The first of the ten commandments is where it all begins. It is not only first in order, but also first in importance. Without the first one, all of the rest of the commandments would be totally impossible to live. The first one is where it all begins -- it is where the Christian life begins; it is where a new area of growth in a believer’s life begins; it is where each day and each hour for a healthy believer begins.
It is, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). The emphasis of the Holy Spirit is on the word “me.” It is all about God Himself. The Christian life is about the greatness of God. It is not really about great concepts of God; it is not about trying to be good for God; it is not about trying to remember God in all that you do; it is not about trying to order your steps to please God. It is about being in fellowship and communion and relationship and union with God. It is about the heart being circumcised so that it can see and experience this wonderful being called God -- our Father, our Daddy. It is about God actively showing you His glory, His righteousness, His love, His ways, His works, His plans, and His power to transform you into all that He desires you to be -- all of this from right inside of your being. It is about God filling you with Himself -- His being and nature and ways and goodness.
This first commandment is all about experienceing God.
I did not know until the last few years that there is quite a bit of debate among scholars as to the meaning of the first commandment. I thought it meant that we were not to have any other thing that we worship except for God. Though this idea is certainly true (and is seen in the second commandment), it is not really the primary and main point of the first commandment.
The key to the controversy among scholars is the phrase “before me.” I had thought it meant “instead of me” or “in place of me.” What it really says is “above my presence,” or “outside of my presence,” or "beside [as standing near or next to] my presence." In other words, when translators use the words “before me,” they mean it in the sense that someone who is standing face to face with you, right before you, is in your presence. And this is our privilege as believers -- to experience our wonderful God that clearly and that richly.
A literal translation of the whole verse, though it is a little rough in English, helps bring out the full thought. It is, “There shall not be to you any other gods above my presence.” A further important point is that the word translated “gods” is the Hebrew word “elohim.” It is the plural of “eloah,” meaning “god.” The “im” ending is the masculine plural ending in Hebrew (similar to many English plurals being formed with the “s” ending). However, most of the time “elohim” is translated as the singular “God.” The reason for this is that when Hebrew writers were referring to the glorious God, our Father, the only TRUE God, they would use the plural form, “elohim,” but they would use it with singular verb forms. For example, in English, we would say, “God says…,” but “gods say….” In Hebrew, however, when referring to the living God, they would say, literally, “elohim says” ("Gods says"). They use a singular verb form with the plural noun form, “elohim.” When referring to the false gods of the nations, however, they would use plural verb forms ("the gods say"). This is part of the mystery of the revelation in the Scriptures of the plural nature of the one true God.
So, let’s quote the verse above again, along with the verse before it (Ex. 20:2), using “elohim” where it is used in the Hebrew in these two verses, so that we can get a feel for how someone reading it in Hebrew would experience it. “I am Jehovah (or Yahweh) your Elohim, who has brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. There shall not be to you any other Elohim outside of my presence.”
What it is saying is that we are to know God in His presence. We are to know God by His presence. And we are not to have any other concepts of God except what we experience in His presence. We are to come to know who He is, what He wants, what His ways are, by His presence. We are not to conceive of any other concepts about God except what we experience in His presence. We are not to know Him by study, but by fellowshipping with Him face to face. That does not mean that we don’t study the Scriptures, or that we don’t read other books about the King. But it is the dynamic experiencing of His presence -- the experiencing of Him -- that will teach us. It will teach us what the Bible means. It will lead us as to what to read, and enlighten our heart to capture what He is trying to communicate to us. If a brother in Christ is speaking truth in the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God within us will bear witness to that reality and cause us to see it spiritually, and to understand it. In fact, in good fellowship with believers, the Holy Spirit flows back and forth between us, as we enjoy Him in each other, in the discussion. Really, at this level of fellowship with other believers, it is a place of richly flowing together in His presence.
