GOD’S MARRIAGE CONTRACT – NO OTHER GODS

 “You shall have no other gods before me.” Ex 20:3

We are all on a journey with God and our faith and understanding develop and grow as we journey with Him. For the people of Israel, Sinai was a defining moment in their journey which began with Abraham who multiplied through the generations to become a nation in covenant with El Shaddai – God Almighty.

They became slaves in Egypt where they lost their dignity and freedom as human beings and were at the mercy of their Egyptian slavedrivers. God met Moses, revealed Himself as Jehovah and identified Himself as their God.  Before they had done anything to deserve it, He chose them to be His own. He had already established a relationship with them by covenant, not to make them good but to make them free. They did not have to impress Him, but He had to train them to believe that He already loved them and wanted to teach them to be human again. His rules were given to protect them because in Egypt as slaves they did not know how to treat one another.

The Ketubah was a set of ground rules to establish boundaries around the relationships that were already established. God had the huge task of teaching a group of slaves to respect the image of God in each other and to do life together. 

Israel was a community of people who would bring forth Messiah.  They needed to understand sin, forgiveness etc., to be ready for Messiah’s arrival. God could not drop their Messiah into a situation where they did not understand why He had come. He had to build into their culture everything they needed to know about deliverance, redemption, forgiveness and sonship etc through their religious system, sacrifices and cultural practices so that they would understand the work of Jesus.

The ketubah is a revelation of God’s way of living to a group of people who were to show God to the world. The process began in Ex 12 – the Passover. God spoke for the first time in 430 years – saying “Kill a lamb. Let’s eat and put blood on your house.”  These seem strange instructions, but God was asking, “Do you trust me?” Israel had to learn that they were saved by faith in the blood of a lamb, and they had to live by obeying God’s commands – by representing God’s character to the world. God’s way works because it brings peace and freedom from slavedrivers.  Do we trust Him?

Rules don’t establish relationship. They protect a relationship that has already been established. God’s Ketubah started with grace. His instruction to them, “No other gods” meant “No other men in your life.” This makes sense because, in Egypt they were exposed to a multiplicity of gods but now God was calling them into an exclusive relationship with Him. As their husband, He had to be the only one. They struggled with this because it demanded faith to worship a God they could not see.