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Good choice? Most people would agree. Not all. Not long
ago, Ted Turner said the Ten Commandments were obsolete:
Ted then modestly offered his own version which he called
the Ten Voluntary Initiatives. I will not bore you with all of
his suggestions, but listen to his first two: #1, "I promise to
love and respect planet Earth and all living things on the earth,
especially my fellow species." Not bad. #2, "I promise to treat
all persons everywhere with dignity, respect and friendliness,"
but that was made intriguing when he violated it in the same
speech - it was just a bit later that he bashed Christians and
called us losers and bozos. (He later apologized.) An interesting view from one who,
while growing up, considered a career as a missionary.(3)
For what it is worth, most Americans disagree with Ted, at
least on this issue. There are continuing court battles over
public display of the Ten Commandments. The Gallup Organization
has found, in its regular poll investigating the religious
beliefs and practices of modern Americans, that approximately 85%
of us feel that the Decalogue is still applicable for us today.
But the polls show something else too: that of the 85%, less than
half can name even five of the Ten. Hmm. Either churches are
not doing a proper job of teaching the commandments of God, or
the people are not listening. Probably some of both. Beginning
today, we will remedy at least half the problem: the commandments
WILL be taught. The listening part will be up to you.
Let us begin with a brief overview. Ten commandments to the
people of Israel as they were about to begin life as a nation,
and through them to God's people down through the ages. "They
are not a recipe for gaining God's favor, Israel already has
God's favor...They are a description of what it will be like to
live as God's own people."(4) No other gods; no images; do not use
the Lord's name foolishly; keep the sabbath; honor your father
and mother; do not kill; do not steal; do not commit adultery; do
not bear false witness; and do not covet. Ten commandments to
define both vertical and horizontal relationships: that between
God and God's people, and that between one person and another.
Jesus summarized them all when he gave what has come to be known
as "the Great Commandment" - You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart, soul, mind and strength; and your neighbor
as yourself.(5)
If you think about them all in some quiet moment, you would
realize that were they all obeyed, this would be a splendid
world. Crime would stop - no murders, no theft. Husbands and
wives would not have to worry about the faithfulness of the other
(and we never would have heard of Monica Lewinsky). Lying and
gossiping would all stop. Parents would not have to be concerned
about disobedient children or how they would be supported in
their old age. And the churches would be jammed because God
would be preeminent in all our lives. But that quiet moment
would be ruined once the News came on - Film at 11. Too bad.
Now, on the face of them, some of these commandments seem
pretty straightforward...no real need to study them. Why should
we bother with digging into something as simple as "You shall not
kill," or "You shall not steal?" But have you have ever wondered
whether war is ever justified? Should the CIA assassinate bin
Ladin to keep him from bombing any more of our embassies? How
about capital punishment? What about killing animals for food?
Have you ever been hungry enough to think of taking a loaf of
bread or a bottle of milk to feed a starving child? In
Washington, there seems to be some confusion on what constitutes
adultery. Perhaps elsewhere as well. That is why we need this
study. If we take our faith seriously, we do not want to sin.
Rather than being a part of the problem, we want to be a part of
the solution. Lord willing, over the next few weeks, we will
delve into the commandments, one by one, to see just what our
instructions are.
The place to begin, of course, is at the beginning. Number
One: Exodus 20, verse 3 - "You shall have no other gods before
me." In other words, "I am to be your only God!" That seems
clear enough. No problem. The Gallup polls indicate that 95% of
Americans believe in a god or a supreme being, but they do not
indicate that we believe in lots of gods - that has never been a
part of our culture. The Greeks had them; the Romans had them;
the ancient Egyptians who had been the masters of Israel for so
many years had them; the Canaanites, whose land Israel would soon
inhabit, had them; but we do not. Do we need this word? After
all, we are modern...scientific - we know that there is no sun
god or wind god or rain god. Does this first commandment apply
to us?
