Welcome to the first episode in our teaching series from God Honest Truth, where we break down the Ten Commandments one by one, going deeper than tradition and peeling back the layers to reveal the full biblical truth. In this inaugural video, we explore the very first commandment: “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
What does it really mean to have no other gods? Is this just about ancient idols or golden calves—or is it something far closer to home? We will walk through the Hebrew context, examine historical misunderstandings, and dig into the spiritual implications that still shake our world today. You might be surprised at what truly qualifies as a “god” in your life.
This isn’t just about ancient law. This is about heart-level loyalty to the Most High. Whether you are new to Torah-observance or deep into your walk, this teaching will challenge and equip you to reevaluate your priorities in light of Yahweh’s first command. So join us as we learn the God Honest Truth about the first of the 10 commandments.
Speaker: Todd D. Webb, Teaching brother at God Honest Truth
#TenCommandments #Torah #FirstCommandment #Messianic #GodHonestTruth #BiblicalTeaching #YHWH #NoOtherGods #TorahTruth
Transcript
The first commandment is really foundational and pivotal for the rest of the other commandments. Most of us know it by heart, have no other gods before me, but have you really actually sat down and thought it out, studied it out, researched it out to really get a good grasp on what this first commandment is actually saying. Well, that’s what we’re gonna be doing in this study on the first commandment, the first video in a series on the 10 commandments. So stay tuned to learn all about the first commandment, have no other gods before me. So this is gonna be starting a completely new series.
It’s gonna be all about the 10 commandments. We’re gonna be going through each one individually, break them down so we can get into each one more in-depth and not just list them out like you would in Sunday school, something like that, and not really take time to think about it or meditate on it or learn anything further than just the plain text at hand. So we’re gonna be breaking down each one of these. And tonight, we’re gonna start the very first one. That’s gonna be the first commandment, have no other gods before me.
We’ll get into why we’re doing this first other than is the first of the 10 commandments. But we’ll get into that as we get into the dross. Just wanna let everyone know that if you would like the slides that you see here on your screen or the notes that we took, then you can go to our website and click on the article post for this particular episode. There you’ll be able to see the on demand video, the draw slides that you see here on your screen. You’ll be able to see the notes that we took for this particular episode and also the transcript once that becomes available if it is of any benefit to you.
And it’s all right there in one convenient web page on our website at godhonesttruth.com. Now we’ve actually made it a lot easier for you. If you go down below in the description, we have provided a convenient link for you to take you directly to that article post. So go right down there in the description, click on that link, and it should be there whether you’re watching on a video platform or an audio podcasting platform. So starting out, here are the 10 commandments.
And most of you know these, but just put them up there for your convenience as a refresher. We’ll go over them real quick. You have to know the mighty ones or gods before my face. You do not make yourself a carved image. Number three, you do not bring the name of Yahweh to naught.
Number four, remember the Sabbath day. Number five, respect your father and mother. Number six, you do not murder. Number seven, you do not commit adultery. Number eight, do not steal.
Number nine, do not bear false witness against your neighbor. And number 10, you do not covet anything that your neighbor has, his house, donkey, his wife, etcetera, etcetera. So tonight, we’re gonna be focusing on number one since this is the first in the series. And just for nostalgia’s sake, here is the traditional King James listing and rendering and translation of the 10 Commandments. Number one goes, thou shalt have no other gods before me.
I mean, when you’re thinking about the 10 Commandments, you just that King James language just really comes to mind with all that thou shalt nots language. Right? Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not lie.
Thou shalt not have gods before me. Thou shalt not. That’s what comes to mind, or at least in my mind, because that’s what I was raised with. And a lot of you out there are probably in the very same boat. But the first commandment, number one, the command itself is going to be from Exodus chapter 20 verse three.
You have no other mighty ones against my face. Now in other translations, it’s a little bit different but pretty much the same thing. From the Septuagint, it states such as this, you shall have no other gods beside me. From the Tyndale, you shall have no other gods in my sight. From the CLV translation, you shall have not come to have other Elohim in preference to me.
