"I am the Lord your God, do not have any other gods before me"
One of the steps in the 12 step programs is "came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." This is the second step of the program right after the admission of powerlessness and unmanageable life. The powerlessnes is over whatever your particular addiction happens to be. Perhaps alcohol, drugs, food, etc. And so immediately after admitting to loss of control of your life you turn your life over "to the care of God as we understand him."
So who is this God to whom we finally turn when all other solutions fail us, when we have lost control of life and self? How do I understand this God and how do I know that this God is the God and not some other god of lesser or stranger stature than the God of creation? And how do we know that this God will indeed care for us, provide the sustenance we need, be able to handle what we cannot?
The Decalogue, more popularly known as the 10 commandments was the law of the Hebrew Bible, passed down to Moses after the Israelites fled Egypt through the Red Sea by the grace of God and were then sent towards the promised land, a journey that was trying enough to make many of them yearn for the days of slavery in the land of Egypt. These commandments are considered the moral foundation in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
This God describes "himself" as a jealous God wanting the people to turn to him alone and to abandon the other gods common to the people of the time. Perhaps, sun gods, moon gods, fertility gods and so on. Gods who represented parts of life but not full life, gods who were called upon for certain favors but not for others. But this God, this audacious one, said you shall have no others. I am enough. Whatever you need I will provide.
Imagine the surprise of these people, slaves released from slavery, who had forgotten there was a God of their people, who had to be reminded of their tie to this God when he passed over the homes of this people and saved their sons, to be forever remembered from that time on in the passover ritual of the Jewish people. Certainly, a God like this was a god to be reckoned with, a god to turn to, to be worshipped. This God said I am yours and you are mine.
