Little Children, Guard Yourselves from Idols

Passage Introduction

Turn in your copy of Scripture to Deuteronomy 4:15-24. Our text this morning will be Deuteronomy 4:15-24.

The last time we were in Deuteronomy together, we saw how Moses called Israel to watchfulness—to guard their souls with all diligence, that they might always remember, fear, and ultimately obey God. To call someone to be on guard is to tell them that there is danger nearby, threats to their life or wellbeing, and so it was for Israel, and so it is for you!

In our passage for today, Moses will repeat that call to be on guard, but this time his call will be even more focused, as he highlights one particular danger that Israel would face. Probably the greatest danger Israel would face. And again, one that God’s people continue to face up to the present day.

Let’s pray before we read God’s Word.

Sermon Introduction

“Little children, guard yourselves from idols.”

That’s how the apostle John ends his first letter. And it’s … a weird way to end a letter. As much in John’s time and culture as in ours! It’s just so abrupt, with no closing remarks or blessing or praise to God or anything like that. It’s also the first time in the 5 chapters of his letter that John even mentions idols. But clearly John thought that warning his readers against idols was important enough that he had to say something about it, and that it worked well as a closing charge for his letter.

For modern American readers, though, I think that just makes it seem like an even weirder ending. Because honestly, I think we struggle with just about every mention of idols in the Bible. I mean, yeah, lots of people worshiped idols thousands of years ago, and there are still a few places where you can find rampant idol worship, especially in certain parts of Asia, but not modern America, right? Isn’t idolatry either an ancient problem or a foreign problem?

And if that’s true, then the ending of 1 John, and the passage that we’ve just read from Deuteronomy, well, they’re just not going to feel that important to us.

But the truth is that these passages apply directly, even to Christians in modern America. Idolatry is as much a real and present danger today. It’s just that it’s more subtle, but in some ways its subtlety only increases the danger, because it’s so much harder to recognize and avoid. And so the message that Moses is here delivering to Israel, and the message that John wrote to his readers, is the same message that you need to hear this morning: guard your soul from idols.

And to show you why the danger of idolatry is so great, Moses reminds you of two truths about God, and remembering those truths will equip you as you guard your soul from idols.

I. God’s Transcendence

The first truth to remember is God’s transcendence. If you want to understand the evil of idolatry, you have to remember that God is a transcendent God, completely distinct from, and far above, all created things.

Moses does not speak explicitly in those terms, but when you consider the logic especially of verses 15-18, you’ll see that God’s transcendence is really the primary ground for the prohibition of making or worshiping idols.

In verses 16-18, Moses warns the people against making an image, any sort of image, in the form of a man or woman, or of any animal, flying, crawling, or swimming. That’s not a ban on all art; it’s a ban on all images of an object of worship—what we usually call “idols.” That’s clear from the context. And normally we associate such images with false gods, but it’s entirely possible to try to create an image of the true God, and to worship him through it. Israel’s done it before! That’s what the golden calf was that the people pressured Aaron to make, when they weren’t happy about how long Moses stayed on Mt. Sinai receiving the law from God. Not a God-replacement, but something meant to represent God and make him visible to them.

That kind of idolatry is just as evil and corrupt in God’s eyes as actually worshiping false God, and that’s the kind that Moses is primarily focused on in these verses. And he tells you why in verse 15: “because you did not see any form on the day the LORD spoke to you out of the fire at Horeb.” He’s recalling briefly what he already emphasized back in verses 11-12—that in the people’s more direct, most powerful, most impactful encounter with God, they heard his words, but they saw no form. At one level, the logic is pretty simple: God didn’t show you an image, so if you’re going to make one, you have to make it up for yourself, and you are not authorized to do that!

But to fully understand Moses’s point, you have to dig deeper. Why didn’t God show the people any form? Why didn’t he show them what he looked like so they could make an image? And I think the answer begins to present itself as soon as you ask the question that way. God didn’t show the people what he looks like, because he doesn’t look like anything! God is spirit, and spirit is invisible. So to show any form to the people of Israel, he would have to take on the form of one of his creatures.

But to do that would be a problem, because of God’s transcendence. Because he is so completely separate from all created things, and so far above all created things, for him to represent himself in the form of one of them would be to misrepresent himself, and to diminish his glory. It would degrade him in our eyes, and it would make him appear to be what he most emphatically is not—just another creature, just another being among beings, better than the rest, but not really fundamentally different.

No wonder, then, that God forbids people to make an image to represent him! What arrogant blasphemy, degrading God all the while having the audacity to say we know what he wants and what he’s like better than he does!

And yet, as corrupt as this idolatry is, Moses feels the need to warn the people strongly against the temptation to make images of God, because he knows that it is a powerful temptation, precisely because of God’s transcendence. You see, by nature, you don’t really want a big God; no one does. The real God is too much for you. His presence brings fear and dread; to actually see him would mean your death. By nature, in your heart of hearts, you don’t really want a God like that. You want a God you can see, because a visible god is a god you can understand, a god you can contain, perhaps even a god you can control.

