June 29, 2025
L. John Bost
Previous – How Beautiful Heaven Must Be
Phil Robertson, Star of Duck Dynasty and Duck Commander, passed away on May 25, 2025 (aged 79) in West Monroe, LA. More importantly than his accomplishments as a family man, duck hunter, businessman, and entertainer, Phil was a child of God and elder of the West Monroe. La, church of Christ. He enjoyed sharing the Word and brought many to Christ after he turned from sin and to Christ. He will be missed by so many people. Phil Robertson: Celebration of Life, West Monroe, LA. A Celebration of Life was given in his memory at the West Monroe church on May 29, 2025, which was posted on YouTube. You may hear it here.
Trust and Obey – Dallas Adult Christian Concert Choir
In Search of The Lord’s Way – Phil Sanders
Introduction
The children of Israel (also known as “Israelites,” the “sons of Israel,” Hebrews, and simply “Israel”) left the land of Canaan and settled in Egypt to be near their brother, Joseph, and the grain stored in Egypt stored by Joseph during seven years of plenty to be eaten during seven years of famine (Genesis 41-46). For some time, it was a happy and prosperous time for Israel. Eventually, however, “a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Ex 1:81). This king (or Pharaoh) was concerned that the people of Israel had become “more and mightier than we. 10 “Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land” (Ex 1:9-11). He ordered a series of measures to curtail the growth of the Israelits, including, slavery (Ex 1:13-14), and made the “labor rigorously; 14 and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them.” In time, “God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25 God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them” (Ex. 2:24-25). He sent Moses to deliver them from bondage (with God’s help, of course). After inflicting a series of ten plagues upon the Egyptians, culminating with the death of all of the firstborn sons of the Egyptians, Pharaoh finally let the Israelites go (Ex. 7-12).
Moses wrote In Exodus 19:1-2:
…the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. 2 When they set out from Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness; and there Israel camped in front of the mountain.
God called Moses to the mountain and said to him from the mountain, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself.” (Ex 19:3-4). God had said when He first called Moses to lead Israel (Ex 3:7-9):
I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. 8 “So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 9 “Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.
God kept His word and delivered them. Now, He reminds them of this and (Ex 19:5-6), “Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” God says, I delivered you from bondage, and you will be mine among all peoples, if you hear my voice and keep my covenant.
The Hebrew word translated as, covenant, is defined by Brown-Driver-Briggs as “covenant, alliance, pledge.” The word is found 284 times in the Old Testament and is translated as covenant, 264 times, league, 17 times, and confederate, 2 times. Vine writes:
“Covenant” is parallel or equivalent to the Hebrew words dabar [daw-baw’](“word”), hoq (“statute”), piqqud [pik-kood’] (“precepts”—Ps. 103:18, NASB), ‘edah [ay-daw’] (“testimony”—Ps. 25:10), torah [to-raw’] (“law”—Ps. 78:10), and checed {kheh’-sed] (“lovingkindness”—Deut. 7:9, NASB). These words emphasize the authority and grace of God in making and keeping the “covenant,” and the specific responsibility of man under the covenant. The words of the “covenant” were written in a book (Exod. 24:4, 7; Deut. 31:24-26) and on stone tablets (Exod. 34:28).
Notice again Vine’s words: “These words emphasize the authority and grace of God in making and keeping the ‘covenant,’ and the specific responsibility of man under the covenant [Emphasis added].” So God is making a covenant with Israel, which means He will give them certain laws and promise them certain benefits if they keep them. That brings us to the Ten Commandments.
The Giving of the Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments were given three times. First, God gives the Commandments orally from Mt. Sinai (Ex. 20:1-17). Second, He writes them on tablets of stone on Mt. Sinai (Ex. 31:18). Third, He has Moses write them on tablets of stone on Mt. Sinai after he broke them in anger after Israel’s sin of the golden Calf (Ex. 32; 34:27-28).
It must be noted that these commandments were, in fact, commandments. This may seem trite, but they have often been treated as mere suggestions or guidelines. The word translated as, commandments in “ten commandments” is from the Hebrew word dabar {daw-baw’}, which means “word, matter; something,” according to Vine.2 The word is translated as, word(s), 807 times and commandment(s) only 20 times. The phrase ” ten commandments” could be translated as “ten words” or “ten sayings” (The word is translated in the KJV, saying(s) twenty times). However, in the context of the giving of the Ten Commandments, God says He shows, “lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments” (Ex 20:4). There, Moses uses the Hebrew word, mitsvah {mits-vaw’}, which means, commandment(s), according to both Brown-Driver-Briggs and Strong. God says, He shows “lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments as He is giving what is elsewhere referred to as the “Ten Commandments.” Further, God references “my commandments” twenty-six times in the Old Testament, each time using the word, ” mitsvah {mits-vaw’} (commandment).
God intended the Ten Commandments to be considered commandments, not merely words or sayings to be altered, disobeyed, or forgotten at the whim of His people, Israel! God forbade Israel to add to, take away from, or alter His commandments (Deut. 4:2; 12:32. See also Rev. 22:18-19.
1. You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me
The first command is, “You shall have no other gods before me.” God had just said, “I am the Lord (Jehovah, the self-existent, eternal one, Strong) your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2). It was fitting that God, who had accomplished so much for and promised so much to Israel, demanded that they believe in, worship, and obey Him, and Him alone.
God commands Israel, “You shall have no other gods before me.” This does not mean that He recognized the existence of gods who were living gods, as the Egyptians and many other cultures believed. The Egyptians worshipped everything, believing there was a living god behind everything. God showed the error of such beliefs in each of the Ten Plagues that He used to convince Pharaoh to release Israel from slavery. When He instituted the Passover, He told His people, “For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord” (Ex 12:12-13). Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, said in Exodus 18:10-12:
Blessed be the Lord who delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh, and who delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11 “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods; indeed, it was proven when they dealt proudly against the people.”
Each of the Ten Plagues demonstrated God’s power over the gods of Egypt. The Lord willing, I will publish an article, or a series of articles, on this topic in the future.
Now, God tells Israel, “I am the one God and you must not have any of the gods of the Egyptians, or any other peoples, before me!” God made this point over and over again (Deut 5:7; 6:4, 5; Is 42:8; 45:21-22, etc.).
Sadly, Israel soon violated the first commandment and had Aaron make them a golden calf to worship (Ex. 32). This angered Moses and motivated him to break the stone tablets as he descended from the Mountain where he had just received them. God was so angry that He intended to “consume them” (Ex 32:10), but Moses interceded for Israel and God relented. However, He did plague the people and hinted of a day when “I visit I will visit their sin upon them” (Ex. 32:34, 35). Worshipping the gods of their neighbors would bring God’s wrath on Israel numerous times throughout their history.
Moses told Israel in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! 5 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Jesus, when asked, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” He answered, referring to this passage from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; 30 AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH” (Mark 12:28-30). The greatest commandment is not the same, though it is closely related to, the first of the Ten Commandments. Both firmly establish the fact that we must never put any gods before the God. The first four of the Ten Commandments deal with man’s relationship with God, whereas the remaining six commandments deal with man’s relationship with his fellow man, as we will see in coming articles.
“You shall have no other gods before me.”
To be continued…
- Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture references are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. BibleGateway.com: Search for a Bible passage in 71 languages and 226 versions. ↩︎
