"First Commandment: Ignore all the other gods. That’s an odd thing for a monotheistic god to say!"

The first commandment of the Decalogue reads in English:

"Thou shalt have no other gods BEFORE me."

BEFORE means REPRESENTING, or 'in place of'. In the ancient Hebrew the word translated as BEFORE means REPRESENTING, MASQUERADING, PERSONATING. In modern English we would say:

"You shall have no other judges representing me."

What God is saying in this commandment is that there is no one person or institution who is a 'vicar' representing him.

Why did he say this?

Because that's what they did in Egypt. Pharaoh was the 'vicar' of the deity.

Some nitwit will no doubt try to claim, "no, no, he's saying don't have idols."

To the nitwit: "That's the second commandment on graven images."

They don't teach you this in the Christian church because the Christian church is one of the forbidden, "other gods" pretending to represent him. Ditto for Islam and every other organized religion. Their existence violates the first commandment.

The Father hates religion. Hates all of it:

"And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."

Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are King Saul.

And they will be replace by the coming King David (Jesus).