But here’s the thing; God knows! He understands! The fact of the matter is, he really is too high, too great, too wonderful for you, and yet, he wants you to know him more than you want that for yourself! Every effort that you make to approach God or seek God on your own terms dishonors him, and inevitably fails, and so God himself has come down to you to reveal himself in a way that you can handle. As I already said, he has done that in his Word, which you have in the Bible, but most importantly, and most wonderfully, he has done that in Jesus Christ!

Because Jesus is God, but God clothed in human flesh, God stepping down and drawing near to you, but on his terms, in a way that doesn’t require him to give up or deny his transcendence, because he remains God of God, light of light, very God of very God, by whom all things were created! Yes, his glory was hidden for a while—but only hidden, not diminished, and in the grand scheme of things, only for a very short time! And now, in Jesus Christ, God has made himself known to you in the clearest, most intimate, and most visible way imaginable! Which means, of course, that Jesus has in no way diminished the importance of guarding yourself against idols; in fact, the evil of idolatry is shown to be that much greater in light of who Jesus is, and what he has done!

Now, when you really come to understand and appreciate all this, it should help you to see that this passage still applies very directly in our day, but also that it has pretty far-reaching implications for how you relate to God.

As for the direct application, well, images are still off limits! God is as transcendent as he ever was, so images of him are as sinful as they ever were. Every kind of image: statues, carvings, paintings, computer-generated images, human-modeled images (think actors playing God). Even if no one is bowing down to it, because God didn’t just say, “Don’t worship idols”; he said, “Don’t make any!” Because it’s still meant to portray God, the only right object of worship. So we don’t need pictures of God in books, or in comics and memes on Facebook, or on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and we don’t need actors playing God in movies.

At this point, I imagine it’s occurred to at least a few of you to ask, “But what about Jesus? Does this still apply to him, since he’s human and has a body?” Well … yes, yes it does. And that’s not a new idea—it’s the official stance of our denomination, and it’s the historic reformed understanding of Scripture, and it was the understanding of the ancient church.

It’s often thought and argued that there is some kind of exception for Jesus because he’s also human, but he’s still God, and you can’t separate his Godhood from his humanity. Having a human nature doesn’t suddenly make pictures or statues of him acceptable to God. Some would object that an image of Jesus is only portraying his humanity, not his Godhood, so it’s not really violating the command against idols. But in reality, that’s precisely the problem. Jesus is not only human, and his humanity cannot be separated from his deity—he is one divine Person, God the Son clothed with humanity. Listen to the words of the Puritan pastor Thomas Watson: “‘Tis Christ’s Godhead, united to his manhood, that makes him to be Christ; therefore to picture his manhood, when we cannot picture his Godhead, is a sin, because we make him to be but half Christ; we separate what God hath joined, we leave out that which is the chief thing, which makes him to be Christ.”

Christian, please, understand that pictures of Christ are not honoring to him. I’m sure some of you have questions about that, or might want to push back on that—please, don’t hold back! I’m happy to talk about this, and I’ll be preaching it again when we get to the 2nd Commandment in chapter 5, so it will help me to know what particular questions or objections are out there before then.

Of course, all that was just about the very direct application of this passage, and of remembering God’s transcendence, but I said before I launched into that that there are also many more wide-ranging applications! Behind this prohibition of images is the principle that, because God is transcendent, you must seek him and serve on his terms. That means, first and foremost, that you must always seek and serve him in Christ. There can be no true knowledge of God, if it is not knowledge of God in Christ! No worship of God honors him, if it is not done in Christ! No good deed is truly good and pleasing to God, if it is not done in Christ! Good works not done for Christ’s sake, worship that is not consciously Christ-centered, generic God-talk, even knowing true things about God but not relating those things to Christ—none of that is of any benefit to you, and does not in any way serve to please God. In fact, it only increases your condemnation.

But seeking God in Christ does not mean, “Be a Christian and then do as you like.” If you want to know God, if you want to hear from God, then you seek him in the place he has made himself known and made Christ known—his Word! Not visions or dreams or signs, not some private or direct communication from God, not some feeling in your gut that you can interpret as either a divine “yes” or “no,” depending on which answer you’d prefer. No, just the Bible, that Word that was breathed out by God, produced under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit to say exactly what God wanted it to say.

And serving God in Christ means worshiping God the way that God says he wants to be worshiped. No superstitious practices, no rituals of your own invention, just the simple sort of worship you find described at the end of Acts chapter 2.

And all of this also means thinking of Go, speaking of God, and acting toward God with proper reverence. Making an image is not the only way that you can demean God, or Jesus. You can also do it by treating him totally casually. By approaching worship flippantly. There’s far too much flippancy these days in the way we approach God. Remember that God is transcendent—that you have to do with that God who “is a consuming fire.”

