Because the Creator is a God of love who, for His own purposes, made a good world for us to populate and to bring into divine order,[1] He is also eager to reveal Himself to us and to help us find the path of life in His world… no matter how badly we’ve messed it up.[2] Therefore, in the Book of Exodus, in the Old Testament, after He brought Israel out of forced labor in Egypt, God gives ten commandments to the Children of Abraham to help them find that path of life as a new nation. If any people, in any place, and any age, were to live by these commands, they would create a society of what the Bible calls “Shalom.” Shalom, often translated as “peace,” is a comprehensive vision for the good life of stability, wisdom, happiness, and wholeness… not a perfect society, because people still battle selfishness, but a blessed one.
Exodus 20:1-3 begins the ten saying, “Then God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the LORD[3] your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.” This first command lays the foundation for all the rest. Anyone who lives by these commands will be blessed by them. But, it is the Creator’s world, and only those who wake up to Him and commit their way to Him can hope to find the truest riches of His path of life.
Pagan worshippers intuited a different god behind every bush, one for the hills and another for the valleys, one holding up the sky and yet others shining on them by day in the sun, and by night in the moon and stars. By this worldview, we might imagine in the English translation of Exodus 20:1-3, nothing more than a narcissistic god resenting the attention that other gods get from the people he’s done so much to help.
This is not the picture, however, as is made abundantly clear, not only in Genesis 1, but also just a little further on in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, which says, “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! “And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
This brings up an interesting question. What does it mean to love God?
We might talk about “being in love,” which reflects a passionate infatuation causing bouts of euphoria, panic, poor judgment and rash decisions. So… not this.
We might talk about warm affections and feelings of extreme “liking” without romantic attachment. This might be something like what the command commissions, but emotions are fickle things, and Scripture is anything but an advocate of the fickle.
Among people, Christians like to raise the bar and speak of love beyond issues of like and affection. Here, “to love” is to genuinely desire and seek the other’s good. If you have children, then you must realize that you can actually find yourself disliking someone a good deal at times and still love them with everything you have. Here we find the Christian adage, “Hate the sin, love the sinner,” and Jesus’ second greatest commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself,”[4] and even a call to “love” strangers.[5] But how would this relate to our love for God? He is both omnipotent (all-powerful) and the source of all Good, so desiring and seeking His ultimate good is kind of silly. There is no lack of goodness or power for having it that leaves space for our wishing goodness upon Him.
There is another meaning, however, in the Hebrew word that stands behind our translation “love.” It is the use of the word “love” in covenants. Emotions may come and go, but in ancient covenants between great Lords and lower subjects (Suzerain & Vassal) the subjects were often called upon to love their Suzerain in the practical terms of loyalty and obedience. Not surprising then, if you look up all the places that people are called upon to love the Creator, it almost always speaks of living out His commands, walking in His ways, clinging to Him in perpetual mindfulness of His rightful place in your life. Now it is this that these passages command.
Hebrews 10:31 declares, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” and just a bit later says, “our God is a consuming fire.”[6] Those who behold even a portion of His glory fall down before Him,[7] some as if dead,[8] and no man can see “His face” and live.[9] Here, there is real fear, awe, sometimes joy, and not a little reverence. This goes far beyond warm feelings toward total devotion tinged with fear. It is not uncommon for even the faithful to succumb to frustration with God over the tasks He’s put before us, the standards He demands we keep, and the mysteries that surround His will and purposes, even if we know He’s right. The heart cries out in anguish with several Psalmists, “How long O’ Yahweh!”
In Exodus 20:1-3 and Deuteronomy 6:4-5, we find the single most basic reality of existence—One God, to Whom we owe everything, Who is to be put first in a world filled with other things that clamor to be first. In addition to calling Deuteronomy 6:4 the greatest of all commandments,[10] Jesus Christ emphasizes the call for priority saying, in Matthew 6:31-33, “Do not be anxious then, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we clothe ourselves?’ For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.”
When we wake up to the Creator and put Him first in all our doings, the rest of life has a way of working itself out. We can even cry with the tortured saint, Job, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.”[11]
[1] Genesis 1; first book, first chapter.
[2] Deuteronomy 30:15.
[3] Those capitalized LORD references are the Hebrew word Yahweh, meaning Creator.
[4] Leviticus 19:18 in the Old Testament.
[5] Deuteronomy 10:19 in the Old Testament.
[6] Hebrews 12:29 in the New Testament.
[7] Abraham in Genesis 17:3, Joshua in Joshua 5:14-15, Ezekiel in Ezekiel 1:28 & 3:23 in the Old testament Matthew, James, and John in Matthew 17:6, and Paul in Acts 9:4 in the New Testament.
[8] Daniel 10:9 in the Old Testament; Revelation 1:9-17 in the New Testament, and several others.
[9] Exodus 33:20 in the Old Testament.
[10] Matthew 22:36-40 in the New Testament.
[11] Job 13:15 in the Old Testament.
