[GOD’S TEN WORDS SERIES] EXODUS 20: 4 - 6
GOD’S SECOND WORD: WORSHIP AND SERVE NO OTHER
In New York Harbor the STATUE OF LIBERTY stands with torch held high. She faces the Atlantic Ocean and the old countries beyond, with her back turned toward the country she honors. She holds high the hope of liberty, not just to the United States, but to the entire world.
In 1986 the Statue of Liberty was refurbished. When President Reagan relit the torch of Liberty on July 3, 1986, massed choirs sang the words of Emma Lazarus’ tribute to our nation and the statue standing before our nation’s open door:
....“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
In The Gospel and the American Dream, historian Bruce Shelley wrote, “In one hand Liberty holds the torch of freedom and in the other the tablet of law. The torch challenges the forces of darkness and tyranny. The tablet of law reminds us that liberty degenerating into license is but another form of slavery. True freedom for others is only possible in a community of civic virtue.”
Freedom to truly live comes only through proper self-control is the message of the Ten Commandments. God brought a despised group of people out of bondage. They would not experience true liberty however, by merely trading one form of bondage for another. Deliverance from Egypt’s tyranny could easily be replaced by servitude to self and personal passions.
God is no cosmic killjoy. His Ten Commandments were not given to limit and destroy the freedom of His people. The purpose of God’s law is deliverance not domination. Obedience does not subjugate; it saves and delivers! The Ten Commandments are God’s “STATUTES OF LIBERTY.”
I. THE SECOND WORD or the prohibition against creating your own God, (4).
II. THE WARNING- TO THE DISOBEDIENT, (5).
III. THE BLESSING UPON THE OBEDIENT, (6).
After God declares that He is the only true God, He commands that He alone should be worshiped and then defines what worship is. In verse 4 God prohibits making idol or idolizing anything He has created anywhere, or anything that man or demon can imagine or visualize. “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
Our worship must be governed by the power of faith. Not by the power of images or imaginations. The worship of God was to be spiritual, not material. So Israel was forbidden from worshiping idols and also from making images of God.
[Idol is pesel, “carved wood or stone,” from pâsal, “to carve.” “Cast idols” made from molten metal were forbidden too (34:17).] Since God is spiritual no material representation can possibly resemble Him. To make an idol of God like something in the sky (sun, moon, stars), or on the earth (animals), or in the waters below (fish, crocodiles, or other sea life) was forbidden
So the second commandment forbids representations of deity, whether of the one God or of false gods. The golden calf, which was to symbolize Yahweh or Jehovah, is condemned equally with the fair forms that haunted the Greek Olympus, or the half-bestial shapes of ancient mythology or the worship of the sun, moon or stars which Egypt also worshiped. The ten plagues of the Exodus were actually aimed at things the Egyptians held sacred.
There are at least two reasons for the prohibition, the impossibility of portraying the glory of the Infinite Spirit in any form, and the certainty that images sink the worshiper into a deeper attachment to the physical and mental senses. [An image degrades God and damages men. By it religion reverses its nature, and becomes another avenue to keep the soul among the things seen, and an ally of fleshly inclinations. We know how idolatry casted a spell over the Israelites from Egypt to Babylon, and how their first relapse into it took place almost as soon as God’s voice which ‘spake all these words’ had ceased.]
Part of this commandment is to prevent Israel from identifying the true God with any created thing. To identify God with any created thing is merely one step from thinking of God in terms of that image. It would be creating God in the image of His creation.
Another part of this commandment is to keep us from recreating God out of our own imagination or mind. So no image of God is to be created, not even a mental image in your mind of what God is like. An image is a limitation and God has not limits. If you predetermine what God is like, you have created Him in your image or created Him out of the limits of your mind. We can never adequate represent or really even adequately comprehend the All-Knowing, All Power, All Present God. He is limitless and thus such not be limited by our representations of Him.
