Accept No Substitutes
Exodus 20:4-6
Some time ago, a young man crowded into an airplane seat next to a businessman. They both fastened their seat belts, and the businessman good-naturedly inquired as to whether the young man was traveling on business or pleasure.
“Pleasure,” the young man replied. “I’m on my honeymoon.”
“Your honeymoon?” the businessman asked, mystified. “Where’s your wife?”
“Oh, she’s a few rows back. The plane was full, so we couldn’t get seats together.”
The plane hadn’t started rolling yet, so the businessman said, “I’d be happy to change seats with her so that the two of you can be together.”
“That’s okay,” the young man replied. “I’ve been talking to her all week.” (Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage, Zondervan, 2000), p. 154)
That young man was already tired of his new wife.
Sometimes that happens in our relationship with God. If we’re not careful, we get tired of Him; and before we know it, we find that we have substituted other things for a real relationship with the real God.
How then do we as believers keep our love for the Lord strong? How do we keep from losing our first love and continue to maintain a real relationship with the real God?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to
Exodus 20, Exodus 20, where the second commandment shows us how. Exodus 20, starting at vs.4 (read)
If we want to maintain a real relationship with the real God, then we must ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES. WE MUST NOT REPLACE GOD FOR THINGS WE THINK LOOK LIKE GOD. WE MUST NOT CREATE IMAGES IN OUR MINDS, OR OTHERWISE, THAT ATTEMPT TO REPRESENT GOD.
The word “idol” in the Hebrew is literally a “carved image.” In Bible days, people didn’t take photographs, but they would often carve images of people and things in wood or stone.
Well, God says, “Don’t carve any images of Me. Don’t make any pictures of Me.” Why? Because no one has seen God at any time. No one knows what God looks like. No one has God all figured out.
Rob Bell once said, “The moment God is figured out with nice, neat lines and definitions, we are no longer dealing with God. (Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, Zondervan, 2005)
God is not like anything in ALL of his creation. He is not like anything in heaven. He is not like anything on earth. & He is not like anything in the sea. God is holy! He is wholly other. & There is nothing in all of creation to which we would even dare compare Him, so we shouldn’t even try.
If we want to keep our love for the Lord strong, then we must accept no substitutes for the real God Himself.
As most of you know, Sandy and I just got back from a trip to Kansas where we took our last son, Tim, to college. We are very proud of him and excited for him as he begins a new chapter in his life.
This is also the beginning of a new chapter in our lives. Sandy and I are now “empty-nesters.” And while we look forward to more freedom in our relationship and more productivity in the years ahead, we feel a little “empty” without any of our children around.
I can understand what Dave Davila’s parents went through when he, at age of 24, left his close-knit family in East Moline, Illinois to take a job in Chicago. Family gatherings just weren’t the same without Dave. So his mother took a digital photo of him, had it blown up to his actual height – 5 foot 8 inches – and mounted it on heavy cardboard.
They call this life-size picture “Flat Dave,” and there he causally stands, with hands in his pockets and a blue button-down shirt hanging untucked over his khaki shorts.
At first, Flat Dave just showed up and stood quietly by at family gatherings. Then word spread throughout the community, and he became something of a celebrity in East Moline. “Complete strangers want to pose with him,” says his brother Dan. He also says, “I think Flat Dave’s actually better looking.”
Sometimes that makes things awkward for the real Dave – the one the family now calls “Thick Dave.” He describes being in Chicago talking to his mom on the phone when she says, “Hold on, I’ve got to load you into the van.” “It’s a little weird,” he says. (Rex W. Huppke, “Meet Flat Dave. He’s a Real Stand-Up Guy,” Chicago Tribune, July 2, 2006)
So it is when we make substitutes for God Himself. At best, it is awkward and weird. At worst, it is absolutely destructive to any real relationship to the real God. & In fact, it is destructive to ALL our relationships.
And yet, it is so easy to do. Before we know it, we find ourselves substituting religious activity for a real relationship with the real God. For those of us who work in the church, we must be careful that our work FOR the Lord doesn’t replace our relationship WITH the Lord Himself. Some people substitute drugs and alcohol for God, looking for relief and rest from their pain that only God can bring. Others drown themselves in their work, their relationships, or their money, all of which are good things; but when they become substitutes for God, they create more problems then they ever solve.
Whatever the temptation, We must be careful not to accept any substitutes for God Himself. We must be careful not let anything in all His creation take His place in our hearts and lives.
