On Sunday we started a series of sermons on the 10 Commandments by looking at the first Commandment. And we saw that the phrase 'The First Commandment' has 2 meanings. It can refer to the first of the 10 Commandments, which we read about in Deut. 5, or it can refer to what Jesus called the first commandment which he quoted from Deut 6:4-5, which says

Deut 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Now in Mark,Matthew and Luke's gospels Jesus quotes these words from Deut 6 as being the first or most important commandment.ie loving God with everything you are and have, is the most important thing you can do. And he added that loving your neighbour as yourself is the second most important thing you can do. And Jesus said that the whole of the law and the prophets ie the whole OT, depended on these 2 commandments. So these 2 commandments about love summarised all the teaching of the OT- including the 10 Commandments.

And then we looked at the first commandment of the 10 Commandments in the light of this. We looked at it then in Exodus chapter 20 but today we are going to look at the repeat version in Deut.5

Deut 5:4 The LORD spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain. ... And he said:

6 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

7 "You shall have no other gods before me.

And we saw that God was saying- 'I have loved you so much that I rescued you from slavery in Egypt to bring you into the Promised Land; now I want you to put me first, to love me above everything else and to let no other gods have a look in. It was like a husband saying to his wife- I have loved you and rescued you- now you shall have no other husbands alongside me.

And we talked about God wanting no rivals in our hearts for love for Him.

Now what we didnt talk about on Sunday was how this verse applies to multi- faith Britain today and how we should understand and relate to other religions.

In Moses' day each nation had its own god, or group of gods, and when you went to live in another country it was expected that you should honour the gods of that country as well as your own. And in the Roman Empire in Jesus' day it was expected that all peoples within that Empire should not only worship their own national gods, but also the Roman and Greek gods, and in particular that they should worship the Roman Emperor as part of their civic duty. Just as in North Korea today the people have to worship their new leader Kim- Jong-un or face a concentration camp. And many of the early Christians were persecuted, imprisoned or executed just because they refused to worship the emperor. They refused to have any other gods before the one true God and Jesus Christ His Son.

So how does this apply to us today in the tolerant West? If we are invited to Divali or other Hindu festivals, as I sometimes am, what do we do? Or if we are invited to a mosque and asked to take our shoes off or pray- what do we do? What are we to make of the gods of other religions- are they false gods or expressions of the one true god?

 

Very tricky question.

Hindus have many gods- but most educated Hindus would say that they are all expressions of the one true God – the eternal unchangeable oneness called Brahman. And of course they easily include Jesus among their list of gods or gurus.

But this eternal impersonal oneness of Hinduism in whom we are destined to lose our individuality and merge into the greater oneness, is so very different from the personal God of holiness and love revealed in the Bible- OT and NT. Now other strains of Hinduism see God in a more personal way and call him Ishvara or Krishna.

But is Ishvara the same as Yahweh? Is Krishna the same as Christ?

Even more important in these days is the relationship between Allah, worshipped by Muslims, and the God of the Bible. Are they the same or different?

The Koran claims that they are the same. Allah is presented in the Koran as saying that He is the true God who was worshipped, but misunderstood, by Christians and Jews, but now fully revealed in the Koran. And the Koran claims that the Bible was altered by Jews and Christians to make it fit their ideas, whereas originally it was totally Islamic.

So is that right? Is Allah the same as Yahweh? If so we should logically all become Muslims.

Well in what way are they different? The God of the Koran is a god of absolute power- he controls everything; he is called merciful but there is no hint that you can have a personal relationship of love with Him. Religion is about power and submission to power; its about duty and control. And some of that has seeds in the OT, but it misses out all the parts of the OT which speak of God's love for His people and His desire for all to be saved and know His love as children with their heavenly father.

The supreme gods of Hinduism and Islam have some similarities with the God of the Bible- but there so many other differences. And the differences converge of course on the person of Jesus. Who is He? For Hinduism he is a guru- a holy man- or maybe an avatar, one of many incarnations of Ishvara. For Islam he is a prophet but did not die on the cross and is not divine.

So how are we to understand the supreme gods of Islam and Hinduism? There can be, by logic and definition, only one true creator God. But what is He like? Hinduism and Islam claim that his character is revealed in their scriptures, just as Christians and Jews claim He is revealed in the OT and NT. And they give very different pictures- which cant all be true. God cannot be obsessed by power, while also being full of love. Jesus cannot have both been crucified, and not been crucified. He cannot be the eternal Word of God, and yet also one of many avatars. So we have to choose which scriptures give us the most accurate picture of human life, the best moral code, the best example of how to live, the best explanation of Jesus and the most convincing description of God's character.

And to make that decision we can either spend a lot of time looking at the scriptures of various religions- or we can take these words from the 10 Commandments seriously and decide that we will have no other gods but Yahweh, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can decide that what we have known of Jesus Christ- from the words of the NT and our experience of His grace and love in our lives- convinces us that we should look in no other place for meaning and fulfilment on our lives

John 6:66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

67 "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve. 68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Or the Greek says 'your words are the words of life, the life of the new age'

So that is the first commandment- that we are not to have any gods before Yahweh, and not to embrace faulty understandings of the one God.

