No gods, but God

O.B.C.

2/12,13/94

Ex.20:4 

           You shall not make for yourself an idol.

Intro. The more you look at these commands the clearer they become.     #1 Honor me as God ("No gods but God") - I will never let you down.

     The first commandment is very clear. The second one is very messy.

     In the early church, debate went on as to whether this command should stand on its own or be incorporated into the first one. Those of you from Catholic backgrounds know that Protestants and Catholics parted ways on this particular decision.

     From Exodus 34:28 and Deut 4:13 we learn that there were Ten commandments on two tablets of stone, written by God. 

     Some combine 1 and 2, and then separate #10 into two parts; not to covet thy neighbors property #9 and thy neighbors' spouse as #10. Catholics and some Lutherans.  Other Protestants do it the right way.

     Protestants think that the Catholics and Lutherans re-numbered the Commandments in order to continue their use of religious images, statues or relics in their worship. (not editorial comment; history of the debate)

     But, this commandment does say something about whether those images should be used in worship.  

(read 3-6)

I.   What is God saying?

     "Under no circumstances, should human beings ever craft something with their hands and then ever end up bowing down before it in worship of it or in worship of the true God through the representation or the focal point of a carved image."

     God is serious about this.

     This prohibition against idols is stated in one form or another more than any other by biblical authors.

     Only one other commandment takes up more space than this one.

     The OT has 14 different synonyms or words for idols or images.      "idol"- (pesel)actual false god

     "likeness" - (temunah) representation of the true god

     This does not intend to stifle artistic talent. Look at the tabernacle with its ornate designs from nature, all under God's instruction. Rather, it serves to warn us to avoid improper substitutes.

     This will be an easy one.  I flunked shop class.  I can't paint. I can't carve.  But, just to make sure, let's consider together what God is saying and why.

     We know this about God.  He understands human beings well.  He ought to. He designed us. He created us. He breathed life into us. He knows us inside and out.

     God knew that a major frustration of His people would be that they would have to worship an invisible God. A God who is spirit. A God who they could not see or hear or touch.

     The neighboring nations around Israel had gods that were enormous statues overlayed with gold and decorated lavishly. Spectacular. Housed in magnificent temples. There was this aura that seemed to be more real to those worshipers of foreign gods in neighboring countries.  They had gods that you could sort of get your hands on. They had gods that you could see and touch and study and bow down before, and carry mental images about as you left the temple. It is almost an advantage isn't it?

     In contrast, the god of the Bible. Don't cave into the temptation to craft an object that will in any way serve to try to represent me. Don't make anything of wood or stone or anything else an object that will serve as a focal point for your worship of Me.

     I don't ever want you to have an image like the foreign gods around you.

II. Why does God ask this?

     Why not?  What's the big deal!? Wouldn't it aid us in worship?

     Ans. In His Infinite wisdom, God knew that no image crafted by human hands could ever accurately represent the totality of who God is. Nothing that we could ever carve or mold or chisel could ever capture even a fraction of who our transcendent God is.

     Any attempt to represent God by an image would automatically reduce God. At the very core of the second commandment is the axiom, "Refuse to reduce God!" Don't ever be a part of any effort that ends up reducing the magnitude of our God!

     ill. Silver Cliff Ranch in Buena Vista, CO - 14 fourteeners

     take a piece of gum, chew it up a bit and then mold it with your fingers into a replica so that the rest of us could capture a bit of its splendor.

     I'd be better off with words than with some kind of hand-crafted representation. Because something made with hands would be worse than no representation at all.  That' right!

     ill. use a whistle to give us a rendition of Canon in D by Pachelbel or the Messiah

     Any attempt to make God concrete automatically reduces Him.

     Exodus 20 concludes the story of the giving of the Law, informing us that when God ceased speaking, the people remained at a distance where God was. Very significantly,God reiterated the first two commands. Exod. 20:22,23

     This prohibition against idolatry could scarcely be given greater emphasis.

     This was followed by God giving to Moses the social and civil laws for Israel.

     ill. culminating in the grand day of the Confirmation of the Covenant of the Law (Exod. 24)

     Sacrifices of young bulls were offered, sprinkling half of the blood on the book of the Law and on the surrounding people. (cf. Heb. 9:18-22). Not a pretty sight, except in its supreme symbolism. The altar, the Law and the people dripped with blood: the Covenant had its crimson seal.

     Then Moses ascended into the "consuming fire" where he remained for 40 days while God instructed him and then presented him with the Law engraved on stone with God's own finger (31:18)

     There had never been anything like this in the history of the world. You would have thought that the glow of that moment would have kept them faithful for their life times. But it didn't.

     When the people saw that Moses was long in returning they demanded that Aaron, Moses' brother make them new gods. Exod. 32:1 very coarsely says, "the man (fellow) Moses who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."

     Aaron took their earrings and jewelry and made a calf of gold.

     Aaron's calf -  symbol of power and verility - sexual debauchery; left out the holiness of God, His righteousness and majesty of His judgment.

     v. 5 "...jealous God"

     1. God knows that your view of Him will shape your values.

          He wants you to really know Him. Humans have a tendency to become like the God they worship. No nation will rise higher than its concept of who God is.

