Ten Commandments Series
Second Commandment -- January 23, 2000
"Re-creating God in Our Own Image"
By the Rev. Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
Sunrise Presbyterian Church
Miami Florida
Exod 20:1-17
1 And God spoke all these words:
2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 "You shall have no other gods before me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
6 but showing love to a thousand of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.
11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
13 "You shall not murder.
14 "You shall not commit adultery.
15 "You shall not steal.
16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 "You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
(NIV)
Some time ago, there was an article in the newspaper listing several strange laws that had been written years ago, that meant nothing today, but that were still on the books.
There was, for example, the South Carolina state law that required, and still requires, adult men to carry swords to church. Anyone caught in church without a sword was subject to being fined. I suspect that is one law that any of us who have worshipped in church in SC have broken. Or at least I HOPE it is one we have all broken.
Another law in Vermont required a driver of an automobile to stop at every intersection, turn off his car, get out and look to see if there were any horse back riders, then push the car across the road, get in, start it, and drive off until he reached the next intersection he would have to go through the entire process all over again.
In all probability, these archaic laws had some legitimate reasons for their adoption, but the reason no longer exists, so for us, they seem ridiculous.
Take for example the New York Law that was adopted in 1918, and that is still on the books. It makes it illegal for anyone to sneeze in public. That sound silly until one realizes that in 1918, the entire world was in the grip of a flu epidemic that, in the end, claimed more lives than all of the battles fought in the first World War.
It became imperative in that year to keep the sick at home and isolated, thus the law that
prohibited sneezing in public.
There are countless other laws that may have sounded logical at one time, but that now have lost their meaning and relevancy.
Many of us might be inclined to list the second commandment among those irrelevant laws. It forbids the making and worshipping of idols
.
I’m almost tempted to ask for a show of hands
to see how many people here struggle to keep that commandment. We may struggle with the one about observing the Sabbath, or with the one about coveting, or bearing false witness, but not many of us have to struggle with the temptation to make an idol and worship it.
I suspect that many of us have never even seen an idol, and those of us who have, have merely seen them in museums and considered them interesting works of art.
It would be so easy to say that this is an irrelevant commandment. It may have had value for a Christian in some tribal community on some isolated Pacific Island, but it is without
meaning for the sophisticated 20th century resident of America.
But we cannot come in this church today and say that any of God’s Word is without meaning.
We cannot say that God’s Word once had meaning but no longer has meaning.
It is the nature of Scripture to always be
relevant.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:18 "I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will
by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." And he said again in Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."
The Word of God is eternal, and therefore it is eternally relevant to our lives. And that means that even this passage about worshipping idols is still important for us to hear.
Think about what idol worship is all about, and I think you will come to understand that it is
something that we still struggle with in our daily,
spiritual lives.
Paul said in Romans 1:25 "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised." Paul spoke at a time when there were literal idols, carved of wood and stone on every street corner, but while we do not have such idols today, we do have things that we serve and worship things OTHER THAN the one true God.
Do we trust God, to be our God?
Many of us do not.
This commandment is really three commandments in one. First, it tells us not to make an idol. In other words: Don’t make your own God.
Now that is the part of this commandment that seems so silly in modern times. Because none of us literally create gods or idols out of stone and wood. It is so easy for us to accept the Old Testament prophet’s words in Habakkuk 2:18. "Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it? Or an image that teaches lies? For he who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak."
However, take a look at your life and ask yourself if you accept God as he is, or if you try to create God in the image you would want him to have.
A few years ago, there was a major conference in the Christian Church. It involved members who came from every denomination in this nation, and they called the event, The Re-Imaging Conference. It’s purpose was to create a new image for God. The old images were no longer valid, according to the conference leaders. So they set out to recreate God in the image that they thought would be suitable fo today.
In the end, they determined that God would no longer be addressed as almighty "father." On the other hand, they did not consider God to be beyond gender of male and female. They decided God was certainly female, and gave him, or her, a new name -- Sophia, from the word for wisdom.
This extreme example was rejected by our denomination and most Christians, but it is an example of what we all do with God.
