Then God spoke these words, “I am the LORD your God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me” (vv.1-3)
In the ancient world (including Egypt), men worshipped many gods. Here Yahweh (the LORD), the covenant God of Israel, set Himself apart from any of the other supposed deities. In these first few words, "I Am The LORD, your God," God both reminded and taught Israel essential facts or principles about who He is, and about His nature. Before God commanded anything of Israel, He reminded them what He had done for them. This was a clear foundation: because of who God is, and what He had done, He has the right to tell them (and us) what to do – and they (and we) have the obligation to obey Him.
The first commandment then, "You shall have no other gods before Me," logically flows from understanding who God was and what He had done for Israel. Because of that, nothing was to come before God and He was the only God they (and we) were to worship and serve. This does not imply that it is permissible to have other gods, as long as they line up behind the true God. Instead the idea is that there are to be no other gods before the sight of the true God in our life. This means God demands to be more than added to our lives. We don’t just add Jesus to the life we already have. We must give Him all our life.
The remainder of the ten commandments are given here in chapter 20. In reading and thinking through these commandments, it should be always remembered that Israel first heard these commands spoken by God from heaven in an audible voice, which made a very strong and authoritative impression upon the people. He spoke to all Israel as they assembled together at the foot of Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:19). These commandments were expressed in strong simple terms, understandable to all, and dealt with the temptations of the common man, not of the theologian.
Then, when the people saw the thunder and lightning which accompanied God's voice and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled in fear and kept their distance from the mountain. Then said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we shall die" (vv.18-19). After this, Moses went back up the mountain to receive more revelation from God for the people (Exodus 20:21).
These laws were not invented at Mount Sinai. A few aspects of the Mosaic Law show new revelation, but for the most part it simply clearly and definitely lays out God’s law as it was written in the heart of man since the time of Adam. F.B. Meyer puts it this way, “It is wrong to steal, or murder, or covet, not primarily because these sins are forbidden by the Ten Commandments. They are forbidden by the Ten Commandments, because they were previously forbidden by conscience; and they are forbidden by conscience because they are forbidden by the nature of things; and the nature of things is God.” In his book "The Abolition of Man," C.S. Lewis explained how there certainly is a universal morality among men. He gave concrete examples of how all cultures in the past were able to agree on the basics of morality because these principles are implanted in the heart and mind of mankind.
However, we need God to morally instruct and guide us. Though these principles resonate with the human conscience (both individually and collectively), they are certainly not the only influence upon our thinking and behavior. We need to know that there is a God in heaven who expects certain moral behavior and that there are consequences from obeying or disobeying these commands.
These Ten Commandments were never given with the thought that one might earn heaven by obeying them all perfectly or adequately. The covenant God made with Israel at Mount Sinai was much bigger than the law, though that was its first and perhaps most dramatic aspect. Another aspect of the covenant was sacrifice, which was given because both God and Israel knew that it was impossible for them to keep this law perfectly, and they must depend on the sacrifice of an innocent victim as a substitute for the guilty law-breaker. In this sense, the Ten Commandments were like a mirror that showed Israel their need for sacrifice.
More importantly, we know that Jesus Himself was the only one to ever keep the law perfectly – either in the ten or the two. He never needed to sacrifice for His own sin, so could be the perfect sacrifice for our sin. Wonderfully, His obedience is credited to those who put their love and trust in Him. Romans 8:2-3 puts it this way: For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. This is God’s amazing promise to those who repent and believe on Jesus.
The Truth: Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:35-40)
