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Catechism #22

Question: What is the first of the Ten Commandments?
Answer: The first of the Ten Commandments is, "You shall have no other gods before Me."

After God reminded Israel that He was the one who brought them out of bondage, He gave them the first command--that they should serve no god but Him.

And why would they? With each of the Ten Plagues God directly assaulted one of the gods of the pagan Egyptians and showed Himself to be the only powerful God. Consider how Yahweh showed up these other gods:

*Khnum was the guardian of the Nile River, and Yahweh turned it to blood.
*Hapi was the frog goddess, and Yahweh invaded their land with millions of frogs.
*Seb was the earth god, but he could do nothing about the lice.
*Uatchit was the fly god, but he could do nothing about the millions of flies.
*Amon and several others were gods of cattle, but Yahweh destroyed their herds.
*Sekhmet was the goddess of epidemics, and Yahweh sent boils.
*Nut, the sky goddess, could not stop the hail.
*Serapia, the protector from the locusts, was proven powerless over the 8th plague.
*At least five sun gods could not stop the darkness from the 9th plague.
*The death of the firstborn was judgment against Pharaoh and all of Egypt's gods.

The people of Israel would be foolish to look to any other god after all they had witnessed. Today, why would we turn to any god besides Yahweh?

No god offers forgiveness, new life, inner peace, eternal life, heaven, Holy Spirit power, and a relationship with man. No god had eternal power, yet stepped down from his throne to be near mortals. No god willingly died so that humans can be forgiven. And without a doubt, no god has ever come back from the dead.

No god, that is, except the God, Yahweh.

No other gods? No problem.


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