Saints and Sinners: The first of the commandments
Most of us know there are Ten Commandments. But fewer than half of us can name as many as five of them, according to a Gallup Poll.
How many can you name?
Even if you can rattle off all 10, numbering them could prove to be your undoing, because the commandments are not numbered in the Bible.
The numbering has been done by churchmen who have not agreed. The result is three different sets of numbering — one used by Catholics, one by Lutherans and still another by other Protestants and Orthodox Christians.
“Thou shalt not kill,” for example, is the fifth commandment in the Lutheran and Catholic catechisms. In the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, it is the sixth.
The Ten Commandments (or the Decalogue, a Greek word meaning the “ten words”) are found in two places in the Bible — Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. The phrasing and order are similar in the two Old Testament books, but are not identical.
The Bible says the commandments were given by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Moses was to pass them on to the Israelites. The first commandment was “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” What other gods was God referring to?
The people of ancient times worshiped many gods. Even the Israelites of Moses’ day believed in the existence of gods other than Jehovah. One of their songs to the Lord contained the line, “Who is like thee, O Lord, among the gods?”
Animal worship was common, too. It was natural for primitive people terrorized by wild animals to think that these creatures were gods, superior to humans. Animals were also a necessary source of food. They, therefore, had to be propitiated and honored.
Then there was the desire of ancient people for idols and images of their gods. Even today, many of us like to have some visual or tactile representation of the invisible spiritual world — whether crucifix, statue or altar.
Among all the gods and idols being worshiped in Moses’ time, Jehovah was in danger of being lost. This commandment was designed to put him first and foremost by warning the Israelites that they were to worship him alone. In a world of competing gods, all other gods but Jehovah were to be forsaken.
Most of us have an easy time with this commandment.
Too easy perhaps. We believe in only one true God. No problem. You won’t catch us worshipping any golden calf!
As a practical matter, however, we must admit we often love and trust things or other people more than we love and trust God. Except maybe on Sunday.
As for fearing God, we don’t. The Israelites’ idea of God was of someone whose laws and commandments have to be obeyed. When they are not — when “God is angry” — there are tragic consequences not only for the wrongdoers but for countless innocent parties, as well.
The sins of the fathers, God reminded the Israelites when he gave them the commandments, are “visited upon the children.” We know that to be so. We call it heredity or we trace it to the environment in which children grow up. In any case, there is a price to pay when we ignore God’s commandments.
Do we emphasize a loving God to the exclusion of a God who must be feared as well? God should perhaps be compared in our thinking to electricity. Although we can’t see electricity, it can light up our lives and give us warmth and comfort and provide power.
But it must also be feared and respected.
(George Plagenz is a syndicated columnist.)