Keep The Second Commandment
Exodus 20
1 And God spoke all these words: 2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 "You shall have no other gods before me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.
The reading is from Exodus 20 verses 1 through 6.
The first commandment deals with the object of our worship, forbidding us to worship any false god. The second commandment deals with the manner of our worship, forbidding us to worship the true God in any unworthy way. Put another way, it is not enough to worship the correct God; the correct God must be worshiped correctly. And as we consider this we come to the whole issue of idolatry. Many assume that if you get commandment one correct then you don't have to worry about commandment two. But I had it explained to me in a lesson and I was taken by surprise. You would think that if you get commandment one right -- you couldn't get commandment two wrong. I am sharing what I learned from a lesson I recently heard.
We are content with the fact that we don't have any graven images in our homes or the fact that we haven't danced around a religious pole lately, we just presume that we are not in violation of the command. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are considered unworthy of God. That is coming to God with imaginations which are more the product of our minds than they are of any biblical disclosure or instruction.
You have heard it said, "I like to think of God as." Maybe you have heard some say, "I like to think of God as just a loving father." Or maybe," I like to think of God as just the architect of the universe". They use the word "just" because what they are really saying is, "I like to think of him this way, but I don't want to think of him that way." As if all we have to do is concede that there is a God, then we can create Him in the way we want to worship him.
The question is: What is God's will for us in the second commandment? Answer: That we in no way make any image of God, nor worship him in any other way than he has commanded in his word. God cannot and may not be visibly portrayed in any way. God forbids images that are made for worship or to serve God through them. Can images be allowed in churches, the answer is no. He wants his people instructed by the living preaching of his word not by idols that cannot even talk.
All of here today are at various stages of this journey of being a Christians. Some are still making up their minds; some have made up their mind and just beginning and others are somewhere in the middle of beginning and well seasoned. So the amount of thought and understanding put into the second commandment - varies by person.
This is what I'm bringing to you today: What is the commandment saying; why is the commandment important and finally does the commandment apply to our relationship with God.
First of all what is the commandment saying? We learn from the first commandment that God is interested in only one kind of relationship with us. It is an exclusive relationship, a relationship in which we encounter no one other than Him. Nothing is to come between us and God.
In the second commandment, God alone is to be worshiped without any visual symbols of Him. This is important because we can get number one right and make a mess of number two. Look at 2 Kings Chapter 10 for a moment - Jehu does just that. We have the record of Jehu's destruction of the Baals. These people that were worshiping Baal had built a temple to Baal. Jehu was not happy with this and took it upon himself to make sure that they would not be doing this much longer. So he tricks them by telling them that he is going to worship Baal too. Jehu invites the people to the temple, gives all the people new robes and then orders the people he has surrounding the building to run them through with swords. And so he takes care of Baal and his worshipers. In verse 26 they destroy the sacred stone of Baal, tore down the temple and people have used this place as a latrine until this day.
Graphic visual isn't it; Jehu wanted to make sure that everyone worshiped the right God. So far, so good. Look at verse 28
28 So Jehu destroyed Baal worship in Israel. 29 However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit-the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.
In other words he was clear that there was only one God that was to be worshiped. He got that correct. He fouled up by assuming that the one true God could be worshiped correctly by means of the construction of these calves that had been set up in these pagan shrines.
Idolatry exists not only in the worship of false gods but also in the worship of the one true God in false ways. That is why the nature of worship must happen in the confines in which the Bible says worship is all about. Worship is not a theater, it is not a performance. Rather, a place of worship is a place where we are compelled to worship a living God in all of His glory and in all of his might - in reverence.
Therefore there needs to be about our worship that is true, not the worship of self, not the worship that is false, but the worship that is true; So that the worship magnifies God and His glory. Be the kind of people that seek to worship the one true God correctly. The warning is if we deviate from that - we deviate badly.
