Someone said to me the other day "Isn't God as we find him in the Ten Commandments rather an inadequate personality? How does it go? Number 1 - You shall have no other gods but me. Number 2 No graven images. Number 3 No taking my name in vain. Doesn't that speak of a deity somewhat unsure of himself and his relationships?"

Is a wife who says to her husband "You shall have no other husband but me" inadequate? Or is she simply stating the terms of the relationship, terms not unreasonable given then nature of marriage? The Commandments are like that - the terms of a relationship between God and his people. What is more they are for our benefit and not God's. He doesn't need our worship, but we need nothing more desperately than to set our hearts on the one for whom our hearts were made. If we set our hearts on other things, worship other gods, the results are always disastrous.