
determined to trust Jesus only for spiritual understanding and salvation?
