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“No Other Gods” — Week 1 “He feeds on ashes; A deceived heart has turned him aside; And he cannot deliver his soul,
In the retelling of the commandments in Deuteronomy 5:6, the first commandment again is, “You shall have no other gods before me”: verses 7, 8: “You shall not make for yourselves a carved image-any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water below”; verse 9: “You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.…” Over and over in the Old Testament, we find this warning against alliance with idols, with strange and foreign gods. In Psalm 24:4, we read that the one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, is the one who may ascend into the hill of the Lord and stand in His holy place. David said he had not sat with idolatrous mortals (26:4) and asked that the Lord vindicate him because he had walked in integrity and in the Truth. In the New Testament, Jesus warns Satan during the time of Christ’s temptation, “Away with you! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.’” God’s people are thoroughly warned and instructed regarding the building and worshipping of idols. The spirit of idolatry whether in the ancient world or in modern Christendom is to rob God of His unique divinity and introduce rival gods into religion. The Word of the Lord declares that they are not gods. During this month’s devotions we will be looking specifically at Isaiah 44:20 and its context: “He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside and he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, ‘Is there not a lie in my right hand?’” Please take the time now to read this Scripture in various translations and paraphrases. I find the language in Peterson’s The Message especially interesting and “up to date.” |
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Throughout Scripture, God warns His people against idolatry. The first commandment in Exodus 30 is, “You shall have no other gods before me.” In Deuteronomy 4:14: “Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure.” Again in verse 23: “Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He has made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you”; verse 24, “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”