To make your own god is to make a god small enough for your limited, fallen capacity to envision it. To create your own image of god is to make a small god. Is your god too small? Dreaming up our own ideas about God is a form of idolatry. Some people refer to God as "the man upstairs." That’s demeaning, and it comes from an inaccurate concept of deity. Others form a view of God that comes from their own personal preferences. A woman said, "I don’t, like to think of God as Judge. I prefer to think of Him only as a loving Father.” This pick-and-choose method creates an image or idol in the mind - an idea of God that does not fully represent Him. A. W. Tozer said; “Do not try to imagine God or you will have an imaginary God.” ... you can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. [Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird. Christianity Today, Vol. 41, no. 8.]
So what is an idol? An idol is anything that takes the focus off God and puts it on something else.
What does your life center around? What is the primary focus? An idol doesn’t have to be a bad thing; it can be a good thing. Some people park their idols in their garage. Some people park their idol at the marina. Some people put their idols in safety deposit boxes.
Sometimes we struggle with being satisfied with God as He is. We want Him to fit our perspective, rather than change our perspective to fit Him.
This past week I read a story about a man named Jack, who was walking along a STEEP CLIFF one day when he accidentally got too close to the edge and fell. As he slid down the cliff, he reached out and grabbed a branch that was sticking out and hung on for dear life. He looked below him and saw the chasm stretching down hundreds of feet. He looked up and saw no footholds with which to climb back up. So he hung there, absolutely terrified, and began yelling for help.
“Help! Help! Is anyone up there?” He heard his own voice echo for hours, but nobody responded.
Then finally he heard a voice. “Jack! Jack! Can you hear me?”
Jack was thrilled and his heart swelled with hope. “Yes! I can hear you! I’m down here, clinging on to this branch”
“I can see you, Jack. Are you alright?”
“Yes, but…who are you? Where are you? I can’t see you?”
“I’m God, Jack. I’m everywhere.”
“What? You mean the God?”
“Yes, Jack. That’s Me.”
“Okay. Well, Lord, please help me out here. I promise that if you get me out of this one, I’ll never sin again. I’ll be the nicest person in the whole world. I’ll go be a missionary in Africa or something. Just get me out of here.”
“Hey, take it easy on the promises, Jack. Let me get you out of there, and then we can have a long talk. Now, here’s what I want you to do. Listen to me carefully.”
Jack shouted excitedly, “I’ll do anything you say! Just tell me what to do.”
“Okay, Jack. Let go of the branch.”
There was a long pause. “What?!”
“I said to let go of the branch, Jack. Trust me. Just let go.”
Another long pause. “Um… Is there anyone else up there?!”
And that’s how many of us respond to God. We want Him, but we want Him on our terms. I remember chatting with a woman after church one Sunday last year, and she told me that she believes in God, and she believes in heaven, but she doesn’t believe in hell. When I asked her why not, she replied, “Because I can’t imagine God letting anyone go to hell.” In her mind, she had created a god that had plenty of grace and mercy, but not any of the justice that the Bible talks about. Somehow it made her more comfortable to worship a God that is like a big, cuddly grandfather who invites everyone to come and sit on his lap, and is willing to overlook any wrongdoings.
God is who He is. You and I must worship who He is, not just who we want Him to be. And we must worship Him truthfully. Anything else — any shadow of reality that we might conjure in our minds or craft with our hands — is idolatry.
We have become so used to SUBSTITUTES in our lives. If I want to cut out sugar, I can always have Nutrasweet, or saccharin, or honey. If I want to save a little money at the drugstore, I can get generics to fill my prescription. My wife might enjoy wearing a strand of real pearls, but most people will never know the difference if she wears a quality imitation. Substitutes are really no big deal.
But when it comes to God, they are a huge deal. Why settle for the imitation when you can have the real thing — especially when we know that the imitation is not only lesser; it is harmful?
The positive force of the second commandment is to compel us to take our understanding of God from His Word. For example, in the illustration above, the woman needed to see the biblical truth that God is both a righteous Judge and a loving Father.