But what about the second commandment, which is very similar?

Deut 5: 8 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them;

for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.

 

The context of this of course, as we saw on Sunday, is that while Moses was up on the mountain with God getting the 10 Commandments, the people got restless and impatient and built an idol made of gold in the form of a calf and began to worship it. Now to us that is so weird. Why should anyone build something and then worship it? We can understand people worshipping God the creator or maybe looking at a sunset or a mountain and being tempted to worship Mother Nature, but how could anyone worship a piece of sculpture, made of wood or metal? And of course if you drive just 5 minutes up the M1 you get to a place full of such things- Yorkshire Sculpture Park. And if you were from a primitive tribe and uprooted to Yorkshire Sculpture Park you would probably assume that all these figures of humans and animals and birds and other strange artefacts were objects of worship.

So what is this commandment all about and how does it differ from the 1^st commandment?

Cos they seem very similar. The 1^st tells us not to have any other gods before the true God, while the 2^nd tells us not to make any idols and then worship them.

And the reason given is that God is a jealous God. As we saw on Sunday, He is like a devoted husband who is rightly jealous if his wife is spending lots of time with, or focussing her attention on, other men.

So what is the difference between the two and how does this commandment apply to us today?

Well the 1^st commandment is about worshipping other gods while the 2^nd commandment is about making other gods and then worshipping them. So how do we do that? Mankind has an inbuilt desire to worship. We were made to worship the true and living God and when we dont worship the true God we will either worship false gods, or if we dont believe in God or gods we may create things which we will end up worshipping. See Romans 1:21-23,25.

So what kind of things do we create which we end up worshipping?

Well most obvious example in UK at the moment is that we do it every year on a tv programme called X factor- which interestingly was originally called Pop Idol. We- the viewing public along with 4 celebrity judges, create pop idols- one or more- whom we then worship by buying their records or screaming at them when we go to see them in concert.

And the same happens to a lesser degree in other reality tv shows. It also happens with movie stars, pop stars and top models. They are all made up to look incredibly beautiful or handsome- with their wrinkles or spots lasered out or digitally omitted- so that they seem impossibly more beautiful than we could ever be- so we worship them and when they advertise their latest single or film or perfume or hair product we are so enticed by their beauty or sexiness that we want to buy what they represent- whether its a music video or some beauty product.

Then there are the successful businessmen who design great products- like Steve Jobs the founder of Apple who died recently and is said to have changed all our lives. And he became an icon of human genius and coolness. And of course there are the gadgets themselves- such as an iphone, which I confess to find indispensable, as it is both my phone, my camera, my music collection, my daily newspaper, my Bible study library, my calculator, my alarm clock and lots of other things. But it could be your tv or computer or radio or magazine; it could be worshipping anything other than the one true God.

Lets look at a longer version of that 2^nd commandment found in Deut 4:15

Deut 4:15 You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully,

16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman,

17 or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, 18 or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.

So dont worship any thing man made, anything created by great artists or great scientists or computer experts- no matter how beautiful or awesome it is- dont worship it. Dont put it in the place of God.

And then note the next verse

19 And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars--all the heavenly array--do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

So dont worship the sun or moon or stars- as many cultures have done. Dont look to the stars or planets to guide your life or bring you good luck. All of these are God's creation- they have no independent power apart from him to direct human affairs. So don't get caught up in astrology or magic or nature worship of any kind- for there is one God who loves you and calls you to worship Him alone.

And finally lets look at the last part of the 2^nd commandment, which many people have struggled with in the past.

9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

Hebrew says 'visiting the iniquity, or guilt, or punishment of the fathers upon the children to the 3^rd and 4^th generation, on those who hate me.'

Now this seems to be saying that when children follow their parents in rebelling against God and turning away from Him, then they will suffer for their cumulative corporate hatred of God. It doesnt rule out children repenting of their rebellion and turning back to God. But when different generations in same family hate God and turn away from Him- then they will suffer cumulative consequences.

But note the contrast of the good news with the bad news.

10 but showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.

A thousand generations is an awful long time. Literally 40,000 years! But God promises to show faithful love, compassion, and mercy to those who love him, for all that time- and into eternity. And it reminds us here that the children of godly parents have a great advantage. We can give our children such a good start in life that their love for God and their obedience to God's commands comes naturally to them. And even if they do turn away for a while we can pray that they will come back to God. We were thrilled to hear on Sunday night that our daughter Beth has finally come right back to God and wants to serve him wholeheartedly, after several years of being in the wilderness. Maybe your son or daughter is still wandering in the wilderness. Keep praying and loving and reminding them of Gods love for them. We are reminded here of the blessing of producing, or being part of, godly generations. Jill and I pray that not only our children but our grandchildren and succeeding generations will love God and keep His commandments.

 

So we end, as we started, with God's love. God loves you so much that he sent Jesus His Son to die for you and bring you forgiveness, peace with God and eternal life. He asks you to put Him first, to love him with all your being, and to not make, or worship, any idols to distract you from loving Him and keeping His commandments. And if we seek to put God first and teach our children to do the same then we may be part of a godly line stretching right into the future.