The 2nd Commandment – Do not make an Idol of God

By Pastor Christian on 10/19/11

Last Sunday, Brandon made the point that we should have no other idol before God – no possession, no aspiration, no pleasure, no thing that supersedes our dedication to God. Good.
In the second commandment, God takes the same idea and turns it toward His relationship with us. In essence he says, also do not make an idol of me. In specific he means do not make some THING you can see and handle.

WHY?

First, because this practice is too much like what other false religions do. All of Israel’s neighbors understood that the little wooden or metal idols they worshiped were not god themselves. But they did believe they wholly represented god as a physical object. Consequently, our God was always very keen to separate the worship of false gods with the worship of HIM. Consider the disastrous results of creating an image for God in Exodus 32! That cow haunts them for years. This is a critical difference.

But second, and most importantly, God wants to establish that he cannot be limited to any place or thing. He is the creator of all places and things. Even when the temple is built, he makes it clear that the temple does not contain Him Is 66:1-2; Acts 7:48-50. Nothing can contain God other than Jesus Christ, who was the fullness of God in human form Colossians 1:15-20!

This is STILL a critical concept for Christians. We continually shrink God in our minds and put Him into little boxes. We say things like “God will not, or does not do such and such. He is always like this, or only wants this” Careful friends, our God will not be contained by anything but His own commitments to Love and Justice. When we limit who God is; when we shrink him down in our minds – we make a little idol out Him. An object we can handle and look at. Something we entirely understand. The second commandment helps us in this regard – don’t make any image of God – you know not even a fraction of the awesome God whom venture to represent.

Blessings, See you Sunday.

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