Instead, we must EMBRACE HIS PASSION FOR US. WE MUST ACCEPT HIS ZEAL TO BE CLOSE TO US. You see, God is passionately committed to a relationship with you and me. Look at vs.4 again. (read to vs.5a)
“…for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God.”
The Hebrew word for jealous denotes strong emotion and zeal. Zeal for someone else’s property is often translated “envy.” Zeal for one’s own mate is often translated “jealousy.”
When we pursue images of God, rather than God Himself, God feels like a jealous husband, whose wife has gone after other lovers. In other words, God is zealously and passionately in love with each one of us.
It was a very crowded bus, and all the passengers looked sympathetically as Susan made her way down the aisle. She fumbled with her cane, and as she nestled herself into her seat, the onlookers just watched with questions and concern. You see, it had been a year since Susan lost her sight.
When she first became blind, she fell into a deep pit of depression. Her world had crumbled, but her husband, Mark, was so in love with his wife that he did everything he could to pull her out of that pit of depression. He helped her gain new skills and confidence and regain her sense of self.
Then, after many months, Susan began to feel like she could perhaps return to her job again. So every day, Mark would drive his wife to work, walk her into the office, make sure she was settled, and then leave and go to his base that was across town, because Mark was a military officer. Then, he would come back and get her from work. This went on for several weeks. And with every day, though Mark so wanted to help his wife, the burden was becoming heavier because it was becoming logistically impossible for him to make it to his base on time.
He dreaded having to tell Susan that he wasn’t going to be able to drive her to work. But in the end, he had to. “I can’t ride the bus to work,” she replied. “I’m blind. How am I going to know how many stairs there are? How am I going to know what path to take? I feel like you are abandoning me.”
Mark’s heart was crushed. He promised her, like he had done from the very beginning, that he would do whatever it took to help her until she felt confident and independent on the bus. He helped her with the routes. He helped her learn the stairs and learn the paths. And so, finally, after several weeks, Susan was confident. He went to his base; she went to her work.
Monday morning, she got on the bus. She went to work, she came home; it was flawless. Every day was the same. Then Friday morning arrived. Susan made her way onto the bus, and as she went to pay her fare, the bus driver said, “Ma’am you sure are lucky.”
Susan asked, “Are you talking to me?”
The bus driver said, “Yeah. It must feel good to be cared for as you are.”
Susan replied, “I don’t know what you mean, sir.”
The bus driver said: “Well, you know, every morning when I drop you off at your stop, as soon as those doors open, I can see that man standing over there at the corner. And he watches you. As soon as you step off the bus, his eyes are on you. I think he’s some kind of military officer because of his uniform. And his eyes follow you as you walk across that parking lot. And his eyes don’t leave you as you’re trying to walk up those stairs. And when your hand touches that door knob, his eyes are on you. Until you open that door and go inside, that man doesn’t take his eyes off you. And once that door closes, he stands straight and tall, like a sentinel, and he salutes you, and then he blows you a kiss.”
Susan burst into tears. She had no idea that her husband had been watching her. But the lover of her soul never takes his eyes off of her. (Jennifer Rothschild, Fingerprints of God, Life Way, 2005)
Sometimes, we feel abandoned by God. Life gets rough, and we feel like He doesn’t care anymore. But if we could only grasp the fact that the Lover of our Souls never takes His eyes off of us; we would never doubt His love again.
My friends, embrace that love. Embrace God’s passion for you and me, and accept no substitutes for a real relationship with the real God.
For if you do, then you will ENJOY HIS PROTECTION. YOU WILL KEEP YOUR FAMILY FROM THE HARMFUL EFFECTS OF SIN. YOU WILL GUARD THEM FROM DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIORS which could plague them for 3 or 4 generations.
vs.5 (read)
That’s an unfortunate translation from the original Hebrew. God does not “punish” children for their parents’ sins, but He does “take note” that the parents’ sins are often passed on for 3 or 4 generations. The Hebrew word for punish literally means to “oversee” or to “take note” of something.
So here, God literally “ovesees” or He “takes note” of the sins of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation. And you can bet there is no joy in His heart as He watches this happen time and time again with families.
The sad thing about sin is that it not only negatively affects us; it negatively affects our children, our grandchildren, and even our great-grandchildren.
Alcoholism is a curse on this island, having affected many of the families here for generations! Many of our young people are ensnared in its shackles, and they have only their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents to blame. If this is a problem for you, please get help, if only for the sake of your children and grandchildren.
