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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.
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
If the first commandment we discussed last week, focuses on worshipping the RIGHT GOD, then we should see the second and third commandment as a call to WORSHIP this GOD in the RIGHT WAY...
In the first commandment....
What was the actual error? Seeking to represent the divine with images made with human hands. The common trying to construct the holy.
Let me offer you two ways in which this can play out. A formal way and informal way…first the formal…
Read verse 4 again
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.
The Lord includes all the sources from which we might be tempted to look to…HEAVE NS, LAND and ANYTHING UNDERNEATH, and OCEANS, SEAS, LAKES, RIVERS and ANYTHING WITHIN THEM and HE SAYS DON’T USE ANY OF THEM AS A REPRESENTATION OF ME!
Don’t try to use anything in creation as a stand-in for the uncreated one.
This makes complete and total sense when you consider where Israel came from…EGYPT!
Egypt had many gods that they tried to forge in the image of things in the ocean, the heavens, and the earth. They had one god depicted as a falcon, they had one god depicted as hawk, they had one god depicted as a cow, they had another god depicted as a frog, they had another god depicted as a jackal, and even another god depicted as a cat.
The attempt to depict gods in this way was somewhat understandable and admirable because each of these depictions where intended to highlight certain attributes and strengths. The cow imagery was intended to represent the god’s strength of fertility. The falcon imagery was intended to represent the god’s strength in war and hunting. The cat imagery was intended to represent the god’s strength in the home as a guardian and keeper (which I’m not sure whoever created these gods has ever been around a cat because I’m not sure if they really have any desire to protect anything much less any of us. However, that’s not the point
The point is that each of these images may have intended to communicate one or two truths about the divine but their weaknesses also ended up representing the divine.
And while it may have been okay to represent the false gods of Egypt like that, the ONE TRUE GOD of Israel could NEVER be represented in this way!
There is nothing that can be used to depict our God because no image is sufficient to capture His holiness, his otherness, his vastness, his supremacy, his omnipresence, his omnipotence, his omniscience.
Any image that we create in an effort to represent God will only serve in bringing God down to our level. No matter how great the image is. If we try to boil him down to being represented by a created thing, we have diminished him to His own creation.
He stands above his creation, He stands above our imagination, that is where He must ultimately be in our understanding and worship of him...
Pastor/Theologian Phil Ryken says the following about this commandment:
Now, some have read this command and assumed that it is a call away from the building and carving of any structure. Statues and monuments, for instance.
I don’t think that is at the heart of this commandment.
For example, when you look a few chapters down to Exodus 31, you hear this:
1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, 4 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, 5 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.
The Lord filled this man with his Spirit in order that he might have the ability, intelligence, knowledge, and craftsmanship to design artistically, to use materials such as gold, silver, bronze, and stones, and wood to make awesome art.
Art is used to cause us to reflect. Art is used to cause us to inspire. Art can be used to provoke us, motivate us, and even convict us. Art can give us a deeper sense of God. For example when you hear beautiful singing, it made lead you to a moment of deeper worship. Art is a valuable valuable tool.
ILLUSTRATION: Even as we look toward tomorrow to celebrate the life and legacy of the Civil Rights activist, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we know that there are many pieces of art of him that have been completed and many of them were intended to do many of the things that I just described a moment ago.
The movies, the pictures, the poetic words from his speeches and sermons, even the massive landmark in DC is intended to remind you of the great struggle for freedom during the Civil Rights Movement, it is intended to inspire you to live with courage in the face of adversity, and it should even provoke worship in you as you think about the deep spiritual roots of the movement and how almost to a man and woman if you would have asked how did they keep going in the face of such impossible odds, they would have responded through Christ.
The Civil Rights Movement is given a power that extends beyond its years thanks to the gift of art.
Artistic Expression is intended to do that and thus, it is nothing wrong with it on its face.
The line that separates goodness in simple and beautiful artwork for rank idolatry is WORSHIP!
When an object is created as representation of the divine or is created as a object of worship, we have stepped over the line into idolatry.
The error is not in forging and creating artwork using metal, wood, and other materials. Verse 5 highlights the error.
20:5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them...
It is pointing to the art or token as a source of ultimate meaning, hope, purpose, and/or significance.
Let me give you one informal examples in how art/symbols can veer into idolatry...
