The First Commandment: "You shall have no other gods before me." To gain an insight as to why we are to have no other gods before Him, let us look at what Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 6:1-3:
"These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you."
Here we see a reason for the giving of the Commandments. It was so that we would learn to fear (that is, respect, revere and hold in awe) the Lord and in so doing learn to be obedient to Him. To lack fear and respect for God is the essence of foolishness.
Further, He indicated that they not only needed to do this but that it was vital that this understanding be passed from generation to generation. Don't bring forth a generation of fools. I'm afraid in many ways we have done just that in our country because of a failure to teach a proper fear of the Lord.
Let's look a little further in Deuteronomy 6:4-9:
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."
Verses 4 and 5 of this passage are often referred to as the Shema. They were recited in the morning and evening prayers of the people of Israel each day. And as we have seen, Jesus quoted verse 5 in Matthew 22:37 when He said: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."
Verse 5 is further developed in Deuteronomy 10:12-13:
"And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD'S commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?"
What can we see from this? The consequences of there being only one true God are obvious:
First, we understand that one God means one Law, one truth, one set of commands or principles by which we are to live our lives.
In our culture, it is said, there are no absolutes. No one set of standards. To say so is a direct violation of this First Commandment. To say that there are many truths is to say there are many gods. These other gods might be the gods of the many false religions, they may be Satan, they may be the state, and they may be man himself. The point is, they are not the God of the Bible. The one true God.
Second, we see that because God himself is unchanging, His law, these principles are unchanging as well.
To try to change the law or principles of God is the essence of compromise and rationalization. God is unchanging and His word is unchanging. Consider what He has said in Deuteronomy 4:2:
"Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you."
(We might think of that as the anti-rationalization verse.) His word is not to be changed, but rather, it is to be simply kept and obeyed. You don't fall into the trap of compromise and rationalization, do you?
Third, we see that because God's law and principles are unchanging, they require our total, unchanging, and unqualified obedience.
Since man is totally the creature of God, and since there is not a fiber of our being which is not the handiwork of God and therefore subject to the law of God, there is not an area of man's life and being which can be held in reservation from God and His law.
Fourth, in reading Deuteronomy 6:7-9, we see that education in the law is basic to and inseparable from obedience to the law. We are to pass it on. The law requires education in terms of the law. Anything other than a Biblically grounded schooling is thus an act of apostasy (that is, an abandonment, a renunciation, a defection) for a believer: it involves having another god and bowing down before him to learn from him in direct violation of the First Commandment!
We cannot begin to understand the meaning of education unless we realize that all education is religious. Education in an Islamic society is different from education in a Christian society which is different from education in a humanistic society. Unfortunately, we live in a humanistic society.
Humanistic education fosters in students the basic premises of Genesis 3:5 and the fall of man. It asks man to be his own god, determining for himself what constitutes good and evil. Modern education declares that there are no absolute truth or final answers. Modern educators believe that man is the ultimate arbiter of truth. The Bible, God's holy Word is excluded from the schools. Modern education violates the First Commandment. Let us not violate the very First Commandment in how we educate our precious children.
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