Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.You shall not bow down to them or worship them,; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.
(New Revised Standard Version)
When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, the first of these was to love God and not to worship any idols. But what exactly is an idol?
Well I wonder if like me you have been doing some thinking about our society recently? It seems to me that our values have been changing as we endure this pandemic. No matter how advanced our society, it hasn't stopped us suffering from the corona virus; now matter how wealthy we are, it hasn't stopped us suffering from the corona virus; no matter how educated we are, it hasn't stopped us suffering from the corona virus!
Many of the things we thought were important we now see were not! We may have had to give up a lot these - our job, our freedom, our school or university, and much more. As well as this we now realise how important are those who work in our supermarkets; deliver goods to our door; and clean or nurse in our hospitals.
Before the pandemic we may have forgotten God, and we may have put dozens of things before him - our job, money, celebrities, sports - well only you will know what were your idols!
Lord God,
all too often we put other things before You,
and feel that we have done our duty by You if we attend church.
But You are our God,
and we owe You our love and loyalty.
Help us to change the way we view ourselves and our society,
and to make changes to our lives in future.
Amen
As follow up reading from today's "Thoughts", you might like to look up the Ten Commandments given to Moses, in Exodus Chapter 20, and also Jesus' summary of the Commandments in Matthew Chapter 22, verses 36-40.
If we obey the Great Commandment, then we shall not break the Ten Commandments.