Say, for instance, you have a token or memento for a loved one who passed. The token serves in reminding you of the good memories that you enjoyed with this loved one. There is nothing wrong with that art and what it does for you, but say you move from that to a place WHERE YOU HAVE TO HAVE IT. WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE IT before a big moment or big day that requires you to be at your best, you panic and you might respond to someone who would ask, “why you are tripping about this thing”. I just feel like they are near me when I have it and they are giving me strength and guiding me and without it I’m unable to be my best.
Now we are teetering on the edge to idolatry because in this symbol you find ultimate significance, hope, purpose, and/or meaning.
When we begin to place our confidence in the objects and their power instead of placing our confidence in the God who created those objects, we are teetering on the edge of idolatry.
One more informal example
*********** Discuss the need to see something in order to worship ***********
The undermining of the written word in favor of visual artifacts…Movies, Plays, Pictures overriding our understanding of Jesus...
One more important point I want to make about this command: Notice the reason that God gives for the command.
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.
Why does God say that I will not permit you to bow down and serve CATS, JACKALS, COWS, etc? Because HE IS JEALOUS.
Oprah Winfrey years ago told a story about how she was in church listening to a sermon when the preacher proclaimed that God was a jealous God. I’ll let Oprah tell the story from hear.
“I happened to be sitting in church in my late 20s. I was going to this church where this great minister was preaching about how great God was and how omniscient and omnipresent and God is everything.
Then he said, “The Lord Thy God is a jealous God.” I was caught up in the rapture of that moment until he said jealous. Something struck me. I was thinking, “God is all. God is omnipresent. God is all and God’s also jealous? God is jealous of me?”
Something about that didn’t feel right in my spirit because I believe that God is love and that God is in all things, and so that’s when the search for something more than doctrine started to stir within me.”
*********** Discuss Jealousy as it relates to God....close with thoughts on worshiping rightly because our God loves us too much to share with another.... ************
Why don’t we need graven images????
CHRIST, the only true and complete image of God
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
The Second and Final Commandment that I want to cover this morning is again dealing with seeking to worship the right God in the right way.
Third Commandment: You Shall Not Take the Name of the Lord Your God In Vain
Third Commandment: You Shall Not Take the Name of the Lord Your God In Vain
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
This commandment carries a multitude of layers in it. It is more than just simply calling on the name of the Lord.
The first layer is the profane. The second layer is the perjurious. The third layer is the pointless.
First the profane…this is command to not use call upon the Lord in a crude way…to not curse God’s name nor use God’s name to curse frivolously and carelessly. Most of us are familiar with this layer.
The Second layer…the perjurious is the call to not bring in the Lord’s name as a foundation for lies. This comes in the infamous word, “I swear before God.”
English Standard Version Chapter 5
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
One theologian shares on how people would exploit the perjurious layer in the following quote: “To persuade others that they were telling the truth—in court, for example, or in connection with a business deal—people often said something like, “As surely as the LORD lives” (Jer. 5:2). By lifting up God’s name they were trying to prove that what they were saying was true. In effect they were calling God as their witness. The problem came when people took an oath in God’s name and then proceeded to lie. This was perjury—a direct violation of the third commandment. It was using God’s name to confirm what was false rather than what was true. So God said, “Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD” (Lev. 19:12).”
Ryken, P. G., & Hughes, R. K. (2005). Exodus: saved for God’s glory (p. 580). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.People would even go as far as lowering the standard by which they swore the oath…maybe not as high as God, but still significant like Heaven.
In Matthew 5 Jesus is saying you don’t own Heaven. You don’t own Earth. You don’t even own your own body...
Don’t call upon the name of the Lord to build a false sense of credibility and don’t call upon any thing in which he owns to build a false sense of credibility.
Let your yes be yes and your no be no…Don’t call upon the name of the Lord in attempt to create credibility in your lies…Let your word stand on its own...
The first layer is the profane - Using the Lord’s name as a curse word.
The second layer is the perjurious - Using the Lord’s name as a cover for lies.
The last and most important layer is the pointless - Using the Lord’s name flippantly…casually...
The third commandment is a call to not use the name of the Lord without reverence...
Here is something we need to understand about the concept of name in this time…they were deeper than just mere words…they spoke to the whole of person…the very essence of a person was connected to their name.
So when the Lord calls us to not take his name in vain. He is not merely just calling us away from using his name flippantly. He is calling us to not be flippant with him...
When you think in these terms, all of sudden you realize that the call to not take the name of the Lord in vain is not just a moment but it’s a way of LIFE...
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
The Lord’s prayer