And finally, from the Rotherham translation, thou shalt have no other thou shalt not have other gods besides me. Very similar to that old King James translation that we saw a while ago. Now this statement itself is a direct and exclusive statement. It states that Yahweh alone must be your God and no one else, none of these other false ones, no one and nothing else is to take his place in your life. And that’s ever.
Not now, not ten days from now, not twenty years from now. No one and nothing should take Yahweh’s place. Yahweh should be top and supreme, and it’s to him alone that you are to give your obedience, your loyalty, your service, all of that too. Your faithfulness, no one else. None of these other false gods like Zeus or Allah or Buddha or all these other made up false fairy tale gods.
They just simply do not exist, and there’s no reason, there’s no benefit to putting your trust and faith and worship into them. No. We should do it with the one true only existing ever God, and that is Yahweh. Yahweh alone should be the supreme focus of our lives and of our loyalty and of our thoughts and of our obedience to our worship. He should be in the very top spot.
And the first commandment is a clear and direct call from Yahweh himself. Because remember, he gave the 10 commandments as part of the Torah. And it’s a clear and direct call from Yahweh himself for exclusive loyalty and service. Now you find this more than once in scripture actually. You don’t find the 10 commandments just in Exodus chapter 20.
You actually go on and you find it again in Deuteronomy. We look in Deuteronomy chapter five verse seven for the first commandment. And here with the scriptures 2,009 translation is pretty much the same thing. In the Wycliffe spelling or I’m sorry, in the Wycliffe translation here for Deuteronomy five seven, I thought it was rather interesting. It states, thou shalt not have alien gods in my sight.
Okay. It’s got the same meaning, effect, and force behind it, but it’s worded a little bit differently. Thou shall not have alien gods in my side. Thou shall not have foreign gods in my side. Still, all the same, Yahweh is to be the very top one to be the only god in your focus, or at least as we think of gods nowadays.
We got into that whole discussion back during the Godhead series when we did the episode on the word god. But, yeah, Yahweh should be the only god that occupies our mind, that takes our loyalty, takes our obedience, and things like that. Our loyalty and our allegiance should be to Yahweh alone and no other. The first commandment establishes the exclusive command I’m sorry, the exclusive covenantal relationship between Yahweh and his people. And who is his people?
Well, we saw it in scripture as those who came out of Egypt. Now and it wasn’t just wasn’t just Israelis that came out of Egypt. There was a mixed multitude of Hebrews and other people who came out, and that entire mixed multitude that came out, that was grafted in, that became one people, that became Yahweh’s people at the foot of Mount Sinai. They said that we will do what you command. It’s like a wedding document.
What do you call it? A, prenuptial, a ketubah, sort of like that with Yahweh being our husband. And this loyalty and allegiance, this covenantal relationship is very, very similar and almost exactly like a wife giving all her faithfulness and obedience to her husband. We give all that faithfulness and obedience and service to Yahweh alone and no one else. And in fact, where it says before me in things like the King James translation and others, it literally means upon my face.
It signifies not just priority, who has the priority as far as gods go, but it also indicates, like, a presence and a proximity. No one is to have any other gods above or even in addition to Yahweh. You’re not to place any other God or thing above Yahweh, and you’re not to place anything on the same level beside in addition to Yahweh. It’s Yahweh and Yahweh alone, and it’s His ways. No other way.
In other words, this is the foundation, and there should be no other spiritual rivals that are allowed in your service to your attention or even to your trust and your obedience and your faithfulness. Yahweh and Yahweh alone deserves all of that, and it’s Yahweh who desires our complete loyalty and allegiance for our own benefit, not to forget his divine providence. This command forbids placing anyone or any thing above or even on the same plane, on the same level as Yahweh. So it doesn’t have to be a false god like Zeus or Allah or Buddha. It could be something else.
