Page 4 - April 2021 - Truth & Tidings

“Thou shalt have no other gods before with the nation: divine blessings or curses
me.” would follow, according to their obedience
This first commandment is brief, but or lack of it.
all the more authoritative for that. God With the coming of Christ into the
demanded the loyalty of His earthly world and the beginning of Christianity,
people, Israel. Their founding patriarch, monotheism is still upheld even though
Abraham, had left behind him the gods of the existence of God in three divine Per-
the Chaldeans and put his faith and con- sons is also clearly seen. The Father, Son
fidence in Jehovah, the covenant-keeping and Holy Spirit are co-equal in power and
God. Abraham’s long journey from Ur to glory. “The Trinity” (a biblical truth, if not
Canaan was undertaken on the principle a Bible term) is a concept so great that we
of faith, believing what God had said con- cannot fully understand it, and yet it is so
cerning the promised land, even though important that we must believe it, and so
he had never seen it. The subsequent wonderful that we ought to enjoy it.
events in his life proved him truly to be Following their redemption from bond-
“the father of all them that believe” (Rom age, the Israelites, perhaps numbering
4:11). He knew God and trusted Him; over two million people, began a hazard-
1
He loved God and worshipped Him; and ous journey through the desert. There is
He obeyed God and served Him. We can no doubt that over four centuries of living
do the same today. God has not changed. in Egypt had left their mark – they would
The Bible asserts repeatedly that there continue to hanker after what they had
is only one true God: “Hear, O Israel: The left behind in that land. Ahead of them
Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt lay the land of Canaan and its many idol
love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, gods – they would fall prey to the influ-
and with all thy soul, and with all thy ence of these false gods and suffer the
might” (Deu 6:4-5). This is the core belief consequences. If only they had remained
in Judaism and forms the initial stanza of true to Jehovah!
the oft-repeated daily prayer known as
the Shema. Other stanzas remind Jews of Egyptian gods
the conditional nature of God’s covenant The ancient Egyptians had a vast pan-
¹ All Scripture quotations in this article are from theon of gods and goddesses associated
the KJV. with the elements above them – sun, wind

100 TRUTH kTidings April 2021