So how do we know we have no idols, "molten or mental,” before which we bow? By examining our concept of God. Not only does the Bible relate to us what God has said and done, but God has revealed Himself through His Son. Christ’s life, death, and resurrection have told us volumes about God. Martin Luther said, “anything that one imagines of God apart from Christ is idolatry.” When we worship; adore, love, and serve Jesus for who He is and for what He has done for us, we have the right idea of God. [D.JD. ]
What is God’s competition within your life? What do you have that commands your attention and your affection? A 56 Chevy. An original piece of art. Financial portfolio. Children. A sports team. The cottage at the beach or in the mountains. Anything that competes with God for your affection and your attention can become an idol. An idol is anything that has a hold on and over you. When you allow anything apart from God to dominate you, compel you, or control you, you have created an idol.
Idols are such a danger to you and your relationship with God that He clearly forbids anything to have control over you or to hold your affection.
God wants to set you free from enslavement to idols. Elisabeth Elliot said “The Christian life is a process of God breaking our idols one by one.” Detecting and exposing the idols in your life is essential. Prayerfully consider the following questions. They are designed to unmask any idols in your heart. What preoccupies or dominates your heart? your thoughts? your time? What compels you? controls you? drives you? motivates you? What gives you a sense of worth? What defines your identity before others? If everything else were taken away, what is the one thing you could not bear to live without? Are you looking to something or someone to provide what only God can?
Always be on guard against anything that pulls you away from God. Tear away the idols from your heart, and devote yourself to God.
The Bottom line is that you can make idols out of a lot of good and worthwhile things, even within the church, if they become more important that God. Search your mind and soul in the light of the Lord’s presence and discover all the idols hidden in their dark domains and rid your self of them. Guard your heart. We have the possibility of remaking a god in our image more than we let God remake us into His image! Each of us have desperate areas of need therefore we must be careful that God doesn’t only become the object of what our need is. Each of us have strong opinions therefore we must be careful that God is not re-form to agree with our strong opinions. Let God be God, in other words, let God be the God of the Bible, the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ.
People purse the idol that they think will fulfill their life, will make them happy. The disastrous end of this happiness cult is illustrated by the death of a SKY-DIVING CAMERAMAN a few years ago. He jumped from a plane for the live telecast of a skydiving event. The jump, descent and parachute opening of other skydivers were shown. Suddenly the picture on the screen went black. The announcer reported that the cameraman had fallen to his death. The man was so intent on the goal of filming other skydivers, that he neglected something crucial for saving his own life. It was only when he reached for the ripcord that he realized that he had jumped out of the plane without a parachute. You can get so wrapped up in following the crowd to happiness that you forget the one thing that is necessary to genuine happiness: The true worship of the One True God.
Jesus made it very clear what God expects from us in worship. In John 4:23-24 He said,
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. (24) God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” God is teaching us not only how He is not to be worship but how He is to be worshiped. God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:24).
II. THE WARNING - TO THE DISOBEDIENT, (5).
Both obedience and disobedience have far reaching implications for God’s covenant people. The second commandment includes an attached threat to those who disobey it in verse 5. “You shall not worship [prostrate] them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
Idol making and worship was forbidden because God is a jealous God (34:14; Deut. 5:9; 6:15; 32:16, 21; Josh. 24:19), that is, He is zealous that devotion be given exclusively to Him. Zealous comes from the word meaning to be red in the face. This jealously means God really cares for those who give allegiance to Him, for one cannot be jealous of what He is indifferent about or feels no attachment to. God is intolerant of a rival for your affection and worship or unfaithful in your worship or affection. God experiences jealousy when anything or anyone tries to draw our devotion away from Him. Ezekiel (14:7) states that anything that separates you from God is an idol.
We are to show no respect or honor to graven images much less serve them. God’s jealousy burns against idolatry. Idolatry is spiritual adultery. Even if the image represents Him and the worship is intended for Him (Ex. 34:14, 17).
The consequences of worshiping and serving idols is a sobering reminder. Not exclusively worshiping God and God alone has grievous consequences on future generations. God is so serious about the importance of giving Him your worship and love that He punishes those who refuse to obey Him.
This attitude toward God and life is designated as “the Iniquities of their Fathers,” because it orientated with them and is only perpetuated in the children who adhere to them. If they disobey this command and worship and serve something of their creation or make a god of their creation, then they will know that He is a God who will need to deal with the blatant sinfulness to which idolatry eventually leads people.