It could be like your job, your relationship, your denomination, even if certain denominations say they have the authority of God here on Earth and they can change what they want to. That’s not true, but some some denominations have that. So it doesn’t actually have to be one of these false gods. It could be other things, non tangible things even. A lot of people do have money, success, and jobs, and careers they put up as their gods, and they should not be doing that.
They should instead have Yahweh as the top of their life, the top of their mindset, the top of their obedience, the top of their thinking, nothing else. And this is something a lot of people don’t think about when they look at the first commandment is that we get into a concept called monolatry. Now most people know of monotheism, but a lot of people don’t understand what monolatry is. And with monotheism, it is a belief that only one god does exist. With monotheism, it’s a belief in one god without the exclusion of there being other gods.
You only worship and obey and serve one God, but you don’t deny the existence of other gods. And this is something that kinda goes into the first commandment here once you really think about it because the first commandment says, you shall have no other gods before me. Now that kind of implies that there might be or could be other gods and scripture actually does speak about other gods. The ancient Israelites themselves were actually surrounded by polytheistic cultures. Look at the Philistines.
Look at the Egyptians. Look, I mean, all around them. Look at the Persians, the Babylonians, etcetera, etcetera. They had all these gods. So the ancient Israelites were surrounded by polytheistic cultures, and the first commandment actually doesn’t deny the existence of other so called gods, but it forbids service, loyalty, and allegiance to them.
And And this is the way scripture really speaks about these other gods. It doesn’t speak about them as actually existing. It recognizes that people think they exist. It recognize the Bible recognizes that people worship them as though they exist, but it never states that there is more than one God who actually exist. In fact, scripture only states one God as actually existing as being eternal, and that is Yahweh, our heavenly father.
But all the same, scripture does speak about multiple gods, though it always speaks of them and references them as these false gods, these idols, and things like that. And the first commandment here is really getting into the concept of idolatry or it’s making reference to idolatry, but it’s in a more non tangible way. And we get into the second commandment that’s gonna be in more of a tangible way. So we’ll get into that next week. But this is gonna be about your essence, what you give your loyalty to, and it doesn’t actually have to be an actual object.
It can be a concept, things like that. So that’s what we’re dealing with with the first commandment. And all of our allegiance shouldn’t be to a concept or to a false god. It should be to Yahweh. But getting back to this whole discussion of monotheism versus monolatry, like I said, monolatry is the service of one god alone, but you’re actually, you know, not denying the existence of other gods.
And this is what the first commandment really does get into. It doesn’t actually deny the existence of other gods, but neither does anywhere in scripture state that any actual real gods other than Yahweh actually exist. Yahweh refers to these other gods as stones and wood and idols. So that’s kinda what it’s getting to here with the Manala tree. Anyways, Yahweh is not one God among many.
Like we said, scripture does not state that there are many gods that exist. There’s only one God exist. So Yahweh is not one God among many, but the only one we are to serve. And like I said, this is this first commandment is really getting to idolatry of concepts and ideas and things like that. It’s like the idolatry of the heart, whereas the second commandment really gets into the idolatry of physical things.
But the first commandment is not limited to just statues or deities like we stated before. It can be a concept and anything that competes with Yahweh for your trust, your loyalty, your fear, or your desire becomes a god in a sense in your life. And that could be things like money, a career, a relationship. It could be yourself even. A lot of people have themselves up on a pedestal.
It’s all they think about is themselves, and I’m I’m sure you’ve been around people like that. But it can also be entertainment. You could have a sort of mental status in a life to where you want to be entertained because you can’t get a good feeling or anything like that other than being entertained by shows or things on TV, Hollywood. You go out to plays, you know, things like that. It could be anything.
But these other things that could also take the top place in your life could also be things like a preacher or a priest or a pope. People and things that you think have the answers that should be followed and obeyed really shouldn’t because it should be Yahweh. That’s who should be the top of our priority, top of our obedience, who we should give all of our loyalty and trust to. We look at Matthew chapter six verse 21, for where your treasure is, there your heart shall be also. So it doesn’t have to be an actual statue or a piece of stone or piece of wood.
