Bible Text: Deuteronomy 5:6-7 | Pastor: Eric Danielson | Series: For Our Good | People need stability and security in their lives – something firm to stand on. Unfortunately the things people depend on often give way and everything falls apart. But there’s a way God has given to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.

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No Other Gods
Deuteronomy 5:6-7

For a lot of people, if they could build their dream home, they would build it on a beautiful lake where they could enjoy swimming and fishing, peace and quiet, and beautiful views of sunrises and sunsets. Lakefront property is in high demand and when people have the opportunity buy or build they jump at the chance. That’s what people did at one of the most popular lakes in Wisconsin. Located in the Wisconsin Dells, Lake Delton is one of the most well-known lakes in our state and a popular spot for many residents and vacationers. For many years people have jumped at the opportunity to live on that lake. It was a great place to live, and no one would have ever expected anything to happen like it did in June of 2008…

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Five homes were destroyed – washed away when that embankment gave out, and I’m sure none of those homeowners thought anything like that would ever happen. They were trusting that the ground their home was built on was solid and secure. But as it turned out, it wasn’t strong enough and everything fell apart.

In a way, we can be like those homes. God has made us in such a way that we have this innate need to build our lives on something that is solid. There’s something inside us that pushes us to find security – something to keep us stable – an anchor to hold on to. It can be a lot of different things: our families, our home, work and career, money, health, leisure activities, and so on. Though we like some change and adventure, we also need something to keep us firmly grounded.

Unfortunately for most people, the anchors we depend on end up being a lot like that embankment on Lake Delton – they seem so solid and secure, but in the end, they give way and our lives feel like those homes being washed away – divorce, bankruptcy, disease, death of a loved one, natural disaster – the unthinkable happens and everything falls apart.

This morning we are going to find out how to make sure that never happens. Even when the unthinkable takes place and everything in life is shaken there’s a way we can be solid and secure. We are diving into our summer sermon series that I’m calling “For Our Good.” We will be studying the Ten Commandments and last week we looked at how when Moses taught them to the people just before they were going in to take possession of the Promised Land, he told them time and time again that God gave them the commands to follow for their good – so that it would go well with them and their descendants forever. God’s rules were a pathway to freedom, joy and fulfillment in life if they would follow them. But if they disobeyed and followed their own way, they would find pain and destruction. This morning we are going to look at the first command to see how it was for their good.

Read Deuteronomy 5:6-7
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 7 You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall have no other gods before (or besides) me…” This is the first and probably the most important command, and to understand its importance we have to understand the historical and cultural context in which it was given. The history of the Israelite people prior to that time was pretty simple – they had been slaves in Egypt for the past 400 years. So Egypt was all they had ever known. And in knowing Egypt and living there, they had been immersed in one of the greatest polytheistic religious centers of the world. Ancient Egyptians worshipped as many as 2,000 gods (Picture). Some of the gods you might have heard about are Ra, Amun-Ra, Anubis, Horus… The worship of these gods dominated the lifestyles and culture of ancient Egypt, which can be seen all throughout their architecture and art. And since the Israelites lived there for 400 years, these beliefs and practices had a huge influence on them as well. As you read about them after that time you can see that they were drawn back into that form of worship many times, starting right away with the worship of the golden calf at Mt. Sinai.

So when the Ten Commandments were given, Egyptian polytheism was the only thing they had in their rearview mirror. And as they looked out the front window toward where God was taking them in the land of Canaan, they were heading into a culture steeped in rampant polytheism as well. (Picture) The Bible says a lot about the gods and idolatry of the pagan Canaanite nations. Some of the gods you might remember hearing about in the Bible were El, Asherah, Baal, Moloch, and Dagon – there were many more. These dominated the lives of the Canaanites, and they weren’t just made up fantasies by ancient peoples trying to understand the mysteries of the world around them – that was part of it, but the Bible also tells us that there were actual spiritual beings involved as well – territorial demons who were leading people astray and who were behind many of the pagan deities. Each nation seemed to have their chief god and lesser gods that they worshipped, and they depended on them for everything – for rain and sunshine, for life and fertility, and for protection against their enemies – their gods were their foundation in life even though none of them could do any of these things.

