OF all the Ten Commandments recorded by Moses as coming from God Himself, the mighty precept, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3), may be justly considered basic, affirming as it does the essential primacy of God, a fact which forms the foundation of both Judaism and Christianity.
The history of the Hebrew people, as previously set down, had shown in many instances the necessity and practical results of clinging to the true God as their creator, protector, and guide. Centuries before Moses, Abraham, whom the Israelites considered the founder of their nation, had outlined the pattern of their acceptance of the one ever-ruling Deity by renouncing the idolatry rife in his home city of Ur in Babylonia and accepting implicitly the Lord's command to set out for the distant and unknown land of Canaan.
Placing this true God in the foreground of his experience and repudiating the numerous alleged deities of Babylon, Abraham had clung steadfastly to the assurance that only in the recognition of and obedience to God could progress, true prosperity, and peace of mind be obtained. Faith in God's promise assured him of the birth of a son in his old age; and Isaac and Jacob in their turn held to the fundamental thought that all false, local, limited deities should be abjured.