The word “presence” in the first commandment is literally “face.” It does not mean just the feeling of having someone close by, in the vicinity of us, nor even bumping into us, but rather the richer experience of having a face to face discussion with someone -- in this case, with God. That is His presence. When we have a good, rich discussion with someone, we look at one another’s face. The words coming out of their mouth, the look in their eyes, their overall facial expressions, all come together to communicate what is on their heart. So it is with God. He is not remote. He is in us. He fellowships with us. We see Him in our spirit as we flow in the Holy Spirit. And we are not to develop any other concept of God except what we experience in His presence. His presence will teach us all things.
Do you realize, brothers and sisters, that we have the greatest and most fantastic teacher right inside of us? We do not just know about God -- we know God. And above all, this is what He wants us to have -- the experience of being full of Him and being taught by Him.
This does not mean that I do not need my brothers and sisters in Christ. We are one in Christ. I experience Him in my spirit, and I experience Him in my brothers and sisters. When they speak a word in the Holy Spirit, it is the very face of God in their face and in their spirit that awakens me and nourishes me. This, in turn, will stir me up, cause me to see my King with a fresh new thought in the Holy Spirit, that I will then share back with them. Together we experience the King’s face, the King’s presence.
This is the idea behind what Paul was talking about, in His discussion of the difference between the New Covenant and the Old Covenant in II Cor. 3:1-4:6, when he said in 4:6, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
As God was teaching me what this verse in Exodus 20:3, this first commandment, meant, my mind began to wonder what people in the Old Covenant thought of the verse. Clearly, the New Covenant is about God coming into union, into oneness, with us through the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As we “eat” Jesus (receive His resurrected being into our being -- John 6:57), His resurrected humanity fills us with God and teaches us of God. So, it is natural for us to think of experiencing God in His presence. But what about people in the Old Covenant? Although this commandment was ultimately written for us who are in Christ, to understand with spiritual understanding, yet it was originally written to people who were not yet in Christ. It was written to those who were still in the flesh.
Then God caused me to understand that even in the Old Covenant times -- in the times of Moses, David, etc. -- they were also to only know about God what His presence taught them. The were expected to experience His presence. In fact, it was God’s presence, in the burning bush, that led Moses to go back into Egypt to get the people out. It was His presence that gave Moses direction when Pharaoh said “no.” It was His presence that led them through the Red Sea. It was His presence that led them by a pillar of cloud during the day and by a pillar of fire at night. It was His presence that Moses sought to get direction, as he entered into the Holy of Holies to communicate with God. It was His presence that gave Moses the ten commandments in the first place! Yes, these experiences were all on the outside -- yet it was God's presence nonetheless.
After the people of Israel sinned while Moses was receiving the law on Mount Sinai, God told Moses that He was withdrawing His presence from them (Exodus 33). He said He would go ahead of them to drive out the enemy, but He would not be in their midst any more. This terrified Moses. He had come to rely on His presence. He had come to love His presence. His presence was Moses’ confidence. So he pleaded with God that His presence would go with them. God responded to Moses’ plea, “My presence shall go with thee” (v. 14). The next couple of verses, verses 15-17, can appear confusing unless some subtle points are brought out. I have used the King James “thee” to bring out this subtlety. In the King James version, “thee” is singular, and “you” is plural. What God was saying to Moses was that, in response to Moses’ prayers, His presence would go with him, Moses (“thee”), but He at that point made no promise to go with the whole people (“you”). So Moses further pleads with God, “If your presence does not go with us, then don’t take us up from here” (v. 15). Moses adds that it was His presence that made the people of God unique from the rest of the nations (v. 16). God replies, “I will also do this thing that you have asked, for you have found grace in my sight, and I know you by name” (v. 17). His presence would go with the whole people.
So, God’s presence was at the center of what made Israel His people, His peculiar treasure. It was what led them. It was what taught them. It was Moses’ confidence. It was what drove out the enemies. Moses’ confidence was not in a remote God way out there somewhere, but it was in the person of God Himself. His confidence was in experiencing God Himself.
It is fascinating to note what happens next in this passage of Exodus 33. After this interaction with God, Moses cries out, “I beg of you, show me your glory!” (v. 18). Through this encounter and discussion with God, Moses was beginning to get to know the personality of God. His heart was thrilled with the awesomeness of experiencing a dynamic interaction with God. This made him long for more of God! He wanted to see more of His glory, more of the wonders of who God is.
