The Ten Commandments/I am the Lord your God

A careful reading of the First Commandment might cause one to wonder, why did the Jews need to be told that "the Lord" was their "God"? First of all, it must be noted that where many Bible translations use the title "the Lord", especially when that title is in all caps (i.e. "the LORD"), it means that the original Hebrew text contained the Tetragrammaton, representing the particular name of the Hebrew God, יהוה the exact pronunciation of which no one knows. So the First Commandment really says:

I am יהוה your God.

Therefore, the First Commandment signifies יהוה's claiming of the Israelite nation as a people chosen to serve him. It leaves no doubt as to the name of the God they were to worship (as indeed, there were many other gods in Egypt, the land which they had left, and Canaan, the land to which they were going, each with their own particular names). It further leaves no doubt as to the identity of the God who brought them out of slavery in Egypt.

I am the Lord your God, or I am Yahweh your God, is the opening phrase of the Ten Commandments, which are widely understood as moral imperatives by legal scholars, Jewish scholars, Catholic scholars, and Post-Reformation scholars.

The text of the Ten Commandments according to the Book of Exodus begins:

I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me, and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

– Exodus 20:2-6 (WEB)

According to the Hebrew bible, Yahweh is the personal (proper) name of the God of Israel. that was revealed to Moses in the account of the bush. Many English translations render the Hebrew YHWH as “LORD” or “Jehovah” but modern scholarship suggests that “Yahweh” is a more reasonable English rendering. The introduction to the Ten Commandments establishes the identity of God by both his personal name and his historical act of delivering Israel from Egypt. The language and pattern reflects that of ancient royal treaties in which a great king identified himself and his previous gracious acts toward a subject king or people. Establishing his identity through the use of the proper name, Yahweh, and his mighty acts in history distinguishes Yahweh from the gods of Egypt which were judged in the killing of Egypt’s firstborn, and from the gods of Canaan, the gods of the gentile nations, and the gods that are worshipped as idols, starry hosts, or things found in nature, and the gods known by other proper names. So distinguished, Yahweh demands exclusive allegiance. “I am the LORD your God” occurs a number of other times in the Bible also.

Meaning

By saying, “I am the LORD (Yahweh) your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery,” God introduces himself by name to establish his authority behind the stipulations that follow. The implicit imperative is to believe that God exists and that his proper name is “Yahweh.” This verse also serves as the motive clause for the following imperatives. Since Yahweh alone freed Israel from Egypt, he is Israel’s King, hence its legislator. Yahweh alone is also Israel’s God, and the worship of other gods is prohibited as the central doctrine of Biblical religion.

The text follows an ancient royal treaty pattern where Yahweh is formally acknowledged as Israel’s king. Israel is the subject people who are expected to render complete submission, allegiance, and obedience to him out of gratitude for his past mercies, respect for his sovereignty, and trust in his ongoing care. The covenant logic establishes an exclusive relationship in which the subject population may have only one sovereign. Ancient oaths and treaties prohibit subjects and vassals from accepting alternative sovereigns or protectors. In the ancient near east, a suzerain’s (or sovereign’s) prior benefactions to a vassal (such as deliverance from an enemy) are a primary motive to accept an offer of covenant, thus the deliverance from Egypt motivates Israel’s acceptance of the covenant stipulations described in the following imperatives.

Traditional Jewish interpretation

"I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me..." Maimonides interpreted this as a command requiring belief in God. Ibn Ezra interpreted this as a command to believe that Yahweh alone is God. This command prohibits belief in or worship of any additional deities:

Whoever accepts a false god as true, even when he does not actually worship it, disgraces and blasphemes [God's] glorious and awesome name.

– Mishneh Torah, Chapter 2, Halacha 6

The idolater - it doesn't matter whether one commits idolatrous worship or makes a sacrifice or burns incense or pours a libation or prostrates oneself or accepts it as a god or says "you are my god." But whoever embraces it or kisses it or honors it or sprinkles on it or washes it or anoints it or dresses it or puts shoes on it, transgresses a negative commandment. Whoever makes a vow in its name or takes an oath in its name, transgresses a negative commandment.

– Mishnah Sanhedrin 7:6

"Do not make an image or any likeness of what is in the heavens above..." This prohibits the construction or fashioning of "idols" in the likeness of created things (beasts, fish, birds, people) and worshipping them.

The essence of the commandment [forbidding] the worship of false gods is not to serve any of the creations, not an angel, a sphere, or a star, none of the four fundamental elements, nor any entity created from them.

– Mishneh Torah, Chapter 2, Halacha 1

New Testament view

Since the New Testament is predominantly of Jewish origin, the traditional Jewish view of the need for the individual to adhere to God alone and avoid idolatry is found throughout the New Testament. For example, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy when tempted to worship Satan in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world.

Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'"

– Matthew 4:10 (NIV)

Jesus repeats the Shema as the most important commandment.

The most important one, answered Jesus, is this: “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 mind and with all your strength.”

– Mark 12:29-30 (NIV)

Those who eat food sacrificed to idols are rebuked. Just as in the Old Testament, where sacrificing to other gods is portrayed as sacrificing to demons, idolatry is connected with the worship of demons in the New Testament, and God is described as jealous regarding idolatry.

…the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

– 1 Corinthians 10:18-22 (NIV)

The New Testament asserts that God brings consequences to those who worship other gods. It suggests that during the Old Testament age, God winked at the idolatry of nations other than Israel, but that in the New Testament age, God commands “all people everywhere to repent.” Idols are described as “worthless things” and people are exhorted to turn away from them to the living God. The teaching of Moses and the experience of Israel when they departed from it are used to support the insistence that believers abstain from idolatry and sexual immorality.

Interpretation in Roman Catholicism

The Roman Catholic Catechism teaches that “The first commandment summons man to believe in God, to hope in him, and to love him above all else.” It cites the requirement of the Shema, that “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength” and Jesus answer when tempted by Satan.

"You shall worship the Lord your God" (Matthew 4:10). Adoring God, praying to him, offering him the worship that belongs to him, fulfilling the promises and vows made to him are acts of the virtue of religion which fall under obedience to the first commandment.

– Catechism of the Catholic Church

In their explanation of the first commandment, the Roman Catholic Catechism quotes Justin Martyr’s dialogue to support their teaching that Christians and Jews have trusted the same God.

There will be no other God…nor was there from eternity any other existing …but He who made and disposed all this universe. Nor do we think that there is one God for us [Christians], another for you [Jews], but that He alone is God who led your fathers out from Egypt with a strong hand and a high arm. Nor have we trusted in any other (for there is no other), but in Him in whom you also have trusted, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob.

– Justin Martyr

The Catholic Catechism describes the phrase “I am the LORD” at the beginning of the Ten Commendments as an expression of God’s existence and his authority.

The first commandment embraces faith, hope, and charity. When we say “God” we confess a constant, unchangeable being, always the same, faithful and just, without any evil. It follows that we must necessarily accept his words and have complete faith in him and acknowledge his authority. He is almighty, merciful, and infinitely beneficent. Who could not place all hope in him? Who could not love him when contemplating the treasures of goodness and love he has poured out on us? Hence the formula God employs in the Scripture at the beginning and end of his commandments: “I am the LORD.”

– Catechism of the Catholic Church

It goes on to explain how the Christian virtue of faith is central to obedience to the first commandment.

Our moral life has its source in faith in God who reveals his love to us. St. Paul speaks of the "obedience of faith" (Romans 1:5, Romans 16:26) as our first obligation. He shows that "ignorance of God" is the principle and explanation of all moral deviations. (Romans 1:18-32) Our duty toward God is to believe in him and to bear witness to him. The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it. There are various ways of sinning against faith: ‘’Voluntary doubt’’ about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief. ‘’Involuntary doubt’’ refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual blindness.

– Catechism of the Catholic Church

The first commandment is also concerned with despair and presumption as sins against hope.

By ‘’despair,’’ man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins. Despair is contrary to God's goodness, to his justice - for the Lord is faithful to his promises - and to his mercy. There are two kinds of ’’presumption.’’ Either man presumes upon his own capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high), or he presumes upon God's almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit).

– Catechism of the Catholic Church

Love and charity are viewed as essential elements of obedience to the first commandment.

Faith in God's love encompasses the call and the obligation to respond with sincere love to divine charity. The first commandment enjoins us to love God above everything and all creatures for him and because of him. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) One can sin against God's love in various ways: - ‘’indifference’’ neglects or refuses to reflect on divine charity; it fails to consider its prevenient goodness and denies its power. – ‘’ingratitude’’ fails or refuses to acknowledge divine charity and to return him love for love. ‘’- lukewarmness’’ is hesitation or negligence in responding to divine love; it can imply refusal to give oneself over to the prompting of charity. ‘’acedia’’ or spiritual sloth goes so far as to refuse the joy that comes from God and to be repelled by divine goodness. ‘’- hatred of God’’ comes from pride. It is contrary to love of God, whose goodness it denies, and whom it presumes to curse as the one who forbids sins and inflicts punishments.

– Catechism of the Catholic Church

Prayer, sacrifice, promises, and vows are also seen as essential duties required by observance of the first commandment. However, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that individuals maintain a liberty of conscience under the first commandment, not that any kind of worship is morally acceptable, but that each person should follow his convictions with free will without the threat of force from an outside agent.

