You shall have no other gods–the First Commandment

You shall have no other gods.

What does this mean?

We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

The wooden and stone idols that tempted the ancient Israelites are nowhere to be seen, but idolatry is everywhere among us.  Your god is whatever you put your hope in for health, wealth, and happiness.  Your god is the reason why you believe everything is going to be alright.  Your job can be a god.  Your money (even if you don’t have much) can be a god.  Your wife can be your god, if she takes the true God’s place as the primary recipient of your love, time and devotion.  Your husband can be a god, if he is the one you trust and love above all.  Your hobbies, games, boats, cars, and recreations can be your god.  Your beauty can be your god.  When the going gets tough, your work ethic and determination can be your god–if “we’re going to work through this” replaces “we’re going to trust God to bring us through this.”

Consider the story of the Three Men in the Fiery Furnace (Daniel 3).  The law stated that they would be thrown into the fire if they would not worship a golden statue that the king had set up.  They might have trusted in a lie to keep them safe, pretending to bow down to the statue but worshiping God in their hearts.  But instead, because God wants all worship for himself, they refused to worship the image and they refused to trust in their own cunning.  Amazingly, they continued to trust in God when it looked like their trust had been misplaced!  They were going to be thrown into the fire, and it looked like God wasn’t going to do anything about it.  He had not kept them hidden from the prying eyes of the Babylonians.  He had not toppled the offensive statue.  He hadn’t forced the king to repentance by sending some awful plague as he did at other times.  God wasn’t doing anything.  Still, the three men trusted him alone.  They kept the first commandment.

Now God didn’t want the rest of the Jews and all of us who read the story to see those three men get burned and think that God doesn’t care to help his people when they obey the first commandment.  He does care.  He stands by his people and saves them.  King Nebuchadnezzar saw a fourth man walking around with the three in the fire, and they were not burned.  The fourth man was God.

God wants us to fear, love, and trust him above all.  He wants us to do that when it looks like he is not doing anything to help us.  Its a shallow faith that only trusts God when he is doing something for you right now.  God wants to see a deeper faith that understands his goodness to us in Christ, holding and trusting our salvation from our sins even when there appears to be no hope for being saved from our earthly troubles.  Whether God rescues us from our troubles now or not, we know that he will rescue us from our sins and our sinful life in the resurrection.  We also know, and see in the story of the three men, that God stands by his people in their troubles.  Fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

Heavenly Father, as our Creator you deserve all our faith, our hope, and our love.  In the stories of the Bible you have shown that you can be counted on.  In the promises of your Word and Sacraments you have promised us personally that you will be our God and that you will use your power to bless us and care for us.  We have experienced your loving protection in our lives.  When we feel that you have let us down, deepen our faith to find your love for us in Christ even in our troubles.  Strengthen us until that day when you raise us from graves where our troubled lives end.  Rescue us and give us eternal life, as you have promised, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Devotion for October 28th–Its Catechism Friday!

We have the Almighty Maker of heaven and earth as our Father, who loves us and cares for us.  Why do we find anything at all to worry about?  That was Jesus’ question in Matthew 6, when he said, “Consider the lilies of the field, and the birds of the air”–they don’t have to worry about what they will eat or wear.  Yet the birds are fed and the flowers are beautiful, because God cares for them.  “Are you not much more valuable than they?”  Of course we are.  If you need any proof, look to the cross where your Savior showed you how valuable you are.  But the question remains, why do we worry?  The obvious answer is that our sin hinders our faith.  We just don’t trust God like we know we should.  Most of the time, God is making sure that we have plenty, even more than we need.  But we worry about whether we will have enough next week, next month, or next year.  Shouldn’t we trust that God, who has taken care of us so well for so long, will continue to do so?  But then sometimes God does not give us plenty.  He lets us have troubles.  Our sinful heart points to that and says that God doesn’t really always care for us.  What then?  Have you ever read in Proverbs, “Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.  Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’  Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”  God knows that when we have troubles we grasp our Savior more tightly.  He also knows that too much trouble may break us.  He is like a doctor, who knows how much medicine to give our souls.  Shouldn’t we trust him, and be content with what he gives?  And because we have a sinful heart that will always worry, remember that we have a Savior who died for that sin.  Our worry is forgiven, and God remains our Father who cares for us in wisdom and love.

Heavenly Father, care for us as you have promised, and as you always have despite our many worries.  May our sins of worry be on Jesus with the rest of our sins, punished on the cross.  Teach us to know that we need not worry, because you are caring for us.  We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.