2nd Commandment

When I was a kid, some people used credit cards but cash was more usual. Debit cards hadn’t been invented! Anyone under 40 carry cash? When I put a $20 in my wallet, it lasts months!

In 30-40 years, we moved from cash to credit/debit cards or smartphone tap. It makes you think differently about money. There was a time you cashed a cheque and used the cash, bit by bit. Now, until you check your banking app, you can’t see what you’ve spent. It changes your thinking about money; a paradigm shift.

I don’t want you to get stuck thinking about money. I only mention it because a similar shift happened for the people of Israel. Not w/ money, but w/ worship and how they viewed God.

They all grew up as slaves in Egypt. Egyptian temples had pictures of gods. Egyptian priests draped silks and pearl ropes over figurines and offered sacrifices before statues. They paraded through the streets w/ their gods on their shoulders. Those experiences shaped the way the Israelites thought about worshipping gods.

The gods they worshipped in Egypt were tangible:

could see, touch, kiss a golden figure

keep a carving of your favorite god in your pocket

create a shrine & burn incense to a goddess in your living room

That shaped Israelites’ thinking about worship.

Standing at the foot of Mt Sinai to worship the Lord their God was different. Just like a debit card makes money invisible, the Israelites were called to worship a God who was invisible. Meeting an invisible God was mind-blowing to most Israelites. Worshipping the Lord required a change of thinking. It was different than all their previous experience. Listen to what happened just before they heard God tell them the 10 Commandments:

On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lorddescended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.

Exodus 19:16–19 (NIV)

The Lord God is more real but less touchable than the gods they knew in Egypt. You can hear his voice and get a sense of his power and majesty. The Lord of Hosts is not a god you can put in your pocket or stick in the corner of the living room.

In that context, the 2nd commandment makes sense.

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them;

Exodus 20:4–5a (NIV)

If you follow Crosspoint’s daily Bible readings (email me if you’d like to get it), you read of several leaders in Israel’s history made images to worship God: Aaron @ Mt Sinai

So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

Exodus 32:3–4 (NIV)

King Jeroboam @ Bethel and Dan

The king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan.

I Kings 12:28b–29 (NIV)

Consider the difference b/t golden calf and the ark of the covenant:

Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. . . . There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.

Exodus 25: 17–18, 22 (NIV)

The Ark of the covenant, designed and commissioned by God, was a work of art. The lid and the angels were made of hammered gold. There was no figure or image of God sitting on the mercy seat. God’s presence is invisible. The 2ndcommandment doesn’t forbid art. It’s a warning not to capture God in a painting or statue.

Two dangers:

The image of picture becomes an idol, so we worship the created thing instead of the Lord and Creator of all. God is jealous properly. Jealous like a wife wants her husband’s kisses, jealous like kids want their daddy’s love, care, and respect.

Even if you perfectly capture one image of God or one facet of God’s character, you have reduced God, shrunk him too small. Think of all the word pictures and descriptions in the Bible of our heavenly Father, the King of Creation, the Good Shepherd. Reducing the Lord to just one image doesn’t do justice to the majesty, glory, and power of God. The Lord is not a God you can put in your pocket and take out when you need him.

An image cannot fully convey God’s glory and character. Think of the reaction among the Israelites when they encountered the Lord at Mt Sinai. They trembled with fear. God’s people opted out of spending more time in the presence of their God. They preferred to stay in camp and have Moses meet with God.

We understand the effect of God’s presence on people better when we read other people’s experiences. Isaiah records what felt so paralyzing to him in his encounter with God.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;

the whole earth is full of his glory.”

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Isaiah 6:1–5 (NIV)

This sense of uncleanness or shame isn’t something we can overcome by ourselves. No amount of washing or trying to do better will purify us from sin. We simply can’t do better of fix our situation.

So God came to us. Jesus set aside his glory – but not his righteousness – to bridge the gap between God and humankind. Throughout his life, he served God faithfully. But you know how humankind was made in the image of God? Jesus bore the image of God faithfully and completely.

Earlier this year we read John’s gospel together. Jesus is the one who faithfully represents God the Father:

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

John 1:17–18 (NIV)

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

John 14:6–9 (NIV)

Jesus came to reintroduce us to the Father, to represent the Father to us. He bore God’s image faithfully: 100% grace; 100% truth.

But it goes the other way as well. Jesus is the mediator b/t God and humankind. Throughout the gospel you hear Jesus pray for people. But it all came to a head at the cross. Jesus represented all of sinful humankind before his Father, taking our guilt, our sin, our shame upon himself. His suffering purifies all those who believe from our sin. By faith in Jesus, you can be purified from all unrighteousness.

b/c of his sacrificial death on the cross your sins are covered

b/c of his resurrection, you can be sure of eternal life, Jesus defined:

Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

John 17:3 (NIV)

By faith you know God and have been assigned to serve and represent him. You too, are invited to bear God’s image faithfully: 100% grace; 100% truth.

See, the 10 Commandments aren’t just a teacher of sin, they are also God’s instructions for holy living. So what does it mean to make no image to bow down and worship?

Reformed Chr. are generally very careful not to make pictures or images of God. That’s one reason you don’t find crosses w/ the figure of Jesus in the church. Prevent you from worshipping image.

Guard your imagination of God: Children’s story Bibles and Sunday School papers form our imagination. Help kids learn Bible stories, but also shape the way we think of God and Jesus. Image of God as big man w/ bushy white beard might not be helpful.

Not just kids – CS Lewis wrote in the Screwtape Letters of the danger of creating only one mental image of God or picturing God in one corner of the room. Danger of shrinking God down to bearable size. He already made himself small in Jesus to get your attention and capture your love.

Read through Bible and collect the different word-pictures God uses to reveal himself to his people: Creator, Heavenly Father, Shepherd, Master, Comforter, Rock, Refuge, Shield, Lord of Angel Hosts. It’s as if God is an enormous diamond and each metaphor reveals another facet of his character another angle from which we admire, honour, and worship the Lord God Almighty.