It could be something like a career or relationship. And if that’s where your treasure is, that’s where your heart will be also according to our Messiah Yeshua. But our heart should be with Yahweh, not in with anything else. That’s where our obedience and loyalty should be. Going to Matthew chapter six verse 24.
No one is able to serve two masters for either he shall hate the one and love the other or else he shall cleave to the one and despise the other. You are not able to serve Elohim and mammon or wealth and fortune. So who’s got the top place in your life? Is it your career? Is it your priest, the person up front in the pulpit when you go to assembly?
Or is it Yahweh? Because you can’t serve two. You have loyalty and obedience to two. You don’t have loyalty and obedience to one, and that should be Yahweh. Like we said before, this first commandment is really exclusive language, and it goes back to like a wedding covenant that goes on between a wife and her husband.
And it’s like a wife giving or actually has a husband demanding only faithfulness to him. No other man. Just him. And this is the way the first commandment is set up. And as we go throughout scripture, we see the people of scripture go after idolatry.
They go after other gods. And it’s always related to as like an adultery between a husband and a wife with a wayward wife who went after other men. This is like Yahweh’s this exact same thing as Yahweh’s people going after other gods because Yahweh is described as our husband and is the idolatry that we see in scripture is really exemplified as a form of spiritual adultery. In fact, like we said before, the first commandment is a phrase that actually echoes a marriage covenant. Yahweh demands faithfulness as a jealous husband demands fidelity from his wife.
We looked at x I’m sorry. Let’s look at Exodus chapter 34 verse 14. Where you do not bow yourselves to another mighty one for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous El. The jealousy always comes down from up in the hierarchy. So Yahweh is at the very top of the hierarchy.
And as we see in one Corinthians, Elohim is Yeshua and then is the husband or the man of the family and then it’s the wife or wives, and then it’s the children. And jealousy always goes from the top down. Yahweh is jealous of us, the husband is jealous of the wife or wives, etcetera, etcetera. Never goes up. And like I said before, idolatry is described throughout scripture as spiritual adultery, such as a wife going after another man or another husband.
Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 17, And you took your splendid adornments of my gold and my silver that I gave you and made for yourself images of a male and hoard with them. Jeremiah chapter three verses six through nine. And Yahweh said to me, have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree and there committed boring. I had put her away and had given her a certificate of divorce, Yet her treacherous sister, Yehuda, defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and wood.
And time and time again, we’re shown this picture imagery of idolatry as spiritual adultery. And back at Sinai, when the mixed multitude again, it wasn’t just Hebrews. It was a mixed multitude at Sinai, and they said, whatever you say and command, we will do. Sort of like a wedding where a wife is pledging her loyalty, her fidelity, and her obedience to her husband. We look at Exodus chapter 19 verses seven through eight.
And Moshe came and called for the elders of the people and set before them all these words which Yahweh commanded him. And all the people answered together and said, all that Yahweh has spoken, we shall do. So Moshe brought back the words of the people to Yahweh. And a lot of times within Judaism, this scene here at the foot of Sinai is referenced and thought of as a marriage ceremony between Yahweh and his people. And this is, like I said, like a ketubah, like a prenuptial agreement.
And the people, the wife in this instance, is saying, we will do all that Yahweh, our husband, has spoken. We will do it all, the Torah. Of course, as we know, they didn’t actually do that. They actually went after other gods eventually, that spiritual adultery that we were talking about earlier. Now, as the commandments go, the first commandment is really the foundational commandment.
It’s not just because it’s the first, because it’s Yahweh should be our foundation. His word, his way of doing things, that should be our foundation and the first commandment really exemplifies all of that. And first commandment, like I said, is the foundation for all of the other commandments. Every commandment that follows actually hinges on the authority and position of Yahweh being first as the number one in our lives. Breaking any of the other commandments often starts with breaking the first by placing another will or someone else’s will, desire, or law above Yahweh’s.
