Don’t Have Any G-Ds Before Me

In Exodus 20:3, we read these words as G-D speaks to all Israel from Mount Sinai: “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

When we read, think about, teach, or discuss these words we often understand them as if G-D is saying, “Don’t have any gods instead of Me,” or “Don’t replace Me with another god.”

But that isn’t what the verse actually says.

G-D is speaking to the Israelites who had just experienced the Ten Plagues and the parting of the sea. There were millions of people who had witnessed G-D bring down the most powerful nation in the world. Even as they heard these words coming from the mountain, supernatural events were taking place. We read in Exodus 19:18:

“Now the entire Mount Sinai was in smoke, because Adonai had descended upon it in fire. The smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.”

Even the very voice of G-D sounded thunderous as He spoke the Ten Words.

The Israelites had prepared for days for this moment, making sure they obeyed everything G-D commanded in preparation, because they knew that failure to do so could result in death.

Everything they knew about G-D was connected to His awesome might and His strong right hand. It makes perfect sense that they would be trembling with fear as they stood around the mountain hearing His voice. G-D then introduced Himself as the G-D who had delivered them out of the bondage of slavery.

But, He did not want to be known only as a powerful G-D who could destroy nations and set free slaves. G-D wanted Israel to know that He was approachable and relational. So, He commanded Israel not to have any other gods before Him—or, literally, before His face. In other words, He did not want anything standing between Him and Israel.

The Egyptians made idols as representations of the gods they worshiped. They feared their gods so much that they built statues to stand between themselves and the gods they feared. These images served as intermediaries—objects they could see and worship before, rather than standing before the actual gods they feared so greatly.

Through the Ten Plagues, the deliverance from Egypt, and the parting of the sea G-D demonstrated that He was more powerful than all the false gods of Egypt. As a result, the Israelites feared G-D greatly. But, fear was not what the G-D of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ultimately desired. What G-D wanted from the Israelites was love and a covenant relationship.

So, as He began to speak the Ten Words to all the people—both the descendants of Israel and the mixed multitude—He first told them who He was in Exodus 20:2-3: 

“I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

Then He told them what He desired from them:

“You shall have no other gods before Me.”

To say it another way: I am the G-D who set you free by destroying your enemies with My strong right arm, but I do not want you to see Me only as the destroyer of nations. I want you to know that I love you and desire a loving covenant relationship with you. I will never allow anything to come between Me from you and I do not want you ever to allow anything to come between us.

It is with this understanding that Paul wrote the words found in Romans 8:38–39:

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.”

G-D promised that He would not let anything separate us from His love and He asks us not to let anything separate Him from our love.

The question becomes: Have we?