          Fashion a god who loves me with a grandfather's love and refuse to see anything else.   policeman, grandfather, fix-it man,

     John Donne, English poet and preacher, "If thou carest not who I love, then thou lovest not me."

     2. "...visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me"

     your view of God will affect your children and the grandchildren, and great grandchildren (spans 4 generations)

     "much of the way you see Me will get passed on".

     negatively or positively

     3. (v.6)"...but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments."        

     Swindoll,(on the family) How can domestic strength be sustained?

     1. Get a good clear image of God. There is no other God

     2. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength

     3. Teach your children by modeling.

     4. (also image) Fear Him    

Two Warnings: (implied)

     1. Use of religious symbols

     2. forming mental images of God (we all have these)

     1. Use of religious symbols

          in our lives together as a church

     ill. crucifix - shows Jesus hanging limply on the cross for you and me. Therein is our only hope. No doubt about it.

     The crucifix is reductionary. It doesn't do Jesus justice. It doesn't capture the fulness of all that Jesus is today. It conveys His human weakness, but nothing of His divine strength.

     The crucifix captures the reality of His pain and suffering but it fails to remind us of His power and His glory and His joy.

     The crucifix doesn't tell us of Easter morning when in power and majesty our resurrected Savior burst forth from the tomb as a conqueror of death and the grave. It doesn't show Him ruling and reigning today.

     our songs convey that He is able to deliver us today - does a limp savior on a cross convey that - I think not.

     An image can't convey everything; give it a break.  That's the point.

     If we put up a cross we should also display an empty tomb.

     Not just a man; supernatural birth.

     Teaching ministry; huge scroll

     good shepherd; staff

     temple cleansing; whip

     how many more things should we add

     We want to preach God's Word and present to you God in all of His unseen splendor.

     The God whose glory and majesty cannot be captured in an image or an object.

     Draw near to me and I will draw near to you and we won't need equipment to get to know each other.

     In your car, home, school, office, come to me. Come to me with an honest, humble heart and I will make myself real to you. Come to me in your spirit and I will make myself real to you.

     There are a number of people here who would take a beating for Jesus Christ defending His reality.  I've never seen Him, touched Him, heard an audible voice. But I have given Him my life.

     "He's everything to me"

     2. Mental images

     Can be every bit as reductionary and misleading as physical images tend to be.

     Tormented people whose mental image of God is an angry judge pounding His gavel and shouting out the sentence of condemnation, "Guilty! guilty! guilty!" or "Go ahead, step out of line, make my day!"

     These people need to understand how "Amazing Grace really is!"

     They need to see Jesus as the Good Shepherd and The loving Father as the Prodigal Son (Lk. 15) returns:

     but, they can't process this because the image that rules their mind is the image of an angry, condemning Judge.

     God is a Just Judge, but that isn't the only and full picture of all that God is. He is also every bit as much the Loving Father, Isaiah says He is as a nursing Mother.  He is so tender and nurturing that He can be pictured as a Mother nurturing a newborn child.

     John's Gospel says Jesus is an ever faithful friend, like your best friend.

     In order to relate to the God of the Bible in a truly healthy way you must develop a comprehensive picture rather than fixating on a snapshot of His identity.

     We must be taught to know God in living color, and not to develop our blindspots.

     Get teaching to eliminate softspots in our theology.

     Some of you are afflicted with the policeman view of God (get tapes on grace of God. leave Joni a note)

     What freedom that will create.

     Equally destructive. Benign, harmless grandfather. (George Burns' "Oh God") The man upstairs. These folks are usually living rebellious lives. Casually Christian. Comfortable. Gramps really doesn't care how I live. He just wants me to be happy. Just give me hugs.  

     "It needs to be said with the greatest emphasis that those who hold themselves free to think of God as they like are breaking the 2nd commandment." -J.I.Packer

     It may be fatal for eternity.

     J.B.Phillips,(Think again, your God is too small) "No one is ever really at ease in facing what we call life and death without a religious faith, the trouble with many today is that they have not found a God big enough for their modern needs. While the experience of life has grown in a score of directions and their mental horizons have been expanded by scientific discoveries, their idea of God has remained largely static and has not changed."

     Still trying to operate on a childhood's concept of god.

     Disappointment with God - Phillip Yancey 1. "The Fatal Fact"

     "What we think about God and believe about God matters. Really matters. As much as anything in life matters. Don't make that fatal error of making an image of God that is not really what God is like."

     God as a benign grandfather in heaven is a wrong single snapshot image that causes more people to wind up in hell for all eternity than any other in the Bible. Because you aren't going to be bothered about your sinfulness if God is kind of like George Burns smoking his cigar.

     You don't do business with a holy God if your image of Him is this harmless, uninformed creature who doesn't mind.

     He minds about your apathy, greed, immorality, speech, marriage, ethics in the market place.

     If this is the one snapshot you have of God, fill out the photo album.

     That't the sense of the second commandment

III. How does one get a good image of God?

     It comes only on the basis of a day to day relationship. If Jesus were to have stayed here on the earth he could not have had an intimate relationship with everyone on the earth in the flesh.

So, He came in the person of the Holy Spirit and through His inspired Word.

     Jeremiah said, "You shall seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart."