Dean Fulks
The first commandments teach us that God’s love is the way that we deal with our heart-level idolatry.
You don't have to choose between the rules and the relationships
Ex 20:2
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Ex. 12:3
“Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household…”
The first real commandment was to trust God.
Ex. 3:12
And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
God wanted the relationship first and the rules second.
Ex. 20:3-4
You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
God gave us rules to make our lives more beautiful, not more difficult.
Matt. 22:37-40
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
If you don't have love, you have idols.