When God commanded the construction of the temple He made sure that there was no representation of the deity. You can read about this in 1 Kings Chapter 6. He allowed for the color and the shapes of images from the natural world; fruit, trees, land and water. But there was to be no images of God himself, because it would confuse people as to the nature of what they were dealing with. You can find people that will argue with some kind human rationalization, that a statue or crucifix is ok, but when you look at the commandment you find that this is not the case. God is telling us, you shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything. Even if it approximates who I am, you are not supposed to do it. In every generation people have rejected this.
All that is needed is the bible. This is how God has chosen to reveal himself to us. When God commanded the building of the temple, He gave direction to the room where his presence was to be manifested - there was nothing in there. Interesting, in pagan cultures there would be some great monolithic image, people would go in and say "Wow that is amazing", But not for God. In God's temple it was just a cedar place, in it dwelt the ark, in the ark dwelt the tablets. What God is saying is 'don't look for me in shrines, paintings or statues - I am not there. Look for me in my word'.
Stay focused on this: The study of the scripture in all of its fullness and truth, observe baptism and the Lord's Supper, establish and be in subjection to church discipline. And know that it is impossible for man to capture the living God in a box, in a statue or in a painting.
It is amazing that we have no record of the physical appearance of Jesus Christ. Interesting isn't it. There is not a record of anyone that made the history books that is devoid of that kind of information. God was deliberate when he left out a physical description of Christ.
Remember the woman at the well. She tried to distract Jesus with the question, "Where do we worship God, on the mountain or at the temple"? We are not talking about where. Jesus answers, God is spirit and they that worship Him will worship in spirit and in truth. For they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit and his worshippers must worship Him in spirit and in truth. The implication is that if we try to introduce any kind of go-between element, then we will obscure the true truth of God as he has revealed it.
Why is this commandment important? It is important because God said it. Images dishonor God and images misdirect men.
Images are sometimes very beautiful, but no image can capture the true nature of God. Therefore, what images do is conceal the true nature of God. So when we say to ourselves, "I like to think of God as just this or that. I think of Him in a certain way and my imagination is very important to me." There is great danger in this.
Think about it, if that was important to God it would have been revealed to us so we could latch on to it. But He has not done that. He has revealed Himself in creation. Look around. He has revealed himself in the written word. And He revealed Himself through his Son Jesus Christ. And we are to look to no other place or create any other thing that will divert us from that pathway of His revelation. We are not to do anything that distracts from proper worship. It is impossible to conceive of something anything greater that God. It is a dead end street.
We must also consider this concerning the worship of what is false, How about the false worship of self. Is this what James is warning us of in chapter 3?
1Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.
James begins chapter 3 with a specific instruction that not many should become teachers. His concern is not to give career counseling. Rather, he is addressing those who aspire to positions of authority in the church. James knows that any where you find authority you may find the problem of authority abuse.
Church leaders are his primary focus in Chapter 3. And what is on his heart is a sin to which leaders are vulnerable--the sin of pride. Can you see this self-importance in the Pharisees of old? They were involved in self worship masked in the veil of religion. The warning: If pride is your weakness stay removed from such an office, because everything might be for naught in the end. His point that teachers will be judged more strictly is driven home in his letter.
It can happen in a congregation. And this pride and selfish ambition robs God from what is His, pure worship. It is a disruptive element. I have seen it happen, a show of pride from a man that reels the heads of those who just came to worship God. The body language of the membership is an indicator that God's worship is interrupted. Not good. Look at verse 16 in James 3.
16For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
If you brought someone with you today they may feel like they are sitting on a pin cushion. These words are just to help you. I can say this because I lived through it. Generations of my family worshiped in beautiful buildings with statues and images. That's how I was raised, knowing God but getting commandment two all wrong. It took me a while to unlearn and then learn the truth. So this lesson has passed through my own heart first.
To summarize: The first commandment warns us to worship the correct God. And as were learned, the second commandment states we must worship God correctly.