For all too many of us, theology is not the study of God, it is the creation, or re-creation of God. Many of us do not try to learn about who God is. Instead, we try to decide who God is.
And that is idolatry.
For example, the Bible teaches that God is a God of justice. But many people feel uncomfortable with that, so they will ignore those biblical teachings and emphasize only the love of God.
On the other hand, a person might be so in tuned with the love of God, that they reject the justice of God.
But God is who God is. We don’t create God. The very name of God is I AM, which in the ancient Hebrew has a verb tense that includes all time, past, present and future, so that the name can actually be rendered, "I am who I am, I have always been who I am, and I will always be who I am."
Theology is not trying to put together a list of what you decide God should be. Theology is
trying to learn who God actually is.
The second part of this commandment tells us not to bow down to any idol. In other words, Don’t submit to anyone but God. To submit to anyone else, is to be guilty of idol worship.
Jesus said in Luke 16:13, "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other."
Now, on the other hand, you might say, wait a minute. We have to submit to all sorts of authorities. I’ve got a boss or I’ve got teachers and parents. I’ve got a government that makes me pay taxes. Do I have to submit to those authorities? Yes, of course. But those are systems God has ordained as part of His system of authority over us. No one should submit to any authority other than those God has installed.
For example, we are to submit to the governing authorities of our nation, and we are told to do so in Romans 13. Again, this quote is in your study guide, "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God."
And in families, we have guidance from Ephesians. Now, this verse is not in your study guide, but in Ephesians 5:21, we are told to submit to one another, but we are told to do this in the context of "reverence as to the Lord."
Wives are told to submit to husbands, "as to the Lord.". Husbands are to love their wives, "just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her."
Whenever we are to submit to someone or to some authority, we do it because we are
submitting to an authority installed by God.
On the other hand, in the Old Testament, when Daniel was faced with a problem of either submitting to God, or to the governing king, Daniel submitted to God alone.
James tells us, and this quote is also in your study guide, "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
Finally, and this is the heart of the second commandment, we are not to worship any other god, but God. To worship something, is to give something love, to glorify, and to give absolute trust.
How many of us really trust in God. I mean really trust him.
There is an old story about a man who falls down a cliff. About half way down he notices a twig growing out the side of the cliff and he reaches for it. He is able to grab on and for a moment he feels safe and secure. Then the twig starts coming out of the cliff because it can’t hold the weight of the man. Desperately the man cries out in prayer, "God, if you are up there, help me."
Then, much to the amazement of the man, he hears a voice. It is the voice of God.
"This is God. Let go of the twig and I will catch you. Trust me."
The man thinks about that for a moment, then cries out, "Is anyone else up there?"
We don’t really trust God. Our money has the motto, In God We Trust, but most of us trust the money itself more than God.
Again, referring to the verse I read a moment ago from Luke 16:13 "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." Which will you serve? God or money. Which will you trust?
In the Old Testament book of Job 31:24, Job says, "If I have put my trust in gold or said to pure gold, ’You are my security,’ if I have rejoiced over my great wealth, the fortune my hands had gained, if I have regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor, so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand offered them a kiss of homage, then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high."
Not only are you unfaithful to God by trusting in money, but you are trusting something that
ultimately cannot be trusted.
For one thing, you never have enough money. King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 5:10, "Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless."
And no matter how much you have, it is not secure. Stock markets go up and down.
Inflation comes along every few years.
Pension plans are exhausted by some stranger who embezzles the funds.
Don’t trust the money. Instead, trust what it says on the money, In God We Trust.
Then again, some people trust people more than God. Who are these people we trust? It might be a charismatic leader of a cult, or it might be the respectable doctor we think can heal us of all illnesses.
But like money, people can’t be trusted.
Psalms 118:8-9 "It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes."
Psalms 146:3-4 "Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing."
Still others trust in military might and an arms build up.
But the words of Psalms 20:7 tell us, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God."
Psalms 44:6-7 "I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame."
You cannot put absolute trust in money, or people, or technology, or a nation’s strength.
Proverbs 3:5-6 said it well when it said, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."
God is the only one in whom we can put our absolute trust.
God is the only one who deserves our worship.
