Sermon Tone Analysis

20 And God spoke all these words, saying,

2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

And God spoke all these words, saying,

2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

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Testing 1 2 3

God’s Lordship

Whenever you see the word LORD in all caps in your Bible, that’s the name Yahweh (YHWH).

This is God’s personal name given to Moses.

It means Lord, specifically the Lord of the covenant given to Israel, and has connotations of a God who is eternal, unique, unchangeable and always actively present with His people.

It expresses God’s role as Israel’s Redeemer and covenant Lord.

God is reminding them who He is—that He deserves their reverence and obedience not only because of what He did for them (rescuing them from Egypt) but also because He is the one true God.

I am the LORD; that is my name;

my glory I give to no other,

nor my praise to carved idols.

Review of Last Week

Specifics of Idolatry/Carved Images

15 “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully.

Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth.

19 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

20 But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.

21 Furthermore, the LORD was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.

22 For I must die in this land; I must not go over the Jordan.

But you shall go over and take possession of that good land.

23 Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you.

24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

25 “When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, so as to provoke him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.

You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed.

27 And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you.

28 And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

29 But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice.

31 For the LORD your God is a merciful God.

He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

God first provides the reason for the second commandment—God gave no visible form to His spirit when He came to speak to His people.

So we are not fashion any visible idol of either some other god or the God of scripture.

While this won’t be the primary focus of what I’m going to talk about today, I did want to touch on this aspect of the second commandment:

While it’s obvious that God does not prohibit all forms of “carved likenesses” because He gives instruction to the artists of Israel to fashion cherubs for the ark of the covenant, it does seem clear that the second commandment prohibits the creation of images that are supposed to represent God in any other way than that in which He’s chosen to reveal Himself.

This was one of the main problems with the medieval Roman Catholic church: They would often use paintings and sculptures to help illiterate peasants to understand the narratives and doctrines in the Bible.

What’s the problem with this?

It could lead to worshipping the objects instead of God himself.

This ended up leading to the praying to statues of saints and Mary, which is a very obvious violation of the second commandment.

We have to be careful.

So

God provides a pretty extensive list of the kinds of idols that one should not make.

Even though most of us would think it ridiculous today to make idols of wood or stone or to worship the sun or moon, we would probably all agree (and we’ve talked about this before) that we still can go after idols.

But to really understand idolatry, we have to understand what was so attractive about it to the original audience.

But it goes even deeper than that.

We make idols in all sorts of ways, and each and every one of these idolatrous acts is sinful.

Let’s learn more about what this meant for the original audience so we can understand what idolatry meant for the ancient world.

Idolatry in the Ancient World

Why were so many Israelites lured away from God to idols?

Idolatry was guaranteed.

The formula was simple.

Carve a god out of wood or stone and the god would enter the icon.

Now that you have a god in your midst, you can get his (or her) attention quickly.

Your incantations, oaths, and offerings will always be noticed.

Idolatry was selfish.

Scratch the gods backs and they’ll scratch yours.

They need food and sacrifices; you need blessings.

Do your stuff and they’ll be obliged to get you stuff.

Idolatry was easy.

Ancient idolatry encouraged vain religious activity.

Do what you like with your life.

So long as you show up consistently with your sacrifices, you’ll be in good shape.

There were no moral or ethical requirements.

It was all about ritual.

Idolatry was normal.

Everyone did it.

It’s how woman got pregnant, how crops grew, how armies conquered.

Idolatry was like oil: nothing ran in the ancient world without it.

Idolatry was logical.

Nations are different.

People are different.

Their needs and desires are different.

Obviously, there must be different deities for different strokes.

How could one god cover all of life?

You don’t eat at one restaurant do you?

The more options the better.

They can all be right some of the time.

Idolatry was pleasing to the senses.

If you are going to be especially religious, it helps to be able to see your god.

It’s harder to impress people with an invisible deity.

Idolatry was indulgent.

Sacrificing to the gods did not often require sacrifice for the worshiper.

Leftover food could be eaten.

Drink could be drunk.

Generosity to the gods leads to feasting for you.

Idolatry was sensual.

The whole system was marked by sex.

Rituals often featured sex as an important aspect.

Sex on earth often meant sex in heaven, and sex in heaven meant big rain, big harvests and multiplying herds.

Can we see the attraction of idolatry?

Does it sound familiar to other religious or semi-religious activities or beliefs today?

“Let’s see, I want a spirituality that gets me lots, costs me little, is easy to see, easy to do, has few ethical or doctrinal boundaries, guarantees me success, feels good, and doesn’t offend those around me.” That’ll seem great.