The story goes that prior to giving Moses the Ten Commandments on Mt Sinai, God was having second thoughts. He was about to hit the print button but, as happens, there was a problem with the Wi-Fi. Put on hold by the IT department, He started to wonder if the order He’d put them in was the right one.
News of this quickly got round and in time-honoured fashion, it was suggested that perhaps a focus group might help. God was somewhat dubious. But in spite of His reservations about the usefulness of such an approach, He nonetheless appreciated the enthusiasm behind the suggestion and gave the idea the green light.
And so it was that 12 people suddenly found themselves whisked off to the outer reaches of heaven. Laid out in front of them on a table, amidst some celestial coffee and sandwiches, were the ten phrases neatly typed (they hadn’t yet been written in stone as otherwise they’d be too heavy to pass around). The participants listened as the facilitator explained, ‘Some of the commandments address how we are to live towards God, whilst others are to do with how we are live together in society.’ Someone asked if it was possible to add additional commandments, ten being quite a small number. But the answer was a firm no—the list was definitely closed. They had been summoned to address the matter of how best to order the commandments and they were to focus on that question alone.
It wasn’t a straightforward task. After all, which one should come first? Which one should follow? Which should come last? And so on. That’s when each of the participants was handed a piece of paper and a pencil. ‘You’ve got half an hour,’ the facilitator explained, ‘to write them out in the order you think best.’
So they all scribbled away and at the end of thirty minutes, they were invited to share their preferred order. It soon became apparent that there were two, almost evenly split, groups in the room. One group was of the mind that the commandments concerning how we are to live together in community should come first, with for many, ’You shall not murder’ coming in at No. 1. As one person quipped, ‘if we all go round killing each other, there’s not going be anyone left to carry out the other commandments, whatever order we put them in!’
The second group, however, wasn’t persuaded. They were more minded to put the commandments to do with God first. But even then, the minutes of the meeting show that there was quite some disagreement as to which specific commandment should be the first one. ‘Keep the Sabbath holy’ was a popular choice with some. As one member of the group was reported as saying, ‘This is how we show we love God, by setting aside one day a week.’ ‘No graven images’ was also a favoured choice for several. Many in the group appreciated that whilst these commandments were to do with God, they were clear and straightforward. You knew more or less whether or not you were keeping them.
The facilitator dutifully recorded all the feedback in a notebook and after a couple of follow-up questions, thanked the group for their help and sent everybody on their way, but not before they were all sworn to secrecy.
So, you can imagine that it was quite a surprise for those who had taken part in the focus group that when it came to ‘the drop’, the big unveiling on Mt. Sinai, the commandment chosen by God to be in first position was in fact ‘You shall have no other gods before me’.
On hearing this, many raised an eyebrow – though they had to be discreet about it, of course. No one in the group had suggested this should be the first commandment. In fact, several had dismissed this one as almost sounding jealous, much to the facilitator’s barely concealed horror (in the official minutes this observation was wisely redacted).
In time, however, the members of the focus group began to think that maybe God was on to something by putting this commandment first. Finding it hard to keep their thoughts to themselves, the group soon created a secret society known as the Order of The Ten Cs, the story of that original group being quietly entrusted from one generation to the next.
A key moment in the history of the Order was the turmoil of the exile in Babylon. It was then that the descendants of the Order came to appreciate that this was actually the most important commandment. They realised that if they worshipped another god, then things really could go catastrophically wrong – not just for themselves as individuals, but for society as a whole.
Nevertheless, over the years, when explaining the importance of the first commandment to others outside the Order, it would often prove hard for many to see why it should have such dire consequences. People would often remark that whilst others might, they themselves didn’t worship other gods. They would point out that it wasn’t as if they had actual statues or images of other gods, what you might call idols, just lying around the house or hanging on the wall. ‘What a ridiculous, old-fashioned way of thinking!’ they would say.
Many centuries later, a Frenchman from Picardy, Jean Calvin – rumoured by some to be a descendant of the Order of The Ten Cs – observed that in fact this was the number one problem we face. Having a knack with words, he came up with a vivid image of just how bad things are. ‘Our nature,’ he observed ‘is a perpetual factory of idols’.
By this he meant that we do everything we can to create something or someone to worship other than God. Having done so, we look to this idol, which can take all sorts of shapes and forms in our lives, and give it worth, looking to it for our sense of identity, our security and our well-being. Our hearts pump these things out like sweets on a factory line.
And that’s where, Calvin maintained, it all goes wrong. All the problems cascade from the fundamental misdirection of our hearts to that which is other than God because, ultimately, it can’t bear the weight of our expectations and hopes. These, he maintained, can only be fulfilled by God.
The descendants of the Order of The Ten Cs are little known these days. Obviously they don’t have a website, though rumour has it that some are thinking of starting a private WhatsApp group. Most everybody else dismisses it as just a silly story. But the insight that the original members gained of how dangerous idolatry can be still gets a hearing here and there.
Whilst not a member of the Order myself, I, too, have come round to the view that it is essential to have a good understanding of both the subtleties and dangers of idolatry, and hence the absolute importance of the first commandment.
So, over the next month or two, I’m going to explore what some of these types of idolatry can look like in our individual lives, in our society and in the church. In the meantime, if any members of the Order of The Ten Cs want to drop me a line, they can do so using the link below.
In the strictest confidence, of course.