A Verse
Exodus 20:4-6
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; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
A Comment
This morning, we come to the second commandment. In the first commandment, we were called to a life of loyalty to the LORD alone. In the second commandment, we are called to a life of submission to the LORD’s own self-revelation. Or, put it another way, we are called to allow the LORD to reveal and define Himself. In this call, we are to abandon our imagination of what we feel the LORD should be like and instead acknowledge and submit to LORD as He is.
For years, I took this verse to only apply to physical or material images of God, like those seen in art. And while I will not deny that such images can be highly problematic, I don’t think that such depictions are the only or even the primary way that we violate this commandment. Rather, when we attempt to fashion God in our own image or conform Him to some idea or conception of how we think He should be, we are guilty of breaking this commandment of making a graven image.
Again, I find J. I. Packer’s comments on this commandment are helpful. When asked, “How should we keep the second commandment?”, he answered, “By reining in our disordered imaginations and reverently accepting that God is as He says He is.” A practical way of doing this is by seeing and responding to God has He has revealed Himself in His Word, which points us to Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, the one who is described in Hebrews 1:3 as “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.”
A Prayer
Would you pray with me this morning?
A Blessing
Now may the Lord of Peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. the Lord be with all of you.
God Beyond Our Imagination