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I. OUR RACE must have a God. We cannot escape the sceptre and the supervision of the Creator.

II. NATIONS must have a God. The words of this law were addressed to the people of Israel. Neither kings nor senates nor majorities can avoid national responsibility. Constitutions may not recognise Him, but the Divine administration is not dependent upon human enactments.

III. THE INDIVIDUAL SOUL must have a God. The law of the universal holds the unit. I must have a God. Not one soul can drop out of the all-embracing government of God.

IV. There are TWO WAYS of having a God. First, by the necessity of His government, which will not surrender one soul to any other authority; and second, by the voluntary choice of the soul who takes the God who is king by right of creation, to his heart as Father and Redeemer, delighting in Him as his all-sufficient portion.

V. Man may have MANY GODS.

1. Through the perversion of the religious faculty, as when the powers that must worship something, having lost the perception of the true, invisible God, are directed towards visible things, first as symbols and then as substance — sun, moon, stars, statues, stones, birds of the air, beasts of the field, and loathsome reptiles of the ground.

2. Through the prostitution of all the faculties, as when the powers given us by the Creator to be used exclusively for His glory (which invariably includes our highest good) are employed with selfish aims, God being forgotten. Then are the objects of our love and delight the "gods" we serve.

VI. Man should have but ONE GOD — the one Lord God — JEHOVAH.

1. Because of what this one God is: the Self-existent, the Almighty, the Eternal, the Unchangeable, whose throne is from everlasting, and whose power and glory are only equalled by His holiness and justice and love and mercy.

2. Because of what this one has done. He is our Creator, and has preserved us. But more than this, it is He who has redeemed us.

3. Because of what man needs. Honour, ease, friendship, wealth, power, are all insufficient to meet the wants of the immortal mind of man. In the midst of all their best benefactions man cries out for something better. Man, made for God, is in misery without God.

4. Because of the train of miseries which must follow in the service of many gods, or of any but the one God. In the Hebrew the expression "before Me" signifies "before, upon, or against My face." He who has any other than the true God, thereby —

(1) Hides God's face from himself, so that He does not see God, nor look toward Him, nor rest assured of God's presence. He is full of doubts and uncertainties. The world is dark, for His face is hidden from which the light shines.

(2) He hides himself from God's face — from the smiles of approval and the words of blessing. No "well-pleasing in My sight" comes with its sweet inspiration and consolation to his soul. He is seen by the Almighty as through a thick cloud, and the Almighty delighteth not in him.

(3) His idolatries "before" or "against the face" of God antagonise God. He defies his Maker. He calls for His vengeance, and when the thrones of the idols perish before the indignation of the Almighty, all who bow at these thrones shall also perish.

VII. Man in "having" God has ALL THINGS. He has infinite resources of wisdom, power, and grace at command, according to the "exceeding great and precious promises" of God, who is "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." He has peace, deep and abiding. He has joy, full and unfailing. He has hope, clear and unquestioning. He has love, fervent, abounding, and all-controlling. He has "all things" of this world, and the "better things" of the world to come.

VIII. Let us look at this "word" of the law — the first of the "ten words" IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. First, there were "ten words," or commandments. They were prohibitory, monitory, and minatory. "Thou shalt not" rings through the code of Sinai. In the New Testament these are reduced to "two." "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Nay, we find them all in one. One law! One word! and this one word is Love.

IX. God led Israel out of bondage, but not out of the pains of DISCIPLINE AND TRIAL. He brought them out of Egypt to learn this law, but led them to Sinai by way of the Red Sea and the desert of Sin, and the perils of Rephidim, and through the midst of the fierce Amalekites. Thus are God's people led today to the heights where His law is revealed. The way is dark and desolate and full of danger, but He who leads us has lessons for us to learn: lessons about Himself; lessons which we are slow to receive and prone to forget; but He bears with us and brings us on our way — His way — sustaining and comforting and aiding us.

(J. H. Vincent, D. D.)

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KJV: Thou shalt have none other gods before me.

WEB: "You shall have no other gods before me.