If the commandments reflect the nature and character of God, then what does the first command teach us?
It is tempting to think that the first and the second commandments portray God as insecure, narcissistic and full of petty jealousies, but that would be to grossly underestimate the nature of God.
God is completely good, all powerful, all glorious. The bottom-line is not that God is _dependent_ on our worship (He is not a needy God) but quite simply that He _deserves_ it. He is so glorious, so majestic, and so magnificent that glory naturally belongs to Him. It's like gravity - you can't go against it.
If I were to ignore gravity and walk off a cliff, what will happen to me? Will I float gently down? No, I will begin to accelerate downwards at a rate of 10m/s until I reach terminal velocity and meet the ground with a terminal crash!
Our Creator is magnificent - just look at the stars!
Our Father in Heaven is majestic - just watch the sunsets!
Our King is glorious - just spend some time trying to understand DNA!
Our Saviour is worthy of worship - just think about the cross.
When He calls us to worship Him alone, He is simply telling us the truth. There is no-one and no-thing that can fill God's shoes. If we worship anything else, we are worshipping a fake.
The universe "just works" when its Creator is acknowledged.
Trying to ignore or replace Him is like trying to ignore gravity: we're going to get hurt.
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
