NO FALSE IMAGES—Exodus 20:4-6, 32:1-6
(I began with a children’s sermon: “Can you draw God? Why not? God is more than we can describe!”)
Read Exodus 20:1-6.
(Note to preacher: NIV 1984 has the unfortunate translation “idol” not “image,” which sounds more like a different god. NIV 2011 more correctly translates as “image.” If your translation is unclear, you might want to explain.)
Catholics and Lutherans take these as one commandments (splitting #10 to make a total of 10), but most Protestants take them as two: the first is “no other gods,” and the second is “no manmade image of God.”
It would seem that few of us would be in any danger of breaking this commandment! Do we take some of our kids’ Play Doh to make an image of God, so we can worship it? Is it wrong to have a cross or picture of Jesus on the wall?
Our images of God are more likely MENTAL IMAGES.
We all have mental images of God; even people who do not believe God exists have a mental image of the god they do not believe in. We can’t avoid mental images, but if our images depart from God’s revelation about himself, the results can be disastrous.
It took less than 40 days for the Israelites to break the commandment not to construct false images of God.
Read Exodus 32:1-6.
Moses has climbed up Mount Sinai to meet with God and receive the Ten Commandments, engraved on stone by God himself. He has been gone for 40 days and nights. There was smoke and fire on the mountain for the first seven days, but that has ended. The people are getting restless. Moses represents God to them, and Moses is nowhere in sight.
The people have been away from Egypt for only a short time, and they are still inclined to worship multiple gods. They “gather around” Aaron (not in a friendly way, I suppose), and demand, “Come, make us gods who will go before us…”
Aaron panics. He doesn’t yet have a written copy of the Ten Commandments, but he remembers very clearly the first words of God from the mountain, “You shall have no other gods before me.” What is he to do? He makes an executive decision: He will try to steer the worship of the people toward the true God.
Remember, Aaron is in panic mode. The people are out of control, and they are demanding that he make gods for them. So he forms a golden calf, and the people hear him say, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” Wow! How stupid can you get? Did this hunk of metal bring the ten plagues on the Egyptians, part the sea, destroy the Egyptian armies, supply water from a rock, and send manna daily? Yahweh (or Jehovah) did that!
While the people may have heard, “These are your gods…,” Aaron might have intended something different. In the Hebrew language, “el” is the word for god, and “elohim” is the plural. Since the true God is the ultimate God, he is almost always called “Elohim” in the Old Testament. (In Hebrew, the plural form magnifies intensity, implying the ultimate in god-ness.) So in Aaron’s mind, he may have thought he was pointing the people toward Elohim, the one true God. After all, he made only one bull, not many.
Aaron was trying to make a bridge between the demand of the people for gods (elohim), and the God who brought them out of Egypt (Elohim). He was hoping that when they gazed at the golden calf, they would think of the one true God, who brought them out of slavery by his mighty hand. In fact, after unveiling the golden calf, he said, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to Yahweh (or Jehovah),” using the name God himself had given to Moses.
If Aaron’s intentions were good, the result was disastrous. Aaron chose a young bull as an image of God, probably because a bull represented strength, potency, and life-giving power. He hoped the people would make the right connections: Yahweh is powerful, and Yahweh gives life. Unfortunately, the people made a different connection to the sexual potency of the bull: “So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” (Exodus 32:6) The Hebrew word translated “revelry” is the same word used to describe Isaac romantically caressing his wife Rebekah. I think you get the drift of the kind of party this was.
False images of God lead to false ideas of morality.
One pastor tells of being on a plane with a young woman, who quite openly talked about activities that were both immoral and illegal. After listening for a while, he asked her, “How do you square your lifestyle with God’s will, his wisdom, and his word?” She replied, “Well, MY God is the grandfatherly type, who loves me and takes care of me and tells me I’m OK…He doesn’t much care what I do.” Her distorted image of God justified a destructive lifestyle.
God has something better for us. He begins The Ten Commandments with, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of…slavery.” When we know God as he really is, it frees us to live the life God wants us to have.
HOW CAN WE KEEP THIS COMMANDMENT?
• RECOGNIZE FALSE IMAGES.
Quick question: Does God understand smart phones? Why do you even have to think about that? Do you think of God as an old man, like in Michelangelo’s artwork on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? Is he out of touch?
Do you have a mental image of God as harsh and judgmental, ready to condemn every little mistake? Or do you think of him as pretty laidback, like Morgan Freeman in the movies.
Do you have an image of God like Santa Claus: keeping track of who is naughty or nice, and bringing gifts for all the nice ones?
Do you think of God as a distant, impersonal force, or a collective consciousness? Is he like a feeling in your heart, or a sentimental angel?
Distorted images of God come from many sources.
Some of us grew up in religious homes, and we formed a childish image of God. Singer and entertainer Madonna once said, “I think the church pretty much stays with you so that whatever is drilled into you when you were growing up, whatever your picture of God was, I think you die with that in your head.” Maybe we do, but hopefully, we understand God better as we grow.
