The Ten Commandments are generally treated as confining rules and nothing else. Yet humanity likes rules, we just don’t like to admit we like rules. We love guidelines and structure. No parent feels unloving or unkind because they make a rule about not playing on the road. Rules matter. The Rule-Maker matters. 

The first commandment establishes this. “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Why start here? The Egyptian period of Israel’s history exposed them to the pantheistic world of Egyptian theology. The temptation would be to accept, honor, and thus follow, an endless barrage of other gods. There needs to be a consistent authority, a being with the final say in the matter. We get this in the world. When something goes wrong at the bank with your checking account, who do you want to speak to? “Let me speak to someone in charge,” or “I’d like to see the manager, please.” We want to speak to the one who makes or enforces the rules. The first commandment sets this in the proper place. God is in charge, He makes the rules and He enforces the rules. Not every person has an equal say, there is a structure and a pattern for authority. We see this in the home, we see this in government, and we see this in the local church. God likes for there to be clarity and someone leading. 

We must start here. If God is the ultimate authority in the universe, and as the rest of Scripture reaffirms, He is: we must have no other god before Him. This may not be the false gods of Canaan anymore, or the pantheon of Egypt anymore, but we must guard our hearts and thoughts from serving the gods of wealth, prosperity, education, technology, prominence, or any number of other ventures. Because God is God, the Creator and Sustainer of life, we have no choice but to bow to Him and His authority.