At first glance, no. The majority of America - Christians,
Jews, Muslims - says there is ONE God, the all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present God. Christian belief goes even beyond
that: God is expressed as a trinity...as Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit...one God but knowable in three distinct ways. That is
the God who tells us that we are to have no other. We are not to
relegate God to second place to anyONE or anyTHING...not ever.
If we do, we say that there is some area of life in which God
cannot be trusted, that there is someone or something more
dependable than God for a certain situation. We might not give
that something or someone a name like Moloch or Baal or Jupiter
or Zeus, but if it supplants the God of Heaven as the Lord of the
moment, the first commandment is broken. We need that reminder
because, as one commentator has it, "We are monotheists in theory
but polytheists in practice."(6)
Really? Who is your God? Some offer their allegiance to
the great God Mammon. Ancient mythology did not actually have
one of those, but we can identify him: Money...Possessions...
Things. There are probably more Americans today that serve the
God of Money, Possessions, Things than any other...including the
God of Heaven. Christians are not immune. The accumulation of
wealth is a national obsession...not for purposes of hoarding,
but for what it can buy. Our standing in society is in many ways
dependent upon the things we own. If you happen to own a big
yacht or a Rolls Royce or a large estate, our society thinks you
have "arrived." You might be emotionally, morally and
spiritually bankrupt, but unless you go around attacking little
children, America thinks you are OK.
Of course, you are not OK if Mammon becomes pre-eminent over
God. The Bible says, "the love of money is the root of all kinds
of evil."(7) Lying, cheating, stealing, killing...the list could
go on and on (and we love our lists)...all to acquire money,
possessions, things. But the worst evil of all is when they
become the objects of our real worship.
One of the saddest stories in the New Testament is that one
which recounts the meeting between Jesus and the rich young
ruler.(8) The young man came to Jesus asking how he might inherit
eternal life. Jesus mentioned the commandments: no murder, no
adultery, no stealing, no false testimony, honor to parents...and
the man said no problem. "I have kept all these; what do I still
lack?" But then Jesus told him to go and sell what he had and
give the proceeds to the poor. At that, the man's face fell, for
the scripture says, "he had many possessions." His possessions
had come to possess him. They had become his god. But the God
of Heaven says, "You shall have no other gods before me."
One of the gods that ancient Rome worshiped was named
Mercury. He was the messenger god and had oversight of business
and commerce. There are still many who worship him without
calling him by name. Business is all they think about. If a
conflict comes up between family and business, business wins out.
If it is between business and relaxation, business wins.
"Business before pleasure," as they say. If it is a choice
between business and the church, there IS no choice. Business
comes first.
Years ago, a man who had been successful in business
proposed this honest epitaph for his tombstone: "Born 1878, a
human being; Died, 1954, a wholesale grocer." A friend of his
asked him what prompted such a request, and he replied, "I have
been so busy selling groceries and amassing riches that I have
pushed practically everything else out of my life. I have been
successful, but so busy making a living, I never had time to
live."
Jesus told the story of another successful businessman, a
farmer.(9) His harvest was so good that his barns were not big
enough to contain it. So he decided to tear them down and build
bigger ones. Then he would relax a bit and live on the fruits of
his labor. But God came to him and said, "You are a fool. This
night you are going to die. Now who will enjoy the results of
all that business?" "You shall have no other Gods before me."
The ancient Greeks were another culture that worshiped many
gods. Scholars have counted upwards of thirty thousand of them.
Their homes and cities had monuments to them everywhere, because
they wanted none to be offended. They even erected one monument
to one they called "the unknown God" to make sure that if they
had missed any, he or she would not be angry with them.(10) One of
the best known of the Greek gods is one that is still worshiped
today: Bacchus, the God of Pleasure.
Be clear about this...there is nothing wrong with pleasure.
