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 20:2–3
Hopefully these words are familiar to you. They are the first words in the 10 Commandments as God states who he is. He uses the name the Lord Yahweh, that he had revealed to Moses and to his people. The covenant name that represents his love for his people, his loyalty to his people, his faithfulness, his mercy, his kindness, his goodness. This is why God says, I’m the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He is the Savior of his people, the Provider for his people, the Sustainer, and Satisfier of his people.
So the first thing he commands them is verse three. You shall have no other Gods little “g” god’s before me. And when you think about this, it’s humbling, isn’t it? Of course, there’s only one true God. Of course, God’s people would not worship other gods, right? But that’s what’s humbling.
Exodus 20:2–3 calls us to love God over everything else.
You and I are tempted just like God’s people were in the Old Testament to turn aside to other people, to other things, to worship, to give our affection, to put our trust in other people and things in a way that should only be given to God alone. And obviously that doesn’t mean we don’t show affection toward others or put trust at some level in others. I love my wife. I put a significant level of trust in my wife. But we need to keep that kind of affection and trust and proper perspective. Think about the way Jesus puts it in Matthew 10. “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”
Surely we could substitute in there. Whoever loves his wife or her husband more than me is not worthy of me. There is only one who is worthy of all our affection, all our trust.
This is why Jesus says, and it’s the converse of this commandment here in Exodus 20, to have no other gods before me. Jesus puts it positively. You shall love the Lord your God, same language from Exodus 22, the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength with everything you have. And then what does he say next, love for others. Affection for others care for others flows out of that you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Exodus 20:2–3 is ca all to evaluate our deepest affections.
So it’s absolutely right to love your spouse, to love your children, to love your parents, to love your enemies, to love your neighbor, out of the overflow of supreme love for God of supreme trust in God. So just pause for a moment today and examine your heart. Do you have your affections and proper perspective? Does your love for Jesus far outweigh the people you love most in this world? Does your trust in Jesus far outweigh your trust of anyone or anything in this world?
What are you trusting in today for your satisfaction? What are you trusting in today for your sustenance to see God as the ultimate satisfier, the ultimate sustainer, the ultimate Lord and God over all, and to live with supreme, wholehearted love for him, supreme, wholehearted trust in him? God, we pray that you would free us from all idolatry, even idolatry of good things, of good people, and good gifts that you provide in our lives.
God, help us to see you worship you, love you, exalt you, and trust you as the giver of all good gifts. And when we experience affection for people here, God, we pray that that would ultimately end in affection for you as the giver of all these good gifts.
This verse is an explicit call to banish all kinds of idolatry.
And God, when good gifts are no longer there, we pray that our hearts would be steady and firm because they’re consumed, most of all, with love for you, most of all far and above everyone, and everything else love for you and trust in you. God, teach us to obey this first commandment, to turn aside from all idols in our lives, and to live with all-consuming love for you and complete, total unconditional trust in you, for you are worthy. We praise you for your love for us. We praise you, Lord, our God, for your salvation of us from sin and death, for your provision for us every single day.
God, we praise you as the Lord our God, and we pray that you would use our lives to make your love known in all the world. Do people around us today help us to love our neighbors as ourselves, to love people well around us today. And God, we pray that you would use us as your church to spread your love to all the peoples of the world, that they might all know that you are the Lord, that there are no other gods worthy of worship.
As we pray for unreached people, God, we pray that you would show the insufficiency of little g gods all around the world and your sufficiency alone as the Lord who alone can save us from our sins and satisfy our souls forever.
Prayer for the Shaikh People
We pray this specifically today over the Shaikh people of India and Bangladesh, 95 million of them most unreached by the gospel. God, we pray that the good news of your love as the one true Lord and God would reach the shake people so that they might be saved and their hearts freed from all the idolatry of lesser gods to worship and enjoy, be saved and satisfied by you, the one true God. We pray all this according to your word in Exodus 20:2–3. In Jesus name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
