Wouldn’t you be flattered if a stranger came up to
you today and told you that he or she was a famous author that secretly admired
you so much that they wanted to write their next book as a biography about
you? You’d probably be either flattered
or terrified! But then suppose you agree
and to your surprise, when the book is published, you read about a person who
moved to Japan at a young age and became a ninja who only wears pink and who
loves cats and working out to Richard Simmons videos. Then suppose that you asked the author why he
or she portrayed you in such a fashion, and they simply replied, “Well, this is
the way that I prefer to see you and to be honest you are much more interesting
in my book than you are in reality.” At
this point, you would probably not be flattered anymore, but offended, and
what’s more is that you would be right to be offended because not only has this
author misrepresented you, he or she
has also made it clear that they don’t like who you are. What we are going to learn in the second
commandment today is that God doesn’t take kindly to those who misrepresent Him
either.
In the second commandment, God commanded His
people not to make or worship idols because He is a jealous God (Exodus 20:4-6). Now we said last week that idolatry is a much
deeper issue than simply bowing before a little statue made of stone, wood, or
metal. Idolatry is fashioning (with our
hands or our minds) and worshipping anyone or anything before or beside the one
true God. When you understand that, this
commandment becomes just as relevant today as it was in Moses’ day. God still expects His people not to create or
worship idols because He is a jealous God.
My prayer is that God would help us understand the seriousness of
idolatry and look to Christ in order to repent of it.
[20:4] “You
shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is
in heaven above, or that is in earth beneath, or that is in the water under the
earth. [5] You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your
God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to
the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast
love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6 ESV) So what does the second commandment require and
why should we obey it?
I.
Understanding the Content of the Second
Commandment (20:4-5a)
The second commandment is a prohibition against idolatry. God says,
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image” of anything in creation
and “you shall not bow down to them or
serve them” (4-5a). “The word for “idol” in the expression (“do
not make an idol for yourself”) is the Hebrew pesel, the most common term for
idol in the Old Testament.”[1]
So God’s people are not to make an idol or worship an idol of anything in
God’s creation.
Now you’re probably noticing that this second
commandment is tightly connected to
the first commandment to have no “other
gods” before Yahweh. There is a lot
of overlap between the first two commandments (so much so that Catholics and
Lutherans believe that this is still part of the first commandment)[2],
but they are not specifically the same. “The first commandment is about giving our
allegiance to something or someone other than the true God. The second commandment is about trying to
turn the true God into something else.
It’s about trying to improve God by fashioning Him in our own image.”[3]
Whether this idol is an image of Yahweh (Exodus 32:1-4) or another “god,” it
still misrepresents the one true God. Any image of Yahweh reduces Him in some way; any image of another “god” breaks covenant with Yahweh. Both of these instances arouse God’s jealousy
and wrath. Why is this the case?
First,
because idolatry seeks to REDUCE God the Creator to something created. An idol can be God-made, in other words we can worship something God created, or man-made, when we fashion a god with our
hands or our minds. Remember that when
we think thoughts about God that are not true, we are committing idolatry. Idolatry turns the created order on its head
and causes God made men to worship man made gods. And any image of God, mental or material, reduces God in some way. Listen to the way that Scripture describes
idols: [2] Why should the nations
say, “Where is their God?” [3] Our God is in the heavens; he does all that
he pleases. [4] Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
[5] They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.
[6] They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.
[7] They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do
not make a sound in their throat. [8] Those who make them become like
them; so do all who trust in them. (Psalm
115:2-8 ESV) Idols are powerless to save (Is. 45:9-20) because they are not “gods” at all, they can’t hear,
smell, walk, or talk (Deut. 4:28; Ps.
115:4-7; Hab. 2:18-19), and this
is what we are reducing God to when we worship idols. Philip Ryken says, “An idol makes the infinite God finite, the
invisible God visible, the omnipotent God impotent, the all present God local,
the living God dead, and the spiritual God material. In short, it makes Him the exact opposite of
what He is.”[4]
The second reason that idolatry is so serious is
because idolatry seeks to MANIPULATE God
the Creator. Why do people form
idols with their hands and hearts? It is
because they want a god that they can mold into their own image. It is because people want a god that makes
them comfortable and that will give them what they want. It is because they want a god who is
manageable and can be manipulated. This
is why people would bow down to idols in ancient times. There was always some desire to control or
contain whatever they were worshipping as “god.” Dr. Benjie Lloyd, our previous pastor, in his
sermon on the second commandment, pointed out three ways in which we do this
today. First, as people who esteem
independence, freedom, and liberty, we create a god who is not all-powerful or
all knowing so that we can still be in control.
Second, as people abhor being told how to live in the realms of
sexuality and ethics, we create a god of unqualified tolerance and love who
would never be wrathful or judge anyone for their behavior. Thirdly, because we value health, wealth and
prosperity, we create a god who only wants to make all our dreams come
true.
The bottom line is that this commandment prohibits
imagining God to be something other than
and consequently less than what He
is. The God of the Bible is telling us
here that He will not be reduced to something in creation. He will not be contained. He will not be domesticated. He will not be controlled and He will not be
manipulated. He will only be worshipped
AS HE IS. The God of the Bible wants His
people to know that He does not fit into any of our boxes. He wants us to know and recognize that He
cannot be fathomed or figured out and that the only way we can know anything
about Him is if He reveals it to us! We
are utterly dependent upon Him to know anything about Him! This is where true worship begins!
What we see in the Bible is that God has chosen to
reveal Himself in His Word and that we are to respond to that word in
faith. [9] “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you
forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your
heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your
children's children—[10] how on the day that you stood before the LORD
your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may
let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that
they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’ [11] And
you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned
with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom.