So the Israelites had a polytheistic worldview from Egypt and they were heading into a land that was filled with the same worldview. If God had not given the command: “you shall have no other gods before me,” what do you think they would have done? They would have continued in their polytheistic ways – worshipping God alongside all the other pagan gods – looking for blessing and protection from gods who were nothing more than territorial demons and who could do nothing for them.

So, God gave them the first command for their good. Only he could bless and protect them and that’s what he wanted to do. He had chosen them, called them, and rescued them out of Egypt to set them apart for himself so that he could bless them and they would glorify him and be a light to the nations around them. He would be their God and they would be his people. He told them at Mt. Sinai: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:4-6).

God wanted to pour out blessing on his people and he wasn’t about to share them with all the other gods of the pagan nations. His relationship with them was to be exclusive – like that of a husband and wife. This would be for their good and for his glory. “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.” Not Ra, Amun-Ra, Anubis, Horus, El, Asherah, Baal, Moloch, Dagon or any of the other gods of the Egyptians or Canaanites.

I’m doing a wedding for Amy’s niece in a couple weeks and in that wedding the bride and groom will be making vows to each other – to love and cherish one another and to forsake all others, as long as they both shall live… A husband doesn’t share his wife with other men, and a wife doesn’t share her husband with other women. The relationship is exclusive and there is a righteous jealousy felt by both husband and wife.

God felt the same way about the people of Israel and he feels the same way about us today. But we obviously have a much different culture and worldview than the ancient world. We are not surrounded by polytheism anymore. In fact, with the rise of scientific enlightenment we actually deal with the opposite – it’s secular atheism that influences our worldview. The average American isn’t involved in worshipping multiple gods; they typically don’t worship any gods. So what does this first commandment have to do with us?

As I think about the internal factors that made polytheism so deeply rooted in the ancient world, I think I still see those same factors at work in our lives today. Why did the people so readily turn to the worship of all those gods? I think it’s because they had the innate need for stability and security and believed the gods could give them that. They had a lot of things they couldn’t understand or control in the world – things like their purpose and meaning in life, the weather, personal prosperity, good health, and protection from enemy nations. What could give them security and stability in life? What could make them rich and powerful? What could prevent famine and disease and increase fertility? What could give them strength to defeat their enemies? They believed it was the gods. They thought the gods could provide all these things, so they depended on them and worshipped them.

I think we do the same thing today, only we substitute other things in place of the gods. We look to all kinds of things to give us purpose and meaning in life. We strive after things we believe will make us financially secure. We become obsessed with things that we trust will prevent hardship and calamity, that will enhance our health. We depend on things that will make us more powerful than our enemies. We don’t place our dependence on the gods anymore, but we do place it on things like money, material possessions, our home, family, work, health, hobbies, and so on. We depend on these things rather than making our relationship God our firm foundation and in some ways begin to worship these other things. Like building a house on the shores of Lake Delton, we depend on a foundation that will eventually crumble and when it does, our lives will fall apart.
God loves you and doesn’t want that to happen to you, and so he calls out to each of us: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of sin, despair, and darkness. You shall have no other gods before me.” Or, if you want the new Testament version, it says in Mark 12:30: “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

God has given us this command for our good. He knows that nothing else in this life is ultimately solid and secure – only he is. He knows there’s divorce, bankruptcy, disease, death, natural disasters, and many other things that can turn our lives upside down. But he also knows that whoever makes him the foundation of their life will be able to stand. I think that’s what Jesus had in mind when he said this in Matthew 7:24-27: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Is your life founded on the Rock this morning? Or have you been building it on the sand? If you can see that you’ve been depending too much on the things in this world to hold your life together, God is calling you to let go of those things and run to him. He loves you and is for you, and he alone is the foundation that can stand secure. Sink the footings of your life deeply into him by seeking him in prayer and his Word. Lay a foundation in your relationship with him by spending time drawing near to him. Take that time and attention you’ve been devoting to other things – other gods, if you will – and devote it to God instead.