“Who’s Your Daddy?”
“Exodus 20:1-7”
Exodus 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God…
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First, before anybody gets confused about the title of this message today let me explain what I mean by the expression, “Who’s Your Daddy?” Most of us have heard this slang at one time or the other and it basically refers to the one who gave you life, who do you love, who do you resemble, who is your Father?
Romans 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Josh McDowell gave a loose translation of this word and it goes something like, “Da da…”
I. The Prohibition
You have to wonder what part of “no” did the Israelites not understand because they were continuously having troubles with this issue. The question is, “Why?”
a. Their antiquity
For 400 years they had been in Egypt. If you count 40 years as a generation then 10 generations of Jacob’s descendants had been exposed to the polytheism of the Egyptian culture. Whether we are willing to admit it or not our exposure to the culture we live in does have an effect on us. Many of them had a diluted and diminished faith in Jehovah, while many more had left the “faith of their Fathers” and were worshipping the “gods of Egypt.”
Romans 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
b. Their attraction
The practice of religion, even a pagan religion is powerfully attractive to the flesh. Just think about what people will do to “worship” their gods!
ILL - The world is in a crisis of confusion concerning the ch0
aracter and the nature of God. Just as paganism and polytheism tainted the ancient Near Eastern world, our society is influenced by corrupted views of God. The names have changed, but the false gods they represented have not. Instead of Baal, we have new age philosophy; instead of the Sun god Ra, we have Eastern Mysticism, with its worship of Creation; instead of Ashtoreth, we have the worship of supermodels and the sexuality they represent. Instead of idols made of silver, gold and wood, we have consumerism, materialism, humanism, meditation, and a host of other philosophies that draw from the same cesspool of idolatry represented by the gods of the Canaanites.”
“Like the prophets of Scripture, our task as spiritual leaders is to call the people away from the confusion polytheism to the clarity of monotheistic God of Scripture. Like Elijah on Mount Carmel, we are called to challenge people to choose between the God of the Bible and the gods of the culture”
Source: Glenn C. Daman, Leading the Small Church: How to Develop a Transformational Ministry, pp. 105, 106.
c. Their attachment
Long after the Israelites had left Egypt, Egypt had not left them for we read of their attachment to this pagan land.
At the Red Sea:
Exodus 14:12 Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.
At Marah:
Exodus 15:24 And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
At the wilderness of Sin:
Exodus 16:3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
At Rephidim:
Exodus 17:3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?
What do all these statements have in common? They are all reflections of the selfishness of these people.
Next, let me say that it’s not enough to worship the right God, we must worship the right God in the right way!
II. The Perversion
Notice that verse 4 of our text also includes the prohibition against fashioning any kind of image which would be a perversion of the commandment. These folks decided that they wanted an image to represent Elohim so they went to Aaron and we read what follows:
Exodus 32:1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
2 And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
a. Revealed by their concept of worship
Often one word will reveal a great deal about a person or a people. Verse 1 of chapter 32 says that “…when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down…” These folks were walking by sight and not by faith! Their perception of who God was revealed a shallow, superficial, immature, underdeveloped concept of God. To desire an image is to fail to appreciate who God really is, and that He cannot possibly be properly represented by any kind of image!
"Idols are not just on pagan altars,
but in well-educated human hearts
and minds. The apostle Paul associates the
dynamics of Human Greed, lust, craving,
and coveting with idolatry."
Pg. 30, Richard Keyes, No God, But God by Os Guinnius
(From a sermon by Rick Finitzer, Watch Out for Ambushes, 10/28/2009)
b. Revealed by their corruption of worship
Exodus 32:6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
Exodus 32:18 And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear.
Exodus 32:19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.
Exodus 32:25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:)
The Apostle Paul dealt with some of these same issues at Corinth where the Lord’s Supper observances were turning into “love feasts” characterized by drunkenness and gluttony.”
1 Corinthians 11:20 When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper.
21 For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.
OH FAVRE WHO ART IN LAMBEAU
When does sports as entertainment become sports as idolatry? Consider this banner seen at Lambeau Field in 1996, the season the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl in New Orleans and their quarterback Brett Favre was named the most valuable player:
“Our Favre who art in Lambeau, hallowed be thy arm. The Bowl will come, it will be won, in New Orleans as it is in Lambeau. Give us this Sunday our weekly win. And give us many touchdown passes. But do not let others pass against us. Lead us not into frustration, but deliver us to Bourbon Street. For thine is the MVP, the best of the NFL, and the glory of the cheeseheads, now and forever. Go get ’em!”
Apparently some fans recognize their team support for what it really is: worship.
(Larson, C. B. (2002). 750 engaging illustrations for preachers, teachers & writers.)
c. Revealed by their covetousness in worship
IDOLATRY IS ABOUT "GETTING"
William Barclay makes this important observation about ancient idolatry: "The essence of idolatry is the desire to get. A man sets up an idol and worships it because he desires to get something out of god. To put it bluntly, he believes that by his sacrifices and his gifts and his worship, he can persuade, or even bribe, God into giving him what he desires."
(Barclay, The Letter to the Colossians, p. 182.)
III. The Passion
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God…
Finally, there are three questions before us today. First, are we worshipping and serving others gods? Second, are we worshipping the right God the wrong way? Third, are we worshipping and serving the one true and living God? I want to frame my conclusion in the form of three questions.
a. Will it be Egypt?
Egypt represents all the gods of this world.
SEDUCTIVE IDOLS
ILL - "The seductiveness of a nearby idol for the Christian is that it promises to get things done, to be powerful, to make good changes -- but by means that conflict with God's means."
pg. 44, Richard Keyes, No God, But God by Os Guinness
2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
1 John 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
These take many forms.
Bobby Stults
Self Sufficiency is the idol of choice in today’s church!
COST OF COVETING BEAUTY
Venus lingers around every time an ad promotes personal beauty as something to be coveted above all else. I read recently that, if current trends continue, today’s 10-year-old girl, by the time she reaches 50, will have spent $450,000.00 on hair, make-up, elective surgeries, manicures, and pedicures.
(From 'Taming Twin Divas', Mark Earley, May 15, 2009)
b. Will it be earrings?
Is it possible to serve the right God the wrong way? The answer is yes! The Israelites proved that!
1 Kings 12:26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:
27 If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.
28 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
30 And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.
31 And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.
32 And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.
33 So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.
c. Will it be Elohim?
The word used for God in our text is Elohim, who is the creator, sustainer and ruler of the universe.
Joshua 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
We Always Turn to Something
ILL - In Thessalonica, notice those who heard the gospel responded by 1Thes1:9 turning to God from idols to serve the true and living God.
In our 21st century western society there has been a huge paradigm shift, a turning away from Judea/Christian God centered worldview, to a new atheism which desires a complete secularization of society with a non-religious (irreligious) values and secular institutions.
But the very fact they are turning away from God doesn’t mean they are turning to something which is neutral. In fact, to turn away from God means you have to be turning to something else, which by default becomes our 21st century idols.
We see it with the rise of militant atheism–pseudo science. We see it with mass consumerism becoming an idol (credit crunch). The new liberalism sweeping our country becomes an idol, humanistic Christianity with our own personal fulfillment at the top of the agenda rather than the Glory of God, our own self-sufficiency and importance, our own personal vanities and obsessions all become idols and become the centre of our worship and take the place of God and rob us of genuine worship.
(Source: Aubrey Vaughan, Essential Worship)
