" Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:1-3, NRSV)
No other gods. Idiomatically the Hebrew is saying, “you shall have no other gods against me/or in distinction to me.” The point being is that the commandment is not saying there are other gods but presupposes a radical, exclusive monotheism. Yahweh is the only divine God. Even the term gods doesn’t exclusively refer to the God, but supernatural beings including angels.
Yahweh is the only God. He alone is creator, sustainer, and redeemer of all creation. He alone is life and everything else is nothing. His very name defines who he is and implies that everything else is not.
In this first commandment Yahweh is reminding us of his character and the proper order of all creation.
It is so easy for me to lose sight of the magnitude and greatness of Yahweh. He is so overwhelming that it becomes impossible to comprehend, yet he reminds us of the little things He does that we can relate to such as rescuing the Israelites out of Egypt. Yes, that was a little thing for this mighty and awesome God. Big thing for us, little for Him.
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