How to Be a Human Being - No Other Gods

There’s a story about a young lady who went on a hiking adventure by herself. She had her map and her compass and set out to find a particular castle in the Alps. After walking all day, she came to a little town and went into a store to get something to eat and ask how much further the castle was. The store clerk was confused and said the path she was on didn’t lead to the castle. She got out her map and her compass to see where she had gone wrong. Her compass must have been broken. The clerk brought out a brand new compass and showed her that north was actually quite different from where the young lady’s compass was pointing. So she bought the new compass and started to leave. But she came right back inside—”this one seems to be broken too. It’s pointing the same direction as my other compass.” The clerk took the compass, and suddenly it pointed to true north. The clerk picked up the original “broken” compass—it did the same thing, it pointed to true north, too.

Why did the compass work for one person and not another?

We’re in a series called “How to Be A Human Being.” We’re looking at what are commonly called The Ten Commandments, but as we learned last week, they are really Ten Words or Ten sayings. One blessing about who God is and what He’s done for His people, and nine commandments. Nine shalls. Ten words that only matter to Christians if we put the phrase “In Christ” in front of them. In Christ He is the LORD your God who saved you from slavery. In Christ you shall be these kind of people.

The Ten Words were written by the hand of God on two tablets. Sometimes these are called the “two tables of the law.” It’s interesting that Jesus said the law and the prophets are summarized as basically, “love God and Love others.” Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength—and love your neighbor as yourself. Worship God. Love people. When we talk about the two tables of the law—this is what we’re talking about.

All of the commandments are focused outwardly. Focused on our relationship with someone else. Our relationship with God and our relationship with people. You can only obey the commands of God in the context of community. You can’t be the people of God by yourself.

Exodus 20:1-6

“And God spoke all these words, saying,

“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.

“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 or 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 the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

So, there’s the first word, the blessing: I am the LORD your God. I AM YAHWEH, the personal name of God, your God, the God who is for you. The God who rescued you from slavery. As Christians we hear it like this: Jesus is LORD and Savior. In Christ alone are you set free from slavery to the world, the flesh, the devil, sin, death, hell and the grave. Believe in Jesus and be saved. This is the Gospel.

But now what? What are we supposed to do with these new lives that He’s given us? This new freedom? What does that freedom look like?

Life is an adventure. Jesus sets us free to live a true life with meaning and purpose. He sets us free to take a beautiful walk by faith to a heavenly castle filled with light and love. He gives us a map and a compass for how to get there.

Here’s the first direction He gives us: “You shall have no other gods before me.”

The literal translation of this verse would be something like, “You shall before my face have no other gods.”

Don’t be putting any other gods in my face.

Sometimes we hear this commandment and we hear it like “you shall have no other gods before me.” As if it means no other gods above me. Like, you can have other gods, just make sure Jesus is in the top spot. Make sure He’s the most important god.

But that’s not what it says at all. He said “No other gods before my face.” His face is everywhere, God is everywhere, so He’s being very clear—you shall have no other gods. None.

This is clearly the most important commandment. If we could keep this one, we wouldn’t break any of the others. But we can’t. We make gods out of everything. Everything God gives us, we turn into a god. An idol. We take every good gift and carve it into something to bow down to and worship. Every sin is ultimately breaking this first commandment. Every sin is basically making a god out of something else.

Luther says a god is anything you expect to receive all the good things from, anything you turn to in times of trouble. Anything you trust in and believe in with your heart. Whatever you set your heart on and rely on is really your god.

So if we are to have no other gods, then we have to be people who expect that all the good things we need come from Jesus, He’s who we turn to in times of trouble. We have to believe in Him and trust Him with our whole heart. 

But we have a bad day and then we look everywhere else to make it better, don’t we? We spend our days and our money and set our hearts chasing after all kinds of other things, right? 

What do you hope for out of life more than anything else? What do you really, really want? What is the most important thing in the world to you? If you could have one wish… Magic lamp time...

Careful. You’re about to tell me what your god is.

And you’re in church, so you better get those gods out of God’s face.

So, our young lady with the compass problem. It turns out she had this charm bracelet with all these special little things on it. There was a little heart that represented the man she loved, a bird that reminded her of where she grew up, a butterfly her mom gave her, a star for her grandpa, a dog, a cat, and a bike, one for her school and another for her country and one for her career—just a whole bunch of little pendants that were symbols of everything she loved in her life—all the good things. Problem was, a couple of them were magnetic and they were throwing off the compass. She took the bracelet off and the compass worked just fine.

That’s the thing about a compass. They are very sensitive to magnetic pull. If you’re going to be able to trust a compass for direction, there can be no other magnets. 

If we let our heart get pulled by all these other things in life—let them become gods—then we’ll lose our way. We won’t get to that heavenly castle.

So, you shall have no other gods. This first command goes on to say, “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 or serve them.”

When invading armies attacked Israel and went inside the Temple to the holy of holies, where the arc of the covenant was—they were shocked that there wasn’t any statue of God. That was unheard of in the ancient world. All the nations had gods, and they all carved statues of them. It was so weird that Israel didn’t make an image of their God. 

They were allowed to make other statues, though. God told them to make images of angels and bulls and pomegranates and all kinds of things. There was no problem with making graven images or artistic representations of anything in creation—they just weren’t supposed to make an image of God. They weren’t to make statues and bow down and worship them.