For instance, Yahweh says, don’t work on Shabbat. But the boss, he says, nah, come on in. You gotta work this day. Okay. Whose will are you going to obey there?
And you see that good looking cordon bleu in a restaurant. Oh my gosh. Back when you were eating just anything and everything, you remember how good these Cordon Bleu’s were, and this particular restaurant is really good at cooking them. And, oh, oh my gosh. You you want that Cordon Bleu?
Well, you gotta go by your own desire, your own will, eat that good tasting thing or what you remember as a good tasting thing anyways, or you’re gonna go after Yahweh’s will and obey him who says, don’t eat unclean meat. It’s all up to you. And sometimes it’s difficult. I admit. I’ve been there.
I’ve done that. I am still there. I still do that. But we should put Yahweh and his will first. We should obey him at all times even when it’s hard.
And a lot of times the first commandment when we’re like I said, breaking these other commandments is starts with breaking the first commandment, and the first commandment is often the first mistake we make because if we were following Yahweh’s will and having no other gods before him, then we went out no trouble the rest of them. We have to break that first one in order to break any of the other ones. And when we elevate any authority above Yahweh’s, we break his covenant. So like I said, the first commandment is the foundation for all of the other commandments. Obedience and trust belongs to Yahweh alone.
Fear of man, trust in princes, or love of the world can quickly and easily and has before, as we saw, become spiritual idolatry. Psalms chapter one eighteen verses four through nine. Let those who fear Yahweh now say, his loving commitment is everlasting. I called on Yah in distress. Yahweh answered me in a broad place.
Yahweh is on my side. I do not fear what man does to me. Yahweh is for me among those helping me. Therefore, I look on those hating me. It is better to take refuge in Yahweh than to trust in man.
It is better to take refuge in Yahweh than to trust in princes. Proverbs chapter three verses five through seven. Trust in Yahweh with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Know him in all your ways, and he makes all your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes.
Hear Yahweh and turn away from evil. But this first commandment and obeying the first commandment, which is really obeying Yahweh and placing him as the top priority and source of law and way of doing things in your life, is not just about belief. It takes more than belief. It’s actually doing it and actually placing him as the top one in your life. In fact, we look and we see that having no other gods is not merely about mental ascent to monotheism.
It’s a call to live like it’s true, to actually do do it. Right? Your actual your works, how others what others see you doing, what you see you doing, what you actually do. Loyalty is more than just belief. We look at James chapter two verse 19.
You believe that Elohim is one. You do well. The demons also believe and shudder. HaSatan and the demons, they believe in God. They know he exists.
He knows he’s there. They actually know that he is the top one in all of reality, all of the universe, but they do not live their lives like that. So you may believe in God. You may believe in Yahweh. You may believe that he is the creator of heaven and earth and everything that exists, but so does Satan and the demons.
The difference being is that you should follow Yahweh, what he tells you, what he commands. You should be obedient to him. That’s what he wants, and that is about what the first commandment is really all about. It’s more than just belief. It’s about works and doing.
Obedience, sacrifice, and daily choices reveal who your true God actually is. Are the choices you make based on and going off what Yahweh tells you to do or what someone or something else is telling you to do. And if it’s someone or something else, that is your true God and not Yahweh. Go off of what Yahweh tells you to do. Obey and be loyal to Yahweh and no one or nothing else.
And this first commandment, to have no other gods before me, has national, global, and personal implications. The commandment is applied not only to individual Israelites or to the individual believers like us, but to the whole nation as a people in covenant with Yahweh. Now there was a time when it well, you wouldn’t say it was actually just the Hebrews or just the Israelites because as we saw, it was a mixed multitude that came out of Egypt. There were other people who were grafted in like Rahab the harlot. There was Ruth and Naomi.
Naomi I’m sorry. Ruth was a Moabite. So there were people grafted in. It wasn’t just the physical bloodline of Israel. It was other people as well.
But it’s everyone who is in covenant with Yahweh. It’s his people. And if you have accepted Yeshua, if you have been saved and born again, you are one of Yahweh’s people and you should be placed in your obedience and your loyalty and your fidelity and your trust in Yahweh as the first commandment is telling us. The first commandment calls us both, I’m sorry, calls both personal and communal faith communities to radical distinction from the culture around us. It’s caused us to be set apart.
And what does that set apart mean? In the King James translation, that word is holy. It calls us to be holy, to be set apart from the world. Like the Ibra Tasha says, we are to be in the world, but not of the world. We are to be set apart from the world.
And obedience and following the First Commandment helps us to do that. And the body of Messiah must, like we said earlier, walk distinct, be set apart from the world. And it’s not just a commandment that was binding way back then but now it’s done away with. It’s still binding today. It was still binding in the Brit Chadashah when Yeshua and the apostles were around.
And in fact, nowhere in the Brit Chadashah or the AKA New Testament does Yeshua or Jesus or the Apostles even suggest that the first commandment of the 10 Commandments is done away with. The apostles themselves reinforced that there’s only one God, and he should be the top in our lives. They still proclaim and preach and teach that same singular loyalty as it did back in the Tanakh. Even Yeshua himself reinforces this very thing as he reinstates it. I’m sorry.
Not reinstates it, but, restates pretty much the same thing in the Brit Chadashah when he is asked what the greatest command is. We look in Matthew chapter 22 verses 34 through 40. But the Pharisees having heard that he had silenced the Sadducees were gathered together and one of them, one learned in the Torah did question, trying him and saying, teacher, which is the great command in the Torah? And Yeshua said to him, you shall love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind. This is the first and great command.
And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commands hang all the Torah and the Prophets. So what is it to love Yahweh with all your heart and with all your being and with all your mind is to have him as the first and only God in your life. The only one.
No other ones before him to put your trust and your fidelity and your loyalty and your obedience in him alone and no one else. And, in fact, this whole in him alone is restated by Yeshua himself in another section where he stated the exact same thing, but he also includes the Shema, Mark chapter 12 verses 28 to 31. And one of the scribes coming near, hearing them reasoning together, knowing that he had answered them well, asked him, which is the first command of all? And Yeshua answered him, the first of all the commands is, hear, oh, Israel, Yahweh our Elohim, Yahweh is one. And you shall love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your being and with all your mind and with all your strength.
This is the first command and the second, like it, is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these. So again, what did Yeshua say was the first and great command? It was love Yahweh with all your mind, soul, heart, and strength. That is the first command.
Putting everything you have into Yahweh alone, no one else, and having no other gods before or beside Yahweh. And, in fact, as we look through scripture, as we study scripture, we see that, in fact, blessings and curses hang on this first commandment. Israel’s history actually proves that blessing followed loyalty and obedience, and judgment followed disobedience and idolatry, a pattern that we still see even today. We see people who don’t follow scripture, and their life isn’t nearly as good as it could be. We see people that do follow scripture and we think, wow, how do they become so blessed?
And we find out, okay, well, they’re doing scriptural things in scriptural ways the way they’re supposed to be doing it. They have Yahweh as the top one in their life. But in scripture, we see a measure of loyalty equating to blessing in various places throughout scripture, but one place in particular, Deuteronomy chapter 28 verses one through two. And it shall be, if you diligently obey the voice of Yahweh your Elohim, to guard to do all his commands, which I command you today, that Yahweh your Elohim shall set you high above all nations of the earth, and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you obey the voice of Yahweh, your Elohim. Obey the voice of who?
Obey the voice of a false god like Zeus, a false god like Allah, a false god like Buddha. No. None of these other ones. No other besides Yahweh and Yahweh alone. That is where the blessings come from when you obey and listen to the voice of Yahweh and Yahweh alone.
However, if you disobey, you fall into idolatry. This is where the judgments come in. We’ve already seen this before in previous verses, but we’ll go over it again. Jeremiah chapter three verses six through nine. And Yahweh said to me, have you seen what backsliding Yisrael has done?
