There are a lot of folks that think that. They think that God is here to take away all the joy in life, to take away the privilege of living. You can't do anything that is not either immoral, illegal, or fattening. What's left? No joy in living. God didn't do it that way. He gave us these to help us to enjoy life.

Some people say, "Well, God is just looking over the rafters of heaven saying, "They are having a good time down there. 'Stop it!' 'Don't you do that anymore!'" They are kind of like the woman hollering to her husband, "See what the baby is doing, and stop him!" She doesn't know what the baby is doing; she just says "Stop him!" "Whatever they are doing down there, Gabriel, stop them!" "If they are having a good time, Michael, tell them to stop it!"

That's not what the Ten Commandments are given for. They are given in order that we might have positive, powerful living and it begins with acknowledgement of the first one. What does it say? "Thou shalt have no other God before Me." Let's look at it.

First of all, that is a great discovery. The greatest discovery of all is when Israel learned to say, "Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord thy God is one God." You say, why is that important? Because they lived in a time that was "polytheistic"; that means "many gods." There were gods to Baal, gods to Moloch, gods to Mammon. They worshipped frogs, the sun, the moon, stars, trees, rivers, mountains, everything! Everything that moved and didn't move, they worshipped. God said, "No, there's one true God. You don't worship these things." And that's why He dealt so harshly with Egypt.

When the plagues came on Egypt, nearly every plague contradicted a god they worshipped. For instance, you remember that God sent all those frogs. Why? Because, you see, Egypt worshipped the frog; the frog was a deity. You can go to the Egyptian museum and you can see the tremendous exhibition of King Tut's riches. And you will see a frog that used to hang around his neck. You look through that glass case and you see that frog. What did God do? He said, "I'm going to give you a few!" So, they had frogs in the soup, frogs in the beds, frogs in Pharoah's palace, frogs under the chariot wheels, frogs here, frogs there, frogs everywhere! God Said, "You loved frogs, now you've got them!" And the folks said, "Oh, we don't want these frogs. Get rid of them!" And God did. It was a time when people worshipped everything.

Then came "Henotheism." Henotheism is where you worship one god at one time in your nation, but acknowledge that there may be other gods in other nations. For instance, Solomon's wives from other lands brought their gods with them, the Bible says. And they began to distort the worship of the one true God, leading to the downfall of Israel.

Do you remember when Ahab married Jezebel? Jezebel brought her god into Israel, and brought downfall to the kingdom. So, why did God say this? It is not one god for one nation, it's not many gods. There is one true God in the whole world, and His Name is "The Lord, Thy God".