The gift of the first word (Ex 20:3)

Short teachings from Hillcrest Church further exploring Sunday's teachings.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, hope you're doing well. Tim here, and we are diving deep into the 10 words of life. So today and this week we're talking about Exodus 20 verse 3, the first commandment. Rachel did a great job talking about this on Sunday. You shall have no other gods before me. And I just wanted to kind of reflect a bit on why why this commandment is first, why it's so important, why it's uh for our good that God uh uh well first, why is it for the Israelites' good that God gave them this commandment, and then why it's for our good that God gives this this first word. Um so yeah, maybe just a question, like reflect when you like your kind of your your gut reaction. When when you hear, you shall have no other gods before me, this first word of the ten words of life. And if somebody said, Why do you think God gives this word, what you know, what's your what's what is your first reaction to the why of this? Um because I think sometimes, at least for me in the past, I've had this um like this idea that this is almost, I would never use these words, but almost like God's vanity or God's you know pride, like I want to make sure you know I'm best, um, or um like an arbitrariness. I know these all all they're all these different competing gods, but I'm number one. You know, uh where uh the request seems more kind of for God's sake to make God feel a certain way. Um and maybe I've I've hidden this, and I think sometimes uh I'm not the only one who's kind of had this uh kind of hidden assumption about what this is about. And I and I really do believe um as I've grown and matured and come to understand scripture and God better, I think this is mistaken. I don't think this is really for God's sake. Uh um, I think God is making a statement. Um it's more a statement about reality, about uh, it's more statement of how humans work, what's real, um, and what's good for us. Um the uh because the reality is um, you know, and I thought Rachel did it uh uh explain it well, this idea of of um scripture has these two categories, God and everything else. God is a is a different type of being than everything else in the cosmos. And I think some of those those earlier reactions that I described is really imagining God like uh like part of the everything else. I'm imagining God as if God was just a very powerful person, human. You know, why might why might a why might a human ask for this? Um or uh you know, imagining God um you know just as one more powerful entity. God is uh but what what scripture and theologians as they um have reflected on this, God is a different type of being. God is self-existing, God is outside of time, um, God is the ground of all being, um, the organizing principle of all reality. Um God is a and even though when we use the word holy, yes, there's a a moral quality about that, but there's also a um like an existing quality. Like God is simply a different category of existence than you or I. We um are contingent, like we need uh other things to help us exist. We didn't make ourselves exist. Um we we and and and every um and all the things in the cosmos are ultimately contingent. Um I mean even stars needed things to happen before them so they exist. You know, animals, like we're all contingent. We contingent means like dependent upon something else to even exist. Um God is not contingent, God is self-existing. Like God is holy in the sense he's different or other than everything else in all reality. And he is also the source, he is the source, like the source of moral goodness is in God. The source of goodness, the source of truth, the source of beauty. Those are all, he is the fountainhead of all those things. And so when when God says, You shall have no other gods before me, what he he's saying, uh, dear image bearers, dear human beings, um, you have a religious impulse, a worship impulse. You need something to worship, to be the center of your life, to be the most important thing. Um I am I am the ground of all being. I am the source of goodness and light and truly, truth, and beauty. I am the one that if you point your hearts at me, you will you will live into your full humanness. If you try to take anything else in the everything else, and make it the most important thing, um, it's like uh whatever, it's pouring dishwasher detergent in a gas tank of a car. Like it's just not going to work fundamentally. And by God saying, You shall know the gods before me, I am the one thing that can be your God and that can um withstand the full weight of your life, the full trust of your life placed upon me. And I and so I really think it's it's for our good, he is the source of goodness, of love, of truth and beauty. He is the one we're meant to point our deepest longings and desires towards because he is the only one who is rightfully that. If we say, God, can you give us, can you give us a full and rich and meaningful life? Can you lead us into like the best possible life without um loving you? God would say, I have no other good life to give you apart from myself. The best gift God gives is the gift of Himself to us. And so um uh just like in the garden, um, when man and woman, when God said, Um, don't eat from this one tree, because it will bring death, um, and God truly was doing, was giving a command out of what was best for human beings, so too the first word, you shall have no other gods before me, is God giving a command that is actually for the best. It is for the the flourishing of those Israelites and of us still today. Um yeah, we are made to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Um, that is um that is what we're made to do. And so uh yeah, I think the first thing that I want to say is begin to reflect on these ten words, um, that God doesn't give this first word. You shall know that God's before me, in some kind of arbitrary like glory, like, hey, everybody look at me. God says, Um, I am I am the one spring of living water, I am the sun, the star of the universe. There, there is like light and life come from me. There's no other fountain head. And I tell you this, because when you try to drink from the false fountains, it'll only lead you wrong. Have no other gods. Because in me life is found. And I think as I do think, as far as with Jesus and and for this command and the next one as well, idolatry, I think we'll we'll be able to begin to explore what are the places that we're tempted, what are the places that we're tempted, and and kind of the the the ways that we can get slowly lured away from that. But to begin, the gift of God's first word grace and peace.