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During the first centuries of its existence, Israel was comfortable worshipping and serving the gods of idolatry. They preferred those gods and that concept of deity. Those gods were preferable to the living God who delivered them from Egyptian slavery. He was strangely different. They preferred to add the God of their deliverance to the familiar gods. Their concept of deity was compatible with the idolatrous practices surrounding the gods. Their concept of deity struggled to understand and accept a single living God.
The people who became the nation of Israel lived in Egypt for four hundred years [see Exodus 12:40]. Four hundred years! Generation after generation lived in Egypt for 400 Years! Imagine how much they absorbed from Egyptian life, culture, and religion in four hundred years! Their daily lives were controlled by the Egyptian gods as they served as slaves! Consider an evidence. God sent them Moses as a miracle-working leader [see Exodus 3:6-10]. By God's power and direction, Moses brought ten disasters upon the Egyptians. Amazingly, the disasters affected the entire Egyptian population, but none of Israel's population [see Exodus 8:22,23; 9:4,6,26; 10:23; 11:4-7]. God delivered Israel from the Egyptian army by providing them an escape across the Red Sea [see Exodus 14:5-31]. God sustained them with food and water in a dry, barren wilderness that was incapable of supporting life [see Exodus 16:1-30; 17:-7]. God spoke directly to them in an understood voice at Mount Sinai [see Exodus 20:1-17; Deuteronomy 4:10-13]. Later, Moses was on the Mount to receive God's additional instructions for Israel [Exodus 24:12-18]. Moses was there to receive these instructions because they begged Moses to listen to God for them [Exodus 20:18,19]. He was absent long enough for Israel to become restless and concerned [See Exodus 32:1]. So what did they do? They urged Aaron to build them an idol. What did he do? He sculpted a calf made of gold. What did the people say about this idol that Aaron sculpted? Read Exodus 32:4-6 and note:
The core of God's law for Israel is given in Exodus 20:1-17. These core concepts are the foundation for all of God's instructions to Israel. They are based on two principles.
This basic principle was true for Israel and is true for Christians: the person who properly respects God demonstrates his/her respect in the way he/she treats people [see Romans 13:8-10].
The emphasis of the first section of the ten commandments is revealing. (1) The identification of the one God: "I am the Lord your God who delivered you from Egyptian slavery." (2) The exclusive nature of the Lord your God: "You will not worship or serve the gods; you will worship and serve only Me." (3) Israel's basic understanding of the Lord your God: "You belong exclusively to me; I will not share you." (4) Respecting the Lord your God: "You will not use my name to validate deceit." (5) Honoring the Lord your God: "You will honor me by keeping every Saturday holy. You will keep Saturday holy by resting. No work will be performed on that day."
First, this emphasis is in contrast to common concepts of respecting the gods.
(1) The Lord God established His identity and His character through powerful acts prior to their deliverance. He verified His existence, His power, and His nature "before the fact." People commonly credited the gods with incidents of deliverance. However, they did it "after the fact." The gods did not combine powerful acts with clear revelations to verify their intentions prior to the deliverance. The gods received credit for the deliverance after it occurred.
(2) The Lord God would not be represented by or associated with any man-made image. No humanly made image could represent the Lord God. He would not be worshipped by people honoring an image as though the image represented the Lord God. The gods were represented by humanly constructed images. Offering sacrifices to the image worshipped the god.
(3) The Lord God would not share respect, worship, and service with any other god. The person who belonged to Him rejected other gods. The gods did not demand exclusive worship and service. The person who worshipped the gods was expected to honor many gods and not to neglect or offend any god.
(4) The Lord your God was honored each week by resting on Saturday, by doing nothing. The gods were honored by sacrifices, festival days, and special activities. Was sacrifice, feasting, and special rites included in Judaism? Yes. [see Exodus 12 and Leviticus 16] However, God was reverenced on a weekly basis by resting. Judaism's festival days occurred annually. Occasions of sacrificial rites occurred in addition to the basic, weekly act of continual reverence: resting on Saturday. To see the contrast, look at the initial, immediate way that Israel worshipped the golden calf in Exodus 32.
Second, these core laws revealed the distinctiveness and uniqueness of the living God.
Incorrect spiritual concepts and perspectives die slowly. People are hesitant to replace poor spiritual concepts with better spiritual concepts. In nothing is that more true than in our concepts and perspectives of God. A newly learned, better concept of God can be verified by solid information. A long held, poor concept of God can be obviously flawed because it is based on selective information. Even so, the old concept continues to control thinking. That was true in Old Testament Israel. The ways of the gods were familiar; the ways of the living God were strange and different.
We must exercise great caution if we are to avoid their mistake. Too often we reject better, more accurate concepts of God in order to be true to our old concepts. We prefer and trust the old and familiar. More accurate understandings make us uncomfortable. Spiritually, Israel preferred comfortable, old concepts to improved understanding and closeness to God. Do we?
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