You shall have no other gods before Me.
–Exodus 20:3
As a pastor, it’s been my privilege to conduct wedding ceremonies for almost fifty years. When I stand at the altar with the bride and groom, one of the vows I ask them to make before God and the congregation is to love and cherish each other and, “forsaking all others,” to be faithful to each other for the rest of their lives. In other words, I ask the couple to esteem each other.
In the Ten Commandments, God asked us to make a similar commitment to Him. The first commandment says, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). God said we are to esteem Him alone.
According to Merriam-Webster, esteem means “to set a high value on; regard highly and prize accordingly.” In Hebrew, there are several words that carry the idea of esteem. One is chashab, which means to regard or value; another is arak, which means to arrange things in order. When applied to a person, arak means to place first in order of priority.
If you’ve played in an orchestra or attended a symphony performance, you probably understand the concept of arak. Before the conductor enters and the concert begins, one of the violinists stands up and leads the rest of the orchestra in tuning their instruments. That person is the principal violinist, and they occupy the position we call the first chair. No matter how many violinists are lined up onstage, only one is the first chair. The same is true for the other instruments–there may be five trumpet players in the orchestra, but the first chair belongs to the best trumpet player, the one who is esteemed above all others. Or think about a football team. There may be multiple quarterbacks on the roster, but only one is the first-string or starting quarterback. The writer of Proverbs 31 described “an excellent wife” (v. 10) in a similar way: “Her children rise up and bless her; her husband also, and he praises her, saying: ‘Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all’” (vv. 28–29). In other words, his wife is the first chair; she takes first place.
In Exodus 20:3, God commanded us to place Him first in order of priority, to make Him the first chair above anyone and anything else in our lives. We are to esteem Him alone. (Jeffress)