Nobody may be forced to act against his convictions, nor is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his conscience in religious matters in private or in public, alone or in association with others, within due limits. This right is based on the very nature of the human person, whose dignity enables him freely to assent to the divine truth which transcends the temporal order. For this reason it continues to exist even in those who do not live up to their obligation of seeking the truth and adhering to it.

– Catechism of the Catholic Church

According to Catholic teaching, the first commandment condemns superstition, idolatry, divination, magic, irreligion, atheism and agnosticism.

The first commandment forbids honoring gods other than the one Lord who has revealed himself to his people. It proscribes superstition and irreligion. Superstition in some sense represents a perverse excess of religion; irreligion is the vice contrary by defect to the virtue of religion. Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.(Matthew 23:16-22) The first commandment condemns polytheism. It requires man neither to believe in, nor to venerate, other divinities than the one true God. Scripture constantly recalls this rejection of "idols, [of] silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see." These empty idols make their worshippers empty: "Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them."(Psalms 115:4-5, Jeremiah 10:1-16) God, however, is the "living God"(Joshua 3:10, Psalms 42:3) who gives life and intervenes in history. Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and mammon."(Matthew 6:4)

– Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catholic teaching also asserts that divination (seeking guidance regarding the future through horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, etc.) are prohibited by the first commandment, because these forbidden practices contradict the honor we owe to God. Likewise, magic and sorcery and similar sources of supernatural power over others are prohibited, even if for the sake of restoring health.

God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility. All forms of ‘’divination‘’ are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future.(Deuteronomy 18:10, Jeremiah 29:8) Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone. All practices of ‘’magic’’ or ‘’sorcery,’’ by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion.

– Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catholic teaching also regards the first commandment as a prohibition of atheism and agnosticism.

Since it rejects or denies the existence of God, atheism is a sin against the first commandment.

– Catechism of the Catholic Church

Reformation and Post-Reformation Views

John Calvin viewed “I am the LORD thy God” as a preface to the Decalogue and “have no other gods” as the first commandment. However, he also allowed for viewing “I am the LORD they God” as the first commandment, provided one also allows it to serve as a preface to the whole Decalogue. In his commentary on the first commandment, Calvin describes superstition as akin to a wife committing adultery in front of her husband.

…we must beware of superstition, by which our minds are turned aside from the true God, and carried to and fro after a multiplicity of gods. Therefore, if we are contented with one God, let us call to mind what was formerly observed, that all fictitious gods are to be driven far away, and that the worship which he claims for himself is not to be mutilated. Not a particle of his glory is to be withheld: everything belonging to him must be reserved to him entire. The words, “before me,” go to increase the indignity, God being provoked to jealousy whenever we substitute our fictions in his stead; just as an unfaithful wife stings her husband’s heart more deeply when her adultery is committed openly before his eyes.

– John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

Martin Luther describes the first commandment as prohibiting both the literal honoring of other gods as well as trusting in idols of the heart: money, good works, superstition, etc.

Thus, for example, the heathen who put their trust in power and dominion elevated Jupiter as the supreme god; the others, who were bent upon riches, happiness, or pleasure, and a life of ease, Hercules, Mercury, Venus or others; women with child, Diana or Lucina, and so on; thus every one made that his god to which his heart was inclined, so that even in the mind of the heathen to have a god means to trust and believe. But their error is this that their trust is false and wrong for it is not placed in the only God, besides whom there is truly no God in heaven or upon earth. Therefore the heathen really make their self-invented notions and dreams of God an idol, and put their trust in that which is altogether nothing. Thus it is with all idolatry; for it consists not merely in erecting an image and worshiping it, but rather in the heart, which stands gaping at something else, and seeks help and consolation from creatures, saints, or devils, and neither cares for God, nor looks to Him for so much good as to believe that He is willing to help, neither believes that whatever good it experiences comes from God.

– Martin Luther, Large Catechism, The First Commandment

Like Calvin, Matthew Henry considers “I am the LORD thy God” to be a preface. Henry explains the preface and the first commandment from a covenant viewpoint: God delivered Israel from Egypt, and they belong to him by mutual agreement, so they are bound to obey his covenant stipulations.

The preface of the Law-maker: ’’I am the Lord thy God,’’ v. 2. Herein, 1. God asserts his own authority to enact this law in general: "I am the Lord who command thee all that follows." 2. He proposes himself as the sole object of that religious worship which is enjoined in the first four of the commandments. They are here bound to obedience by a threefold cord, which, one would think, could not easily be broken. (1.) Because God is the Lord—Jehovah, self-existent, independent, eternal, and the fountain of all being and power; therefore he has an incontestable right to command us. He that gives being may give law; and therefore he is able to bear us out in our obedience, to reward it, and to punish our disobedience. (2.) He was their God, a God in covenant with them, their God by their own consent; and, if they would not keep his commandments, who would? He had laid himself under obligations to them by promise, and therefore might justly lay his obligations on them by precept. Though that covenant of peculiarity is now no more, yet there is another, by virtue of which all that are baptized are taken into relation to him as their God, and are therefore unjust, unfaithful, and very ungrateful, if they obey him not. (3.) He had ’’brought them out of the land of Egypt;’’ therefore they were bound in gratitude to obey him, because he had done them so great a kindness, had brought them out of a grievous slavery into a glorious liberty. They themselves had been eye-witnesses of the great things God had done in order to their deliverance, and could not but have observed that every circumstance of it heightened their obligation.