She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there committed whoring. I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet her treacherous sister, Yehuda, defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and wood. So the blessings and the curses were true back then for obedience and disobedience and is still true today. It was true for the Hebrews and the people of Yahweh back then and still true for us, the people of Yahweh today. And that’s the first commandment.
Like I said, it’s the foundation. It’s what we should be doing, number one, and no pun intended. Yahweh should be first, and Yahweh should be alone. He should be the only God, the first God. That’s the one we should be listening to.
We should be reading his word. We should be studying his Torah. We should be understanding and knowing his commandments. But, yeah, that’s the foundation of all the other commandments. And really, the foundation of the entire Torah is having no other gods before Yahweh or even beside Yahweh.
Entire obedience and loyalty and trust goes to Yahweh and Yahweh alone and no other. So in summary, go over the command again. The first command, you have no other mighty ones against my face. That comes from Exodus chapter 20 verse three and Deuteronomy chapter five verse seven. This indicates things like loyalty and allegiance, allegiance belongs to Yahweh and to Yahweh alone.
Our obedience and our trust also belong to Yahweh alone. The first commandment is actually the foundation for all of the other commandments and really the foundation for all of the Torah. There is a difference between monotheism and monolatry. Remember, monotheism is the belief that only one God actually does exist, whereas monolatry is the belief that we should worship and serve only one God without denying the existence of other gods. And here in the first commandment, it’s more of a statement of monolatry than it is monotheism even though the entire Bible, the entire scriptures is a monotheistic work.
But in the first commandment, it doesn’t deny the existence of other gods even though these gods are stolen wood and don’t actually exist. Idolatry. This is where in the first commandment, it’s really dealing with idolatry of the heart, what you make your god to be. It doesn’t have to be these false gods, like the false god of Zeus, the false god of Allah, or the false god of, like Buddha, right? It could be anything could be money, success, career, relationships, your priest, your Pope, or whoever it is.
Anything could be your God. And it’s really the first commandment is really addressing and dealing with idolatry at the level of the heart. It’s exclusive covenant language like the language a wife would have with her husband where her husband is demanding fidelity and faithfulness and obedience to him and no other man. That’s the way Yahweh is. He wants to be our exclusive God, no one else.
And it’s not just about belief. Remember, we covered that. It’s just even the demons believe that God is one, that Yahweh is one, that Yahweh is supreme and almighty, but they don’t live their lives like that. That’s what we should do. We should not just have belief.
We should also also have our actions to prove that. Remember, Yeshua said, you shall know them by their fruit. What is that fruit? Our works and what we do. This first commandment has national, global, and personal implications.
Remember, we are to be set apart. They shall know us by our works. They shall know us by our fruit. And we should have set apart fruit, not common every day like the world fruit. And this first commandment, like the other commandments, which we’ll get into later on, but this first commandment is still binding for today.
We saw that the apostles still had a call for this loyalty to Yahweh alone. Yeshua reiterated that in more than one spot. We saw two different examples, but there’s more than that in the Brit Chadashah. But the first commandment is still binding for today. Judgment and blessing, as we saw, hinges on the first commandment, which is requiring and this, is Yahweh desiring exclusive obedience and faith and trust in him.
And when we obey him, when we are loyal to him, when we do what he commands us, we fully live out that first commandment, we have blessings. But when we disobey, we go into idolatry, when we don’t do his commandments, that’s when the judgment and the curses come upon us. So this first commandment really is the foundation for blessings, for judgments and curses, and for all the other commands as far as the 10 commandments and the whole Torah go. And the first commandment means that Yahweh should be the only one that we serve, that we trust, that we obey completely. Nothing and no one else deserves that place in your life.
No one or nothing else should be above Yahweh, and no one or nothing else should even be on the same level as Yahweh. It should be Yahweh and Yahweh alone. And that’s just the God honest truth.
