Isaiah Roman

The “First” and “Great” Commandment

“You shalt have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3).”  For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever (Deuteronomy 32:40); therefore, God alone is worthy to receive praise, thanks, honor and glory for He is Sanctified Holy and above all other.  In Him is no imperfection nor flaw.  “For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14).”  God’s jealousy alone is righteous for he is above all things in heaven, on earth and under the sea.  God is incapable of envy; He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.  He is complete within Himself and needs nor requires no other.

“You shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall you set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the Lord your God (Leviticus 26:1).”  The creature who stands before idols even to liken them to God or stir his memory of the divine divides his devotion.  God does not receive his undivided attention in adoration.  The creature renders to a dead stock or stone which cannot see nor hear nor speak devotion intended for Holy God alone.

“Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me (Exodus 20:5).”

“Remember the Sabbath (the Lord’s day) day to keep it holy.  You nor your wife nor your children nor your men servants nor your maid servants shall do any servile work on that day.”  Neither shall your ox nor ass nor anything God created do any servile work.  It is the Lord’s day of rest for on the seventh day He did rest from His work of Creation.

Holy God is the first cause of all things; “In the beginning God created” all that is from the darkness of nothingness He created all things.  All things include physical laws, natural laws and laws of conduct, motion and preservation of all things in creation.

God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very [i.e., truly] good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

All things were set in motion in an idyllic world where there was no hint of imperfection.  It remained so until iniquity came into the world through temptation to disobedience of the human creatures by the arch-rebel Lucifer who became Satan. When iniquity was found in him he rebelled and thought to cast down God’s throne and place his above it in the heavens.  Satan was cast out of God’s presence to walk about on the earth like a roaring lion seeking whom he may to devour (Job 1:7).

God is capable of only good, He is therefore the Chief good and no evil at all may be derived from Him. Satan’s knowledge was not taken away; but, he has not been given power.  Satan derives power from men and women that ignore, deny or reject God.  Satan’s manipulation of humankind is the source of corruption of the world and pain and suffering.  Since Satan’s power comes from unwilling or rebellious humankind it is mankind who is the cause of evil, pain and suffering of all creatures on earth.

Part fifth is the commandment with promise.  “Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long… (Exodus 20:12).”

1. The sabbath or seventh day was given the Hebrews or Jews by the Mosaic covenant (Old Covenant or Testament).  The Sabbath was not changed as has been falsely charged.  Jesus, the Messiah, ushered in a New Covenant or Testament that was decreed before creation to Messiah’s called out people later called Christians (Psalm 2: 6-7; John 4: 21).  The Apostles went into the synagogues on the Sabbath because it was the day the Jews worshipped and Jesus was sent first to the Jews and after to the Gentiles.  The Apostles went to the Gentiles only after the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah.  The early church universally worshipped in the name of the Son of God on the first day of the week not the seventh.  Jesus fulfilled the law he did not alter, abridge nor repeal it.  “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.(Matthew 5:17)