Our images of God might be culturally biased. Many of us have seen pictures of Jesus with blond hair and blue eyes. Strange for a Jew, don’t you think?
Personal preferences might influence how we see God. The God of many people could be described as “the God I would like to worship.” He is probably a God whose greatest goal is to make us happy! If he doesn’t meet our expectations, we feel like he has somehow let us down.
We might be influenced by politics and group identity. We have to be reminded that God is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, and he doesn’t get his news from any one particular media source. In fact, he might not agree with everything we assume to be true about free enterprise, socialism, or democracy. Imagine that!
The most common false image of God might be an image of a God who thinks and feels exactly like we do. Author Anne Lamott says quite perceptively: “You can pretty much assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”
God is quite clear in this commandment: “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.” Even our mental images of God can distort our image of God and keep us from knowing God as he truly is.
How can we eliminate false images of God?
• ENCOUNTER GOD PERSONALLY.
Before they marry, some people have an image of an ideal mate. Then they got married—to a real person. If they try to hang on to old images or create new ones to match their own desires and dreams, they will be disappointed, and their spouse will feel cheated. He or she might even say, “I hate it when you try to make me something I am not.” We know people by their actions and their words.
God introduces himself to the Israelites through his actions and words. “I am the Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” He is the one who remembered his people in slavery, delivered them from Egypt, saved them by parting the water, and led them to this mountain.
In the latter part of the second commandment, God gives profound insight into his character, with a warning and a promise: “You shall not bow down to false images or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
This is not the image of God some people would like to have! God is a jealous God! He is not JEALOUS OF other gods or images, which cannot threaten him; he is JEALOUS FOR his people, who will be led astray by false images or idols.
God punishes his people to root out the false images that can destroy them. If the Israelites had continued to worship the golden calf, they would have cut themselves off from God and died in the wilderness. God got their attention immediately, and the severity of his punishment made an impact for generations.
Sin has consequences, and those consequences can make an impact for generations. Families are torn apart by sin, and the children and grandchildren suffer. Churches lose their impact when they are focused on outward success rather than God. Nations that have been built upon Christian principles lose their moral foundation when God’s people lose their way.
Yet the warning is accompanied by a promise: God’s love is forever. The results of sin might last for three or four generations, but God reaches out in love to those same generations and a thousand more.
The love of God encompasses both his jealousy and his grace. The Hebrew word is not a word for a warm, fuzzy feeling, but “hesed,” which can be translated as “steadfast love.” It is the word for love in a committed marriage covenant, and it is the word for God’s love in a forever-covenant with his people.
The promise of steadfast love extends beyond the children of Israel. Through Jesus, God’s love extends to us as well. We are included in the “thousand generations” God’s loves.
How do we encounter God?
We read the Old Testament, and our mental image of God is formed around his actions and words. His law is not limited to The Ten Commandments; immediately in the next chapter of Exodus, God gives laws about justice, mercy, and social responsibility.
Yet we have an advantage over Old Testament people. Even Moses could not see God, but we see God’s glory in the face of Jesus. (2 Cor. 4:6). John’s gospel begins with, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth…No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”
As we study the word of God and allow the Spirit of God to reveal the Father and the Son, we know God as he really is. We conform our lives to the vision he has for us, and we find in him the way to freedom from sin and a life of fulfillment and joy.
When God describes himself in terms of jealousy and love, he is insisting that his people must seek to know him in a relationship. We must not begin with who WE THINK God is; we must take him as he is.
God also reminds us that he shows love (Hebrew hesed, steadfast or covenantal love) to thousands who love him and obey him. God says very clearly, “If you set aside your false images, and seek me with all your heart, you can be restored to a life-given relationship with me.”
A good place to begin is with the Bible—the entire Bible, not just the parts we like to read. Our goal should not only be to learn how to have a better life, but to know God better.
God is revealed in the Bible through his actions and words. He is the powerful Creator of the universe and humanity. He reached out to Abraham, to make covenant that will last forever. He freed his people from the bondage of Egypt, and cared for them in the wilderness. He is powerful and holy, and sometimes scary, yet showing love to thousands. He taught his people about both personal morality and social justice. He brought his people into a good land, and when they disobeyed, he sent them into exile.
Yet God remembered his covenant, and in the fullness of time, God himself (the Son) came to earth. God was revealed in a man named Jesus, it says in John 1:1, 14 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
When we read about Jesus, we understand the grace and truth of God more fully. We understand love, in that God sends his Son to save us. We understand God’s justice, as Jesus dies for our sins. We understand the power and glory of God, as Jesus rises from the dead.
Then, God comes more personally to us, in the person of the Holy Spirit. As we live by the Spirit, we understand the goodness of God, as we see the fruit of the Spirit in ourselves: love, joy, peace, etc. We get a taste of what it will be like to live with God forever, in an eternal life of righteousness and fellowship with God and his people.
When we are continually learning to know God better, worship comes alive! We have a continual hunger and thirst for God—the true, only, living God—and we will not be satisfied with substitute images.
