4 Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. 5 Do not bow in worship to them, and do not serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, 6 but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands.
Exodus 20:4-6
When people hear this second commandment of the Ten Commandments, thoughts of worshipping little statues or other strange things come to mind. On one hand, I can see how one might come to that conclusion. On the other hand, I think that is a lacking interpretation of what God is saying through the second commandment.
Thomas Watson was a Puritan preacher in the 1600s. He is noted as saying once, “In the first commandment, worshipping a false god is forbidden; in [the second commandment], worshipping the true God in a false manner.”[1] https://ccel.org/ccel/watson/commandments.iv.ii.html
The second commandment speaks more to the point that we need to be careful that we do not inappropriately worship the one true God. While we might like to think that we can come before God in any manner that we choose, we must realize that God has set boundaries as to how we can approach Him.
The God of the Bible is not “the man upstairs”, “the big guy in the sky”, or any other cute phrase that some have come up with. He is the holy and sovereign Creator of the universe that has complete control. Throughout the Bible, it is clear that people who inappropriately came before God dropped dead when they did so.
In Leviticus 10, we can see Aaron (the brother of Moses and first priest of God’s people) had two sons (Nadab and Abihu) who dropped dead by coming before the Lord in a manner that He had not commanded them to do.
We should be careful how we approach the living God of the universe. He does not play by the rules that we set up. He is the one who makes the rules. We come to Him on His terms and the ways in which He has set up for us to do so.
4 Parts of the Second Commandment
As we look at this second commandment, we will see that there are four parts of this command: the rule, the reason, the warning, and the promise.
The Rule
We see the rule in verse 4 where the Bible says, “Do not make an idol for yourself.” It is pretty plain and simple. We are not to take anything in the creation and use it as a representation of all that God is. The term translated here as “idol” literally means a carved or graven image.
This is not saying that God is against art. God has gifted many with talents and abilities to show beauty as God desires. We can see that God had gifted some specifically to handle the intricate details of the Tabernacle and Temple in the Old Testament.
What this rule is saying is that we, being created beings ourselves, are not to make something that will draw our attention and devotion from the one true God. There is no way that finite beings could ever fully represent the infinite God of the universe. Nothing in all of creation can fully represent Him. This is why it is emphasized that nothing in the heavens, on the earth, or in the waters below should be used.
Many of the nations around during that time had false gods that were represented by created things. The false god, Horus, had the head of a falcon. The god, Anubis, had the head of a jackal. The one true God again was calling His people to be different from those in the world.
There is another reason that I can see why God would set this rule. When we try to manufacture a representation of God, it becomes easy to rule over this new creation that we’ve come up with. If I designed it, then I can set the guidelines on it. This is completely backward. We are the creation; He is the Creator.
The Reason
As we come to verse 5, we see the reason why God would give this command: God is a jealous God.
This sounds strange to many because we often look at jealousy as something bad. We are told that we shouldn’t be jealous of others. There is the idea more of envy when we hear the word jealousy. Here we have God saying of Himself that He is a jealous God.
The term “jealous” could also be translated as zeal and mean the same thing. If you were to look up jealous in the dictionary, you would see that it can mean “being intolerant of unfaithfulness or rivalry.” A holy jealousy guards someone’s rightful possession.
We should not be taken back that God would be a jealous God. We should expect it. Just as we would expect a married couple to be jealous to find their spouse in the arms of someone else, so we should expect the perfect, holy God of the universe to be jealous that He is recognized as such. For Him not to do so would disprove His endless love towards us. If God would allow anything else to receive our worship, then He isn’t worth having any of it.
“A God who was not jealous … would be as contemptible as a husband who didn’t care whether or not his wife was faithful to him. Part of our problem with this profound covenantal reality is that we have come to regard religion, like everything else, as a matter of ‘consumer choice.’… We resent monopolies. But the unique and incomparable, only living God makes necessarily exclusive claims and has the right to a monopoly on our love.… Jealousy is God’s love protecting itself.”[2] Christopher J. H. Wright, Deuteronomy, New International Biblical Commentary (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996), pp. 71, 72. Christopher Wright
This is why it says that He is a jealous God. God is protecting the honor of His love for His people by revealing that He is a jealous God. This is the reason that He gives for this command.