The last point: Does the second commandment apply to our relationship with God? Yes it does. First the establishment of images and shrines creates a dishonoring of God. Secondly they create the potential of misdirecting men. You can read this for yourself in Exodus 32.
What you find is when people begin wrong in their worship they will end wrong in their lives. As soon as they began to worship the calf they got into all kinds of pagan practices. Someone might say it doesn't matter if you have a little shrine or statue. Yes it does matter, read for yourself what happened.
It doesn't matter how you conceive of God. Yes it does. How one generation conceives of God has implications for the generation that follows. When a culture, when a society, when a people begin to devalue God and begin to exalt humanity and the creations and thoughts of men, then that culture is in deep trouble.
And that is exactly where our culture is presently. We are so far away from the foundation and intent of one nation under God, that's why we are in the situation in which we find ourselves. You won't find this root cause reported on CNN or NBC news. You won't hear this tickler at a station break. "Because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD", the US culture on verge of collapse: More on this story at eleven. I borrowed these words in part from Hosea 1:2.
Turn with me to Romans Chapter 1 verse 21. This is the final passage. You will want to have these serious words in front of you on your lap. Listen and read what the bible says about the way we are.
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
They got up in the morning and they went around as if they made everything. They never thanked God for their food. Most people don't. Why? Because they don't actually think that God gave them their food. They don't get up in the morning and thank God for their health and strength. They just think that they have health and strength. That leads to something else. They thought that they were really bright, and their foolish hearts became darkened. But they were really stupid. Look at verse 22-23
22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
The point is that the whole of man has shifted in its thinking. We are still aborting babies created in His image with a soul. What is going on? You see they broke the second commandment. They exchanged the glory of God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. God says, if that is the way you want it then, look at verse 24
24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
God gave them over. You want to live like that, watch what happens.
25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen.
The whole idea of thou shall not commit adultery get thrown out the door. The whole culture is in total collapse.
And the people said, "God didn't say that, this is what we think." They worshiped and served created things rather than the creator. God says that is the way you want it. He gave them over again. He gave them over to shameful lusts. Women became lesbians and men became homosexuals. Read it for yourself in verse 26 and 27.
26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
And God said, 'that is not enough and He gave them over again.'
The following is a paraphrase of a quote from Abraham Lincoln: What God is for, I too must be for. What God is against, I too am against. These are wise words to live by and his words can guide us and a culture in choices.
If you just live your life with your eyes wide open and your Bible on your lap -- it is not hard to see that the commands of God, when not adhered to, -- just don't affect the individual life, it affects a family, a culture and a nation. And that is exactly where we find ourselves today. It is so clear; a blind man can see it. Don't drink the kool-aid of this culture we live in. Be the remnant that obeys his commands. Stand firm.
It might sound stupid to some, but there is a big issue here and it is commandment number two. Somewhere we got off course and got it wrong. We started to worship ourselves and our own creations and we as a culture have ceased to worship God as He instructed. And when we do, men are misdirected. It is a fact that if we entertain a lie long enough we can come to regard it as truth. So if we have mental, or a stone or wooden or metal image of God, then we will eventually believe that that is the image of God. And that is a grave mistake.
My time is past - Let's wrap it up.
What does this teach us? God says I'm not like any of your images. But I am like this. Like what? I'm a jealous God. That means he is not going to share his people with anybody. I'm a just God. If you sin against Me and turn you back on Me then there will be punishment that will go through generations. I'm a just God but I'm a gracious God. He declares His mercy to those who follow after Him.
Jesus said - "He who has seen Me has seen the Father." What a tragedy to embrace an image or the lies some men imagine God to be and miss the Person and miss heaven.
I don't know about you, but I needed this lesson.
So God the Father stands watching and waiting for this prodigal world to return. He is waiting for you today. It is His invitation, not mine.
Contributors: Alistair Begg; Indiucky