April 24, 2015
Understanding the Second Commandment and Jesus Christ
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. You must not bow down to them or worship them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing the children for the father’s sin unto the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commands. Exodus 20:4-6.
THE MANNER OF WORSHIP IS IMPORTANT TO GOD
The Israelites were told to worship only the creator God and not to use any carved images, small or large or any forms whatsoever to represent God and bow down and worship them in any manner. When the strong hand of Moses had been absent for a while, they pressured his brother Aaron to make a large, carved, gold laden calf. They made an image out of their imagination of what the God who led them out of Egypt looked like. They were still thinking in the familiar Egyptian pagan terms. Egyptians thought that strength came from a powerful animal like a bull. They worshipped the god of their imagination not the God of divine revelation. See Exodus 32:1-7. Their idolatry and misbehavior turned into wild pagan like revelry and partying, even if most of the people thought they were worshipping the true God who had delivered them from Egypt. Gods from our imagination are also false images and can constrain the limitless power of God in our lives. Deep in their hearts they loved the pagan manner of worship and it offended God greatly. Pagan manner of worship blocks our relationship with the true God as with the Israelites. How guilty was Aaron? How guilty were most of the Israelites and did they really believe it was OK with God? See Exodus 32:4.
OUR IMAGES OF HIM ARE INADEQUATE TO WORSHIP SUCH AN AWESOME GOD
I Tim 6:16 says God lives in unapproachable light. This light is so bright that no human can even get close. God is infinite in ways we cannot grasp. He is the source of all powerful energy, He is the power behind every energy known and unknown to mankind. Wow! Yet someday if we hold on faithfully we will see Him as He is because we will be like Him; a lesser light to a much brighter hotter light the ever living source of energy. See I John 3:1-2. When we worship one God without being divided by different symbols, statutes and pictures from our imagination the world will be unified. We all thereby will be brothers from one God. Having the same spiritual parent means we are all brothers and no person or group is intrinsically more valuable than another group or individual. People have fought over artistic views of God. The greatest division in the history of secular Christianity was based on disagreements over Christian images and art. We cannot grasp God with our images and art work but only limit our relationship to God. God is too great to be limited by our imagination and art works.
KNOW JESUS KNOW THE FATHER
We can only know God by inspired revelation not human imagination! Remember Jesus is the God who created the world and gave the law to Moses. See John 1:1, 5:47-60. Jesus said if you have seen me you have seen the Father. See John 14:9. The more we learn about Jesus from Biblical revelations the more we learn about God. See Ex 3:14 and I Cor 10:4 and John 18:6. They all show that Jesus was the ’I AM’ or self-existent Eternal One, the God of the Old Testament. The Israelites saw no form, they only heard His voice and felt His power thru the quaking, smoking mountain. See Deut 4: 15. Any forms of god we make ourselves will only distort and divert our worship away from true revelation. False images of God not only limit and damage our relationship with God but damage our children’s blessings as well. Study Christ to learn more about God. When Moses went to Mt. Sinai to see God as a special favor he was allowed to see God’s back only with special protection. See Exodus 33:20-23. It was such a glorious experience that Moses glowed for weeks, Wow!