But even in reverence, especially in reverence, there is joy, and celebration, and thanksgiving, because the transcendent God of the universe has drawn close to you in Christ, to make himself known, to have a relationship of love with you, to save you and make you his treasured possession!

So, Christ, guard your soul from idols, remembering that God is transcendent.

II. God’s Jealousy

The second truth about God to keep in mind as you guard your soul from idols is God’s jealousy. Remember that your God is a jealous God!

And of course, when we’re talking about God’s jealousy, we’re not talking about the jealousy that kids experience when they go to someone else’s birthday party and watch them open presents, or that a businessman feels when he watches someone with less experience get promoted instead of him, or that Ebenezer Scrooge felt about his money. There’s more than one angle from which to rightly understand the jealousy of God, but the best human analogy for the dynamic in this passage is the jealousy of a man for his wife! It’s a jealousy that is right, good and powerful.

Moses speaks directly about God’s jealousy in verse 24, but really, everything from verse 19-24 builds toward that conclusion.

Verse 19 builds on the prohibition of idolatry to ban the worship of the sun, moon, and stars. Unlike the idols, these were things that people often worshiped directly, because of their apparent glory and power and mystery. So now the worship of false gods is directly forbidden. But of course, this prohibition is closely tied to the ban on images, and it’s a very natural link, because idolatry, even when it begins as an attempt to worship the right God in the wrong way, always tends in the direction of worshiping someone or something else alongside of, and eventually in place of, the one true God.

I don’t think it’s hard to understand why that’s the case. For one thing, if you’re worshiping God in ways that he has not required of you, and especially in ways that he has directly banned, then you’re not really worshiping God anyway. You’re worshiping your imagined version of God. And it also means that you’re already showing an inclination to depart from what God has said in his Word. And on top of that, the same impulses that lead to false worship, especially trying to make images of God—the desire to have a smaller god that you can comprehend and even control—those impulses always push in the direction of worshiping a false god.

It’s like wishing your spouse was a different sort of person. If you allow yourself to dwell on all the things you wish were different about your spouse, if you try constantly to no avail to push them in that direction, then it’s going to make it so much easier to be unfaithful if someone comes along who’s the sort of person you wish your spouse was. Same deal with God—except that the danger is far subtler!

At this point, it’s important that you understand that the worship of false gods doesn’t always mean that you’re doing something like sacrificing to the sun or visiting the temple of some strange deity. God demands of you all your love and trust and devotion—to love him with all your heart and soul and mind and strength—and so to give any of what’s due to God and give it to anything else—money, other people, career, your own comfort, your family, your country, your ideology, etc.—is to worship something other than God. And that’s the inevitable end of idolatry, and it’s one of the major reasons that idolatry in all forms is so dangerous, and so corrupt.

And then you get to the second half of verse 19, “The LORD your God has provided them for all people everywhere under heaven.” On the one hand, that’s stressing the Creator-creature distinction again. Don’t worship what is merely created, alongside of the Creator!

But when you keep reading into verse 20, it seems like Moses is also saying that God has actually given over other nations to that sort of false worship, but Israel is different. All people on earth have the sun, moon, and stars; let everyone else have their foolish false gods. But not you, Israel. God chose you, and only you, and he exercised his great power to save you from slavery in Egypt so you could be his inheritance, his treasured possession, so whatever the other nations do, you don’t worship idols, or any false gods!

And what’s more, in verse 23 Moses reminds Israel of the covenant that God has made with them—a covenant, a tight bond between God and Israel, like the marriage covenant! Israel has a unique and unbreakable relationship with this God! That doesn’t mean it’s actually OK for the nations to worship false gods, but it does mean that it’s a far worse offense if Israel turns to that sin! It would be like a king, certainly not pleased when his subjects are rebellious, but he’s going to consider it the height of treachery if his queen turns against him. That’s the dynamic that’s going on here!

So you can understand why this is not a matter that God takes lightly. Why he is at this point said to be a consuming fire, and a jealous God. The next passage goes into detail about what it looks like to cross this jealous God, but the focus now is just on the fact that Israel needs to realize they’re something special to God, and act accordingly.

How much more true is that for the church of Jesus Christ?! We are the Israel of God, and we stand in the same relationship to him, but it’s a relationship founded on a better salvation, and a better covenant! So that obligation to worship God alone, and worship him rightly, is not lessened, but strengthened! Because the Lord Jesus Christ is our husband, and he is a jealous husband!

So you need to understand that the prohibition of idolatry really matters! It really matters that you only worship God in the way that he says pleases him! It really matters that you root out of your life anything that competes with Jesus for your affection and devotion!

Your spiritual husband, Christ, will tolerate no rivals!

This applies to you in a real way even if you have not truly believed. Having been joined to Christ’s church is enough.

[speak a bit about baptism]

Know how firmly bound and deeply obligated you are to Jesus Christ, to love and obey him all your days!

But also know that to serve this jealous God, to have this jealous husband, is the greatest imaginable blessing!