Now God doesn’t punish the children and grandchildren for someone else’s sins (Deut. 24:16; Ezek 18:4) but the sad consequences of ancestral sins can be passed from generation to generation and innocent children suffer the impact because of what their parents or grand-parents have done. [W. Wiersbe, Bible Exposition Com. OT Vol 1. 222]
It has been well documented that there are consequences in homes where drunkenness, drugs or other forms of immoral behavior occur. Sins effect those living and those yet to live whose lives are effected and even corrupted by sin’s influence..
Children, check out the opinions and customs of your fathers and forefathers for you are not excused from walking in the same errors of judgment and conduct.
Notice it says “of them that hate Me.” Turning your back on worshiping and serving God is seen as a form of hating God. To have or make another god is to hate the true God. Those who thus are influenced to so hate God, will be punished by Him. Nothing can be more base or blameable than to forsake the very author of our being and all our blessings for the mere phantom of a deluded imagination.
“Of those who hate Me" also indicates those that do not repent and still walk in the sins of their fathers. God never visits with punishment those who repent of their father’s sins. The repentant are those who turn to worship the true God.
God’s uniqueness (v. 3) requires unique devotion. Absence of such dedication is sin and has its effect on future generations. Though God is long suffering, He will “visit” (pasqad, used in 3:16; 4:31; 13:19) with punishment the third and fourth generations of idol worshipers.
[The outcome of idol worship:
A. Idols will Disappoint You
They always promise more than they can deliver. Jeremiah 10:14 says: “Those who make idols are disillusioned because the gods they made are false and lifeless.”
We think that if we wear this label we’ll be popular.
When you drink this beer it doesn’t get any better than this.
If you buy this toothpaste you’ll have sex appeal.
Anytime you put your expectation in something other than God you will be disappointed. Only God can fill the vacuum in your heart.
B. Idols will Dominate You
Paul said, “Before you knew Christ you were controlled by dead idols, who always led you astray.” (1 Cor.12:2 GN) Emphasis on the words “controlled” and “always led astray.”
The word we use today for idols is the word – “Addiction.” You can become addicted to work, sports, sex, drugs, etc. Do you have an addiction?
You will be led astray. Some men seek after a job promotion so much they neglect their families. Some people feed a habit so much that it destroys their health.
Some of you are so concerned for the approval of or disapproval of a person in your life that it dominates your life. You are not just co-dependent, you are involved in idolatry!
C. Idols will Deform You.
They will change you. They’ll warp you. We become like what we value most.
Ps. 115:8 (GN) says, Those who make idols become like them and so will those who trust in them.”
We shape an idol and then it shapes us.
After the captivity the Jews were never again overt idolaters. Yet Jesus spoke of another form of idolatry. It had to do with this subject of money. Illus.- Rich young ruler (yuppie) came to Christ and said “What must I do to follow you and have eternal life?” Jesus gave an odd answer, “Sell everything, give it to the poor and come follow Me.” No other time did Jesus say that to anybody. Why did He say it to this man? Because Jesus knew this man had an idol in his life – money, his bank account. What are you holding on to today? A relationship, a lifestyle, a career, a habit? An idol!
Illus.- A $50 dollar bill doesn’t look so big when you go through the check out lane at the grocery store does it? Why does it look so big when the offering plate is passed around in church?
Joke – A family was going home from church and the father was complaining: “The sermon was too long, the music was too loud, the room was too hot.” His little boy in the back seat said, “Dad, I didn’t think it was such a bad show for a buck.”
Idols will distract you, dominate you, disappoint you and they will eventually destroy you. God says in this second Commandment “Don’t Idolize Anything!”
III. THE BLESSING UPON THE OBEDIENT, (6).
The second commandment also includes a promise to those who obey in verse 6. but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
The warning is for the world and the false church. The blessing is for us, the true church.
To love God is to place Him first. To obey God is to follow His directions. God is loyal (showing ese, “loyal love”) to those who love Him and who show that love by their obedience (1 John 5:3). When God’s lovingkindness is aroused through obedience it leads to great blessing.
