Scripture: “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. 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, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
Exodus 20:4-6 ESV [Click here to read the entire chapter.]
Observation: Recapping Yesterday’s Daily Focus, the first commandment presented to Israel (and us) addresses worship. God’s people must not conduct their lives in a manner where they devote themselves to the gods of this world. Indeed, this law sets the tone for the rest because if Israel adheres to the first, the rest will fall in line.
Today’s reading is the second of the four commandments addressing our relationship with God. While the first implicates our Lord’s jealousy for us, the second explicitly states God’s attribute of jealousy and conveys two others: justice and love (vv.5-6). Yahweh will not be negligent in imposing the consequences of Israel’s unrepentant sins (whether actively or passively). And he will not give a pass to future generations who follow in their parent’s footsteps. But he will delight in showing his steadfast love to the many who love him and accordingly seek to obey his commands.
Takeaway: Two points. First, while these first two commands similarly address worship, the second speaks to the mode rather than the object of worship (first commandment). The Hebrew word temûnāh, translated as “likeness” above, applies to tangible or imagined images. However, since the Lord later prescribed ornate images for the tabernacle (to point Israel to their Creator and inspire worship of him), this law does not prohibit representations of our one true God and our faith practices.
Second, regarding the nuance of bowing and serving (v.5), these are not separate actions but two expressions that convey the same meaning (a literary device called a hendiadys). So, what is their unified intent? To forbid the worship of foreign deities (Stamm and Andrew: The Ten Commandments in Recent Research, p.86).
Our takeaway? In our fallen world, sin not only draws us away from God through idol worship (the first commandment) but will brazenly entice us to create gods from our imaginations and willfully serve them. Hence, this second commandment builds on the first and demands that we abstain in totality and not flirt with idolatry by crafting objects of worship—whether carved with our hands or minds. Often, tangible idols lead to mental images that take root as idols in our minds.
So why do we feel the pull to “carve” idols? Understanding that God created us to continue his work of bringing forth shalom peace from our world’s origins of chaos, his mandate to subdue the earth grants us authority to oversee the flourishing of his creation. But Satan, who seeks to mar our god-bearing images, tempts us to edge God out and take control, to reduce the vast beauty of God’s glorious creation to finite, lifeless forms that we worship. So, we bow down to serve our “carved” idols, believing they will bring us security, prosperity, and pleasure. But in the end, they turn on us. What we thought would make us secure exposes us to the evil that blinds us to the beauty of our Creator and pillages from us his joy.
One such example is pornography. This billion-dollar “carved image” industry finds its home in the brain, popping up even when unwanted and calling the user to sink further into the darkness. Consequently, it plagues the moral fabric of our society, destroying relationships and ravishing the souls of its perpetrators and victims.
Our part? Devote our affections to our one true God who created “heaven above,” the “earth beneath,” and the “water under the earth,” who carved the first woman from man’s side, who knows our idolatrous propensity to seek equality with him. Thus, he sent his only begotten Son to accomplish what the Ten Commandments could not, for the Son healed us by the stripes carved in his body (Isaiah 53:5, 1 Peter 2:24). Resultantly, we are now unencumbered to worship our loving, gracious Father and Brother rather than the counterfeits that leave us wanting. So, love and worship our Lord with gladness and single-mindedness of heart.
Prayer: Father God, thank you for creating us in your image. And thank you for sending us your Son, your exact likeness, who has revealed your glory to us. So, please rescue us from carving, worshiping, and serving idols of your creation (by our hands and minds) and instead redirect our affections to you and your Son in worship with gladness and single-mindedness of heart. Amen.
Rev. Gordon Green, M.Div., M.A. Counseling
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