Sin is pernicious, harming families for generations!
Philip Yancey talks about a friend of his whose marriage has gone through some rough times. His name is George, and one night George passed a breaking point and exploded. He pounded the table and floor. “I hate you!” he screamed at his wife. “I won’t take it anymore! I’ve had enough! I won’t go on! I won’t let it happen! No! No! No!”
Several months later George woke up in the middle of the night and heard strange sounds coming from the room where his 2-year-old son slept. He went down the hall, stood outside his son’s door, and shivers ran through his flesh. In a soft voice, the 2-year-old was repeating word for word, with precise inflection, what his daddy had screamed at his mommy months earlier. “I hate you… I won’t take it anymore… No! No! No!”
George realized that in some awful way he had just passed on his pain and anger and unforgiveness to the next generation. Philip Yancey comments, “Apart from forgiveness, the monstrous past may awake at any time from hibernation and devour the present – and even the future.” (Philip Yancey, “Holocaust & Ethnic Cleansing,” Christianity Today, August 16, 1993)
Please, don’t let it happen to you and your family. You don’t have to be a victim any longer. With God’s help, you can break the generational curse of sin on your family.
Just love the Lord your God with all your heart, and accept no substitutes for a real relationship with the real God – not drugs, not alcohol, not work, not religious activity, not anything! Embrace God’s passion for you, and enjoy His protection for your family.
Then EXPERIENCE HIS PROMISES FULFILLED FOR A THOUSAND GENERATIONS TO COME. KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BENEFIT FROM GOD’S LOYAL AND FAITHFUL LOVE, WHICH LASTS FOREVER!
vs.6 (read)
God demonstrates loyal love (the Hebrew word is hesed) to those who love Him. The word for God’s love here is rich in meaning. It speaks of a God who keeps his promises to us. It speaks of a God who is faithful and loyal to us, not because He HAS to be, but because He WANTS to be. He is faithful and keeps His promises to us, not out of obligation or duty, but freely, because He really does delight in us.
Again, I remind you that God is passionate about a relationship with each and every one of us. & For those of us who choose to enter into a relationship with Him, we find that He remain fiercely loyal to us and our families for a thousand generations. My friends, that’s nearly 40,000 years!
Thank God that the effects of sin last only for 3 or 4 generations. But the demonstrations of God’s love last for a thousand!
That is what happened to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Israel.
When they chose to enter into a relationship with God, through faith, God promised to bless them and their descendants forever!
Even when God had do discipline the children of Israel for their rebellion and idolatry, even when God had to send them into captivity in Babylon for their refusal to repent, even when God had to scatter them among the nations for their rejection of His Son, His love still pursued a relationship with them.
In fact, God is still pursuing a relationship with the children of Israel, more than 4,000 years after He made his original promise to Abraham.
Jeremiah 31 says, “The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
You see, God will never give up on His people!
This is what the LORD says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the LORD Almighty is his name: “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the LORD, “will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before me.” This is what the LORD says: “Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done,” declares the LORD (Jeremiah 31:31-37).
God is going to continue passionately pursuing His people until the sun ceases to shine and the vast regions of space are explored. And what’s true of the children of Israel, is also true of you and me who choose to enter into a real relationship with the real God. He will never stop loving us, no matter what!
Once there was a little bunny who wanted to run away. So he said to his mother, “I’m running away.”
“If you run away,” said the mother, “I will run after you. For you are my little bunny.”
“If you run after me,” said the little bunny, “I will become a fish in a trout stream and I will swim away from you.”
“If you become a fish in a trout stream,” said his mother, “I will become a fisherman and I will fish for you.”
“If you become a fisherman,” said the little bunny, “I will be a bird and fly away from you.”
“If you become a bird and fly away from me,” said the mother, “I will be a tree that you can come home to.”
“Shucks,” said the little bunny. “I might just as well stay where I am and be your little bunny.” And so he did.
“Have a carrot,” said the mother bunny. (Margaret Wise Brown, The Runaway Bunny, 1942)
God says the same thing to us. “No matter where you go, I will pursue you to the ends of the earth.” So we might as well stay and be His forever.
If you haven’t already done it, I encourage you to trust Christ as your Savior from sin. By faith, enter into a real relationship with the real God.
Accept no substitutes. Instead, embrace God’s passion for you, enjoying his protection and experiencing his promises fulfilled for a thousand generations to come.
