The God Who Stands Alone

The God who Stands Alone
Read Exodus 6:1-9; 7:1-6
“The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst.”

In a recent survey one out of three Christians strongly agrees that “all people pray to the same god or spirit, no matter what name they use for that spiritual being.” So even among Christians today, there is the belief that all religions ultimately lead to the same God, and it does not matter what you believe in; as long as you have faith in God (no matter who that God is), then you will go to heaven.  
However, God does not give us this option within the pages of Scripture. Instead, God makes it clear that all other pathways ultimately lead to destruction. There is only one God and to worship any other God is to worship an idol.  
In the Exodus event, we often view the plagues as arbitrary acts of judgment that God brought upon the Egyptians. We see the events as God’s judgment upon the Egyptians for their enslavement of the Jews, so the exodus event becomes a story of judgment upon slavery and the liberation of the oppressed. However, as we examine both the narrative itself and how it was applied through the rest of Scripture, we discover that the story is about God’s judgment upon idolatry and false worship as well as the liberation, not from bondage to others, but our bondage to sin which is grounded in idolatry.
In the ten plagues, we see God direct judgment of the gods of Egypt:
1st plague: the Nile to Blood:  Judgment upon gods of  Khnum, Hapi, and Osiris.
2nd plague: Frogs: Judgment upon gods of Hapi and Heqt.
3rd Plague: Lice:  Judgment upon the god of Sep.
4th plague:  Flies: Judgment upon god of Uatchit.
5th plague: Disease on Cattle: Judgment upon gods of Ptah, Hathor, Mnevis, Amon.
6th plague: Boils:  Judgment upon the gods of Sekhmet, Serapis, Imhotep.
7th plague: Hail:  Judgment upon the gods of Nut, Isis, and Seth, Shu.
8th Plague: Locust: Judgment upon God Serapia.
9th plague: Darkness: Judgment upon gods of Amon-re, Aten, Atum, Horus, Thoth.
10 Plague: Death of Firstborn: Judgment upon worshipping Pharoah and all gods.
In these judgments, God makes it clear that he alone is God and that all other gods are empty and void of any power. There is only one God and only one mediator between God and man. Isiah 44:6 states, “I am the first and the last, and there is no God except me.”  In 1 Timothy 2:5-6, Paul writes, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.” Consequently, God forbids the worship of any other religion or god. In #xodus 23:13, he states, “And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect; and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.”
All other religions do not lead to God because, in the end, they reject God and embrace the worship of that which is false. Thus, it violates the very first command of not worshiping any other gods. God stands alone, and he does not tolerate any competitors. But idolatry is more than just worshiping a figure made of stone or gold. An idol is anything that we place as a higher priority than God. An idol is anything we trust for guidance in life other than God. An idol is anything that we give our allegiance. Thus, an Idol may be another religion; it may be the quest for prosperity and pleasure. It may even be ourselves as we reject God’s law and construct our own. God states in Exodus 34:14, “You shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” Today ask God to reveal the idols you have constructed in your life that have supplanted him as the object of all our worship.