A bible study by Adam Osborne, JR.
COMMANDMENT #1
Exodus 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Exodus 20:3
• “gods†– pronounced el-o-heem’ – gods or deities in the ordinary sense; false spiritual objects of worship; also used in reference to rulers or angels and other spiritual beings.
• “before me†– al paw-neem’ – Lit. “before my face.â€
Read and meditate each day this week: Exodus 20:1-17
EACH DAY: Exodus 20: 1-17 The Ten Commandments
1 And God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me. (See note below)
4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.â€
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NOTES:
Matthew Henry’s Commentary with my revisions and comments added:
• 1. LOOK AT VERSE 1, God spoke all these words, The law of the ten commandments is,
o 1. A law of God’s making. These words were spoken by the infinite eternal Majesty of heaven and earth.
o 2. It is a law of his own speaking. ASK, HOW MANY WAYS DOES GOD HAVE WHEN SPEAKING TO US?
God has many ways of speaking to the children of men. By his Spirit, by conscience, by providences, by his voice. DO WE ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT? DO WE LIVE LIKE GOD IS SPEAKING TO US? (WHY NOT?).
o ASK: AT THE TIME THAT GOD SPOKE THIS, DO YOU THINK THAT MANKIND ALREADY KNEW THESE LAWS?
This law God had given to man before (it was written in his heart by nature); but sin had so defaced that writing that it was necessary, in this manner, to revive the knowledge of it.
• 2. The preface of the Law-maker: I am the Lord thy God, Exo_20:2. ASK “WHY DID GOD START OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WITH THESE 6 WORDS?
o 1. God asserts his own authority to enact this law in general: “I am the Lord who command thee all that follows.â€
o 2. He proposes himself as the sole object of that religious worship which is discussed in the first four of the commandments. They are here bound to obedience by THREE things:
(1.) Because God is the Lord – Jehovah, self-existent, independent, eternal, and the fountain of all being and power; therefore he has an incontestable right to command us. He that gives being may give law; and therefore he is able to bear us out in our obedience, to reward it, and to punish our disobedience.
(2.) He was their God, a God in covenant with them, their God by their own consent; and, if they would not keep his commandments, who would? He had laid himself under obligations to them by promise.
• ASK/DISCUSS: So, we all know from the introduction to the Ten Commandments last week that we are now the children of Isreal through Jesus. But how do you think we are obligated to the covenant as a New Testament, Jesus believing body of believers?
o All that are baptized are taken into relation to him as their God, and are therefore unjust, unfaithful, and very ungrateful, if they obey him not.
(3.) He had brought them out of the land of Egypt; therefore they were bound in gratitude to obey him, because he had done them so great a kindness, had brought them out of a grievous slavery into a glorious liberty.
• They themselves had been eye-witnesses of the great things God had done to deliver them. They saw everything, every miracle, every circumstance, and that had increased their obligation.
• They were now enjoying the blessed fruits of their deliverance and in expectation of a speedy settlement in Canaan; and could they think any thing too much to do for him that had done so much for them? WHY DO WE NOT THINK THIS WAY TODAY?
• By redeeming them, he acquired a further right to rule them; they owed their service to him to whom they owed their freedom, and whose they were by purchase.
• And thus Christ, having rescued us out of the bondage of sin, is entitled to the best service we can do him. Having loosed our bonds, he has bound us to obey him, (Psa_116:16 Truly I am your servant, LORD; I serve you just as my mother did; you have freed me from my chains.)
• 3. The law itself. The first four of the Ten Commandments, which concern our duty to God (commonly called the first table), we have in these verses. ASK “WHY DO THESE FIRST 4 VERSES COME FIRST?
o Because man had a Maker to love before he had a neighbour to love; and justice and charity are acceptable acts of obedience to God only when they flow from the principles of piety.
o It cannot be expected that man should be true to his brother when he is false to his God.
o Our duty to God is, in one word, to worship him, that is, to give to him the glory due to his name, the inward worship of our affections, the outward worship of solemn address and attendance. This is spoken of as the sum and substance of the everlasting gospel. Rev_14:7, Worship God. Revelation 14:7 He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.â€
o DISCUSS SUMMARY OF THE FIRST COMMANDMENT:
 The first commandment concerns the object of our worship, Jehovah, and him only (Exo_20:3): Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
 The Egyptians, and other neighbouring nations, had many gods, the creatures of their own fancy, strange gods, new gods; this law was needed because of that sin.
 Jehovah being the God of Israel, they must entirely cleave to him, and not be for any other, either of their own invention or borrowed from their neighbours.
 This was the sin they were most in danger of now that the world was so overspread with polytheism, which yet could not be rooted out effectually but by the gospel of Christ.
 The sin against this commandment which we are most in danger of is giving the glory and honour to any creature which are due to God only.
 WHAT ARE THE WAYS IN WHICH WE SOMETIMES SIN IN REGARDS TO THE FIRST COMMANDMENT:
• pride makes a god of self,
• covetousness makes a god of money,
• sensuality makes a god of the belly;
• whatever is esteemed or loved, feared or served, delighted in or depended on, more than God, that (whatever it is) we do in effect make a god of.
 This prohibition includes a precept which is the foundation of the whole law, that we take the Lord for our God, acknowledge that he is God, accept him for ours, adore him with admiration and humble reverence, and set our affections entirely upon him.
 In the last words, before me, it is intimated,
• (1.) That we cannot have any other God but he will certainly know it. There is none besides him but what is before him. Idolaters covet secresy; but shall not God search this out?
• (2.) That it is very provoking to him; it is a sin that dares him to his face, which he cannot, which he will not, overlook, nor not take action against. See Psa_44:20-21 . 20 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21 would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?
Bible Fellowship Time
Icebreaker
Have you ever made something more important than God?
Discussion questions for ABF’s:
1. Summarize the first commandment in your own words.
2. Why would this commandment have been so important for the Israelites?
a. Egyptians had “multiple†Gods. See comments above.
3. In what ways might we be tempted today to break the first commandment?
a. Discussed in Matthew Henry’s comments above.
4. What does this commandment reveal about God’s nature?
a. He is faithful and true to us because of his covenant, he DEMANDS that we are faithful and true to him.
b. God is a demanding, jealous God. BUT, AS OUR CREATOR and provider, he has all rights to be that way. He is to be worshipped above all else.
5. What biblical doctrines depend on the holiness of a jealous God?
a. The Doctrines of Sin and the doctrine of Salvation.
6. What was the prophet Isaiah’s reaction to God’s holiness (Isaiah 6:1-5)?
a. 5 “Woe to me!†I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.â€
Going Deeper John 17:20-26
7. What does this passage reveal about God? About Jesus?
a. V25. God is righteous.
b. God is in Jesus, Jesus is in God.
c. Jesus wants us to believe in Him, and he wants us to be “IN†them.
d. Other?
8. About us (the church) and our relationships?
a. We are “all one†in Christ.
9. What biblical doctrines are present in this passage?
a. Jesus is both fully God and fully man.
b. The doctrine of the trinity.
c. Salvation is a GIFT of God.
10. How does the doctrine of the Holy Trinity relate to the 1st commandment?
a. Question 9 above.
11. What specifically is Jesus’ prayer?
a. That man knows God and we are all ONE with God.
b. Other?
12. What light does the Gospel shine on these passages?
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