I am your God

"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."

Exodus 20:2-3

It was the beginning of the third month after the exodus from Egypt when God gave his people the Ten Words or Ten Commandments, handing them to Moses on Mount Sinai: 620 Hebrew letters that encapsulate the essence of the Torah and are synonymous with a central event in biblical history. Let us dwell on the first, which is a sort of calling card of the God known to Moses when, before the burning bush, he heard the voice of the One who invited him to receive His commandment. Between bewilderment and amazement, the fugitive murderer asked God how he could identify Him by name. In response, he received an unusual introduction: “I Am Who I Am.” The phrase refers to the divine tetragrammaton (YHWH), which was never pronounced by the Jews because it is composed only of consonants, and also out of a kind of reverence for God. Whenever the reader encounters the tetragrammaton, they replace it with the term “Adonai” in biblical texts and “HaShem” in other texts. We usually use the term “Eternal” or “Lord” in translations. However, it is not a noun, but a verb, which affirms the unreachable and unknowable nature of God, a present in motion, whose action is nevertheless visible and operative in history, an effective and supreme presence that intervenes alongside the people with His liberating hand.

From this perspective, the knowledge of God enters into a projection of time, a way of remembering that He is always close to us, in the present and also in the future. In the historical context in which the Ten Commandments are set, the people are out of Egypt, just as promised. Thus, the name is between the present and the future, as if to tell us that He always precedes us. His actions are recounted in the past tense, because when He begins a work, He brings it to completion: He has freed this people from slavery. The first statement of the Decalogue opens the door to liberation. Even before uttering His words, the Eternal One presented Himself to the people as the One who had freed them. On such a premise, the people could place their trust with peace of mind, for they would never again be placed under any other form of slavery. Everything that God would command them would serve only to preserve their freedom, because He is the One who defends the freedom of man and His people. On this basis, the first word comes: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:1). Are there other gods? “I am the Lord your God” implies that He is the only one.

The “having no other gods” probably refers to the polytheistic context in which the tablets were written, as well as to the people's location in an idolatrous land. The people had come out of the land of Egypt, where they had witnessed and participated in Egyptian cults, whose deities were many. For every aspect of human life there was one, from fertility to death; a god, therefore, for every episode of life. One could speculate that God was saying, "There are no other gods! Do not have any others, because in doing so you are following an image produced by the imaginary potential of your mind. I am the only one, your God, the One who brought you out of the land of Egypt." The relationship that God establishes with the people is based on a fact, a demonstration: having brought them out of Egypt is an undeniable and incontrovertible fact. This demonstration engenders a demand for loyalty, that of having no other gods, as if to say: “You must be loyal only to me.” Unfortunately, impatience will instead reveal infidelity and immediately lead to the fabrication of idols. Chapter 32 of Exodus recounts precisely what happened in the camp while Moses was on the mountain to receive the Tablets. Moses' delay led the people to ask for an idol. The first word points us in the direction of patience: “Remember who I am and what I have done.” Do you have other gods?

Photo by jcomp on Freepik

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Weekly Bible reading plan #20

May 12, 2 Kings 15-16; John 3:1-18

May 13, 2 Kings 17-18; John 3:19-36

May 14, 2 Kings 19-21; John 4:1-30

May 15, 2 Kings 22-23; John 4:31-54

May 16, 2 Kings 24-25; John 5:1-24

May 17, 1 Chronicles 1-3; John 5:25-47

May 18, 1 Chronicles 4-6; John 6:1-21