Choose God First

Exo 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Is this a selfish commandment on God's part? Why does God want us to have NO other gods before Him? We have to think about this because this IS one of those commandments people have tossed aside as if it doesn't matter at all. In fact, people have put so many idols in front of themselves that God on that list is way down near the bottom. Then again you will have people who have God up near the top, but still NOT first. These people think they're close enough to earn points but there is NO close enough. You either put God first or you are breaking this commandment there is not other way. Now why SHOULD we put God first, just because He tells us to? Isn't that enough? Do we need any other reason to follow a commandment from our Creator? If we TRULY believe He is our Creator. If we truly believe He is our Heavenly Father, then do we need anything other than His word in order to follow His commands? Is it Satan's desire that we believe we need more? He did tell Eve this…


Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Gen 3:2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
Gen 3:3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Gen 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
Gen 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.


Satan says- God says you should eat of every tree of the garden.
Eve says- Every tree but the tree in the middle of the garden, we can't touch it or eat of it or we'll die.
Satan says- You won't die.

Obviously Satan is telling Eve that God is a LIAR. In fact Satan embellishes that.

Satan says- God knows that if you do eat of that tree your eyes are going to be opened up, your understanding is going to be like His. You'll understand all the things that God understands. You'll know what good things are and what evil things are. You don't know what evil is, God is keeping that from you. God doesn't want you to be like He is. God doesn't want you to know about evil because then you'd know good. See you can't tell what's really good unless you know what's really bad.

Okay, so Satan didn't say all those things but can't we read between the lines a little bit and understand that Satan's purpose for getting Eve to take a bite from that forbidden fruit was all just to get them to sin, to disobey God's command, to NOT listen to their Creator.

Was God supposed to explain the reason for His command to Adam and Eve? Was He supposed to sit down and tell them all about good and evil and why it's a good idea not to have their understanding opened? We want to say- yeah, He should have done that and then they wouldn't have sinned. See, we have all the answers, all the excuses and if one isn't good enough we can think up many more.

The truth is… God, our Creator gave us a command and we broke it. God, our Creator told us to do ONE thing, listen to Him and we chose not to listen to Him. We chose to disobey. We chose to listen to another before God.


Did you read that… We chose to listen to another BEFORE God. We listened to Satan BEFORE God. Our first sin was choosing another over God, choosing to listen to Satan over God. So is it any wonder at all that God's FIRST commandment is…

Exo 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

He's saying LISTEN, You chose to follow another, now if you want to follow me you cannot choose to follow any others over me, I must come first in your life. You can't have any other gods before me, I must be first. You left me once, now if you want me back in your life you will have to choose me and stay with me. Satan in the disguise of many evils will try to get you to choose others all of them controlled by Him, and you cannot choose them over me. You will be tempted, you will be tried. You are living with the propensity towards sinning unlike my first humans, so you will have to put all your hope, all your trust in Me and NO other. Look to Me. Make Me first so that I can restore you to Me in all purity. You will NOT be able to do this alone, but find your HOPE in Me!

There is SO much in this commandment that we need to consider, so incredibly much beyond the eight words.


More tomorrow…all by the grace of God. May we CHOOSE Him to be first, may we CHOOSE Him to be our HOPE always, trusting in no other but Him.


In His amazing LOVE.


Amen.