Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“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.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, October 12, 2019
by R. Fergus Moir, Clergy Stuff
There are so many gods to choose from. I’m not talking about Canaanite gods or Egyptian gods. I’m talking about anything we put between ourselves and the God. As an addict, I spent years using food to inspire, motivate, comfort, and reward myself, as well as to insulate myself from pain. In other words, I put food in the place of God in my life.
If we’re honest, I think almost everyone has another god, even if we’re not full-blown addicts. There is something else we worship, something else we look to for our consolation. Money, material possessions, relationships, entertainment, etc. But these gods lack (at least) one major facet of the one true God.
God liberates, just as God led the Israelites ‘out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.’ These other, human, materials gods enslave us. They numb us to reality, prevent us from true relationships with God and others, keep us from the realization of who God created us to be. Thus, God’s command to have no other gods is intimately connected to this reminder of God’s liberating power.
Am I enslaved to some other ‘god’ from which God can liberate me today?
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