[12] Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard
the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice. [13] And he
declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the
Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. [14] And the
LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might
do them in the land that you are going over to possess.
[15] “Therefore
watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD
spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, [16] beware lest you
act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any
figure, the likeness of male or female, [17] the likeness of any animal
that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air,
[18] the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of
any fish that is in the water under the earth. [19] And beware lest you
raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars,
all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things
that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
[20] But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace,
out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.
[21] Furthermore, the LORD was angry with me because of you, and he swore
that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land
that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance. [22] For I must
die in this land; I must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take
possession of that good land. [23] Take care, lest you forget the covenant
of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form
of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. [24] For the LORD
your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. (Deuteronomy 4:9-24 ESV) God
has chosen to reveal Himself as a God who is heard and believed rather than
seen.
Our application is simple: we must keep our selves
from idols (1 John 5:21) and worship
the one true God as He reveals Himself. If we have a problem with who God has
revealed Himself to be, that is our problem, not God’s. We’re on dangerous ground when we ignore
God’s revelation and refashion God into something that we are more comfortable
with. We must resist this
temptation. The measure of our worship
must not be who we want God to be but who God is.
II.
Understanding the Reason for the Second
Commandment (20:5b-6)
Again, here there is a tight connection to the
first commandment. We saw in the first
commandment how God’s relationship to His people (via creation and covenant,
i.e. WHO He was and WHAT He had done for them) established His right to make
these demands. The reason given here is
basically the same but is stated differently: it is “the LORD” their “God” is
“a jealous God” (5b).
Once you understand God’s relationship to His
people, you see that it is actually very fitting and right for God to be “jealous,” just as it is very fitting
and right for a husband to feel “jealous”
if another man is flirting with and trying to woo his wife. “Just
as a husband refuses to share his wife with another man, God refuses to share
His people with another god. This act of unfaithfulness on the part of God’s
people is as repugnant as adultery. The relationship between a husband and wife
is the principal image used by the prophets for the explication of idolatry.”[5] We tend to define jealousy in negative terms,
but jealously is not always negative. There
is good and bad jealousy. Jealousy is
bad when I envy and desire something that belongs to you, but it can be good
and fitting is when I love and desire to keep something that belongs to me.
God’s
jealousy is His passionate zeal to keep covenant with His bride (His people).
It causes Him to react to both breaking and keeping covenant. Notice how this functions as both a blessing
and a curse in this passage. This
promise of cursing and blessing shows us just how seriously God takes
idolatry. God’s jealousy will express
itself by “visiting the iniquity (idolatry
is the iniquity spoken of in this context)
of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those
who hate” God and by “showing
steadfast love (HESED) to thousands (of
generations) of those who love” Him
and “keep” His commandments. Notice first that God calls idolatry hatred
of Himself and also that God is not just punishing children for their parent’s
sins: these future generations hate God too.
This means that though others are not responsible for our sins (Ezekiel 18:19-32), our sins do affect
them. This is especially true for our
family members. One of the affects of
our idolatry may be our children learning o worship the same idols that we do. Arthur Pink says, “It is a terrible thing to pass on to children a false
conception of God, either by precept or by example.”[6]
“What is
God doing in your family? As parents
plan for the future they should be more concerned about the second commandment
than they are about their financial portfolio.
This commandment contains a solemn warning for fathers. When a man refuses to love God passionately
and to worship God properly, the consequences of his sin will last for
generations. The guilt of a man who
treasures idols in his heart will corrupt his entire family, and in the end
they will all be punished. But a man who
loves God supremely – a man who bows before him in genuine worship and serves
him with true praise – will see the blessing of God rest on his household
forever. What kind of life are you
leading? What kind of worship are you
giving? What kind of legacy will you
leave?”[7] Men,
we must break the cycle of our idolatry for the glory of God and for the sake
of future generations of those we love.
But notice also the contrast with
those who love God and keep His commandments: they pass on a godly heritage,
not just to the third and fourth generation, but for thousands of generations! This shows us just how much God prefers to
show mercy than wrath and teaches us that God’s jealousy is ultimately His zeal
for not only His own glory but also His zeal for His people’s own good!
Brothers and sisters, rather than mold God into
our own image, we desperately need God to mold us into His image. The Bible teaches us that when God wanted to
create something in His own image, He created us. However, we rebelled against our Creator and
became sinners who have fallen from God’s image. Though we do bear a remnant of His image,
that image has been corrupted and distorted and we are powerless to change
that. But there is good news. God would not leave us broken. To fix us, God sent His Son Jesus. This is the ultimate way that God has chosen
to reveal Himself: through His Son Jesus Christ. According to Colossians 1:15, Jesus Christ is “the image of the invisible God.”
Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus
is God’s finest word and calls Him, “the
radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.” It was this Jesus, the God-man, who would
live our perfection for us and die a horrible death on the cross to pay for all
of our idolatry. Now He is risen from
the dead and offers Himself to all who will repent and believe in Him. This is how you can begin to be who you were
made to be. This is how you can stop remaking
God into your own image, and start being molded into His image. You must look to Jesus for salvation from
idolatry.
[1] Rooker, Mark (2010-04-29). The Ten Commandments (New
American Commentary Studies in Bible and Theology) (Kindle Locations
1077-1078). B&H Publishing. Kindle Edition.
[2] Philip Ryken,
Written in Stone, 72
[4] Philip Ryken, Written in Stone, 80
[6] Arthur Pink, The Ten Commandments, 22
[7] Philip Ryken, Written in Stone, 77
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