The first commandment given was, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3)." The fact that this is the first commandment given by God means that it is the most important. Then again in Exodus 34: 14 he says, "For thou shalt worship no other god; for the Lord...is a jealous god." When looking at the footnotes, I was also directed to Deuteronomy 6: 14. This verse says, "ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round you about you." The Lord repeated this direction several times because it is important. He wants to make sure that we understand that He is the only God we are to worship.
I think that the commandment to not covet (Exodus 20: 17) goes hand and hand with this commandment as well. In the Topical Guide, it says to "see also desire; envy; greedily; greediness; greedy; jealous; lust." When we are jealous or lusting after objects that other people have, we are in a way worshiping those items. For example, if my neighbor had a really nice car and I wanted that car so much that it was all I could think of. In a way, I would be worshiping that car.
One of the more shocking things that I read concerning this topic was in Exodus 22: 20. The Lord says, "He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only , he shall be utterly destroyed." Could you imagine what would happen if this law was still in place? I think that maybe the world could be a better place if people would worship our Heavenly Father rather than the opinion of others.
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