Question 54: What are we especially taught by these words, "before me," in the first commandment?

Answer: These words "before me," in the first commandment teach us that God, who sees all things, takes notice of, and is much displeased with the sin of having any other God.

"You shall have no other gods before Me.” Exodus 20:3 NKJV

Introduction

We return this week to Exodus 20:3 with an emphasis on looking at the expression “before Me.” The Hebrew used here is paniym, which simply means before or in the presence of. This phrase actually brings about two different, but related truths. The first one we have already spoken of in Joshua 24:14-15 and we will review this week in Deut. 30:15-20, namely, our choice in worship is between the LORD God and all other gods. As MacArthur said, “all false gods stand in opposition to the (one) true God, and the worship of them is incompatible with the worship of Yahweh (LORD).” We have seen that this is but a temporary choice for man in Jesus’ dialogue with Satan in Matthew 4:10 and given broadly to all in Philippians 2:9-11. Thus, this first command can be seen as an imperative for our lifetime, but a future indicative thereafter.

The second truth from the expression “before Me” is more clearly expressed in this week’s catechism, namely, that God sees the worship of other gods before Him and judges those who so make the choice. Nothing escapes the eyes and ears of God. We stand naked in His presence at all times even unto judgement (Hebrews 3:12-13).

Day 1: No Secrets with God

Psalm 90:8, 44:20-21

Psalm 90 is a prayer written by Moses in a time of great distress. It seems to come during an extended period of God’s judgement upon the Israelites, which would most likely be the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Perhaps this prayer comes toward the end of Moses’ life as he pleads to God to return to them with His mercy. Moses begins his prayer where all prayers should begin with praise and adoration of the one true God. In verses 1-2, Moses praises God for being the protector and provider of His people, and for being the eternal creator of the earth, and for being the eternal God of all.

In verses 3-6, Moses acknowledges the brevity of the life of man in light of the eternal nature of God. A theme that he will carry on to the next set of verses. By Moses’ measure of a lifetime in verse 10 (70-80 years), he states that a day has passed in the eyes of God and already thirteen generations have come and gone to destruction (i.e. yesterday as a thousand years). It is as if God raises man up in the morning then we die in the evening.

Beginning in verse 7 Moses turns to God’s judgement, but places this judgement in the context of the brevity of the life of man. As Paul has put it, “See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16). In verse 7, there is an acknowledgement that Moses and the people have experienced the consuming anger and wrath of Holy God. Their reaction is to be terrified (Hebrew is bahal that expresses a troubled disposition with a certain anxiety, trouble is not a present reality but is coming forth as a speeding locomotive). In verse 8, we see the troubling reality that all our iniquities (Hebrew is `avon meaning perversity, depravity, iniquity, and guilt) are set (shiyth) before God. We have seen before in Revelation 20:11-15 that the wicked stand before God with this anxious terror while God (the Son) has books opened revealing the perverse workings of each man. Also, Jeremiah similarly points out to the rebellious in Israel their iniquity is not hidden from the eyes of God and He will repay “double” their defilement for their idolatry (Jeremiah 16:17-18). In short, man is accountable before God for all of his sin.

We see even further that there are no secret (`alam) sins with God. These “secret sins” will be revealed in the light (ma'owr) of God’s countenance (paniym). Notice that this is the same Hebrew word used here for countenance as used in “before Me” in Exodus 20:3. Three truths are expressed here. First is that we often try to sin in secret. Whether in our hearts or externally in a discrete location, God will see our actions. This is what we see in Psalm 44:21 that God will search out all of these secrets of the heart. Also, we may think that there are sins too small for God to notice (such as the proverbial white lie), but this is not true. Second, we see that God will remember sins forgotten by us. We have sinned so much for so long that we could not give a full accounting, but God can. It is as if all has been recorded in the books of Revelation 20. The implication of Psalm 44:20 is that perhaps we have forgotten who God is (and the worship and glory due His name), but He has not forgotten us in our idolatry. Third is the fact that our sinfulness is woefully displayed before us in the face of Holy God. This is the picture that we receive of Isaiah in his dream of the Lord high and lifted up: “Woe is me for I am undone” (Isaiah 6:1-6). God did not have to account to Isaiah his sins. They were made evident in the contrast of man and God.