The Warning
As we continue looking in verse 5, we see that there is a warning with this command. The warning states: “the consequences of the father’s iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me.”
God warns that when one generation does not keep this command, it will affect future generations. We might like to think that what we do only affects us, but that is not true. What we do causes ripples that will go on and on for a while. Future generations will be impacted by the choices that we make today.
While each person has to pay for his/her sin, we see from this verse that what one generation does is easily (and often) adopted by the following generations. Some have referred to this as generational sin – sins that keeping plaguing a family for generations.
God warns that this should not be present among God’s people. It is not okay for someone to say, “Well, I’m not going to follow this but my children will see the examples of others and follow them.” Your children have been entrusted to you by God to point them to Him. Sure, pastors, small group leaders, and others can help reinforce that by pointing to Christ, but the main responsibility lies on the parents.
God is not only concerned with us individually, but He is also extremely concerned with the generations that follow us. It is not a coincidence that God placed this warning along with this command.
The Promise
While verse 5 contained a warning, God provides a promise in verse 6 that is extremely sweet. We might think it harsh that the sin of one generation can pass down to the next along with the consequences, but in verse 6, we see a promise that God gives to show His faithful love to generations when this command is kept.
Each of us will impact not only our generation, but we will impact those that follow us. Will it be for the good or bad? Will the generations that follow us experience the consequences of our sins as they follow our footsteps and repeat those sins, or will they experience the faithful love of God by walking in obedience to His commands?
We do not have to be trapped by the sins of our forefathers and foremothers. The cycle can break with us. Each of us is given the option to follow God’s ways or not. Those before us may have shaken their fists at God. That doesn’t mean that we have to. We can come before Him in humble obedience and see a change in our family tree.
How do we keep the Second Commandment properly?
As we have unpacked what the second commandment is all about, I want to take the remainder of our time to show how we can best make sure that we are keeping this commandment.
I don’t know of anyone who would want to hear the words of Isaiah 29:13 said about them: “The Lord said: These people approach me with their speeches to honor me with lip-service, yet their hearts are far from me, and human rules direct their worship of me.”
Jesus gave us a simple yet profound manner for how we are to come and worship the one true God. It is found in John 4, as Jesus was talking with the Samaritan woman.
“But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”
John 4:23-24 (CSB)
Worship in Spirit
We properly worship God when we come to Him the way that He has set forth. God is spirit and His Holy Spirit must direct us in how we worship both privately and together with other believers. It is not about fads or what is popular. It is about what and how God has said to do it.
“The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humble heart, God.”
Psalm 51:17
We worship the way God intended when we come before Him realizing that we need Him most. He is our portion and sustainer. He is the one who redeemed us. We come before Him, broken as we are, and we find that He is there to put the pieces together as they should be. We come by the invitation of His Holy Spirit into a relationship that lasts for eternity.
Worship in Truth
Truth is something that, at times, feels like nailing Jell-O to a wall. What is truth? How can we know what is true? We find that answer in Jesus’ prayer found in John 17:
“Sanctify themy by the truth; your word is truth.”
John 17:17 (CSB)
We find the proper ways of worshipping the one true God by looking to the Bible. Jesus said that God’s word is truth.
We don’t need a representation of God to worship. We have the real deal when we come to Him in Spirit and in truth. Yes, we may wonder what God looks like. I often wonder that myself.
Colossians 2:9 tells us, “the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ.” Jesus is God and the Bible shows us all that we need to know about Jesus. It may not show us every little thing about Jesus, but it does show us enough to know that we can trust Him. The truth of God’s word guides us in properly worshiping the one true God.
Conclusion
I would invite you to examine your heart. Have you been looking for something to be a picture of God for you that shouldn’t be? Have you been settling for a cheap substitute for the richness of the one true God?
One of the greatest attributes of God is His holiness. This means that He stands above and alone over everything else. There is nothing like our God. Nothing that any person could ever dream up could come close to representing God. He doesn’t want there to be any cheap imitations of Him. He wants each of us to experience Him personally.
We can do that by coming to Him humbly, realizing that it is by the invitation of the Holy Spirit that we can truly worship and know Him. He has given us His word to guide us in all truth. Let us cherish and saturate ourselves in His word so that we know who He is and what He desires. Let us lay down our preferences and control of the situation, and simply let Him call the shots. It is by doing this that we will properly keep the second commandment.
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