“You shall have no other gods before Me,” means that you are to have no gods “beside Me”, or “in addition to Me”. The literal Hebrew is, “You shall have no other gods in my face.” (Deuteronomy 5:7). Failure to follow this command leads to exile; when we allow idols to intrude on our worship of the One True God, we end up in faraway places. Israel never abandoned the worship of their God, they just allowed other gods to consume their imagination alongside their true Lord. That’s what can happen to us. Before we know it, other things have become the true focal point of our lives.
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (NASB)
