_OTHER GODS!_
"_Thou shalt have no other gods before Me._"
--EXODUS xx. 1-11.
If we kept that commandment all the other commandments would be obeyed. If
we secure this queen-bee we are given the swarm. To put nothing "before"
God! What is left in the circle of obedience? God first, always and
everywhere. Nothing allowed to usurp His throne for an hour! I was once
allowed to sit on an earthly throne for a few seconds, but even that is
not to be allowed with the throne of God. Nothing is to share His
sovereignty, even for a moment. His dominion is to be unconditional and
unbroken. "Thou shalt have no other gods beside Me."
But we have many gods we set upon His throne. We put money there, and
fame, and pleasure, and ease. Yes, we sometimes usurp God's throne, and we
ourselves dare to sit there for days, and weeks, and years, at a time.
Self is the idol, and we enthrone it, and we fall down and worship it. But
no peace comes from such sovereignty, and no deep and vital joy. For the
real King is not dead, and He is out and about, and our poor little
monarchy is as the reign of the midge on a summer's night. Our real
kingship is in the acknowledgment of the King of kings. When we worship
Him, and Him only, He will ask us to sit on His throne.