It’s sad to point out that even while God is telling Moses this on the mountain, the people are busy down at the bottom melting all their gold to make a golden calf to bow down and worship. When Moses climbs down with the two tablets in his hands, he finds all the people having a freaky orgy—dancing and worshiping a solid gold cow.

Moses hadn’t even opened his mouth yet and they had already broken the most important commandment, along with a bunch of the others.

God says He’s a jealous God. Not in a petty way like some of us, but in the way that He’s passionate and zealous about His people. All through the Old Testament He compares His relationship with His people to a husband with an unfaithful bride. Even in the New Testament, the church is called the Bride of Christ.

So when Moses came down from the mountain, it was like the best man walking out of the wedding reception to find the bride having crazy sex with the rest of the groomsmen—maybe some of the bridesmaids, too. This marriage isn’t off to a great start.

Making the statue of the calf wasn’t the problem. Bowing down to it, worshiping it, and making it the occasion for the first Burning Man festival was.

Sometimes people think this command means God doesn’t want us to make any sculptures at all. Like I said, that’s clearly not what He meant since He also told Moses to make all kinds of things. Other people think it means we shouldn’t make any religious artwork, like of Jesus or crucifixions or whatever. Here’s why I think that’s silly…

For centuries the Jews were peculiar in the way they worshiped God but didn’t make any images of Him. Didn’t make any sense to the rest of the world. All the ancient cultures made statues of their gods, in New Testament times the Greeks and the Romans made all kinds of them. 

Then it all finally made sense in Jesus. Do you remember what Jesus is called in Colossians? This is so awesome and I missed it for years. In Colossians 1:15 it says

Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

The reason God’s people were never supposed to make an image of God is because Jesus was going to be that image. 

Man was made in the image of God, then God became a man. Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

That’s all pretty mind blowing, right? But then in Corinthians and Ephesians we’re told that the church is the body of Christ. Which means you and me are the image of Christ in the world.

This is why I think it’s completely wrongheaded for people to say that depictions of Jesus as a white dude should be destroyed. Clearly Jesus wasn’t a white dude, He was a Jew—still is. But since the church includes people from every tribe and nation and race—it is perfectly proper for Jesus to be depicted from the perspective of every culture that the Gospel goes into.  White Jesus, Black Jesus, Asian Jesus, Mexican Jesus, Indian Jesus, American Indian Jesus, Jewish Jesus—yes! All people Jesus.

The idea isn’t to depict a historically accurate portrait of Jesus of Nazareth, the point is to reflect the truth that the body of Christ is every nation, all people groups, every ethnicity, every tribe and tongue. To celebrate that the Son of God became flesh and lived among us—He became one of us. To redeem us, to redeem our culture, to redeem every culture, to redeem the world.

So, listen… It is not racist to make works of art reflecting Jesus as white, black, Asian, Mexican or whatever. But it is most definitely racist to destroy works of art that depict Him different than you. 

Alright, that’s enough from the category of “Bible in one hand and newspaper in the other.”

God became part of His creation in order to save it. That should blow your mind. It’s been the most offensive thing about Christianity since day one. Jesus became the image of the invisible God. While all the other religions of the world make gods out of gold and bronze and material things—the Word of God became flesh so He could live, die and rise from the dead for you. While every man, woman and child that’s ever lived makes gods out of the good things in their life, the things that are important to them—the kinds of things we might put on a bracelet, or on a necklace or on a T-shirt. The kinds of things that if we let them, will become false gods, weights around our neck that drag us away from God and the life of freedom that He has for us. While every man, woman and child is so easily distracted by all these worldly charms—Jesus says “Follow me.” He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one will find the Father unless they go with Jesus. 

It is only in Christ that we will have no other gods. It’s only in Christ that we can escape the iniquity of our fathers. It’s only in Christ that we can love God and keep His commandments—His righteousness, not our own. It’s only in Christ that God shows His love to a thousand generations. A thousand generations. In the history of mankind, there hasn’t been a thousand generations yet.

Jesus is the LORD your God who saved you from slavery. You shall have no other gods. 

Anything else you put your trust in. Your faith in. Your hope in. Anything else that you put in the place of God: things like safety, money, security, family, government, material possessions, sexual pleasure, hobbies, distractions, food. We can turn any good gift from God into a false god. We don’t make idols out of bad things. But anything else we put in the place of God is going to lead us away from Him.

We need to remember the young lady who was hiking to that castle. She had a map and a compass, she knew how to use them, she even trusted them. But she needed to put her charm bracelet away if she wanted to find true north. 

What do you need to lay down so you can hear the voice of the LORD? What other gods are you putting in His face? What are you holding onto that’s distracting you. Leading you away from that heavenly castle the Father has prepared for you.

Repent and believe in the name of Jesus Christ. To repent means to turn away from all the things of this world that are pulling you away from Him. It also means to turn toward His mercy and grace and forgiveness. It’s only in the grace of God that you will be free. It’s only in Jesus that you will have no other god.

God is God. Nothing else can be. Everything else will try to be. Lay all those things down and hear the word of the Lord. In Christ you shall have no other gods. Thanks be to God. AMEN.