The comforting promise is this, that God will never fail to show mercy to all successive generations that own Him for their God, with those that honor their covenant relationship with Him. Our God is an awesome God who loves to show mercy and kindness. He gives forgiveness and grace to all how follow Him in truth.
Note the impressive contrast. The consequences of wicked godless behavior is felt for a few generations, but the influence of devoted obedience continues to ripple out to effect countless generations both laterally and horizontally.
Godly people bring not only blessings to their succeeding generations, they bring blessing to multiplied thousands within their own generation. The degree to which we obey the commandments, specifically this second commandment effects the vibrancy and health of the community and society in which we live.
Wrong choices have their consequences. For example, if we choose to live for pleasure, that will affect our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren (vv.4-5). If we walk away from God, we may discover that our children have taken that trip with us. Later, even if we return to Him, they may not.
But there is also good news. Devotion to the Lord has its consequences too. Men and women who live in faith before God can have a strong influence on their children and their children’s children. If they live a long life, they can witness the effect their faith has had on several generations. What satisfaction it brings to older people to see their posterity living for Christ! People who follow Christ lead others in the right direction.
Early in America’s history there was a great preacher by the name of JONATHAN EDWARDS. There was also a lawyer named Max Jukes. Jonathan Edwards was a man of rigorous study of the Bible and possessed an outstanding Christian character. Edwards has 1,394 descendants. Among them were three college presidents, sixty-five professors, sixty prominent lawyers, thirty-two noted authors, ninety physicians, two hundred ministers of the gospel, and three hundred good farmers.
Max Jukes was the very antithesis of Mr. Edwards, a notorious crook without principle or character. Of His nine hundred three offspring there were three hundred delinquents, one hundred forty-five confirmed drunkards, ninety prosti-tutes, two hundred eighty-five with “evil diseases”, and over one hundred spent an average of thirteen years in prison. The crimes and care of that one family cost the state of New York over one million dollars. Jonathan Edwards family never cost the government a single penny, but made contributions of incalculable worth. [ Gal.6:7, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he a1so reap. Dr. R. W. De Haan, Our Daily Bread] Make God the object of your affection and future generations of your family will rise up and call you blessed.
Who has the greater effect upon the peoples of the world, the idolaters who worship science or man’s mind, or the wealthy man or politician who worships fame, power, prosperity? No, the person who worships God has the greater impact. When the balances are weighed in eternity the person who worships God will have effected more of His and following generations than those who worship creation. Paul effected and is still effecting more generations than any or all of the "great" Caesars of Rome.
When within any generation hating of God ceases, when children forsake their father’s ways, the ways they have modeled and have been brought up in, then the heat of divine wrath is turned into the heat of divine love and God shows mercy which touches not only a few generations but thousands. God’s mercies run in streams full and fresh and free forever.
CONCLUSION / TIME OF RESPONSE
False idols are not only made of wood and stone, they can be formed in our minds too! Whenever our God is defined and worshiped according to the dictates of our imaginations or in our own minds we are guilty or remaking Him in our image and we have broken the 2nd commandment. Your God will be too small when you redefine Him. We must worship the God that He is, that He has revealed Himself to be, and not the one we have made Him to be in our own minds. How big is your God?
We can let many things to becomes gods to us. Money, prestige, work, or pleasure can become gods when we concentrate or depend too much on them for identity, meaning and security. Not one sets out with the intention of making idols of theses things, but as we devote more time and attention to them they can grow into gods that ultimately focus our thoughts and energies. Letting God hold the central place in our lives keeps these things from slowly separating us from God and turning into idols.
Answering the following questions will help you honestly evaluate your life in light of these commandments if you so desire. Have I served God reluctantly or grudgingly? Has anything become more important to me than God? Have I neglected my prayer life or another aspect of my relationship with God for other activities? Have I used my talents generously and diligently for God’s glory?
What do you idolize? What or whom do you worship? God wants you to worship Him and Him only. Will you commit your life to Him today? For you and your family you can pray a simple prayer, “Jesus, I want to know You, worship You, follow You.”
