DO NOT PUT ANYONE BEFORE ME

"You shall have no other gods before Me"

Exodus 20:3

All throughout history or well the Bible we see where God showed love and He wanted us to seek Him. Often when I think of what God requires it reminds me of me...

Who wants to be number one in their realtionship, to have an exclusive relationship. I do and so does God. He wants a relationship with us where we come to Him for answers that He already knows, remember He knows the end from the beginning but He wants the relationship to be constant; to wake up and have conversations with Him, to go to bed at night and chat with Him. He loves love. We see in Genesis when we changed the dynamics of life it had a cause and effect. From the beginning of time God wanted us to spend time with Him, but when God returned to chat with Adam in the cool of the day Adam had already sinned. Life had already changed he understood he was naked and hid from God. Sin, satan and independent thinking makes us stay away from God, when we were designed to seek God, to commune with God, to worship God. Let's look a bit into the story and how these dynamics caused so much change. On day six God made living creatures that lived on the earth, then God said let Us make man in Our image. To have a spirit, to be a god and to have knowledge. God did not only create them or us but he also blessed us, we were topped up with something special to rule the earth- Genesis 1.

God thinks of the end from the beginning he knew Adam would need help, he knew he would be lonely and from a piece of Adam God gave Adam someone he could share life with. God is a problem solver he knew there could be lonliness so he solved that problem. He knew they would need food so He gave them herbs to eat, he knew Adam needed to work so he gave him the earth to rule and take care of. While in the garden a problem was created, the enemy enticed Eve with the need to have more. You can have everything, all 100,101 of everything here on earth but there is one thing you CANNOT have yet you still want it. If you have a small child a niece, nephew or a close family friend under the age of 5 when they are told not to touch something or not to do something, unless you scare them they usually still do what you are telling them not to do. It seems like someone is trying to cheat you out of having something. It does not matter how many clothes you have, you still want more.

In Exodus Moses had the luxury of governing the Israelities...you remember them they were slaves and Moses was one of them that was raised in the palace after being saved when every first born son was to be killed. When he was grown he heard the cry of his fellow brethern, he fought and killed a guard that was mistreating one of the Israelities. He fled for years got married and returned when he got instruction from God to free the Israelities. After freeing these once slaves they were in the wilderness for forty years, as far as distance is concerned this trip was supposed to be a few days. But understanding psychologically for them to be mentally free the Israelites would need training and counseling. From the book of Genesis to Deuteronomy there was constant teaching, rules and laws set so this group of people could be transformed. The Israelites were freed by God they were fed in the wilderness by God and had a leader whom God appointed and still they worshipped other gods. They complained. What would it take to keep you happy? It's not a rhetorical question, do you know what it takes to make you happy? or even satisfied? Funny thing is we may have an answer today or right now but honestly that could change based on our level of frustration or discomfort. Think about it. The person that doesn't have money will want money to make them happy for example and when they get money they want houses or cars, it was not getting money but the things that money can buy hence the need for wanting more. This group of people had a buffet in the desert with full service yet they still complained. God gave Moses a list of guidelines for them to live by, first on the list was to acknoledge that I am your God, the one that took you out of bondage, do not put anyone or anything before me: not your children, cars, money, jobs, homes, or your spouse. Do not make any idols for yourselves regardless of where it is, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven or on

the earth. As a matter of fact do not bow down to nothing or serve anyone else. For I, the Lord your God, I am a jealous God and I will curse your third and fourth generation based on what their father's has done-Genesis 20:2-5. In Exodus 32 Moses went up to the mountains and had yet to return to the Israelites. They thought they needed a god, in verse 4 they created a god then said "this is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!" How if you just created this thing? Confused, disobedient and blinded by their own actions that went directly against the same God that actually saved them.

God wants us to put nothing before Him yet we seem to always put everything before Him. In 2016 after relocating I spent my first holiday at home with my family for the first time in at least 12 years. I could not remember what it was like to spend a holiday with family and friends. That first holiday seemed so weird that the second holiday I tried booking appointments for myself at home. When I was working on the holidays I would be at work telling them how I wanted to be at home with my family and now I was off making equivalent of what I made before with holiday and days off. I was a workaholic I would be the person to call on if someone called out sick, if they needed extra staff for any shift morning or evening and stay over when there was unreliable weather conditions. Matthew 6:19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal."

In the book of Joshua when Moses died the group of people had already changed, the children and grand-children of the original freed slaves were now being led by Joshua. They were able to see the promised land, they had the ability to be led and obey. It is something how frustration, pressure and anger can cause you to disobey the word of God.

In Daniel 3 King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold image that everyone in the province had to worship and the 3 Hebrews boys did not bow down and worship this idol. They were thrown in the firey furnace- we spoke about this story last week. We see prophets like Hosea warned the Islraelites, Joel tells the story of disaster begging for the people to repent. They never stopped sinning and worshipping other idols. Clearly they can't seem to understand but God still loved them, He still had compassion although He got angry. He still gives them time to repent and come back to Him. It's just something about love, how it allows you to forgive all wrong done and try again.

I read these books in the Bible and wondered why did God keep trying, why did He not just find another group of people that would worship Him, that would obey Him? But He loves us that much. Later in the New Testaments when we came out of living by the commandments and living by grace through Jesus the scenario changed but the circumstance was the same. On our end-humans kept wanting to have control, live as we please which God allows but he always feels sorry for us and sees where we make mistakes. He continues asking for us to get back to the point of Adam and commune with Him so He can direct us but like the Israelites we seek our own way to get answers, to gain wealth and to live everyday. When we have a God who is on standby waiting to help, waiting to give but just wants some of our time. Thinking about it so saddening because as a parent you would never want your child to turn their back on you, to not want to speak to you or even call and connect with you. Over and over again God is treated badly and ignored, yet He still loves us.

Back to my point about relationships, there is no way I would not want exclusivity in my relationship and not be put first. This is my expectation in a marriage, in freindship, and in the relatioship with my children. If your children obey the rules set in another home that can create a problem, if my friend deals with me the way they may deal with another friend that can pose a problem as well or if my spouse deals with our relatioship based on a past relationship or based on how a friend said their relationship work; it will fail. But if we who are in this world live by the word it will minimize the chaos. Husband and wives will honor what has been taught, our children will see how to live and will teach their kids. Honor and respect would be seen in homes to be able to apply it in every other aspect of our daily lives. Doesn't that sound simple? Our flesh, the soulful part of us fights against the side that knows we need and should connect to God but many times we do not know how or who like the Israelites. There are people that worship the universe, that worship their bosses, or jobs, there are others that worship their homes. They are putting something else before God. Anything that takes you away from God whether good or bad is considered a sin. If at one point or the other I need to be spending time with God but I am doing something else for example sleeping that can be considered a sin, and it angers God. I can count on a few occastions having a conversation with someone and they fell asleep while I was talking, I was hurt. Sometimes it can even be frustrating depending on how often it happens. Let's break it down to minutes or hours- there is 24 hours in a day equaling to 1,440 minutes, 480 minutes is equivalent to 8 hours and this may be spent sleeping another 8 may be spent at work there is still 480 minutes left (8 hours) God is not asking for the entire 8 hours but possibly 30 minutes from the 480. There is still a considerable amount of time left 450 minutes. God wants to be the first for everything.

"You shall have no other gods before me," not even a marriage.

"You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything," anything is anything right not Netflix or home maintenance projects or exercise and sports. None of those things should come before someone you love, someone you value. Especially when He has the ultimate control.

#putGodfirst #worshipnocarvedimage #putnogodbeforeme #thetencommandments