– Matthew Henry

John Wesley makes the common observation that Israel is obligated to obey God’s commandments because he delivered them from Egypt, and he adds the observation that Christians are likewise obligated to serve Christ, having been rescued out of bondage to sin.

Herein, God asserts his own authority to enact this law; and proposeth himself as the sole object of that religious worship which is enjoined in the four first commandments. They are here bound to obedience.

1. Because God is the Lord, Jehovah, self - existent, independent, eternal, and the fountain of all being and power; therefore he has an incontestable right to command us. 2. He was their God; a God in covenant with them; their God by their own consent. He had brought them out of the land of Egypt - Therefore they were bound in gratitude to obey him, because he had brought them out of a grievous slavery into a glorious liberty. By redeeming them, he acquired a farther right to rule them; they owed their service to him, to whom they owed their freedom. And thus, Christ, having rescued us out of the bondage of sin, is entitled to the best service we can do him. The four first commandments, concern our duty to God (commonly called the first - table.) It was fit those should be put first, because man had a Maker to love before he had a neighbour to love, and justice and charity are then only acceptable to God when they flow from the principles of piety.

– John Wesley

John Wesley uses the first commandment in Deuteronomy 5 as a motivation to pose a list of introspective questions.

I think it needful to add a few questions here, which the reader may answer between God and his own soul. Thou shalt have none other gods before me - Hast thou worshipped God in spirit and in truth? Hast thou proposed to thyself no end besides him? Hath he been the end of all thy actions? Hast thou sought for any other happiness, than the knowledge and love of God? Dost thou experimentally know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent? Dost thou love God? Dost thou love him with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength; so as to love nothing else but in that manner and degree which tends to increase thy love of him? Hast thou found happiness in God? Is he the desire of thine eyes, the joy of thy heart? If not, thou hast other gods before him.

– John Wesley

In his exposition of Exodus 20 on the “Thru The Bible” radio program, J. Vernon McGee, quotes Romans 1:21-25 and Colossians 3:5 to support his assertion that the idolatry forbidden by the first commandment includes not only the worship of idols and foreign gods, but also idols of the heart such as greed, alcohol, and sexual immorality.

Anything that you give yourself to, especially in abandonment, becomes your “god.” Many people do not [explicitly] worship Bacchus, the cloven footed Greek and Roman god of wine and revelry of long ago, but they worship the bottle just the same…Whether or not folks realize it, they worship the god Bacchus. Other people worship Aphrodite, the goddess of sex. Some people worship money. Anything you give your time, heart, and soul to, becomes your god. God says we are not to have any gods before Him.

– J. Vernon McGee

Other Occurrences

In addition to the best known occurrences at the beginning of the Decalogue, “I am the LORD your God” appears a number of other times in the Bible. A search at www.biblegateway.com reveals 39 occurrences in the NASB. The phrase is often used to establish God’s authority while giving commands concerned with holiness.

For example, Leviticus 18 gives a number of commands prohibiting sexual perversions and the sacrifice of children. It demands that God’s people behave differently from the nations around them, lest they be destroyed in the same manner.

I am the LORD your God. You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the LORD your God. So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the LORD.

– Leviticus 18:2-5 NASB

In a similar manner, Leviticus 19 gives additional commands regarding separation from mediums and spiritists, the honoring of the aged, and kindness to foreigners.

Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God. You shall rise up before the gray headed and honor the aged, and you shall revere your God; I am the LORD. When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.

– Leviticus 19:31-34 NASB

The prophet Isaiah asserts that failure to obey the commandments is the reason for Israel’s captivity and had the nation obeyed the commandments, they would have had peace like a river.

I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Your descendants would have been like the sand, And your offspring like its grains; Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from My presence. Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare with the sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this, Send it out to the end of the earth; Say, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob." They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts He made the water flow out of the rock for them; He split the rock and the water gushed forth. “There is no peace for the wicked," says the LORD.

– Isaiah 48:17-22 NASB

The prophet Joel looks forward to future blessing through which God’s people will know that Yahweh is their God through his wondrous deeds on their behalf.

You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied And praise the name of the LORD your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; Then My people will never be put to shame. Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, And that I am the LORD your God, And there is no other; And My people will never be put to shame.

– Joel 2:26-27 NASB