The Second commandment:
commandment:
Commandment #2: “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters below. 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 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. (Exodus 20:4-6) In simple terms: “You shall not worship idols.” In the Old Testament, idolatry was the primary sin that led the people of Israel astray. And it may also be the primary sin of Christians today, but it has gone undercover.
As a missionary I once saw a walking haystack, a man wearing a scary mask and a body-suit entirely made of long grass leaves. Allegedly he was the embodiment of the chief spirit that protected the Liberian town where I was visiting. The haystack-man walked over to confront me, but the Christian men in that village made a circle around me to protect me from him. In the country of India, I was able to go inside several ornate temples which housed the statues of the “gods” the local people worshipped. Everyday they would dress the statues in clean clothes and bring them food to eat. Then they would pray to them. And in China, people went to shrines honoring their ancestors and brought offerings made of paper: paper houses, paper cars, paper money, for the ancestors to use in the afterlife. The purpose was to keep the ancestors happy so they wouldn’t bring bad luck to the family. Around the world there are still many obvious violations of the Second Commandment.
But the Second Commandment wasn’t primarily intended to counter these other religions; it was in response to God’s own people, Israel. While Moses was up on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments, the people were at the foot of the mountain making a golden calf which they worshipped and called their god (Exodus 32:8). And throughout the history of Israel as recorded in the Old Testament, idolatry, worshipping the so-called gods of the surrounding nations, was the major sin of the nation. In the New Testament, as Greeks and Romans became Christians, they were tempted to continue going to the temples of their former gods (1 Corinthians 8:4-7). The Apostle John concluded his letter to the churches of his day: “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). We Christians should heed his word. So, what is wrong with idolatry? The main problem is that idols are man-made gods. Isaiah mocked the carpenter who used part of a piece of wood to build a fire to cook his food and used the other part to carve a statue and call it his god (Isaiah 44:1315). The Apostle Paul criticized the people of Athens for believing that their gods lived in temples and needed to be served by human hands. Paul’s response to their idolatry was to say that the true God made everything. And “he is not served by human hands as though he needed anything” (Acts 17:24-25).
The basic truth underlying the Second Commandment is that man-made gods are not gods at all. The Second Commandment teaches us: Worship the God who made you, not the gods you make.
In the same way, we should not make images of Yahweh, the true God. He has no body or visible form to be represented as a picture or statue (Deuteronomy 4:12). God is an invisible spirit and therefore not subject to image- making (1 Timothy 1:17). I think art works of God are acceptable if we don’t worship them.
Perhaps we think this commandment doesn’t apply to us now since we don’t have shrines with images we worship. But are there any things which are more important to us than God? Those are our idols.
When my wife and I moved to Oklahoma, I overheard a young pastor say that he never knew that sports could be a god. Perhaps we don’t worship OU or OSU or the Thunder teams, but do they become more important to us than God? What about celebrities and music stars? We may even call them idols. Even successful politicians and pastors can become more important than God. No person, however good he or she may seem, should ever outrank God in our hearts.
How about our possessions and money? Does having the best job, house, car, or clothes become an idol? The Bible warns us about money: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6;10). The Apostle Paul labeled greed as idolatry (Colossians 3:5), a point which Jesus also made by saying that we cannot serve two masters: “You cannot serve both God and Money” (Matthew 6:24). If possessions become more important than God, we have violated the Second Commandment. We need to distinguish between the Creator and his creation. We may enjoy the beauty of creation and benefit from the environment in which we live because God made the world as good. But we should never worship any part of the creation. We only worship the Creator. That is the distinction the Second Commandment teaches us to make.
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Greg Giles is a published author, who, along with his wife Jean, has embraced the call to serve and teach around the globe. Their life together has included missionary work in Liberia, Bangladesh, teaching in China, and raising a family in Bemidji, Minnesota. Between global travels and local commitments, including serving as superintendent of Corn Bible Academy and their current part-time roles at Corn Heritage Village, the Gileses have found “home” in many places; yet, they now happily reside in retirement in Cordell.