1.1 Key themes⤒🔗

• God’s First Commandment is, “You shall have no other gods before me.”
• God’s people should not have other gods, because:
  1. It is a sin to have other gods.
  2. God has saved us to belong to him.
• Idolatry (the worship of false gods) is not always easy to see.
• We are all guilty of idolatry.
• From Jeremiah 2 we learn that:
  1. Idolatry begins when you are no longer satisfied with God.
  2. When you commit idolatry, you actually “change gods.”

1.2 Jeremiah 2:4–7a, 10–11←⤒🔗

^4. Now listen to the LORD’s message, you descendants of Jacob, all you family groups from the nation of Israel.

^5. This is what the LORD says: “What fault could your ancestors have possibly found in me that they strayed so far from me? They paid allegiance to worthless idols, and so became worthless to me.

^6. They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD who delivered us out of Egypt, who brought us through the wilderness, through a land of valleys and gorges, through a land of desert and deep darkness, through a land in which no one travels, and where no one lives?’

^7. a I brought you into a fertile land so you could enjoy its fruits and its rich bounty. But when you entered my land, you defiled it; you made the land I call my own loathsome to me.

…

^10. Go west across the sea to the coasts of Cyprus and see. Send someone east to Kedar and have them look carefully. See if such a thing as this has ever happened:

^11. Has a nation ever changed its gods (even though they are not really gods at all)? But my people have exchanged me, their glorious God, for a god that cannot help them at all!

© NET Bible

1.3 No other gods←⤒🔗

If you know the Ten Commandments, you will know that they begin with these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2, ESV). Right after God has said these words, he gives his First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).

In this lesson we will think about two questions:
1. Why should God’s people not have other gods?
2. What does it mean to have other gods?

Let us now turn to the first question.

1.4 Why should God’s people not have other gods?←⤒🔗

The Bible gives us two great reasons why God’s people should not have other gods:

1. It is a sin to have other gods.←↰⤒🔗

The God of the Bible is the only true God. Any other god is a false god. It is a sin to worship false gods. The Bible has a name for this sin. It is called “idolatry.”

Idolatry is the greatest of all sins. God is the Creator and the King of heaven and earth. He has made each one of us. He is the one who gives us life every moment. He alone deserves to be worshipped by us.

2. God has saved us to belong to him.←↰⤒🔗

Do you remember how the Ten Commandments begin? They do not begin with the First Commandment. They begin with these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

Here God is speaking to his own people. If you believe in Jesus Christ, then you are part of God’s people. You were also a slave, like the Israelites in Moses’ time. You were not a slave of Egypt, like they were. But you were a slave of Satan and sin. God saved you from your slavery. He did this by sending his own Son to die for your sin.

Now, because God has saved you, he is the Lord your God. You belong to him. His Spirit lives in you. He calls you to worship him alone.

1.5 What does it mean to have other gods?←⤒🔗

The apostle John writes to the churches, “Little children, guard yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). Paul also writes to believers, “my dear friends, flee from idolatry” (1 Corinthians 10:14).

Now, you may be thinking, “I do not need to hear these things. I am a Christian! I go to church. I do not pray to other gods. I have always kept God’s First Commandment.”

But remember, idolatry is not always easy to see. For example, you can go to church every Sunday, but in your heart you can have a love for money. Then it means that money is one of your gods (see Ephesians 5:5; 1 Timothy 6:9–10).

Or, to give another example, you may be a church leader who wants to serve God. But in your heart, you may always be asking yourself, “What do other people think of me?” This means that people’s respect has become one of your gods (see Galatians 1:10).

The truth is that we are all guilty of idolatry (see Psalm 14:2–3). The preacher John Calvin said that the human heart is “an idol factory.” In other words, our hearts are always busy making idols (false gods). Again and again, we break God’s First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me.”

1.6 Two truths about idolatry←⤒🔗

Our passage from Jeremiah 2 can help us to understand the idolatry in our own lives. We will continue to look at this passage in Lesson 2. For now we will focus on two truths that we should learn from this passage.

Truth #1: Idolatry begins when you are no longer satisfied with God.←↰⤒🔗

In Jeremiah 2:6–7 Jeremiah is reminding God’s people of their history. God had saved them from Egypt. Then, for forty years, he had led them through the desert. Finally, he gave them a beautiful land of their own.

When God’s people came into their new land, they started looking at the gods of the nations around them. They saw how the nations prayed to Baal, when they wanted rain. They saw how the nations prayed to Asherah, when they wanted to have children.

The other nations would ask the Israelites, “Why are you worshipping someone who cannot be seen?” These nations had images, made from wood and stone. They also worshipped the sun and moon. Their gods were visible.

Soon, the people of Israel were no longer satisfied with God. Deep in their hearts, they did not believe that God could give them everything they needed. So they started to worship the gods that they saw around them: Baal, Asherah, the sun and moon, and many others.

Many years later, the prophet Jeremiah said to the people, “Thus says the Lord:

“What fault could your ancestors have possibly found in me that they strayed so far from me?” (Jeremiah 2:5). Of course, the people could not answer this question. There was never anything wrong with God! There was no reason to go away from him and to worship other gods. But still, that is what they (and their fathers) have done.

Idolatry always begins when we are no longer satisfied with God. It begins when we believe, deep in our hearts, that we need something more than God.

Truth #2: When you commit idolatry, you actually “change gods.”←↰⤒🔗

If you would say to the Israelites, “You have stopped worshipping the Lord!” they would answer, “No, we have not! We have his temple here in Jerusalem. We bring sacrifices to him. We pray to him.”

But the truth is: You cannot worship God and other gods. As Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). If you worship God and other gods, then you are not worshipping God at all.

That is why Jeremiah says that the people of Israel have done a terrible thing. They have done something that other nations would never do. They have changed gods (Jeremiah 2:10–11)!

You cannot serve God while you continue to serve your idols. What idols do you need to turn away from?