This is also true for us. The more we experience our glorious God, the more we flow in the Spirit of God in prayer and fellowship, the more we will long for yet more of Him. David says, “In Your presence is the fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11). That is pure joy. I have never experienced anything in my life that even comes close to the joy and thrill of experiencing God’s presence -- of flowing in the moving of God’s being. It is life. It is joy. It is power. It causes the very transforming work within us -- making us like Jesus.
David further says in this same verse, “at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” There is no pleasure like knowing God! That is the highest pleasure there is. There are no thrills of sporting events, no food, no alcohol, no drugs, no sexual experiences, that even come close to the pleasure of dynamically experiencing God. Not only that, but His presence and power within us will, through experiencing Him, straighten us out. It will put sporting events in their proper place. We can enjoy them without being consumed by them, because God puts our thoughts and feelings about them in proper perspective. We will no longer live for sporting events, because the greatest sport is the exercise of praying in the Holy Spirit! He will deliver us from illicit drug use. Things like food and sex will be put in proper perspective within our heart. We will give thanks for food and enjoy it freely, without being consumed by lust for it. Similarly, sex was created by the divine wisdom of God, so it is because of God’s great wisdom that it is so much fun. God created it for a husband and wife to enjoy each other, to knit their hearts together. It is not for outside of marriage, and the desire for it is not to consume us. The power and wisdom of God within our being, as we experience His presence, will teach us and lead us to put it in proper perspective, and cause us to have self control. We cannot do this -- the desires within our members are too strong! But God can. The same wisdom that created this beautiful experience in the first place can cause us to put it in proper perspective in our hearts and desires, and cause us to use it as a tool of loving service to bless our spouse with, instead of just using it as a tool to satisfy our own desires.
My main point, however, is that whatever pleasures people may experience -- whether they are lawful or illicit -- cannot compare to seeing God in our spirits. There is no pleasure that even comes close to the pure pleasure, the pure joy, and the pure delight of experiencing God’s presence, of experiencing Him. And there is nothing that can change us to be what God designed us to be, outside of His presence (given to us in Christ). Good thoughts will not do it. Good doctrines will not do it. Good exhortations will not do it. Good books will not do it. Only God can do it. Not God as a remote power, nor God as a thought, but rather the experiencing of God Himself.
When the great falling away from the faith began to occur toward the end of the first century A.D., and in the second century -- this coming of the anti-Christ, or, rather the instead-of-Christ, that John talked about -- it was the violation of this first commandment that was the cause. In order to solve the various problems, and to deal with the various doctrines, that were in the church, people leaned on their own mind, their own understanding of the Bible, their own ability to deduce, and on their own ability to make decisions and corrections. This lead to stronger and stronger leadership being formed, in order to maintain control. This lead to more and more human organization among those who name the name of Jesus. This lead to more and more thinking and reasoning about what the teachings of Jesus, Peter, Paul, and the other apostles, meant in all their implications. This lead to more and more fixing in concrete the doctrines that they considered correct (which is really a violation of the second commandment, which we will get to in the next article). There is nothing wrong with teaching truth -- but clearly laid out explanations in mere human logic and reasoning are not truth, no matter how hard people work at deducing such ideas. Truth means “reality.” And this reality is what really is -- which can only be known by being caught up into God in the flow of the Holy Spirit -- by God’s own being coursing through our being.
You cannot learn rock climbing from a book. A good book can help frame the important ideas about rock climbing, and can give the mind some concepts to grasp, and knowledge of equipment names and purposes. But rock climbing can only truly be learned through experience. The book can refer to the ideas to help prepare the mind, but the truth is in getting out there on the rocks with an instructor. So also, you cannot get to know God from a book, nor from a teaching. Rather, you get to know Him by giving yourself to His presence, by abandoning your whole being to the person of the Holy Spirit within you. He will take you into the mountains of God’s presence, to the mountains of His holiness, to know God and truth by experience.
Let us now look at the second commandment….