God is a jealous God, and He would have Israel to have no other gods before Him. Israel had lived under the influence of Egyptian life, customs, worship practices, culture and lifestyle for in excess of 400 years. God brings them to the foot of Mt Sinai and introduces the beginning of their detox program – their spiritual and communal realignment.
“Getting Israel out of Egypt and getting Egypt out of Israel.” Shepherd
In the Ten Commandments God is saying to redeemed Israel post Egypt – “This is how you will live, do relationships, live in community, worship, be my people, be a witness to the nations…”He begins with – I am the Lord your God – establishing relationship. The second commandment is related to the first…
Exodus 20:1-6 (ESV) 1 And God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “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. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
God says to Israel, “you shall have no other gods before me”.