Have no other God's besides me
(...or...'Is God sufficient?')
This is the last talk in a series, running in parallel with the Just 10 series, with J.John taking place in the North East of England. The mp3 of this talk can be downloaded here.
The first command, to not worship any other gods but the one true God is one of the clearest unmissable messages we find in the Bible. It leaps, almost audibly from story, after story, after prophetic utterance – from Genesis to Revelation.
‘Do not worship any other god, for the LORD whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.’ Exodus 34:14
‘Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.’ Deuteronomy 6:14
With this message being so clear, so obvious and so audible, surely we would never succumb to such obvious rejection of God!?
Well, as Dave Burke considered last week, the worshipping of a god can come in some obvious, and some less than obvious ways – millions, if not billions of people around the world bow down before some form of an idol made of wood, gold, or some other material. The worship of idols is clearly an offence to God. Still more of us distort the identity of the one true God, the true God we claim to worship – adding of taking away from his character attributes that are his in order that we worship the god we want to worship. Making god in our image. This too is an offence to God.
But this first command is not limited to the worshipping of idols. It is not primarily about distorting the character of God. The problem is, we live in a world that both forces and attracts us to worship other gods. What do I mean by that?
The first commandment
This first commandment - ‘Do not worship any other god’s besides me’ (Ex20:3) is both a commandment in it’s own right, and the summary of all the other commandments.
When we think about gods we are always thinking about worship. When we think about worship we are always thinking about an attitude of the heart towards someone or something. Our english word 'Worship' comes from the old English word
weorðscipe
It means the condition of being worthy, receiving honour or renown. Therefore, when referring to God it means giving God the honour and recognition he deserves, or is worthy of. God’s ‘worth-ship’ if you like. In other words ‘Do not worship any other god besides me’ means this - There must be no rivals to God in your heart, no competition for your thoughts, nothing or no-one that you think worthy of your energy in comparison to God himself. And of course, there is only one God which means all other gods who do build themselves up as rivals are the product of man’s thinking anyway. So when we read this first command we shouldn't see in our minds eye a wooden or golden idol. We should see through the words themselves to the thoughts and feelings that would cause man to build idols in their hearts - idols to represent what their hearts desire in the first place.
If we had been alive in Roman times some of us may well have worshipped named idols, but these gods would have only represented what we wanted out of life anyway. Mars – the god of War, representing strength and fearlessness; Venus – the goddess of love and beauty; Minerva – the goddess of wisdom, learning, art and industry; Neptune – the god of the sea and Ceres – the goddess of the harvest. Unsurprisingly, the most popular god of all was Bacchus; the god of wine and partying.
People simply worshipped gods who they felt might give them what they already desired – whether that be love and beauty, food, wisdom or wine and partying. And this brings this command bang up to date.
There must be no rivals to God in our hearts, no competition for our thoughts, nothing that we think worthy of our energy in comparison to God. God wants, and deserves no rivals. But, lets be honest - he has some doesn’t he?
Rival gods
At this point in our consideration of this first command our thoughts could go in all sorts of directions. But Jesus addresses one in particular... Jesus says you cannot serve both God and money. And in Mark 10:17-22 we meet a man who discovers he can’t do both! God requires exclusivity in allegiance and worship.
Meet Earnest Wright-Life, a complicated man with a rival god. Earnest is, well earnest and heartfelt (v17). Despite being a rich man, we first meet him running to Jesus and kneeling down in front of him. Under normal circumstances we'd expect Earnest to formally introduce himself , but not today. As he meets Jesus, humility and sincerity are the order of the day – and this man seems to have both. He even seems to ask the right questions (v17). Have you ever been asked a question like this? Talk about cutting to the heart of the issue, Earnest appears to be really seeking the truth and wants to know that answer to his question. Plus, he seems to have lived a morally upright life (v19-21) - he was a man of significant moral character. Earnest is good, really good. He is not proud and arrogant with the way he has lived and he isn't 'holier than thou'. And Jesus felt genuine love for him.
But there is something else going on that Jesus brings out in v18, 21-22. Jesus knows that despite everything looking good – there is a rival to God’s throne in Earnest’s life. Jesus hints at it with his question and exposes it with his answer.
“Why do you call me good?...Only God is truly good”
Jesus is gentle and sensitive in hinting at the issue an of course, Jesus is God, but he hints to Earnest that the dots don’t quite join up when it comes to who has the throne in his life.
But Jesus is also straight exposing in v21 the rival in Earnest heart by giving him a straight and direct answer.
“Go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. The come, follow me.”
‘At this, the man’s face fell, and he went sadly away because he had many possessions.’ v22
As we have looked through the Just 10 series and the ten commandments, how have you felt? Has God been dropping gentle hints to you about where the dots don’t quite join up? Or has he been giving you really straight answers. Has God highlighted a rival to the throne of your heart and if so, what are you going to do about it?
Mission Impossible
But the story doesn't finish there. In v23-31, the disciples diagnise mission impossible
There was an interesting (if a little risky!) dialogue on an episode of the general knowledge quiz QI. One of the contestants, commenting on Jesus word picture of a camel ging through the eye of a needle, said that when they were at school they were told that the 'needle' was a gate into Jerusalem, one you had to bend to get through and therefore one it would have been very difficult for a camel to cope with. I have, on occasions been told the same thing. Another case of general ignorance (and trying to worm uyour way out of a difficult truth!)
But Jesus is not saying it is difficult for a rich man to get into heaven – he is saying it is impossible. In fact, he is saying it is impossible for anyone with a rival God in their life to get eternal life. Simple as that. It is like trying to get a camel through the eye of a needle.
So the disciples response of v26 is right – ‘Then who in the world can me saved?” They have understood very clearly. It is impossible.
But not with God!
‘Humanly speaking it is impossible, But not with God. Everything is possible with God.’
Back in Jeremiah in the middle of the Old Testament we find that the state of our hearts is remarkably simple.
“Has any nation ever exchanged its gods for another god, even though its gods are nothing? Yet my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols! The heavens are shocked at such a thing and shrink back in horror and dismay, says the Lord. For my people have done two evil things: They have forsaken me – the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns than can hold no water at all!”Jeremiah 2:11-13
Whatever our rival god is, whatever its lure. Whether it is popularity, fame, entertainment, sex, money, power, health and beauty, relationship or family. If they are rivals to God, whether they bad or not, then we have done 2 things. We have turned from the fountain of living water and dug cisterns to hold the water we receive from these things that are cracked, dry. We invest in worthless, dry and cracked cisterns that mean everything just drains away.
The analogy is clear. These sometimes good things, if they become our gods they will only lead to unquenchable thirst.
If, like Earnest money is our god – we may have lots of money but we will never be satisfied. If a meaningful relationship and marriage are our god, then whether we find that person or not, we will always find ourselves lonely. Because ultimately, all these things, on their own are cracked cisterns.
But in Jesus we find someone completely different.
Wwhen faced with the rivals to our hearts what should we do; what should Earnest have done?
We should see in Jesus, the Son of God, one who is ultimately sufficient for us and who has no rivals.
Jesus, speaking to the woman of Samaria.
“People soon become thirsty again after drinking this water. But the water I give them takes away thirst altogether. It becomes a perpetual spring within them, giving them eternal life.” (John 3:13)
“On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “If you are thirsty, come to me! If you believe in me, come and drink! For the scriptures declare that rivers of living water will flow out from within.” (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him.” (John 7:37-39)
So, what are the rivals to your heart? In what ways is God not sufficient for you?
Ask God to show you how sufficient he is for you and let us ask his spirit to work in us, that we would not trust cracked cisterns to satisfy us, but fountains of living water!