There are some who would have us believe that anything remotely
smacking of fun is wrong. The Puritans were like that. They
went so far as to outlaw any celebration of Christmas. Even
today there are those who think of God as some sort of grey-bearded, scowling celestial Scrooge sitting up in the sky
somewhere looking around hoping to catch someone having fun so he
can ZAP them. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is
nothing in scripture that says there is anything inherently
sinful about enjoying ourselves. If we live our days as if we
had just come from a funeral, we certainly will not be an
attractive witness. Pleasure is only sinful when it is sin, when
we break God's laws in its pursuit. But some have made the
pursuit of pleasure their God.
One of the stories we hear from those who try to excuse
their lack of church attendance is something along the lines of,
"I can worship God on the golf course just as well as I can in a
church building." Oh really? Forget about it! I play golf and
I know better. On the golf course, despite being surrounded by
the magnificence of creation, there is not much worship going on.
Thoughts are not of God; they are of pars and bogies. The only
praying going on is, "Lord, help me make this five foot putt so I
don't lose the bet." That is not worship and everybody knows it.
Golf has taken the place of God, and the first commandment says
that is sin.
The list of gods we worship could go on and on. After all,
we do love our lists. But there is no need for the list to be
unending for it to be a problem. All it needs is to have more
than the name of the God of Heaven on it. If there is only one
thing in our lives that moves God from the throne, we have
sinned.
One final thought. Have you ever wondered why God would
have given this commandment in the first place? Is God insecure?
Is God like some jealous teenager who would go crazy at seeing
his girlfriend out with another fellow? Of course not. The God
of love whom we have come to know in Jesus Christ gave this
command for OUR sakes.
Think of those other gods. Look at the mess the great god
Mammon has caused for those who have chased after him...so much
DISsatisfaction in life because of the mad dash to acquire more
and more, to keep up with the Joneses and never quite making it.
Or look at what Mercury has done...family, friends, church,
loving relationships all lost because too much time and had to be
expended to keep up with the competition. Or Bacchus...25,000
people a year dead on America's highways because of drunk
drivers; thousands of young people hooked on drugs; a world-wide
AIDS epidemic that threatens to become the worst health disaster
that humanity has ever known. "You shall have no other gods
before me," because those gods can ruin you.
"You shall have no other gods before me." The command of a
maladjusted, anxiety-ridden diety? Hardly. The command of a God
who loves us with a love that is beyond our understanding...a God
who, like a devoted parent, loves us enough to warn us away from
the things that endanger us.
Dream with me for a moment. Dream of a time of no other
gods. "How many split and divided people would be healthy and
whole again? How many burned-out people would be full of zeal
and energy once more? How many of our conflicts would seem
ridiculous? How many of our problems would be resolved?"(11) What
warm, wonderful, winsome picture would a watching world see as we
come together to worship in unity?
"You shall have no other gods before me." When you think
about it...dream about it...who would ever want any?
Let us pray.
O God, we know that, too often, despite all our high
resolve, we do put others on your throne. Forgive us our folly
as we repent. For we pray in Jesus name, Amen!
1. Richard Nilsen, "Ten Commandments leads list of lists, Greensboro News & Record,
8/16/98, D1 2. Quoted by Greg Laurie, via Internet, "The Ten Commandments, Part I,"
http://www.harvest.org/tools/ffl/comand1.html 3. Robert Goldberg and Gerald Jay Goldberg, Citizen Turner: The Wild Rise of an American
Tycoon, (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1995) 4. Albert Curry Winn, A Christian Primer: The Prayer, The Creed, The Commandments,
(Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990), p. 189 5. Matt. 22:37-39; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:27 6. Winn, p. 196 7. I Tim. 6:10 8. Matthew 19:16-22 9. Luke 12:16-20 10. Acts 17:23 11. Winn, p. 198
We're living with outmoded rules. The rules we're
living under are the Ten Commandments, and I bet nobody
here even pays much attention to 'em, because they are
too old. When Moses went up on the mountain, there
were no nuclear weapons, there was no poverty. Today,
the Ten Commandments wouldn't go over. Nobody around
likes to be commanded. Commandments are out.(2)
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