Moses thus concludes that man must take each day seriously before God for our time on earth is short. The truly wise will live each day holy before God in fear of Him (verses 11-12). Ultimately, Moses pleads for mercy. We are desperately enslaved in this cycle of sin. But once we realize this great dilemma that we are in, we can only appeal to His mercy that His glory would be displayed in us and that our work will be established as righteous in Him (verses 13-17).

1. You may want to spend some time in the Hebrews 4:12-13 passage. The word of God will either be a source of great blessing to us or a curse of judgement. We may get away with sin for a season, but as with Adam God will call us out from behind the bush and confront us naked in self-righteousness. Our only hope is to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

Day 2: God is Displeased for us to Worship Any Other

Deuteronomy 30:17-18

In the last lesson we saw how nothing escapes the eyes of God. The things that may be hidden, forgotten, and thought insignificant by us on earth will all be revealed to us in judgement. The truth is that God will deal with our sin either in mercy and grace or in wrath and judgement. These verses in Deuteronomy deal with this reality. We have referenced these verses before in that Moses has given his recounting of the Law to the generation of Israelites that will conquer and inhabit the Promised Land. In chapters 27-29, Moses outlines the blessings that they will receive for keeping the covenant and the curses they would suffer for breaking the covenant by worshipping other gods. In verses 1-10 of chapter 30 that we looked at a few weeks ago, we saw that the Moses prophesied that the Israelites would ultimately suffer the consequences of turning from the true God to Pagan gods. But God in His mercy would return them again from their captivity in other lands and again cause them to flourish in their own land.

In verses 11-14, Moses states the truth that we looked at last week; namely, the commandments of God are not far from us but near. In other words, we cannot plead ignorance in the presence of God. The choice before us is evident in the Gospel, in the Law, and in the light of the nature of man. Thus, Moses lays out in verse 15 in plain language the choice before Israelites: life and good verses death and evil. In verse 16, Moses first gives the positive appeal to choose to live and prosper and receive God’s blessings by obeying Him in His ways, commands, statutes, and judgements.

In verse 17, Moses gives a negative appeal to choose life over death. It begins with the heart that must not turn away (panah) from God. Back in verse 6, we get to the truth of the matter concerning our hearts that God must perform heart surgery to remove the callousness of sin and to give us a heart of flesh. The appeal nonetheless is to incline our heart to the LORD (Joshua 24:23). As a result of a heart turned away from the LORD, they would not hear (shama` = listen to or obey) the word of God, they would be drawn away (nadach = banished or thrust out) from the LORD, and they would worship (shachah = bow down) and serve (`abad) other gods.

In verse 18, we see two judgements that would come upon the people of Israel for turning away from the LORD. First is that they would surely perish. The expression “surely perish” in the Hebrew is an interesting one. The Hebrew for perish is 'abad which has a range of meanings from exterminate to put to death to be lost. The word “surely” does not appear in the Hebrew text rather the word for perish is repeated twice for emphasis with two different stems which places strong emphasis on the certainty of impending death on those who turn away from God (I will expound a little more on this Sunday). For the Israelites, this judgement of death here is most certainly given to mean physical death whether by attrition in the wilderness, famine, war, disease, or struck dead directly by the hand of God. They would suffer this judgement for turning away form God. Though we are not under this covenant today, all men are still under the Adamic covenant (Genesis 2:17, 3:19, Romans 5:12-21) that we as sinners shall surely die. Not just a physical death, but apart from God’s mercy we exist as those dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1) and will ultimately experience the second death (Revelation 20:14-15), as is the wages of sin (Romans 6:23).

Secondly, we see that for the people of Israel that turning away from God would have consequences of national proportions to them and their descendants. These Israelites would inhabit the land for it had already been promised to them (Numbers 14:30-31), but for how long would be the question. This curse as described in Deuteronomy 28 would be other nations ruling them and inhabiting their land and they would be scattered.

Moses ends the chapter (verse 20) with a plea to these Israelites that rings true for us today: “that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days.” By God’s mercy and grace choose life and blessing and make Him your life for the rest of your days.

1. Ephesians 2 is a good chapter to consider after this emphasis on judgement. The lost should be made to sense the utter desperation in their current condition of “death and cursing.” If they would but turn to God in faith and be brought near to the heart of God by the blood of Christ.

2. Use a concordance to research God’s displeasure with sin. Key words to consider are wrath, sin, transgression, iniquity, judgement, and death. If you do not have a full concordance, most Bibles have an abbreviated one in the back.

Scripture: Deuteronomy 30:17,18; Psalm 44:20-21; 90:8.